Syncing new users from RootsMagic to via TreeSync – RootsMagic is really bad at adding new users to your tree.Birth, Death, Marriage, etc.), custom data elements (we use 3 different ones for DNA matches), and all of the day-to-day data/management you do in your tool, is the same for both FTM and RM. Basic Tree entry/management – You can enter person notes, fact notes, data elements (e.g.Web searching with – Neither of them do it very well, both have really bad interfaces to search and merge, but RM worked just as well as FTM.Syncing with – It worked first time for us, no effort, and we were back using sync just like we did last on May 30! It was a piece of cake, and it has worked perfectly each time/every time.RootsMagic is the same as Family Tree Maker at: It’s WAY better to now be able to enter that as his nickname and have it show in quotes than it was to deal with it in FTM. To as Wesley though out his life, including in his Civil War service records. It makes so much more sense than FTM, why have we been struggling with it for so long? Nicknames – Wow!!!! How have we ever lived without this feature in Family Tree Maker? My 2x Great grandfather William Ephraim Tradewell was always referred.So when you turn a page, and add the name and birthdate of a new ancestor, you merely click the Sources… button, click on Cite Source… and enter the page number. Citing multiple pages of a source book – I don’t know why we’ve all suffered for so long with the way FTM approached this, but RootsMagic uses a “Master Source” model that includes the 3 types of source citations you’d use (if you’re making an EE citation), but it allows you to enter a page number each time (if you’re using a book) without additional clicks.Two clicks and quick search each time…we were amazed at how easy it was to take a page from a book and source it to everyone listed on that page. Citing sources to multiple ancestors – Again, MUCH simpler and easier.
We were amazed at how quickly and easily we were able to use the Free Form template to enter the Source List Entry, Full Reference Note, and Short Note entries for a source.
To add a little more detail, to test we migrated a Family Tree Maker 3.1 tree that was synced to (before Software MacKiev missed it’s April 1 shipping deadline, and broke FamilySync) that had both custom data elements and extensive home-grown citations attached to facts. Additionally, it does some things much better than FTM, and the switch was painless. The bottom line is this: RootsMagic does everything that Family Tree Maker used to do, and does now, moving over was not painful, and it resolved our issues immediately. Quick take on moving to RootsMagic 7.5: This migration was easy, and just over 24 hours after we put a test tree into see how the product looks/works, we’re hooked, and Family Tree Maker is soon dead to us. We’ll follow up with more detail, and possibly a more complete opinion shortly, but we’re pretty confident in the what we’ve found in the time we’ve spent with this product.
Second, this is a quick review with only about 24 hours with the product.
Everything we discuss is our opinion alone, and we talk about it because we use it. First, as always, we receive no financial benefit or consideration for any product or service we review/recommend here.