If you find information on a website (such as a marriage date, photograph, or town description) that you want to add to your tree, you don’t have to type it in manually. Family Tree Maker can do the work for you.

1. On the Web Search workspace, access the website you want to “clip” information from. 
2. On the Facts tab at the bottom of the window, click the Person from your tree button and select the individual you want to link the information to.

To copy information for a fact:

1. On the Search Result Detail toolbar, click the Enable web clipping button (the button on the far right).
2. Highlight the text on the website. The Insert Fact drop-down list appears.
3. Choose a fact from the drop-down list. 
4. When you have selected all the information you want from the website, click the Merge button on the Search Result Detail toolbar. The Web Merge Wizard will launch. 

To copy a photo: 

1. Click the Media tab at the bottom of the window. 
2. Move the cursor over the browser window until the image you want is highlighted by a green dotted line.
3. Click the highlighted image. A thumbnail of the image appears in the Search Result Detail section.
4. When you have selected all the photos you want from the website, click the Merge button on the Search Result Detail toolbar. The Web Merge Wizard will launch. 

1. Click the Notes tab at the bottom of the window. 
2. On the Search Result Detail toolbar, click the Enable web clipping button (the button on the far right).
3. Highlight the text on the website.
4. Click the Insert Note button that appears. 
5. When you have selected all the text you want from the website, click the Merge button on the Search Result Detail toolbar. The Web Merge Wizard will launch. 

Note: These steps work for Family Tree Maker 2008 and 2009.

The first step is to make a backup copy of your tree on your old computer.

1. On your old computer, make sure the tree you want to transfer is open; then click File>Backup. The Backup window opens.
2. If you want a new name to distinguish this backup file from your original tree, enter a new name for the tree in the Backup file name field. You can now choose whether to back up your file to a CD, DVD, or flash drive.
3. Insert a CD or DVD in your disk drive or connect your flash drive to your old computer.
4. In “Backup location,” click Removeable Media and choose your CD-ROM drive, DVD drive, or flash drive from the drop-down list.
5. Click the Include linked media files checkbox. If you don’t, photos, videos, and audio items in your tree won’t be included in the file.
6. Click OK. A series of messages shows the progress of the backup.
7. When the backup is complete, take your CD, DVD, or flash drive and insert it in your new computer.

Now you need to move the backup file to the new computer’s hard drive. This is important because Family Tree Maker won’t open trees that are on CDs, DVDs, or flash drives.

1. Make sure you have your most current version of Family Tree Maker installed on your new computer.
2. On the new computer, double-click My Computer and browse to the drive where your backup file is stored (CD, DVD, or flash drive).
3. Once you have found your backup (.ftmb) file, right-click it and select Copy.
4. Find the folder on your hard drive where you want to store the file (such as My Documents); then right-click and select Paste. The backup file is now copied to your hard drive.
5. Open Family Tree Maker on your new computer.
6. Choose File>Restore. The Choose File to Restore window opens.
7. Click the Look in drop-down list and find the folder where the backup (.ftmb) file is located.
8. Click the backup file you want to open.
9. Click Open. The Name for Restored File window opens. You’ll now create a new Family Tree Maker tree from your backup file.
10. In the Save in field, choose a location for the new file.
11. In the File name field, enter a name for the new file.
12. Click Save. Your tree opens in Family Tree Maker. Notice that your media items are saved in the same folder where you just saved your new tree.

Here’s a thumbnail image of an Extended Family chart that includes three generations of ancestors and one generation of descendants. 

 
To access the Extended Family Chart, go to the Collection tab in the Publish workspace. Then in Publication Types, click Charts. At the bottom of the window you’ll see the Extended Family Chart icon. Double-click the icon or select the icon and click the Detail tab.

Because the Extended Family chart generally contains a large number of people, it can be difficult to locate specific individuals on the tree. Luckily, the 2009 Sofware Update contains a new option that can help. It’s called the Person Locator. When you’re viewing a chart, the option appears at the bottom of the chart editing panel (on the right side of your window). Every individual included in the chart will be listed in the Person Locator drop-down list. Choose an individual from the drop-down list, and the chart will immediately recenter and the specific individual will be highlighted on the chart.

And, if an individual appears more than once in your chart (for example in families where cousins marry), you can view each occurrence using the Instances drop-down list.

Note: The Person Locator option is available for all charts in Family Tree Maker.

1.  Access the chart you want to format (on the Detail tab of the Publish workspace). In this example I’ll be working with the 180 Fan Chart.

2.  Before you change the formatting, you need to select a group of individuals to work with. Right-click an individual’s name in the chart. A drop-down list lets you choose whom to include (e.g., ancestors, descendants, individuals of the same generation).

Because I want my grandfather’s family to be the same color, I’ll click his name and choose “Select Person and All Ancestors.” The individuals who are selected currently are highlighted in blue. 

Note: You can also select individuals by pressing the CTRL key and clicking on each person you want to include in the group. For me, this is an efficient way to create a group, and I always know exactly who is being excluded and included. 

3.  After you’ve selected all the individuals you want for a group, right-click again and choose Mark Selected>Marking 1. This indicates to Family Tree Maker that this group will use a specific formatting. You can now change the borders, colors, and lines for this group of individuals.

4.  In the chart editing toolbar, click the Box and line styles button.

5.  In Boxes, choose “Marked Boxes 1” from the drop-down list. Now, make any changes you’d like to the box and border styles and click OK.

Using these basic steps, you can create multiple groups and change the formatting for each of them. If you create additional groups, make sure you designate the second group as “Marking 2” and the third group as “Marking 3.” If you choose “Marking 1” for each group, they will all have the same formatting. 

Because each Family Tree Maker chart is a little different and you can use a wide variety of formatting options, I recommend spending some time playing around with the software using the basic guidelines I’ve explained here. It may take a little practice before you get the results you expect. 

Here’s an example of my 180 Fan chart, which uses a different color for each family line.

1. Go to the Collection tab in the Publish workspace.
2. In Publication Types, click Other.
3. Double-click Calendar Report, or select its icon and then click the Detail tab.
4. To customize the calendar, click the Calendar Options button in the report toolbar.
5. Change the options as necessary and click OK.
6. In Individuals to include, choose which people in your tree you want to include in the calendar.
7. Click Generate Report. The calendar is displayed.

For more information on the calendar options you can change, download a PDF here.

Getting started is easy because you can use the facts, photos, charts, and reports you’ve already gathered in your file. Include some personal stories and anecdotes, add an automated table of contents and index of individuals, and you’re on your way to creating a book that your family will turn to for generations. When you’ve got your book just the way you want it, you can share it electronically over e-mail or take it to a copy shop to be printed and bound. 

Months ago I started working on a biography about my grandmother in another desktop publishing program. I was worried that I’d have to duplicate the work I’d already done. Luckily the book-building feature includes an option that lets you import an entire text document—with formatting—into a book. Now I can continue adding photos, charts, and stories, and I haven’t lost any time.

If you’ve ever been intrigued by the idea of creating your own family history book, I encourage you to give it a try. It’s a rewarding experience that will benefit you and generations to come. 

For tips and instructions on how to use the book-building feature, download a PDF here.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this: I don’t always practice what I preach when it comes to sourcing. My family tree may look great, but if you check out the sources, you’ll discover some irregularities. 

Maybe you’re like me. If I don’t know how to cite the source of a particular item (How do you source a postcard sent from France during WWI?), I start guessing. My default is to include every detail I know—whether it’s relevant or not. Who doesn’t transcribe the entire title page of a book into the Comments field, right? I reasoned that if I could distract people with enormous amounts of information they might not realize that I haven’t taken the time to do it right.

And the results of all this personalized sourcing? A family tree that isn’t consistent and wouldn’t be terribly useful to those who don’t know my “system.”

So I was very excited when I learned about the new source templates. No more guessing whether I’ve captured the right data, no more wondering whether my family can follow my research paths, and no more wasted time entering paragraphs of irrelevant information. The new source templates are based on the QuickCheck models used in Elizabeth Shown Mills’s book Evidence Explained—the ultimate reference for citing research sources.

Instead of being creative with my sourcing, now I can select the source template that most closely fits my record, and the appropriate fields I need to complete automatically appear. It’s as simple as that.If you’ve already entered many sources in the traditional way, you can keep them just as they are. Or you can map the information in your old source to one of the new source templates. I’ve already started on mine and it’s been a fairly painless process. I’m looking forward to the day in the near future when my sources are finally consistent and useful.

For instructions on how to use the new source templates, download a PDF here.