The Genealogy & Family History Social Network
What software are you using?
I'm currently using Reunion 9, but it annoys me enough that I keep looking for alternatives, including online options. Unfortunately, Reunion seems to implement more of my "must haves" than any of the other options I've looked at.
I want to like MacFamilyTree. I actually started with it but found it too limiting. The new photo tagging stuff in 5.6 is nice though. My biggest gripe against it are that it won't import my Reunion gedcom file without throwing away data. All my custom formatted sources lose most of their data and any tags it doesn't understand are ignored. Throwing away data is an unforgivable act. At least put it into some note field so I can deal with it. Still, the program seems to be evolving quickly and I'd like for it to win me back.
I love Reunion's ability to customize events but the single window with modal dialog approach to editing is awfully cumbersome and since everything is driven from the family group window, adding the same source or photo to multiple people is tedious. But it works, it's been reliable. It just irritates me.
I'd love the ability to geocode events (and make use of geocoded photos) as well as face tagging but until an app gets the genealogy right and has robust gedcom handling, it doesn't matter.
I've tried demos of a couple of other programs including some windows apps, but nothing has encouraged me to switch.
What apps are the rest of you using?
I want to like MacFamilyTree. I actually started with it but found it too limiting. The new photo tagging stuff in 5.6 is nice though. My biggest gripe against it are that it won't import my Reunion gedcom file without throwing away data. All my custom formatted sources lose most of their data and any tags it doesn't understand are ignored. Throwing away data is an unforgivable act. At least put it into some note field so I can deal with it. Still, the program seems to be evolving quickly and I'd like for it to win me back.
I love Reunion's ability to customize events but the single window with modal dialog approach to editing is awfully cumbersome and since everything is driven from the family group window, adding the same source or photo to multiple people is tedious. But it works, it's been reliable. It just irritates me.
I'd love the ability to geocode events (and make use of geocoded photos) as well as face tagging but until an app gets the genealogy right and has robust gedcom handling, it doesn't matter.
I've tried demos of a couple of other programs including some windows apps, but nothing has encouraged me to switch.
What apps are the rest of you using?
Views: 448
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Larry Davies on
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I'm curious about this as well. I recently switched to the Mac and am looking for a program that was written for the Mac. I'm still using The Master Genealogist (TMG), running on Parallels. I've downloaded demos for Reunion, MacFamilyTree and iFamily, but none seems to match the capabilities of TMG.
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Permalink Reply by Bruce Menozzi on
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I started some time ago on a PC using The Master Genealogist. When Ancenstry.com started pushing Family Tree Maker, I got a copy of it, primarily because it directly imported my TMG data files -- no intermediate GEDCOM required. I used it for a while then "life got in the way" and I stopped my genealogy research. I've since converted from PC to Mac and am looking for a good genealogy program. I could either stick with TMG or FTM by running Parallels, or switch to a good Mac program. My TMG and FTM are several years old, so I'd have to upgrade them if I wanted to stay with them. Also, I'd like to be able to use my iPhone to view, capture, and modify data. It looks like the Mac programs have the lead there. My biggest concern about switching to either Reunion or MacFamily Tree lies in transferring data. I did some quick tests last night with MFT but it still had problems with date formats and unknown tags. I can't test Reunion's importing without purchasing a copy, as that function is disabled in the demo.
Does anyone have any experience moving from either TMG or FTM to one of the Mac programs? -
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Permalink Reply by Linda Thomas on
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Bruce,
I own Reunion and if you want to send me a sample gedcom, I can try importing it for you. Let me know if you're interested. -
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Thanks, Linda. I'll have to get one this evening when I get home from work. How do I send it to you (through this site or via email as an attachment)??
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Permalink Reply by Sue McCormick on
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Linda
You said: "adding the same source or photo to multiple people is tedious." One of Ben's screencasts on MacGenealogist is about how to copy sources (including multimedia attachments) from one person to many. Have you seen that screencast? By following Ben's suggestions, I was able to add a census event which included a copy of the census to 6 additional people and about 1 minutes time.
Sue -
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I've seen several of Ben's excellent screencasts but it seems I've missed that one. Thanks for the pointer. I'll look at that this evening.
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Permalink Reply by Scott van Pletzen-Rands on
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Sue: Thanks for mentioning this screencast. It took a little searching, but I just found it: it's called Copying Events in Macintosh Genealogy Software Reunion 9 for Mac .
And what can I say....Ben, you are the MAN! Although, I can't believe I didn't figure out something so simple on my own. Sometimes we look so hard for a shortcut that we miss the obvious solution.
scott -
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Jackson on
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I am excited to read the comments here regarding genealogy on a MAC. I have downloaded three different trials to my MAC: 1) Reunion; 2) iFamily; and 3) MacFamily Tree. I like a little bit of each of the programs but haven't decided to purchase one yet. The one thing that I like about iFamily is that it allows for you to look at the pedigree and individual whereas in Reunion, I can only see that you can only work with couples, navigating through the pedigree by clicking on the parents or children. I often want to be able to go to a specific person in my tree quickly. I suspect it might be just a matter of getting use to a new program and how it works. I also have a PC and have been using the old PAF and the new Ancestral Quest. I don't know if I will ever be able to find one that I like better than Ancestral Quest but unfortunately it runs only on a windows platform. I don't want to install windows on my macbook pro because i don't want to deal with the problems of having windows on my mac, even though it would be in a separate portion of the hard drive. One of the deciding factors for me on the mac programs will be one that will interface with New FamilySearch. Thus far, none of them have this capability. I am hoping that they will jump on board in the near future.
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Jennifer,
Navigation in Reunion isn't horrible. There's the method you mentioned, but you can also save frequently used people empty bar between the parents and the toolbar (it's not obvious but try dragging a bubble up there). The bookmarks and arrow keys also can make finding someone quick. Then you can type a name in the search box and lastly the index window.
Though I'm not a huge fan of being forced to use the family group sheet for everything, navigation itself isn't a real problem though it does perhaps take a bit of getting used to. -
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Linda, I am not sure what you mean by "try dragging a bubble up there"? I am total newbie when it comes to working with Reunion. The Mac FamilyTree 3D tree may be ok for a small file, but if you have a large file, I find it difficult to navigate. I will have to try what Ben has suggested in addition to your suggestions.
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I think Ben has a video about this that will explain it better than I can, but the "bubbles" are the blue or pink rectangles with rounded corners that Reunion displays names in. You can drag them up to the blank area just below the toolbar. Hope that helps!
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Permalink Reply by Valerie Craft on
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Wonderful tip! Thanks
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