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Nine Windows Genealogy Programs Compared
6/1/2000
By Rick Crume
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FAMILY ORIGINS |
|
FAMILY TIES DELUXE |
ANCESTRAL QUEST |
FAMILY TREE MAKER |
|
EASE OF USE |
|
Printed Manual |
146-page manual |
540-page manual |
245-page manual |
Optional 227-page manual, $17.95 |
|
Good |
Good |
Good |
Online Help |
Good |
|
Phone, Web, e-mail |
Technical Support |
Phone, Web, mail, fax, newsletter |
Toll-free phone, Web, e-mail, fax |
Phone, Web, e-mail |
|
Good |
Good |
Entering Data |
Excellent |
Excellent |
|
Navigating |
Excellent |
Good |
Fair |
Excellent |
|
Fair |
Excellent |
Excellent |
Excellent |
Searching in Your Files |
|
DOCUMENTING SOURCES |
|
Good |
Documentation Help |
Fair |
Fair |
Good |
|
Excellent |
Excellent |
Good |
Good |
Recording Sources |
|
REPORTS |
|
Excellent: text, word processor, HTML |
Excellent: text, word processor, HTML |
Good: text, word processor |
Report File Formats |
Good: text, HTML |
|
Excellent |
Excellent |
Family Group Sheets and Pedigree Charts |
Excellent |
Fair |
| Good:
box charts (standard or wall), ancestor or descendant, many lists,
custom lists, address labels, calendars, hourglass tree, photo charts |
Excellent: ancestor, descendant (hourglass, all-in-one, outline), fan tree, maps, timelines, calendars, labels, cards |
Good: ancestry (standard or wall chart), descendants, six lists, custom lists, calendars, scrapbook page report |
Good: ancestry (standard or wall chart), descendants, six lists, custom lists, calendars, scrapbook page report |
Other Charts and Reports |
|
Good: ancestors (Ahnentafel), descendants (Modified Register) |
Good: ancestors (2 formats), descendants (Modified Register, 3 other formats) |
Good: ancestors (Ahnentafel), descendants (Register or NGSQ) |
Good: ancestors (Ahnentafel), descendants (Modified Register) |
Book-Form Reports |
|
Multimedia |
Good: slide show, photo editor. Interactive scrapbook with photos, sound, video. |
Good: slide show, photo editor. Interactive scrapbook with photos, sound, video. |
Good: photo editor. Interactive scrapbook with photos, sound, video. |
Good: slide show, photo editor. Interactive scrapbook with photos, sound, video. |
|
Excellent: ancestors, descendants, photos, GENDEX index, down-loadable GEDCOM file. Upload to Family Origins or any other site. |
Good: ancestors, descendants, scrapbook, downloadable GEDCOM file. Upload to any Web site. |
Good: ancestors, descendants, scrapbook, downloadable GEDCOM file. Upload to any Website. |
Fair: outline descendant tree, columnar report or genealogy report
(ancestor or descendant), photos. Upload only to FTM Web site. |
Web Publishing |
|
FILE MANAGEMENT |
|
Good: GEDCOM, reads/writes PAF files directly |
Good: GEDCOM, reads/writes PAF files directly |
Exchanging Data with Other Programs |
Good: GEDCOM, reads PAF files directly |
Good: GEDCOM, imports PAF files |
|
Managing Multiple files |
Excellent |
Good |
Good |
Fair |
|
Good |
Good |
Match/merge |
Good |
Good |
|
RESEARCH HELP |
|
Excellent |
Fair |
Fair |
Fair |
Reference Databases |
|
How-to Guides |
Good |
Good |
Excellent |
Good |
|
Excellent: Onscreen research and correspondence logs |
Research and correspondence logs |
Good: Onscreen research log |
Not Applicable |
Not Applicable |
|
ULTIMATE FAMILY TREE |
PERSONAL ANCESTRAL FILE |
THE MASTER GENEALOGIST |
LEGACY FAMILY TREE |
GENERATIONS GRANDE SUITE |
|
370-page manual, online tutorial |
231-page free download |
12-page Quick Start Guide 322-page manual, CD manual |
68-page manual, 368-page on-disk reference (Gold Edition includes printed copy) |
293-page manual |
|
Good |
Fair |
Excellent |
Fair |
Good |
|
Phone, Web, e-mail, mail, fax |
Web, e-mail, user groups |
Phone, Web, e-mail, fax, newsletter |
Phone, e-mail, mail, fax |
Phone, e-mail, mail, fax |
|
Good |
Fair |
Good |
Fair |
Excellent |
|
Excellent |
Good |
Fair |
Fair |
Fair |
|
Excellent |
Good |
Fair |
Excellent |
Excellent |
|
Excellent |
Good |
Fair |
Excellent |
Good |
|
Good |
Excellent |
Good |
Excellent |
Excellent |
|
Excellent: text, word processor, HTML |
Excellent: text, word processor, HTML |
Good: text, word processor, HTML |
Excellent: text, word processor, HTML |
Good: text, HTML |
|
Excellent |
Excellent |
Fair |
Excellent |
Good |
|
Good: individual, ancestor, descendant, timeline, lineage, relationship, surname summary, calendars |
Excellent: descendant, pedigree, timeline, hourglass, calendars, various lists |
Good: ancestor, descendant, fan, relationship, state of birth, kinship, many lists |
Good: box charts (standard or wall), fan, lists, calendar, timelines, heredity statistics |
Good: ancestors or descendants (standard or wall chart), lists, calendars |
|
Good: ancestors (Ahnentafel), descendants (Register) |
Good: ancestors (Ahnentafel), descendants (Modified Register) |
Good: ancestors (Ahnentafel), descendants (Modified Register) |
Excellent: ancestors (Ahnentafel, standard or lineal), descendants (Register, Record/NGSQ, The American Genealogist) |
Excellent: ancestors (Ahnentafel), descendants (Modified Register, Register or Custom). English, French or German. |
|
Good: slide show, photo editor. Interactive scrapbook with photos, sound, video. |
Good: slide show, photo albums, photo editor. Includes photos, maps, flags. |
Fair: attach photos, documents and sound files to any person, event, source or repository. |
Excellent: slide show, enhanced photo editor. Interactive scrapbook with photos, sound, video. |
Good: slide show, photo editor. Interactive scrapbook with photos, sound, video. |
|
Good: ancestors, descendants, scrapbook, downloadable GEDCOM file. Upload to any Web site. |
Good: ancestors, descendants, GENDEX file. Upload to any Website. |
Good: family, ancestors, descendants, photos, downloadable GEDCOM file. Upload to any Website. |
Good: person and family group sheets, ancestors, descendants, with pictures. Upload to any Web site. |
Fair: individual, family, ancestors, descendants. Upload to any Web site. |
|
Excellent: GEDCOM, imports Ancestral Quest, Family Origins, FTM, PAF, Ultimate Family Tree, others |
Fair: GEDCOM |
Good: GEDCOM, delimited text fields used by spreadsheet and database programs |
Good: GEDCOM, imports PAF files |
Good: GEDCOM, reads/writes PAF files |
|
Good |
Fair |
Fair |
Good |
Fair |
|
Not applicable |
Excellent |
Good |
Poor |
Good |
|
Good |
Fair |
Not applicable |
Good |
Not applicable |
|
Not applicable |
Fair |
Good |
Fair |
Good |
|
Excellent: detailed on-disk research log |
Fair: user-definable logs on disk |
Fair: research logs to print and fill out by hand |
Good: research notes and reports for events and individuals |
Not applicable |
From the June 2000 issue of Family Tree Magazine
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