We are now taking applicants for the Family Tree Maker 2009 beta test. We are looking for testers that are willing to find and report any bugs as well as give input into features and direction. 
If you are interested in being a volunteer beta tester please fill out the screening questions at the following URL:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey.zgi?p=WEB227Z3B5DELF
You […]

I wanted to make everyone aware of our next Family Tree Maker Webinar. It is open to the public and is scheduled for June 5th at 8:00 p.m. EDT (2 a.m. June 6th Greenwich Mean Time).
The following items are scheduled to be presented:
• Find and Replace
• Filtering Features
• Working with media
• Sources and Source Citations
• Searching anywhere on the Web
There […]

Service Pack 3 is now available.
Service Pack 3 contains critical stability and performance enhancements. I strongly urge you to install this service pack at your earliest convenience.
The following updates are included in Service Pack 3:

Major enhancements in performance
Major enhancements in stability
Book layout in charts
Ability to create saved versions for all charts and reports
Ability to save user […]

I have seen a number of questions about the Family Tree Maker 2008 SP3 update over the past few days. I know that the development team is closing in on finalizing this patch. I’ve delivered three versions of the patch to both our alpha and beta teams. The input has been very positive. A fourth […]

Dear Family Tree Maker Community:
We are interested in what you have to say. Your feedback and input directly influence future releases of Family Tree Maker – how it will look, feel and function. We invite you to take a survey and share your thoughts and feelings.
Please click here to complete the survey. We appreciate your […]

Some comment about data entry flow from our U.I Designer:
Many people like the easy flow of entering and editing information from the Family view of Family Tree Maker 16.  As nice as it is, many also complained about having to open the “Edit Individual” dialog multiple times to enter common facts such as AKA, title, […]

I would like to start a discussion about rating source-citations. Below are some steps to rate a source-citation in Family Tree Maker 2008.
Family Tree Maker lets you rate the reliability of your sources. You can rate each source-citation to note both the legibility of the source as well as its potential accuracy (i.e., primary source, secondary source, family […]

On occasion I come across enhancement requests or questions about features that are currently in Family Tree Maker 2008. Here is a short list of some of those items.
Support for all media files
Users can link to any type of media by selecting “All Files” under the “Files of type” drop-down. The default is set to […]

I’ve received some additional information about the next patch and wanted to inform the Family Tree Maker community about the current status of this update. The internal development and QA teams have been testing the latest update extensively. We are just a few days away from releasing it to our Alpha test group for their […]

I’ve chosen to write today’s Family Tree Maker blog entry on surname tips.
Multi-Word Surnames
As a general rule Family Tree Maker 2008 assumes the last word entered in the name field is the individual’s surname. However, it also recognizes many common surname prefixes. The development team has provided me with a list of those recognized prefixes. […]