Ever feel as if your experience with genealogy software parallels one of TV tool maven Tim Taylor's ill-fated home-improvement projects? In your quest to add “more power!” to your research, you bought a whiz-bang program that promised to digitize, organize and energize your genealogy work with mere clicks of a mouse. So you fired up this wonder tool and — wham! — before you knew it, you'd whacked off entire branches of your family tree.

Even if your situation's not that dire, I bet you're no stranger to family tree software frustration. Genealogists get tripped up by all sorts of program particulars, from inputting foreign names to managing conflicting data. As a longtime genealogy software user — and a regular reviewer for Family Tree Magazine — I've learned how to overcome common conundrums in various programs (see page 52 for popular choices). So don't chisel away at those dilemmas yourself: Drill down through these 23 solutions, and ratchet up your software prowess.