Comments on: Family Tree Maker Webinar on November 9th

By: Kim Thurman

Kim Thurman — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 03:36:06 +0000

So, as a previous user of FTM and a current subscriber to Ancestry.com, it’s true that if I upgrade to FTM 2012, I can’t link my existing trees on Ancestry.com for the sync function?

By: Susan Ridenour

Susan Ridenour — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:07:34 +0000

I see in the Companion Guide: page 20: Simplified interface for new users. When you install Family Tree Maker 2012, the software detects whether you are upgrading from a previous version of Family Tree Maker (version 16 or earlier). If you are, Family Tree Maker will display a simplified user interface that looks more like the older versions of Family Tree Maker.
Question #1: How do you switch to the non-simplified user interface?
Question #2: Does version 16 refer to FTM 2011?
Question #3: Is there a page in the companion guide that explains what all of the icons mean?
Thank you!

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:06:14 +0000

Hi, I have FTM 2012 and downloaded 2 trees from Ancestry.com (one about 500 people and the other about 4,700 people). I tried making changes to both trees, and both to both online and desktop versions, and they were sycing beautifully for several weeks, albeit more slowly than I’d like.
This week, with only changes made in the online version of my trees, I went to sync again to have a backup on my PC, and now neither tree will sync. Keep getting the same error message after it finds the changes and looks like it is working. Have tried compacting both trees and same error.
The error message is: “An error occurred while synchronizing this tree. You can try again later, but if this message recurs, you may need to unlink your trees and upload a new linked tree from Family Tree Maker”
I’ve seen others reporting similar problem after working well for a while. Will this be fixed soon? I was very happy with the new version until this issue came up. I have reported it to the support folks also, but haven’t gotten an answer back as yet.

By: Andy O

Andy O — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:31:16 +0000

I have 3 questions regarding Charting in FTM 2012:

1) When will the All-in-One chart from 2006 be back? I know 2012 has the Extended Family chart but it’s not the same. I printed an Extended Family chart for my girlfriends family, it was 12 pages long. The chart only goes left to right, it also breaks up families so it’s much harder to follow. I exported her family tree to 2006 to print the All-in-One chart which ended up being 4 pages long and 2 more rows down and so much easier to look at and follow.

2) Another chart feature I miss from 2006 is the ability to overlap pages when printing a large tree. I found the option for ‘No Page Overlap’ under the Advanced button for Layout but that changes the way the tree looks and is not available on all charts (the Extended Family Chart for example does not include this option). Are there any plans to add this feature back?

3) One last issue with charting in 2012, under Box, Boarder and Line Options, there are only 3 Marked Boxes. I would like to have a different color for each generation but I have 6 generations and only 3 Marked Boxes to change the fill color of. How can I get each of the 6 generations to have a different fill color for their boxes?

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 01:04:09 +0000

Holy cow. I’m not a heavy user of FTM but if some of the data (notes?) is not coming over in the conversion, that’s a huge issue, is it not? Considering the amount of data one might have, it’s virtually impossible to examine every record after an upgrade to make sure nothing was lost. Now I’m afraid to upgrade!

By: Dick Dussault

Dick Dussault — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:21:06 +0000

FTM 2012 leaves a lot to be desired.
I installed 2012 and now discovered all my notes did not come over in the new file format. Also, speed of searching is an issue and you can not tell if the searching active in many instances.
Errors are also occurring?

What else is not working?

Strongly comsidering giving 2012 FTM

By: Hal

Hal — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 03:45:07 +0000

I must have more than 100 hours in trying to get my database to sync. I’ve tried everything I’ve seen mentioned on the Web. I downloaded my family file from Ancestry and imported to FTM and it crashed. I deleted the version on Ancestry and uploaded from FTM. Crashed again. It always crashes just after the uploaded tree name appears under Ancestry Trees on the Ancestry Web Dashboard on the PC. Of course, that’s 5 or 6 hours after the process starts. Log out, log back in, compact file, cleaned PC of all traces of previous FTM versions and initial install of 2012, reinstalled 2012, crashed again same point in process. Right about now, I’d like to take the FTM 2012 disk outside and play a game of Frisbee with my dog.

By: PeterPla

PeterPla — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:14:51 +0000

Whether “leaves” are shown for a given person is different for FTM 2012 and Ancestry.com, even in a sync’d tree. I.e., on Ancestry a given person has no hints or “leaves”, but FTM 2012 will show a leaf for that same person.

When I try to investigate using FTM 2012, I’m always (I think) presented with facts/sources that have already been attached to that person. The result is I’ve given up researching using FTM 2012, and only research using Ancestry.com; then have FTM 2012 sync the tree after I’ve made changes.

I’d think that FTM 2012 would/should be the superior, more powerful tool (compared to Ancestry.com) for researching and attaching sources to individuals, but in my experience it’s been the opposite – FTM is the less powerful, more confusing tool for that.

What am I missing?

By: W. Potter

W. Potter — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 14:36:22 +0000

FTM 2012 — Really excited to see the ‘sync’ function added…however, after trying now for a couple weeks, not impressed. Several hours with customer support; they confirming the ‘sync’ option does not support larger files…oh well. Was also surprised that only selected items are synced, even though they may be initially uploaded (haven’t been able to personally verify…). So, back to FTM11 and pushing a complete tree upload about every six months. My recommendation is to stay with previous versions, unless you are really looking for the additional report formats.

By: Dale form Melbourne

Dale form Melbourne — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 05:27:52 +0000

Have used Treesync and I am impressed. I guess the media issue will be fixed but its not my priority.

On question.

If you have a linked FTM data file and you move it to a new computer, should it maintain its link ? What would be the procedure when doing this, other than unlinking and recreating a tree ?