206 of 209 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great Buy, 31 Dec 2008
This review is from: Family Tree Maker 2009 Platinum (PC CD) (CD-ROM)
I bought Platinum version from Amazon for £29, this has to be the bargain of the year. Included is a 6 month subscription to Ancestry which is worth at least as much. I have been using the 2006 version FTM for some time. This 2009 package has a completely different look, but don't let this put you off. It took me some time to get to grips with the 2006 version so it is just a matter of learning to use a new program again. My old data incorporated into the new one with no problems. Don't look on this as an updated version of 2006 it is a new program and I like it. Just stick at it and get to know the new interface. It has some new features and there are more to come. One piece of advice, don't subscribe to ancestry the moment you load the new program. Get all your existing data on it. find out how it all works and then subscribe. that way you won't waste any of your free 6 months.
Family Tree Maker 2009 Platinum (PC CD)
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50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Family Tree Maker 2009 - Platinum Edition, 23 Feb 2009
This review is from: Family Tree Maker 2009 Platinum (PC CD) (CD-ROM)
I actually gave this to my wife to review as she has had experience of other family tree software and thought her opiions would be more valid ... over to Liz ...
I had the Deluxe edition of Rootsmagic before receiving the FTM 2009 Platinum program, and immediately I saw how much more user friendly FTM is, and how much more information came with it. It was really easy to install and to import a GEDCOM program from Genes Reunited where I had a fuller family tree already set up. The import only resulted in 6 small errors, far fewer than when I imported a GEDCOM file into Rootsmagic. The only problem was that the Getting Started guide didn't mention how to import files, and it was only once I'd opened up the program and looked around it that I found out how to do it. Maybe a section on this should be included in the guide!
The 6-month free subscription to Ancestry and the ability to instantly merge records into my family tree is a brilliant addition to what I had before. I had not had Rootsmagic long so am not an experienced user of FT software yet, but FTM 2009 is so user-friendly I can see I'll be using it whenever I have a spare minute. I like the automatic back-up facility, but I found early on that I could switch this off if I wanted to, and save a back-up elsewhere, which is useful.
To be honest I didn't really read the Getting Started guide much before getting stuck into using FTM 2009. I found it really easy to pick things up as I went along, producing reports and adding people and so on, by just exploring all of the options on-screen. I also like the way you can choose to look at the information in different ways. I think it does help that I am used to computers, and that I had used a Family Tree program before."
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Easy to use Family Tree Maker, 3 May 2009
This review is from: Family Tree Maker 2009 Platinum (PC CD) (CD-ROM)
Bought this at Easter to help my mother, and her many scraps of paper, trace the family tree. I have never used any type of family tree software before but found this version easy to use without the need to read the instuctions too much. The six months web subscription to Ancestry makes buying the Platinum version well worth it. The Ancestry site is also fairly easy to use. The only difficulty was with linking the correct names, dates, locations etc on the actual census' and not with the programme. From the comfort of your lounge / office etc you can trawl through pages of information, all time consuming, but better than sitting in a local library for hours on end. You can present your family tree in a variety of ways and change who you want as your 'home' (main) person. The layout helps you keep track of all the various members whom you can add in any order and the programme sorts them out for you and shows the relationship, if any, between the home person and the chosen person in your tree. I would highly recommend the programme.
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