TreeSync Improvements

• Private media items. If you have personal media items like birth certificates and photos of living family members that you don’t want to include in your online tree, you can keep them private on an item-by-item basis when you sync (or export) your tree.
• Improved backup and restore. It’s easier to keep your online and desktop trees synced if you encounter an issue; previously, if you had to use a backup file, your tree wouldn’t sync anymore and you’d have to upload a new version. With this update, you can back up a synced tree and restore it if you have any problems.
• Synced Web links. If you’ve added Web links for individuals or URLs in source citations, these will now be included when you sync your tree.
• Printable sync log. Now you can print a list of all the changes that will be made to your online tree.

New Features

• More reports. This update includes a number of new reports: an index of individuals that lists every individual in your tree and their birth, marriage, and death dates; a notes reports that lets you display person, research, relationship, or facts notes for an individual; and a surname report that lists the surnames in your tree, including the total number of individuals with that surname.

• New report options. The descendant and Ahnentafel reports have been updated and the descendant report includes additional numbering systems. New sorting options have also been added to the custom report.

• Organizational tool for places. The larger your tree gets, the more locations you have to keep track of. On the Places workspace, locations are now grouped together by country, state, county, and city to make them easier to look at and sort through.

Here are a few of the new features you’ll find:

• More improvements to TreeSync. Family Tree Maker continues to make TreeSync faster, more reliable, and more customizable. If you’re like me, you have personal media items like birth certificates and photos of living family members that you don’t always want to include in your online tree. Now you can keep media items private on an item-by-item basis when you sync (or export) your tree. It’s also easier to keep your online and desktop trees synced if you encounter an issue; previously, if you had to use a backup file, your tree wouldn’t sync anymore and you’d have to upload a new version. With this update, you can back up a synced tree and restore it if you have any problems. Other TreeSync enhancements let you print a list of your sync changes and include Web links for people and URLs in source citations.
• Organizational tool for places. The larger your tree gets, the more locations you have to keep track of. On the Places workspace, locations are now grouped together by country, state, county, and city to make them easier to look at and sort through.

• Better backups. You now have more control when you back up your tree. If you’ve spent a lot of time setting up your websites favorites or creating and editing historical events for timelines, you lost this info if you had to delete your current tree and use a backup; now you can include this information in your backup file. And, media files can also be included in a backup regardless of where they’re located on your hard drive.

• Ability to copy and paste facts. Adding facts for a family just got easier. For example, if you have a residence fact for an entire family, instead of manually adding it to each person, you can add it to one person, then right-click to copy the fact and right-click again to paste the fact (on his or her Person tab). You’ll be prompted to select all the family members you want to add the fact to. (Make sure you don’t include the person whose fact you’re copying or you’ll have a duplicate.) Best of all, the copied fact will include any associated source citations, media items, and notes.

I hope you all enjoy the latest features as much as I do. And if you haven’t purchased or upgraded to Family Tree Maker 2012 yet, there’s never been a better time.

For those of you interested in our Mac product, be aware that Family Tree Maker for Mac 2 has been receiving similar bonus updates throughout the year and another will be coming soon.

If you haven’t purchased or upgraded to Family Tree Maker 2012 yet, there’s never been a better time.

Since Family Tree Maker 2012 was released last fall, a number of updates have been sent out that include improvements and new features. Here’s a list of just some of these great changes:

• Numerous enhancements to TreeSync so syncing your tree to Ancestry.com is faster and more reliable
• A new Family View Report that displays a person’s ancestors, spouse, and children together (similar to the Family View in the People workspace)
• A new Undocumented Facts Report that lists people’s facts that have no source documentation
• The ability to merge info from multiple versions of the same fact
• New source templates for the 1940 U.S. census and improved support for city directories
• Dozens of report enhancements including performance improvements and new options in the relationship chart, family group sheet, Individual Report, Notes Report, Data Errors Report, Outline Descendant Report, Media Item Report, photo albums, Media Usage Report, Documented Facts Report, and calendar

And there are more enhancements to come in the next bonus update—so stayed tuned.

If you aren’t prompted to install an update, please go to the Family Tree Maker menu and select Check for Updates.

We thank you for your patience during this situation.

The Family Tree Maker Team

The Family Tree Maker Team

UPDATE AS OF MONDAY, 16 JULY 2012 AT 1:30 PM MT

Again, we want to thank you for your patience. We also want to let you know that the Internet connection issue has been isolated, and we are working on a solution. We’ll keep you updated on our progress through this blog. We apologize for any inconvenience.

UPDATE AS OF WEDNESDAY, 18 JULY 2012 AT 11:00 AM MT

We know all of you are interested in hearing what progress we’ve made with the connection issues in Family Tree Maker for Mac. We are actively working on an update and feel we will be able to release a fix very soon. When the update is available, a notification will appear when you open your software; you can also check back here—we’ll keep you informed about when the update is ready.

We appreciate the patience of all our users, and again, apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

The Family Tree Maker Team

UPDATE AS OF THURSDAY, 19 JULY 2012 AT 2:00 PM MT

We are pleased to announce that the Internet connection issues people have been experiencing with Family Tree Maker for Mac have been resolved. To get the update, close out of Family Tree Maker; then reopen the application. You’ll be notified that an update is available. Click Install Update. When the installation is complete, you may need to log in to your Ancestry account again. You can do this in the Web Dashboard on the Plan workspace. If your connection still doesn’t seem to be working, make sure the software is set to go online. You can do this by selecting Go Online from the File menu.

If you aren’t prompted to install an update, please go to the Family Tree Maker menu and select Check for Updates.

We thank you for your patience during this situation.

The Family Tree Maker Team

• Improvements to TreeSync performance and stability
• Added support for media, notes, and sources during file merges
• Improved handling of media during Web merges
• Bug fixes for tasks, media items, and window resizing issues (on computers running Windows 7)

When you open Family Tree Maker, you should be notified that an update is available. If this doesn’t happen, please visit the KnowledgeBase for instructions on manually downloading and installing the update.

New Features

This update includes a variety of new features and even a new report.

Merge for Duplicate Facts

If you have multiple versions of the same fact, you can merge them together.

New Source Templates

Source templates for the 1940 U.S. census have been added and there is improved support for city directories.

More Support for Blended Families

When you add a spouse for an individual, now you can indicate whether he or she is also the parent of the individual’s children.

Charts

In a relationship chart, an individual’s father and mother will both be included at the top of the page; shortened place names can be used; and, fonts are resized automatically so text won’t be cut off.

Reports

• Family View Report – This new report lets you display an individual’s ancestors, spouse, and children together (similar to the Family View in the People workspace).

• Calendars – You can change the font size for events.

• Data Errors Report – A new option lets you include only preferred facts.

• Documented Facts Report – New options let you include or exclude source citation notes and include only preferred facts.

• Family Group Sheet – An image that is linked to an individual can be displayed at the top of the report. Also, spacing and labels have been improved.

• Individual Report – A new note indicates when a couple has no children together. Also, there are new options that let you include an individual’s life span in the summary and add the summary to all pages.

• Media Item Report – A new option lets you include or exclude notes and links.

• Media Usage Report – A new option lets you include captions, dates, descriptions, categories, and notes. Also, media images are resized based on amount of descriptive info that is included.

• Notes Report – Notes can flow across page breaks.

• Photo Album – Improved spacing when including dates and descriptions.

• Undocumented Facts Report – A new option lets you include only preferred facts.

• Improved speed when generating reports that include notes and/or sources.

• Saved charts and reports are listed alphabetically.

• The person you’re currently viewing will be selected now when you open the Filter Individuals list.

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 genealogy 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.