Genealogy Chat

Hi everyone,
I've used FTM 2006 for a while now, but am thinking of taking the plunge and upgrading to FTM 2012. Have looked at reviews on various websites and they are very mixed. Just wondered what people on here think of it.

How easy is it to use and install?
Will I be able to easily transfer my tree to it?
What does the sync facility involve?
Are there any drawbacks?

Any comments would be appreciated please.

To answer you in turn but remember to back everything up before you do anything!

Easy to install on both Vista and Win7 [I run both] there have been a couple of patches run by A’try so you maybe asked to install those to, there are not optional you will have to install those, but I had no problem.

I was going from Ver11 [I think that’s even older than yours] to 2012 so may be different from yours but if I remember correctly I needed to open a new tree and then I could import my files from the folder.

Never used the sync so can’t help with that I’m afraid I just upload another tree to A’try as and when I feel like it. I have cousins that don’t want their details on a public site, but I can exclude them from being uploaded, not something I could do if I synced the tree.....

Not found any that seem to effect what I do, others have found problems, the layout is completely different from what you will be used to, but I feel it is a better layout, easier on the eye. And everything is there for you to see at a glance, BMD as well as censuses. I have mine in date order so I can see what I’m missing easily.

One thing though I don’t add media to it as I don’t want them on the A’try tree, I’m not sure if you can exclude media when you upload [I must try that], I have tried adding media and it seemed easy enough.

But it will take a bit of getting used to – I made a tree up and played around with it to see what I could or could not do just to get the feel of it.

I use it to back up my Ancestry trees. Syncing means that the data gets copied to your PC. That includes census images etc. If you want you can have trees that are not linked to Ancestry to hold private stuff on.

Thanks for your replies

Have taken the plunge and ordered it now. Thanks for the advice.

FTM 2012 is a brand new program from the one you have, not an upgrade. It does the same thing but better, in my opinion, but the look and feel is completely different. However, your data will tfr automatically.

The sync option allows you to keep your FTM and Ancestry trees in line automatically and also allows you to access and update from more than one location and or PC. It does come with a performance overhead as the data needs to be copied across locations. My advice is not to turn it on until you decide you need it.

Thanks for the advice. Was thinking about probably not using the sync option anyway, or maybe just using it for my small direct ancestor tree. Will have a good look at it before I decide.

Didn't realise that I could keep them both JiminyCricket, so thanks for that. I do like the 2006 one but thought it was about time that I updated. Will probably keep them both for a while and compare.
The 2006 does have the occasional glitch where it doesn't connect up with ancestry too!