Family Tree Maker 2014

[Rusty]

I've been looking at the advertisements for this programme and they all make great play of connecting up to ancestry, I'm not sure if I want to put my tree on Ancestry can the programme be used just on a PC and sync to laptop, iPad etc. and can you still pick up the 'hints' without having a tree on Ancestry?

Also does anyone else on here use this version and how do you find it?

Thanks for any replies.

Margaret.

[Elaine ..Spain]

I use it Margaret - have always been a FTM user!

You can use it just as software on your computer without syncing your tree automatically to Ancestry, which is what I do. I do however, manually sync the tree from time to time for the purpose of an additional back up and to have my tree on Ancestry should I want to invite anyone to view the tree (which is private).

Re hints - yes you still get the hints even if you don't upload your tree.

The program will not "sync" from a desktop to a laptop. However, there are ways whereby you can work on your tree from the different computers and that is by saving the working data file in cloud storage which is then opened by whichever machine you are using at the time. This means the master copy of your data file is stored in the cloud (again another backup!) - when you open FTM on your desktop it opens the file from the cloud, when you close the program it then saves an up to date version back on the cloud. The next time you use FTM you might be using the laptop - so when you open FTM on the laptop it opens the file from the cloud, which is of course the up to date file, you work on that, close it and it resaves in the cloud.

It sounds complicated but it's not. I use Dropbox (free version) but there are other cloud storage options.

Re sharing with the ipad - this would not be possible because of the different operating system. There is a Family Tree Maker for Mac but it would not be possible to share between that and Family Tree Maker for Windows.

[Rusty]

Thank you for your quick reply Elaine, sorry, another couple of questions. If your tree is private does it get transferred over to Ancestry's Mundia site? What do you do about living people when you back up to Ancestry? Do you know if there is an animated 'walk through' anywhere, all I've been able to find is a couple of screen shots.

Margaret.

[Elaine ..Spain]

My understanding is that it is only private trees which are transferred over to Mundia. Having said that I can access my own PRIVATE tree through either Ancestry or Mundia, even though I have only uploaded to Ancestry. This is probably because I use my Ancestry login details for the Mundia website.

There is a useful guide on Ancestry which I think explains what happens to living people.

http://www.ancestry.com/cs/legal/PrivacyForYourFamilyTree

[Rusty]

Thank you Elaine.