subject: Tips For Selecting Family Tree Maker Software by:Jeff Kona [print this page] You've most likely been considering getting some sort of software product to aid you with your family history project. You may have realized that there is a fairly considerable supply of software products that could meet your requirements, but you don't know which ones to purchase. To add to the frustration, there seems to be new applications showing up every few weeks or months! How in the world do you sort through the options and decide which one is the appropriate selection for you?
Instead of gazing at the options presented and making a choice from there, you should think about what you want from a software product and find the one that meets those requirements. You may not find one that meets all of your requirements, and in that case you must choose the one that comes closest to meeting your requirements.
So how do you know what you need? If you're a beginner you may not even have a clue about what is available and what you should expect the software to do for you. Here are a few tips to help you get started making a selection.
Tip #1: Managing Your Documents
All genealogy software products will help you to manage the documentation issue. You've been accumulating a lot of data (or you will be), so your software needs to help you categorize that information, as well as track your sources of information, and give you the opportunity to make notes about your data. Any genealogy applications you find should manage documentation - if it doesn't, you should remove it from your thought process.
Tip #2: Managing Your Multimedia
Another feature to keep in mind is the ability to manage multimedia. A useful genealogical program should be able to cope with cataloging and incorporating not only your paper documents (and word-processor files), but also any digital images, audio and video you may have gathered.
Tip #3: Take Advantage of the Online Community
Another clue to help you choose the suitable software for you: Before you relinquish your money make sure you have gone online and researched reviews of the software. Remember that some "review sites" are compensated to create reviews which may be very biased. You may even wish to join some genealogy forums online to find out what the people in that community think about certain software programs. Again be aware of that some people in the forums may actually get paid to promote certain software programs.
Tip #4: Choose from the "Big" Names
Some of the "big names" in genealogy applications are:
* RootsMagic: Demo version available
* Legacy Family Tree: Free basic version
* Personal Ancestral File: Free basic version
* Reunion: Runs on a Mac: costly
Tip #5: Prices
Prices for these products can range from free to expensive. You don't always get what you pay for, but as a rule the higher quality programs are also higher in cost. You must learn to look at your software purchase as an investment in your family history project.
Tip #6: Features and Ease of Use
Just as price is a factor in your decision making, there are two other things to keep in mind: features and ease of use. If the program doesn't do what you consider to be "essential", then it is worthless to you. And if the software is not easy for you to use, then you won't use it, which makes it worthless as a tool.
In the end, it is really all about getting the best features and ease of use for the price range that you determine. One last thing to keep in mind: how much is your time and frustration worth? If the software saves you time and reduces your frustration, then it has provided value to you - which will help to justify why you need to purchase it.
Best wishes to you on your family history journey!
