Other improvements in Family Tree Maker for Mac 2 include:

• New Mac-only features. Now you can capture photos using your iSight or built-in camera and import it directly into Family Tree Maker. And if you’re using OS X Lion, you can take advantage of the new full-screen capability—with one click fill your entire desktop with the Family Tree Maker workspace.
• Easy-to-understand combined family view. The family group view has a new “blended families” option that lets you display all of a couple’s children in one location, including stepchildren and adoptees. An icon next to a child’s name lets you see at a glance whether he or she is the child of the father, the mother, or both parents.
• More Ancestry integration. Find other Ancestry members who are searching for your ancestors by viewing Member Connect activity in the expanded Web Dashboard. You’ll also see links to message boards and notification of your new Ancestry messages.
• Enhanced performance. Now you can choose the type of Internet connection you’re using, which allows Family Tree Maker to tailor how it downloads information from the Web. Uploading and downloading speeds have been improved, and there is an increased ability to upload large files to Ancestry.com.
• New image collection. Create beautiful family trees and reports with a variety of new backgrounds and images.

To purchase Family Tree Maker for Mac 2, visit our store; the software is also available at select retailers such as Amazon.com, Fry’s, and MicroCenter.

• Improvements to TreeSync performance, media download times, and fixes for sync errors
• Faster importing of all file types
• Added support for tags and media links when importing and exporting GEDCOMs
• Increased accuracy when pinpointing locations on the map

A detailed list of enhancements and bug fixes and instructions on installing the update is available in the KnowledgeBase. In addition, this update includes a number of new features:

TreeSync Hints

If you’ve used TreeSync to create a linked Family Tree Maker and Ancestry tree, Hints will also sync. For example, if you accept a Hint for an individual in Family Tree Maker, you won’t see that same Hint in your online Ancestry tree.

Ability to Exclude Record Images When Downloading Ancestry Trees

When you download your Ancestry tree into Family Tree Maker, you can decide whether or not you want to download images of Ancestry records you’ve attached to your tree. You may not want to download images if you’re worried about hard drive space or have a slow Internet connection. If you don’t download the images, you can still view the records easily because Family Tree Maker includes links to the online records.

New Undocumented Facts Report

For years we’ve heard that our users want a report that shows which individuals and facts in their trees haven’t been sourced. And now they find this information using the new Undocumented Facts Report. To access the report, go to the Collection tab on the Publish workspace. Choose Source Reports and double-click the Undocumented Facts icon.

Streamlined Task List Report

When you generate a task list, you can now include or exclude categories, dates, and individuals the tasks are attached to. To access the task list, go to the Collection tab on the Publish workspace. Choose Person Reports and double-click the Task List icon.

New Option in the Outline Descendant Report

Now you can create an Outline Descendant Report that shows only direct descendants between an ancestor and one of his or her descendants. To access the Outline Descendant Report, go to the Collection tab on the Publish workspace. Choose Relationship Reports and double-click the Outline Descendant Report icon.

New Option in the Data Errors Report

The Data Errors Report can now list instances where you’ve entered invalid dates. To access the report, go to the Collection tab on the Publish workspace. Choose Person Reports and double-click the Data Errors Report icon.

Simplified Sourcing

When you link an individual to a source citation (on the Sources workspace), you can now select multiple facts at the same time.

• TreeSync—the ability to link and synchronize your desktop tree with an online tree at Ancestry.
• The new blended families display option.
• The new descendancy report.

You can even get questions answered by the developers who work on the software. Information will apply to both PC and Mac users.

It’s not too late—you can still register for the webinar by clicking here.

And if you have questions you’d like answered, please enter them in the Comments section below. We’ll try to respond to them during the webinar or on the blog. (Please limit your questions to functionality available in Family Tree Maker 2012.) We appreciate your questions and look forward to talking to you soon. Thanks!

Have you missed past webinars? You can view them any time at FamilyTreeMaker.com.

Direct-line Descendant Charts

In recent versions of Family Tree Maker, the descendant chart showed all of an individual’s descendants. With only one or two generations, this chart can get quite large and difficult to understand. Now you have a simple alternative. You can create descendant chart that shows the direct-line relationship between two people you select.

Generation Labels

Another option available in 2012 is generation labels, which identify the relationship between the primary person in the chart and other family members (such as parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents). These labels appear above chart columns and help you identify relationships in a glance.

Text Boxes

A new feature in 2012 is the ability to personalize charts by adding your own free-form text boxes. Write a story about the individual, add a caption to a family photo, or include information that doesn’t fit elsewhere on the chart.

Now you can make changes to your tree anytime, anywhere. Maybe you’re at the library and you find your grandma’s birth record. Record this information in your online linked tree using your laptop or mobile app; then when you get home, open Family Tree Maker, click the Sync Now button, and your desktop tree will be updated with the new information. Or, add a bunch of family photos to your desktop tree, sync it, and friends and family all over the world can see them in your online tree.

Why Would I Want an Online and a Desktop Tree?

If you only have an online Ancestry tree or you’ve always used Family Tree Maker, you may be wondering why you would want both. Many people enjoy online trees because they can update and edit their tree anywhere they have Internet access. And they can invite friends and family to view the tree, which makes sharing family history quick and easy. Others prefer desktop software because they can quickly build a tree without worrying about Internet connections, refreshes, and upload times. And they can create a variety of beautiful charts and reports to help with their research. With TreeSync, you can enjoy the best of both worlds. You’ll have the mobility of an online tree with the advanced features of a desktop software program.

How Does TreeSync Work?

If your main tree is in Family Tree Maker, you can upload your tree to Ancestry by clicking the Upload and Link to Ancestry button on the Plan workspace. This will create a new linked online tree. (If you’ve already uploaded this tree to Ancestry, you will now have two duplicate online trees; you can simply delete the old one.)

If your main tree is on Ancestry.com, you can download it into Family Tree Maker by clicking Download from Ancestry on the Plan workspace. This will create a new linked desktop tree.

Once the trees are linked together, you can access and edit it online or on your desktop. You can even use our Ancestry iPhone and iPad apps to update your tree.

Can I download and sync my Ancestry tree to more than one computer?
You may download your Ancestry tree to any computer that has Family Tree Maker. However, you can only download and sync your tree to one computer—even if you have installed Family Tree Maker 2012 on two computers. Be aware that you cannot synchronize a tree between two computers either.

Can I exclude people when I upload my tree using TreeSync?
No. You must upload your entire tree if you want it to sync between Family Tree Maker and Ancestry. However, you can upload only part of your tree to Ancestry if you simply want to put your tree online and not sync it.

How long does it take to upload and sync a tree?
The first time you upload a tree to Ancestry.com it may take a while, especially if you have a lot of media items. However, after the initial upload, the syncing process takes much less time because only your changes are synced and not your entire tree. Due to the different Internet connection speeds that are available and various tree sizes we cannot estimate the length of your syncing time precisely.

What if I already have an online tree and a Family Tree Maker tree? How do I link them together?
You cannot simply link the two trees together. You would need to download your online tree and merge it with your Family Tree Maker tree. (Remember; make a backup of your tree before making any large changes like this.) Then, you’d re-upload the new “complete” tree back to Ancestry.com using the “upload and link” option.

Are there parts of my tree that won’t sync?
Although most tree content transfers easily, there are a few exceptions. For more information on potential differences between linked trees on Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker, please read this article.

What About Privacy?

Whenever I mention online trees, I am generally met with one concern. Privacy. Some people feel like their tree is a work in progress and isn’t ready to be shared yet. Others have accumulated a lot of confidential information that they don’t want to share publicly. Fortunately, TreeSync provides with you several privacy options so you don’t have to sacrifice security for mobility.

When you upload your tree to Ancestry, you can make your tree public, which means that other Ancestry subscribers can view your tree (except information about living individuals and private notes), and your tree will be shown in search results on Ancestry.com. Or, you can make your tree private, which means that limited information about individuals in your tree (name, birth year, birthplace) will appear in Ancestry search results, but no one can view the contents of your tree unless you invite them to. Additionally, you can choose to exclude your tree from appearing even in search indexes on Ancestry. And, you can change your preference at any time, and as often as you like.

What If I Need Help?

I get an error message when I try to sync my desktop and online trees. What do I do?
Occasionally you may get an error message when you try to sync your linked trees. This can occur when your Internet connection is interrupted during the synchronization process. First, make sure your Internet access is enabled in Family Tree Maker. (Go to the File menu and select Go Online. If the menu option “Go Offline” appears, Internet access is already enabled.) Second, check your Internet connection. If you have a dial-up Internet connection, or you have disabled your broadband connection, establish your Internet connection before you open Family Tree Maker. Make sure you are able to get to other websites.

I cannot edit my online Ancestry tree. What happened?
If you cannot edit your synced online tree, it may be because the online tree is temporarily unavailable while the desktop and online trees are being synced. Please wait a few minutes and try again.

Can I delete my tree if I decide I don’t want it online?
Yes, you can delete your online tree at any time. Be aware that once it’s deleted or unlinked, it can’t be re-linked to your Family Tree Maker tree.

If you have questions about TreeSync that haven’t been answered in this post or you are having issues syncing your tree, please contact our Customer Support at 1-800-262-3787, Monday through Friday from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm (EST) and Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Other improvements in Family Tree Maker 2012 include:

• Easy-to-understand combined family view. The family group view has a new “blended families” option that lets you display all of a couple’s children in one location, including step-children and adoptees. An icon next to a child’s name lets you see at a glance whether he or she is the child of the father, the mother, or both parents.
• 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.
• Improved Smart Stories. More content-generation and editing options help you create engaging stories about family members.
• New and improved reports. The Notes Report has been enhanced so you can display person, research, relationship, or fact notes you’ve entered for individuals. A new Index of Individuals Report lists every individual in your tree and their birth, marriage, and death dates in an easy-to-understand format. In addition, you can customize the descriptive sentences used in genealogy reports and Smart Stories.
• More chart options. The Descendant Chart has a new option that lets you show the relationship between two people you select. You can also display generation labels (such as parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents) in charts to highlight the relationship between the primary person in the chart and other family members. And you can now personalize charts by adding your own free-form text boxes.
• New and updated Help and tutorials. Learn how to do more—like creating trees and using Ancestry.com features—with new and improved tutorials accessible in the software and on FamilyTreeMaker.com.

To learn more about the 2012 release, please visit the What’s New page on FamilyTreeMaker.com. To purchase Family Tree Maker 2012, visit our store; the software is also available at Best Buy, Office Depot, Amazon.com, and other select retailers. For those of you interested in Family Tree Maker for Mac, a new version with TreeSync capability is slated to be released by the end of 2011.

In upcoming weeks I’ll be writing more about the new 2012 release. Be sure to come back to the blog to learn more about some of its new and exciting features.

For example, in my tree I have a tendency to transpose the I and E in my great-grandfather’s name, making him Neils instead of Niels. Instead of sifting through every fact, source, and media item for the incorrect spelling, I use the Find and Replace tool to search for the mistake and correct it.

Before you use the Find and Replace tool, you’ll want to make a backup of your tree since these types of changes can’t be undone.

1.  To open the tool, choose Edit>Find and Replace.
2.  Enter the term(s) you want to search for in the Find field. You can choose how exact you want the search to be and which parts of your tree to search. In this situation I want to search all available options because I am looking for a misspelled name. If you know the term you’re looking for is in a source or a note, you can select only that option.

If your search term includes a date, keep in mind that text in Date fields cannot be searched. A date shows up in search results only if it appears in the Description field or in a note, source, or media item.

3.  Click the Find button. The window expands to show the first item that matches your search.
4.  If you want to open the record or workspace where the search term is used, click the Go To button. If you want to replace the term, enter a new term in the “Replace with” field and click the Replace button. To find the next matching term, click Find Next. Continue searching and replacing terms, as necessary.

Although you can replace all matching text by clicking the Replace All button, I recommend viewing each search result individually. For example, if I had chosen “Replace All” when replacing my great-grandfather’s name, it would have changed a record transcription in a source citation. This is an instance in which I wanted to keep the name as I found it in the record.

Also, don’t feel like you have to use the Find and Replace tool just for correcting mistakes. It can be useful if you simply want to locate specific information. Perhaps you’ve entered important facts in a person note but you can’t remember which individual it’s linked to. Search all notes for the text you remember and then click the Go To button to open the individual and the note.

Before you get started, you’ll want to make sure you’ve recorded burial and cemetery information the same way for all the individuals in your tree; otherwise, you report won’t necessarily include the correct individuals. In my tree I use the Description field in the Burial fact to record specific cemetery names.

1. To create a cemetery report, start by opening the Custom Report (located on the Publish workspace under Person Reports).
2. Click the Reset button (a blue arrow button next to the report’s title) to clear any previous settings.
3. Click the Items to Include button (on the far left) in the reports toolbar. Now click the Add fact (+) button and add the Burial fact to the report. At this point, you can add any other facts to the report that you’d like. In this case we’ll stick with birth, marriage, death, and burial. Click OK when you’re finished.

Now we need to determine which individuals should be included in the report–the people who have been buried at a specific cemetery.

4. In Individuals to Include, click Selected Individuals. The Filter Individuals window opens.

5. Click Filter In. The Filter Individuals by Criteria window opens.

6. Click All facts. In “Search where” choose the Burial fact and Description field. (If you’ve recorded cemetery information in a different fact you’ll choose that here.) In the next drop-down choose “Contains.” Then in the Value field, enter the name of the cemetery and click OK.

The Filter Individuals window now shows all the individuals who are buried in the selected cemetery. Click OK to display the report.

Now it’s your turn. Have you tried the custom report yet? If you have, how do you use it?

Here are a few highlights:

• A tour of the software shows some of the key features and tools available in Family Tree Maker.
• A “tips and tricks” section helps users of all levels be more productive.
• An updated FAQ answers questions about sharing files, upgrading the software, and more.
• A learning center gives you quick access to webinars, message boards, and tutorials.

We’re excited about the new changes and hope you’ll find the new site easier to use and filled with useful resources.