GENEWEAVER-L Archives

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Subject: [GeneWeaver] Report: Specific report format wanted
Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 21:00:37 -0500 (EST)

Whenever I ask a list an opinion question, I always try
to get back with the results. Unfortunately, this has
been more difficult than most. I will give it a try
anyway, even though opinions are still trickling in.

Recently I posted a query about the availability of a
genealogy program that would create a very specify
report, since my program (I am a long-time user of John
Steed's excellent Brother's Keeper) will not do it
EASILY. I think for this summary the actual details of
what I was looking for are not necessary, so I wont
repeat them (the post is too long anyway). I must
admit that there was an almost universal
misunderstanding of my original format request. I can
think of no other reason than genealogy people are very
slow witted. Maybe there is some wiseacre somewhere
who might have the nerve to imply that my presentation
was flawed or possibly unclear, but no reasonable one
would place much credence in that.

Therefore, I think it is a fair statement to say that
the question for which the results are shown could be
reworded: What genealogy program is the most
versatile? Anyway, that is the way I interpreted
nearly all of the responses. Here are the results of
my poll:

VotesProgramComments
12TMG (The Master Genealogist)Expensive and
very versatile
4LegacyOlder version
free
4FO (Family Origins)Free
trial version
2PAF 5 (Personal Ancestry File)Free
1CFT (Cumberland Family Tree)Free trial
version available
1UFT (Ultimate Family Tree)
Abandoned
1AFT (Ancestry Family Tree)
0FTM (Family Tree Maker)
0BK (Brothers Keeper)Lack of votes
is because I said I wanted to change. Shareware, with
free version available.

Since this is far from a scientific polling and I am
assuming the results apply to a different question, one
should be hesitant to run out and change your own
program of choice. Of course, if you are a masochist
you could change your program regularly just for the
challenge.

I feel that I ought to take some liberties and add some
parenthetical comments to the above results. First of
all, an almost universal comment to TMG was that the
learning curve was steep. For those of you not yet
completely comfortable with computers and genealogy
programs, read this: Avoid TMG. (If that is an
overstatement, I apologize.) I suppose that this
caveat should be obvious to qualify any extremely
versatile program. Nothing comes without some effort
apparently.

It was also clear that FTM is a very good program for
beginners. I am not sure that this translated
necessarily into a limited program, but I suspect that
compared to some of the others it does.

In all fairness I must add that I still think BK is a
great program. It is a very good program for both
beginners and advanced users. John Steed should be
congratulated for devoting so many years to it. He is
generally very responsive to users questions and
problems and desires. Thank you, John.

And lastly, if I have offended anyone or stepped on any
toes, I sincerely apologize. I meant no offence. I am
just trying to disseminate the information and either
myself or the source might be flawed. And if I
stimulated anyone to consider questioning their own
software-of-choice, I am glad!

Before I change the subject I must add that no survey
would be complete without a discussion of two most
important areas to anyone considering software
technical support (TS) and user support (US). I
consider TS to include keeping the program bug free and
state-of-the-art. US is the enthusiasm and knowledge-
level (and willingness to share that!) of the cadre of
program users, preferably very large. For the latter I
will say that all of these programs have RootsWeb
lists, but some are not very active. Take some time
and check them out. Ask the users about TS and look at
the type of problems the users have. Watch how they
respond to both simple and complicated questions. And
watch how they treat newbies. I cannot speak with any
experience about any program, except BK. I would
suggest BK rates about 7 of 10 for TS and 9 for US.
The scientific accuracy of those numbers is on a par
with my poll.

FYI, genealogy software links:

TMGhttp://www.whollygenes.com/
Legacyhttp://www.legacyfamilytree.com/
FOhttp://formalsoft.com/index.htm
PAF
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/default.asp (Go
to downloads)
CFThttp://www.cf-software.com/
AFThttp://aft.ancestry.com/
FTMhttp://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/?
Welcome=1010332738
BK
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Brother
s_Keeper/


There were also two other programs mentioned by various
people that are worth mentioning:

GENViewer:
This is a very neat little program for viewing
GEDCOMs. I downloaded the Lite version which is very
limited, but it does all I would ever wantit allows me
to view the myriad GEDCOMs I get in a very pleasing
form. The heavy versions might appeal to others, but
the Lite version is perfect for me!
http://www.mudcreek.ca/

GenBook:
If you would ever wish to create a book of your
genealogy data, this pricey program would appear to be
just what you want. It will apparently read data from
many genealogy programs and format it for a word
processor (at least WordPerfect).
http://www.foothill.net/~genbook/

And finally: CAVEAT EMPTOR.

In closing, I would like to once again thank all those
persons who took time out from their busy day of
researching (and, I suppose, living) and send me their
opinions and comments. You are all wonderful people.


Sincerely, Jim Mayor <>

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