Family Tree Maker 2012 Is Here!

I just bought Family Tree Maker 2011 about 3-4 weeks ago. Do I still have to pay for a new copy of the 2012 version?

Thank you,
Glenda

I believe shipping started on the pre-orders on 27 Sep 2011 – two days ago.

What has happened with FTM 2012 for Mac please?
Is it not time they were developed in paralel with simultaneous launch?
Is upgrade (at upgrade prices) going to be available in the App Store from the disc version?
Has the place authority finally been sorted for the UK? Major cities missing from previous versions.
Is full address supported?
Is sync multi platform, web/iPad/iPhone/Mac/PC?
Many thanks

Somewhere I read that FTMM 2012 would be released about 6 weeks after the release of FTM 2012…

UPDATE!

I just found this so who knows!

http://genealogytools.com/will-family-tree-maker-2012-for-mac-features-mirror-windows/

I have the 2011 Family Tree Maker Premium
I really want the sync version, but is this new less expensive version going to have all the things that the premium 2011 has?
Thanks
Patty

My “master” database is in PAF. I have uploaded several portions of the master on to ancestry.com in the form of several smaller trees. I have attached some files, e.g. census records to show locations, to the on-line trees and made a few other changes based on other public trees.
I am considering buying FTM 2012 and moving my master database to it. I read the answers in FAQ and it sounds like I would need to discard the online trees and start over with a new on-line tree once it is created in FTM 2012. Is this correct?

I have preordered the FTM 2012 upgrade, and just realized that my current version is 2010 – is this going to be a problem for me? I think 2011 is the first version I’ve missed, and 2012 is the first one I’ve ordered as an upgrade, but times have been hard ….(fingers crossed)

Tana,

Please let us know if Family Tree Maker 2012 provides the ability to order source citations attached to a specific person and/or across all individuals, in an order other than the date they were added to FTM (e.g., alphabetical by source title, custom, etc.)?

For me, this is basic functionality associated with the management of electronic records. The way FTM 2011 handles source citations is the equivalent to having a filing cabinet and only having the ability to organize information based upon the date the information was placed into the filing cabinet – not according to the value placed upon the source citation, chronological order, alphabetic order, etc. For example, the source information does not tell as interesting of a story if the source citation order is 1900, 1840, 1880, 1860, 1910 census.

I made a similiar inquiry for information through Ancestry.com/FTM question official process. Unfortunately I received a reply that they could not answer the question, but they would forward the question to the development team. That was over two-weeks ago, so if you have any insights — it would be appreciated.

BobNY #8 don’t you know, he has no life and sitting around on a blog is all he has to do.

I received the 2012 yesterday and it won’t load on my computer Windows XP, it says “Installing will take a few minutes – 30 minutes later I am still waiting. I have FTM 2011 that loaded ok. I can’t see anywhere on the box that it is not compatable for XP. I have loaded it on my laptop Windows Vista and after a few hiccups its ok (so far) but I would prefer a copy on my main computer. Any ideas please.
Thanks
Heather

I have 2010 on my PC with an XP operating system and have ordered 2012. Just received an e-mail from Ancestry that my order has been shipped. Apparently there is a problem with a bonus disk but Ancestry says they will send a replacement disk in two weeks. Question with regard to the sync feature in 2012. I will install the new software on my PC and I would like to also install it on my laptop that also has an XP operating system. I don’t have a tree on Ancestry. Will the sync feature sync the data between the PC and the laptop? Also, is there an Ancestry app for the Droid phone?

Would it be possible for the program to add “USA” automatically after recognizing a state in America on any American resource document? Since this is a world wide data base, it would be wonderful to not have to add “USA” in three places each time a merge is done for each individual person.

One more question… I would like to upload my FTM data to Ancestry. My file has proven to be too large and I’ve not been able to do so. Uploading has always failed. Will it be possible to do so if I use FTM 2012?

Watch out! There are sync errors in the new 2012 Family Tree Maker!!!!!

Please…. If you have to add “USA” in records, make it an OPTION with a setting! I’m alwasys deleting “USA” or “United States” or “United States of America.” Uniformity is the key here.

Re #36

Hopefully there won’t be a version FTM2013 and they will spend this year writing a true dual-purpose program that works for both online trees and off line desktops that will be mirror images of each other and will sync *everyting*.

Otherwise, why bother with this crippled half this-half that nonsense.

Re #38: I second that emotion. I am new to FTM and am just investigating the Places function. I would really like to be able to see in a report and on a map all the people who are located in a particular place at a particular time. To me this is really critical information.

A problem: The map is a current one, so places that you have entered according to the political divisions and names that existed at the time your ancestor was there may show incorrectly. As an example: I clicked on Hood River, Wasco, Oregon, USA. Hood River (town) was in Wasco County at the time of the record in question, but is now in Hood River (county). The map took me to Wasco (town) in Sherman County. Sherman County was also formed from Wasco County, but Wasco County took up a huge chunk of Oregon before it was carved up into the current counties, and Wasco (town) is nowhere near Hood River (town). And this is not nearly as complicated as some other areas, where not just counties but state or even country jurisdictions changed frequently. So this map is not going to be that useful for locating ancestors, except in comparison to historic maps. There are many such maps available online; there are also sites online that show the evolution of county boundaries in the US, at least.

It seems to me it could be quite complex for a program to be able to show accurately where people were at a given time, as boundaries and jurisdictions changed so dynamically. There is software that claims to do this – I wonder how accurate they are. Tana, any comments on what the current capability of FTM is in this regard, and what might be planned for the future?

FYI When I synced the new FTM 2012 with ancestry.com, it wiped out all of my media on ancestry.com. I am furious! I don’t know if the website has any kind of backup, but the media files are gone.

Also, after the tree sync, on the ancestry website ,everyone in my tree has the green “hint” leaf now like it has been completely reset, but the info (Census, Birth, marriage, etc) is still attached to the person in the tree. All those hours of work down the drain. Thanks very much for wasting my time.

I have an old version of Family Tree Maker, and I would like to update my tree. Can my information be moved from my old version to the new one? I have a lot of info that I would hate to lose…

Tana,

Thank you for your reply and request for clarification!

My desire to order source citations attached to a specific person, relates to viewing the sources when in the “Person” view (i.e., the sources listed on the right of the FTM screen) as well as when reviewing sources in Genealogy Reports.

Simply, if I located numerous census source documents that supported that Jane Smith was my ancestor. When viewing the “People” view for Jane Smith, I would like to see the sources, shown on the right hand side of the screen in an order that is different then the order I added those source records within FTM. For example, if I first located the 1920 census record for Jane Smith, then later the 1880 and 1930 census — my desire would be to have those source records appear on the “People” view in the Fact/Source area on the right as well as in Sources portion of a Genealogy Report in the following order 1880, 1920, 1930.

The source citation order could be person specific and/or be controlled universally across all individuals within the FTM file. For example, a master order could be determined across all source records for how they would appear in the “Person” view and Genealogy Reports, such as alphabetical. Something a little more advances would be ideal, such as a user defined order based upon options that are included with in Source section of FTM (e.g., user defined Source Groups order — such as Birth Certificate, Obituary Notice source records would appear before 1880 US Federal Census sources.)

I have been using FTM 2010. I have just gotten and installed 2012. I am very disappointed in how slow it works.
This even is true when working offline as well as using sync.
What do I do to fix this?
I have contacted customer service and so far have no response.
Perhaps if ancestry.com provided tools similar to FTM tools, sync would be easier.

I’ve given up on 2012 and am returning it. I’m back to FTM 16 and am a “happy camper” again. I surely wish they would continue supporting this version for new operating systems for us who don’t want all the bells and whistles. My son, a computer programmer, calls these overblown programs ‘bloatware’.

# 51 Thelma Martin:

I LOVE it! Bloatware! Got to pass that one along to others. Goes right with all the various software programs I have purchased which never worked out for me, or became obsolete. I call that stuff “SHELFWARE.”

Yeah!!!

I too am among those who are disappointed in the new version of FTM. I used version 16 and love it. Bloatware is perfect description for this. I have a database of nearly 300,000 individuals. The index takes forever to come up, and when it does it is nearly impossible to see the birth date because the program tries to cram everything onto the same screen.

The old program (16 and before) had trees, you just had to click on it and wait a moment. Now you must wait forever just to bring up your individual you are seeking because the fluffware wants to put everything on the screen. When I went to enter a death I found in an obituary, it took 20 minutes to enter all the information in the new version. Less than 5 minutes in the old.

Comments about sources have been on target. Lots of problems with the order and in the older version, you could have sources assigned to name, or birth, or death, etc. Not all crammed into one place and not knowing what the source is a clarification for.

Place names. What ever happened to the word County or Co. You must override the place name because it wants to “standarize things. When you have a Maricopa, AZ you are nor sure if you are talking about the county or the town (they town in not in the county by that name). This is common for many place names. And if you don’t know, it creates even more confusion.

The view research journal feature in the old was great, you could order all your items in one place and print them out to take to the library for your research. Now it seems each research item is stored only with the individual.

Obvious, FTM has become the amature software for person who collects limited information on small families, very small trees. It is designed for the “presentation” of information, not as a research tool to collect and archive information collected by a serious genealogist. Another word you could call this is showware.

These are just a few reasons why I have gone back to version 16 with all the problems I have with it on a 64 bit operating system. It works better than the new version. I would hope the programmers would consider going back to 16, upgrading it to a 64 bit system and leave the fluff and bloat out so it does not display on every view that is selected.

WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME. IT WILL CHANGE DATA, LOSE DATA, AND OTHERWISE CAUSE YOU A TON OF GRIEF TO RECOVER YOUR WORK.

THE SYNC FEATURE IS NOT TRUSTWORTHY AND IT IS VERY SLOW.

For # 55 Jim Hermsen

I am a great fan of FTM 16 but.

You know you don’t have to allow the new FTM programs to display everything on screen, you can select to reduce – minimise certain areas of the screen so that other areas you only want to display take a larger portion of the screen.

Will all the problems people are having with receiving their copy of Family Tree Maker, I think Ancestry needs to fire their distributer of the software. This is crazy, people not getting their copy, people getting more then one copy. Its insane! Didnt get mine so their resenting again but sending the same way alas so have to wait over another week or more.

I just finished importing 16,000 entries from FTM 2006 into FTM 2012 – I have noticed one annoying problem regarding importing fact information.

In FTM2006 each fact had 3 entry fields; Type, Date and Place or Description.
In FTM2012, the Place or Description field is split into 2 separate fields.
All FTM2006 information from this field is imported into the PLACE field; nothing into the DESCRIPTION field.
Thus all of this descriptive information show in the PLACES list – it is VERY time consuming to have to correct each one of these FACT entries separately – there are 3000 places in my database!!

I doubt that there is any way to correct these import errors, other than manually.

Comments 41 and 43 – I ran into a similar problem with a much earlier version of FTM and stopped using it. I was hopefull that this version would allow me to once again lug the laptop around to family events to add data but if the synch process deletes all the media online as mentioned in your post 41, then I don’t want to do that either.