Family Tree Maker or Legacy or?

[Johnny]

I currently have Ancestral Quest AQ but I'm wondering how it compares
with Legacy 5.0 and Family Tree Maker 2005 as I'm wondering if I need
to upgrade, or is what I have good enough?

I'd also like a better Tree printing option than AQ and wondered what
your thoughts were in this area also?

Any constructive comments would be appreciated.

Kindest regards

John Holland

[f/f george]

PAF which is free from the lds, familysearch.org then go thru the tabs
to the downloads, has always had decent printing.

On 23 Aug 2004 11:04:58 -0700, [email protected] (Johnny) wrote:

I currently have Ancestral Quest AQ but I'm wondering how it compares
with Legacy 5.0 and Family Tree Maker 2005 as I'm wondering if I need
to upgrade, or is what I have good enough?

I'd also like a better Tree printing option than AQ and wondered what
your thoughts were in this area also?

Any constructive comments would be appreciated.

Kindest regards

John Holland

[Gjest]

PAF is Ancestral Quest!


On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 18:09:17 GMT, f/f george <[email protected]>
wrote:

PAF which is free from the lds, familysearch.org then go thru the tabs
to the downloads, has always had decent printing.

[singhals]

Johnny wrote:

I currently have Ancestral Quest AQ but I'm wondering how it compares
with Legacy 5.0 and Family Tree Maker 2005 as I'm wondering if I need
to upgrade, or is what I have good enough?

Considering that you don't like the chart options, no it's not good enough.

I'd also like a better Tree printing option than AQ and wondered what
your thoughts were in this area also?

Any constructive comments would be appreciated.

Kindest regards

John Holland

Generally speaking, FTM has better charts than most newbie programs.
Since PAF 4 & 5 are (1) free and (2) based on AQ, and since PAF has that
nifty PafCompanion utility ($5 if memory serves) You might switch to PAF
and PAFComp for the charts.

Cheryl

[Ron O'Neill]

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

I currently have Ancestral Quest AQ but I'm wondering how it compares
with Legacy 5.0 and Family Tree Maker 2005 as I'm wondering if I need
to upgrade, or is what I have good enough?

I'd also like a better Tree printing option than AQ and wondered what
your thoughts were in this area also?

Any constructive comments would be appreciated.

Kindest regards

John Holland

For chart printing capabilities you can't get much better than FTM, another
program with excellent chart printing capabilities is Genbox, the full
working version is available for a free 30 day free trial from
http://www.thoughtfulcreations.com/

Kind regards,
Ron O'Neill
http://www.genealogyprinters.com

[J. Hugh Sullivan]

On 23 Aug 2004 11:04:58 -0700, [email protected] (Johnny) wrote:

I currently have Ancestral Quest AQ but I'm wondering how it compares
with Legacy 5.0 and Family Tree Maker 2005 as I'm wondering if I need
to upgrade, or is what I have good enough?

I'd also like a better Tree printing option than AQ and wondered what
your thoughts were in this area also?

Any constructive comments would be appreciated.

Kindest regards

John Holland

Sooner or later I have to respond.

Whatever you do don't settle on a program without trying RootsMagic,
Legacy and TMG. They all have demos available and Legacy has a free
version.

Import a small GED and give each program a workout. Look for speed,
uncluttered screens, ease of data entry and content of various printed
reports.

The only way to be satisfied is to make the choice yourself.

Hugh

[singhals]

J. Hugh Sullivan wrote:

On 23 Aug 2004 11:04:58 -0700, [email protected] (Johnny) wrote:


I currently have Ancestral Quest AQ but I'm wondering how it compares
with Legacy 5.0 and Family Tree Maker 2005 as I'm wondering if I need
to upgrade, or is what I have good enough?

I'd also like a better Tree printing option than AQ and wondered what
your thoughts were in this area also?

Any constructive comments would be appreciated.

Kindest regards

John Holland


Sooner or later I have to respond.

Whatever you do don't settle on a program without trying RootsMagic,
Legacy and TMG. They all have demos available and Legacy has a free
version.

Import a small GED and give each program a workout. Look for speed,
uncluttered screens, ease of data entry and content of various printed
reports.

The only way to be satisfied is to make the choice yourself.

Hugh

A friend of mine was recently stymied trying to buy TMG -- no e-mail no
program, apparently -- so she bought RootsMagic instead. She's VERY
excited about it and she's gotten a number of very useful reports from
it already. She praises their telephone ordering and their response
time -- she ordered on Wednesday and Friday she had the program!

Cheryl

[Rick Merrill]

Ron O'Neill wrote:

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

I currently have Ancestral Quest AQ but I'm wondering how it compares
with Legacy 5.0 and Family Tree Maker 2005 as I'm wondering if I need
to upgrade, or is what I have good enough?

I'd also like a better Tree printing option than AQ and wondered what
your thoughts were in this area also?

Any constructive comments would be appreciated.

Kindest regards

John Holland


For chart printing capabilities you can't get much better than FTM, another
program with excellent chart printing capabilities is Genbox, the full
working version is available for a free 30 day free trial from
http://www.thoughtfulcreations.com/

Kind regards,
Ron O'Neill
http://www.genealogyprinters.com

Thanks for the tip. What features make it superior, in your
opinion? - RM

[J. Hugh Sullivan]

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 08:52:51 -0400, singhals <[email protected]>
wrote:

Sooner or later I have to respond.

Whatever you do don't settle on a program without trying RootsMagic,
Legacy and TMG. They all have demos available and Legacy has a free
version.

Import a small GED and give each program a workout. Look for speed,
uncluttered screens, ease of data entry and content of various printed
reports.

The only way to be satisfied is to make the choice yourself.

Hugh

A friend of mine was recently stymied trying to buy TMG -- no e-mail no
program, apparently -- so she bought RootsMagic instead. She's VERY
excited about it and she's gotten a number of very useful reports from
it already. She praises their telephone ordering and their response
time -- she ordered on Wednesday and Friday she had the program!

Cheryl

I would be the next to last one here to be surprised at that, Cheryl -

I'll sacrifice and let Bruce be last!

She will probably want to do some editing on the sentence structure
for reports but that's simple.

If not on the RM User Group, he/she should be - the people are very
knowledgeable and very helpful. Same for Legacy except so many people
quote all previous messages that checking the posts becomes
excessively tedious. I read both but rarely contribute.

Hugh

[Phil Stevens]

Hello list etal , Might I butt in here !!!?? , Not to long ago I gave
Most Every ! program a test run , Looking for one that would do what I
wanted ,
After a few weeks I gave up on the search and converted my Brother Keepers
Ver 5 data to BK 6 , AS it was the only program I found that was Clean
Simple Easy Nice and even allowed my to chose the colors I wanted my screen
to be , Not to mention decent reports
I would recommend a look at BK !!!!! , Phil

----- Original Message -----
From: "J. Hugh Sullivan" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 5:19 AM
Subject: Re: Family Tree Maker or Legacy or?

On 23 Aug 2004 11:04:58 -0700, [email protected] (Johnny) wrote:

I currently have Ancestral Quest AQ but I'm wondering how it compares
........ snip ...

Import a small GED and give each program a workout. Look for speed,
uncluttered screens, ease of data entry and content of various printed
reports.

The only way to be satisfied is to make the choice yourself.

Hugh

[Ron O'Neill]

"Rick Merrill" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:6wHWc.81382$TI1.13315@attbi_s52...

For chart printing capabilities you can't get much better than FTM,
another
program with excellent chart printing capabilities is Genbox, the full
working version is available for a free 30 day free trial from
http://www.thoughtfulcreations.com/

Kind regards,
Ron O'Neill
http://www.genealogyprinters.com

Thanks for the tip. What features make it superior, in your
opinion? - RM

Hi Rick.

The following features IMHO make the program one of the best charting tools
around, we only use the program for chart printing purposes not data entry
which is one of the main points the OP asked.

1. The ability to create an "All in One/Everyone" chart (not many programs
do this.
2. To alter and modify those charts once created.
3. Being able to add/delete individual boxes on a chart.
4. Capability to paint out entries in boxes and to re-type over them.
5. Graphics can be inserted onto any chart and re-sized or moved whilst on
the chart.
6. Text blocks also can be inserted and moved or modified.
7. Numerous custom design/event features can be incorporated onto a chart.
These include box/names styles and colours, size of boxes can be controlled,
include partners in the same box (makes smaller charts),
8. The ability to have the boxes of the all in one chart in generational
alignment
9. The ability to alter the entire layout of the chart, the list is endless.

For a more detailed look at the programs capabilities in comparison to other
major programs there is a report card located here.
http://www.genbox.com/comparison.htm

We have no connection to this company except as a satisfied commercial user.

Kind regards,
Ron O'Neill
http://www.genealogyprinters.com

[J. Hugh Sullivan]

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 20:32:09 +0000 (UTC), [email protected] ("Phil
Stevens") wrote:

Hello list etal , Might I butt in here !!!?? , Not to long ago I gave
Most Every ! program a test run , Looking for one that would do what I
wanted ,
After a few weeks I gave up on the search and converted my Brother Keepers
Ver 5 data to BK 6 , AS it was the only program I found that was Clean
Simple Easy Nice and even allowed my to chose the colors I wanted my screen
to be , Not to mention decent reports
I would recommend a look at BK !!!!! , Phil

BK is a good program - or was when I used it. Like you, I tried every

program available when I first started. I recommend three programs
but, if one is serious, he should not limit his experimenting to
three.

Hugh

[Rick Merrill]

Ron O'Neill wrote:

....

The following features IMHO make the program one of the best charting tools
around, we only use the program for chart printing purposes not data entry
which is one of the main points the OP asked.
...> 2. To alter and modify those charts once created.
3. Being able to add/delete individual boxes on a chart.
4. Capability to paint out entries in boxes and to re-type over them.
5. Graphics can be inserted onto any chart and re-sized or moved whilst on
the chart.
6. Text blocks also can be inserted and moved or modified.
7. Numerous custom design/event features can be incorporated onto a chart.
These include box/names styles and colours, size of boxes can be controlled,
include partners in the same box (makes smaller charts),
....
9. The ability to alter the entire layout of the chart, the list is endless.

The customization features (above) certainly are great, but I infer
from this that perhaps (just maybe) the
all -in -one (without generational alignment)
has a low level of layout efficiency.

In other words, does it leave much white space when you
let it do it's own non-aligned thing? - RM

[Lesley Robertson]

"Rick Merrill" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:Pt2Xc.307875$a24.181291@attbi_s03...

In other words, does it leave much white space when you
let it do it's own non-aligned thing? - RM

Depends what you ask it to do. I have a single file containing the families
for my 1-place study. If I ask it to do an all-in-one of that file, it uses
odd spaces to fit small family groups in.
For me, the all in one tree is one of FTM's most attactive features.
Lesley Robertson

[Ron O'Neill]

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

"Rick Merrill" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:Pt2Xc.307875$a24.181291@attbi_s03...

In other words, does it leave much white space when you
let it do it's own non-aligned thing? - RM

Depends what you ask it to do. I have a single file containing the
families
for my 1-place study. If I ask it to do an all-in-one of that file, it
uses
odd spaces to fit small family groups in.
For me, the all in one tree is one of FTM's most attactive features.
Lesley Robertson


I second the above, Genbox is no worse or better when it comes to white

space on charts, every file is different and therefore so is the finished
layout.

The best feature of a Genbox "Everyone" chart is that it's fully adjustable,
different options are available for selecting prior to forming the chart
which will alter the layout, individual or whole groups of boxes on the
chart can be moved around, so can graphics, these features are not available
in FTM "All in One" charts.

Kind regards,
Ron O'Neill
http://www.genealogyprinters.com