Some annoyances with FTM

[Claude]

There are two (apparent) deficiencies in the Family View of FTM that really
annoy me. First, it isn't possible to tell without further clicks whether
(a) a child has married and/or had offspring, or (b) whether the parents and
which child, if any, is the direct ancestor of the main person of interest
(in my case, me). Second, it isn't possible to tell without further clicks
if there are any Notes on the husband or wife. In fact you have to do two
clicks, i.e. Edit/Notes, to find out if there's any info there. I'm
therefore wondering what program might enable me to get this info 'at a
glance' or with the minimum number of clicks? I'm using FTM 2006 but IIRC
earlier versions had the same annoying limitations.

[f/fgeorge]

On Thu, 05 Oct 2006 12:51:34 GMT, "Claude" <[email protected]>
wrote:

There are two (apparent) deficiencies in the Family View of FTM that really
annoy me. First, it isn't possible to tell without further clicks whether
(a) a child has married and/or had offspring, or (b) whether the parents and
which child, if any, is the direct ancestor of the main person of interest
(in my case, me). Second, it isn't possible to tell without further clicks
if there are any Notes on the husband or wife. In fact you have to do two
clicks, i.e. Edit/Notes, to find out if there's any info there. I'm
therefore wondering what program might enable me to get this info 'at a
glance' or with the minimum number of clicks? I'm using FTM 2006 but IIRC
earlier versions had the same annoying limitations.

TMG, The Master Genealogist, has boxes on screen that can show

different things. One of the standard ones is the main person in a
large box on the left half of the screen and then 2 smaller boxes to
the right showing their brothers and sisters on the top and their
children below.
There is a trial version you can try.
http://www.whollygenes.com/

[John]

On Thu, 05 Oct 2006 12:51:34 GMT, "Claude" <[email protected]>
wrote:

There are two (apparent) deficiencies in the Family View of FTM that really
annoy me. First, it isn't possible to tell without further clicks whether
(a) a child has married and/or had offspring, or (b) whether the parents and
which child, if any, is the direct ancestor of the main person of interest
(in my case, me). Second, it isn't possible to tell without further clicks
if there are any Notes on the husband or wife. In fact you have to do two
clicks, i.e. Edit/Notes, to find out if there's any info there. I'm
therefore wondering what program might enable me to get this info 'at a
glance' or with the minimum number of clicks? I'm using FTM 2006 but IIRC
earlier versions had the same annoying limitations.

Legacy has visual indicators for marriage and children.

I use the "set preferred child" flag to mark direct-line ancestors.

John

[Dora Smith]

Um, PAF also displays children in the families of their parents in family
view. I've really never found a more efficient program for data entry and
for looking people up.

But if you've found an easy to use feature in TGM and that's the only
feature you will ever use, go to it!

As for FTM, the program IS an annoyance.

--
Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, TX
[email protected]
"f/fgeorge" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

On Thu, 05 Oct 2006 12:51:34 GMT, "Claude" <[email protected]
wrote:

There are two (apparent) deficiencies in the Family View of FTM that
really
annoy me. First, it isn't possible to tell without further clicks whether
(a) a child has married and/or had offspring, or (b) whether the parents
and
which child, if any, is the direct ancestor of the main person of interest
(in my case, me). Second, it isn't possible to tell without further
clicks
if there are any Notes on the husband or wife. In fact you have to do two
clicks, i.e. Edit/Notes, to find out if there's any info there. I'm
therefore wondering what program might enable me to get this info 'at a
glance' or with the minimum number of clicks? I'm using FTM 2006 but IIRC
earlier versions had the same annoying limitations.

TMG, The Master Genealogist, has boxes on screen that can show
different things. One of the standard ones is the main person in a
large box on the left half of the screen and then 2 smaller boxes to
the right showing their brothers and sisters on the top and their
children below.
There is a trial version you can try.
http://www.whollygenes.com/

[Dora Smith]

Just don't expect Legacy to print out the step children. If that is what
you are trying to do; you did specifically mention what the programs display
on screen.

--
Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, TX
[email protected]
"John" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

On Thu, 05 Oct 2006 12:51:34 GMT, "Claude" <[email protected]
wrote:

There are two (apparent) deficiencies in the Family View of FTM that
really
annoy me. First, it isn't possible to tell without further clicks whether
(a) a child has married and/or had offspring, or (b) whether the parents
and
which child, if any, is the direct ancestor of the main person of interest
(in my case, me). Second, it isn't possible to tell without further
clicks
if there are any Notes on the husband or wife. In fact you have to do two
clicks, i.e. Edit/Notes, to find out if there's any info there. I'm
therefore wondering what program might enable me to get this info 'at a
glance' or with the minimum number of clicks? I'm using FTM 2006 but IIRC
earlier versions had the same annoying limitations.


Legacy has visual indicators for marriage and children.

I use the "set preferred child" flag to mark direct-line ancestors.

John

[Dora Smith]

Well, most of them, but give PAF a try. PAF is the program I most use and
You can download it for free from LDS. For $8.46 you can get a bundled
combination of PAF and PAF Companion and CD. Or you can download PAF and
the trial version of the Companion and call LDS tomorrow and purchase a key
to unlock full functionality. Then you can even print all spouses and all
children of each ancestor in ancestor reports, instead of only children teh
program selected for you.

Except for the notes. I've used several programs, and all make you click
on something to learn what if anything is in the notes field. However, PAF
makes it as simple a matter as any. A single right or left click with the
person or marriage you want notes on will bring up the notes screen. Roots
Magic makes it harder, and The Master Genealogist makes it outright
difficult.

I think there might be programs that if there are contents icons change
color, but don't know which those are.

--
Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, TX
[email protected]
"Claude" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

There are two (apparent) deficiencies in the Family View of FTM that
really annoy me. First, it isn't possible to tell without further clicks
whether (a) a child has married and/or had offspring, or (b) whether the
parents and which child, if any, is the direct ancestor of the main person
of interest (in my case, me). Second, it isn't possible to tell without
further clicks if there are any Notes on the husband or wife. In fact you
have to do two clicks, i.e. Edit/Notes, to find out if there's any info
there. I'm therefore wondering what program might enable me to get this
info 'at a glance' or with the minimum number of clicks? I'm using FTM
2006 but IIRC earlier versions had the same annoying limitations.

[Larry]

I remember back a while when I wrote for Genealogical Computing magazine,
and reviewed a Mac software called, not surprisingly, MacRoots. It had a
little notepad icon on the "top card" for a person, and if it was dark, that
meant there was text in it. Saved a click!

[Claude]

"Larry" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:C14F158D.1EAA3%[email protected]...

I remember back a while when I wrote for Genealogical Computing magazine,
and reviewed a Mac software called, not surprisingly, MacRoots. It had a
little notepad icon on the "top card" for a person, and if it was dark,
that
meant there was text in it. Saved a click!

That's exactly the sort of functionality I'm looking for!

[Charani]

On Sat, 07 Oct 2006 05:38:34 GMT, Dora Smith wrote:

Just don't expect Legacy to print out the step children.

Legacy does print out the stepchildren.

[Charani]

On Sun, 08 Oct 2006 22:14:02 GMT, Dora Smith wrote:

I think there might be programs that if there are contents icons change
color, but don't know which those are.

Legacy's icons change colour when there are contents.

[Lesley Robertson]

"Dora Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

As for FTM, the program IS an annoyance.

Surely life is too short to get so worked up about a piece of software you

don't like?
Nobody is forcing you to use it, there's plenty of others.
Lesley Robertson

[Dora Smith]

Yes - legacy does print the step children, if you check that option. I
just learned that tonight.

A bunch of people told me it does not. But I gave it a try to check some
other features, and it sure does!

--
Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, TX
[email protected]
"Charani" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

On Sat, 07 Oct 2006 05:38:34 GMT, Dora Smith wrote:

Just don't expect Legacy to print out the step children.

Legacy does print out the stepchildren.

[Dora Smith]

I knew that someone on one of my lists wanted a program where you can see if
the notes have contents without clicking on it. This looks like it could
be replies to the one.

Legacy's icons become colored if that field contains contents. That
includes the notes icon.

Legacy has improved a great deal since I last tried it several years ago,
and the people who told me it won't display stepchildren in an ancestor
report are plain wrong. Legacy gives numerous options which include
displaying other spouses and stepchildren on ancestor reports, and it also
imports irregular dates without mangling them.

I'm starting to like Legacy. I don't know about it for data entry, but I
like its features for making reports!

--
Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, TX
[email protected]
"Claude" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:%[email protected]...

"Larry" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:C14F158D.1EAA3%[email protected]...
I remember back a while when I wrote for Genealogical Computing magazine,
and reviewed a Mac software called, not surprisingly, MacRoots. It had a
little notepad icon on the "top card" for a person, and if it was dark,
that
meant there was text in it. Saved a click!

That's exactly the sort of functionality I'm looking for!

[Dora Smith]

Yup. That one. Grin!

--
Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, TX
[email protected]
"Charani" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

On Sun, 08 Oct 2006 22:14:02 GMT, Dora Smith wrote:

I think there might be programs that if there are contents icons change
color, but don't know which those are.

Legacy's icons change colour when there are contents.

[Charani]

On Wed, 11 Oct 2006 03:57:13 GMT, Dora Smith wrote:

I'm starting to like Legacy. I don't know about it for data entry,
but I like its features for making reports!

You can do just about anything with Legacy, which is why I like it.
It's very forgiving and very user friendly.

My dau (11) has been helping me with some of the data entry and she
picked up how to use the program very easily. She had more problems
understanding my original notes!! <G>

[Charani]

On Wed, 11 Oct 2006 03:46:49 GMT, Dora Smith wrote:

Yes - legacy does print the step children, if you check that option. I
just learned that tonight.

A bunch of people told me it does not. But I gave it a try to check some
other features, and it sure does!

I guess those people haven't looked at Legacy recently then.

[Hugh Watkins]

Claude wrote:

There are two (apparent) deficiencies in the Family View of FTM that really
annoy me. First, it isn't possible to tell without further clicks whether
(a) a child has married and/or had offspring, or (b) whether the parents and
which child, if any, is the direct ancestor of the main person of interest
(in my case, me). Second, it isn't possible to tell without further clicks
if there are any Notes on the husband or wife. In fact you have to do two
clicks, i.e. Edit/Notes, to find out if there's any info there. I'm
therefore wondering what program might enable me to get this info 'at a
glance' or with the minimum number of clicks? I'm using FTM 2006 but IIRC
earlier versions had the same annoying limitations.

you can take a tree or outline genealogy report on screen in FTM 13 and
use it to navigate

by double clicking any name to get at the data entry dialogue box


Hugh W

--

new phone = new daily blog
http://upsrev622.blogspot.com/

family history
http://hughw36.blogspot.com

[CT]

I don't know about your option (a), but for (b) Roots Magic has a feature
that allows you to change the color of the root (or other selected) person's
text and all of that person's ancestors. So, for example, when looking at an
ancestral family, the child that is the root person's direct ancestor shows
up in a color other than the standard black. Also, another feature shows the
relationship to the root person in the Status Bar area. Both are very nice
features.

"Claude" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

There are two (apparent) deficiencies in the Family View of FTM that
really annoy me. First, it isn't possible to tell without further clicks
whether (a) a child has married and/or had offspring, or (b) whether the
parents and which child, if any, is the direct ancestor of the main person
of interest (in my case, me). Second, it isn't possible to tell without
further clicks if there are any Notes on the husband or wife. In fact you
have to do two clicks, i.e. Edit/Notes, to find out if there's any info
there. I'm therefore wondering what program might enable me to get this
info 'at a glance' or with the minimum number of clicks? I'm using FTM
2006 but IIRC earlier versions had the same annoying limitations.

[Dora Smith]

You can fit your annoyances with FTM into a single paragraph?

--
Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, TX
[email protected]
"CT" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

I don't know about your option (a), but for (b) Roots Magic has a feature
that allows you to change the color of the root (or other selected)
person's text and all of that person's ancestors. So, for example, when
looking at an ancestral family, the child that is the root person's direct
ancestor shows up in a color other than the standard black. Also, another
feature shows the relationship to the root person in the Status Bar area.
Both are very nice features.

"Claude" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
There are two (apparent) deficiencies in the Family View of FTM that
really annoy me. First, it isn't possible to tell without further clicks
whether (a) a child has married and/or had offspring, or (b) whether the
parents and which child, if any, is the direct ancestor of the main
person of interest (in my case, me). Second, it isn't possible to tell
without further clicks if there are any Notes on the husband or wife. In
fact you have to do two clicks, i.e. Edit/Notes, to find out if there's
any info there. I'm therefore wondering what program might enable me to
get this info 'at a glance' or with the minimum number of clicks? I'm
using FTM 2006 but IIRC earlier versions had the same annoying
limitations.