Boy, did I get some information wrong while visiting the BYU Family History and Genealogy Conference. I was told by someone manning the RootsMagic booth that RootsMagic was not going to release RootsMagic 4 until New FamilySearch was fully released. Seems my information was very incorrect. Mike the (VP) tried to comment on my blog to correct this false information and my blog wasn't allowing it to show. Not sure what's up with that! I really hope others aren't having this same problem.
Bruce Buzbee was kind enough to email me and let me know the deal. First RootsMagic has a policy to NEVER comment on release dates on major new versions. RootsMagic will release a version of RM that supports NFS as soon as NFS API is frozen, BUT they have never said what version that would be.
It seems RootsMagic and Legacy are having the same problem. Since the church hasn't locked in the coding for them to program to interface with NFS they cannot say when that will be available for us. Hence it appears both companies are prepared to bring it to their users with whatever version is the most current at the time. I would suspect through a new download to the program.
So if you are a RootsMagic users don't worry about being behind in the game. In fact I have been informed that... almost every feature I listed Legacy as adding (charting, source templates, home button on toolbar, editing from lists, etc) are features than RM has had for several years or more, in fact RootsMagic might be "ahead of the game".
Bruce is already working on the programming for RootsMagic 4 so nobody is sleeping over there. It appears the only one behind is ME, I better look at RootsMagic 3 because my facts might be from version 2. In fact the only version I own is version 1. So forgive me readers if I have lead you astray. Thats what happens when you report from a bias opinion because I have been a devoted Legacy user from day one.
See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
helloWorld
Please click on filmstrip to view video.
If you watch the video clip you will see my latest adventure at the BYU Family History and Genealogy Conference. I wrapped up my week playing with helloWorld - new technology you just need to check out. The latest in streaming video on the internet. That means way to much fun with family members around the world.
Hello World provides a complete studio for broadcasting and communicating on the Internet. I think this would be a fantastic service to use for online genealogy conference classes. You retain ownership of your materials and can have members of your organization log on to view the materials.
Features include:
- Live Presentations that can be recorded for replay later
- Video and PowerPoint presentations simultaneously
- Polling during presentation
- Text chat for questions or comments from live audience during presentation and
- Personalized banners with url encoding
- Professional videos can also be broadcast
- Video Blogging (Vlog)
- 4-way video instant messaging or video conferencing
- Video & Audio Podcasting
- HelloTV Broadcasts
- The Learning Center
Make your digital life simple. Get video today!
For questions contact shelleyp@helloworld.com
See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!
Friday, August 03, 2007
Sneak Peek of Legacy 7 - Part Two
Thursday I went back to BYU's Family History and Genealogy Conference to see the second part of the Sneak Peek of Legacy 7. I arrived early enough to visit the Legacy table and get to check out Legacy 7 for myself.
Here are some things that I learned:
1. Home button takes you to the home person not the Legacy home tab. Many of us older users of Legacy know that you can bookmark the home person on the bottom of the screens and return to them anytime. Well Legacy is trying to make the program easier for new users. They put the home button on the main toolbar with the little house symbol because that is a logically place for people to look for it. Very much like our internet browsers work.
2. The start up wizard is way cool. It will walk you through your PAF import. You don't even need a GEDCOM file. If you don't have a previous genealogy software file it will help you start the process of entering people into the database. It will ask for your name and your parents names and little data on them. Once you finish the dialog it will open up the family view with your started file. It's a very user friendly and smooth entry for beginners to any genealogy software program.
3. Legacy 7 will let you search for women by their married name, even if you didn't enter the married name in as a AKA.
4. When you do any type of search or create a list you can edit and go to the individual in the list without having to exit the list and find them. Everyone has been asking to do that!
5. In the pedigree view if you right click on the background you can toggle between 4 or 5 generations. You can also toggle the spouse and children view off and on. There are several other things you can do when you right click on the background in pedigree view. This was introduced in a recent download to version 6 but I didn't know that.
6. Geoff also showed us how to add the BEPSC temple ordinances symbols to the Descendant view. If you go under options and customize the columns you can add the symbols. That will be really handy for me. That option is in version 6 too.
7. I asked and no Legacy 7 does not support UTF-8. It would take a major rewrite of the codes. They plan on doing that but it's not available in Legacy 7 yet.
8. Yes, you can create your own source template. I just can't wait to play with this animal in my own database!
9. Nothing has changed in webpage creation.
10. No hyperlinks or table creation ability in notes either.
11. I spent most of my play time with Legacy 7 with the charts. I'm not sure how to describe this but the charts are a program within the Legacy program. Sort of like Passage Express is, except you don't need to download it separately. When you leave the chart feature you have to exit it and then it takes you back to Legacy. I was a little confused when I tried to leave charts because I wasn't sure what exit was going to do. Maybe that needs to be a little more clear for users. AND that was the only thing I found lacking in charts. I was just having so much fun moving the boxes around and changing the styles, layouts, backgrounds - it was just major coolness. It is to die for.
12. I asked about New FamilySearch and found out Legacy 7 will interface with it when NFS is fully released. Legacy will just put out a new download for the program when that happens. Just like they did in version 5 when they added the ability to search the IGI. So we won't have to wait for Legacy 8 to interface with NFS.
As a side note I talked to RootMagic and found out that they are not planning to release version 4 until after NFS is fully released. The people from RootsMagic were at the Legacy 7 Sneak Peek taken notes on the competition. For now Legacy is ahead of the game.
Since I was only playing with a demo of Legacy 7 not everything planned was functioning. I understand that many things are being worked on and it is not known if they will be ready for version 7. That is all I can report of the changes in Legacy 7 for now.
See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!
Here are some things that I learned:
1. Home button takes you to the home person not the Legacy home tab. Many of us older users of Legacy know that you can bookmark the home person on the bottom of the screens and return to them anytime. Well Legacy is trying to make the program easier for new users. They put the home button on the main toolbar with the little house symbol because that is a logically place for people to look for it. Very much like our internet browsers work.
2. The start up wizard is way cool. It will walk you through your PAF import. You don't even need a GEDCOM file. If you don't have a previous genealogy software file it will help you start the process of entering people into the database. It will ask for your name and your parents names and little data on them. Once you finish the dialog it will open up the family view with your started file. It's a very user friendly and smooth entry for beginners to any genealogy software program.
3. Legacy 7 will let you search for women by their married name, even if you didn't enter the married name in as a AKA.
4. When you do any type of search or create a list you can edit and go to the individual in the list without having to exit the list and find them. Everyone has been asking to do that!
5. In the pedigree view if you right click on the background you can toggle between 4 or 5 generations. You can also toggle the spouse and children view off and on. There are several other things you can do when you right click on the background in pedigree view. This was introduced in a recent download to version 6 but I didn't know that.
6. Geoff also showed us how to add the BEPSC temple ordinances symbols to the Descendant view. If you go under options and customize the columns you can add the symbols. That will be really handy for me. That option is in version 6 too.
7. I asked and no Legacy 7 does not support UTF-8. It would take a major rewrite of the codes. They plan on doing that but it's not available in Legacy 7 yet.
8. Yes, you can create your own source template. I just can't wait to play with this animal in my own database!
9. Nothing has changed in webpage creation.
10. No hyperlinks or table creation ability in notes either.
11. I spent most of my play time with Legacy 7 with the charts. I'm not sure how to describe this but the charts are a program within the Legacy program. Sort of like Passage Express is, except you don't need to download it separately. When you leave the chart feature you have to exit it and then it takes you back to Legacy. I was a little confused when I tried to leave charts because I wasn't sure what exit was going to do. Maybe that needs to be a little more clear for users. AND that was the only thing I found lacking in charts. I was just having so much fun moving the boxes around and changing the styles, layouts, backgrounds - it was just major coolness. It is to die for.
12. I asked about New FamilySearch and found out Legacy 7 will interface with it when NFS is fully released. Legacy will just put out a new download for the program when that happens. Just like they did in version 5 when they added the ability to search the IGI. So we won't have to wait for Legacy 8 to interface with NFS.
As a side note I talked to RootMagic and found out that they are not planning to release version 4 until after NFS is fully released. The people from RootsMagic were at the Legacy 7 Sneak Peek taken notes on the competition. For now Legacy is ahead of the game.
Since I was only playing with a demo of Legacy 7 not everything planned was functioning. I understand that many things are being worked on and it is not known if they will be ready for version 7. That is all I can report of the changes in Legacy 7 for now.
See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
My First Indexed Batch
I finally did it! I found the time to index my first batch of records. I was assigned the Texas 1900 U.S. Federal Census. It took me all afternoon to do it but I finally got 50 names indexed. What I wanted to do was time myself and see how long it took, but my children interrupted that plan. They were worse than little children today and there was no nap time to do my work. I guess once a mother always a mother.
I found it interesting the message FamilySearch Indexing had for us, dated 30 July 2007.
"Dear FamilySearch Indexing Users,
Due to the overwhelming reader response to the FamilySearch Indexing article in the Ensign Magazine, the system has been much slower than normal. We appreciate your patience as our engineers make adjustments. We hope you will not become discouraged because of the slow response time. We are grateful for your willingness to work and understand the frustration of dealing with slow system response times. We truly appreciate your understanding and dedication."
Seem I wasn't the only one having problems Sunday. Since this was my first batch I didn't notice any slow response time. Everything went fine on my end. What I'm thinking is that I will download two batches now so I won't have any problem working on them Sunday. I guess we will have to wait until next Sunday to see if the engineers have made all the needed adjustments. In the mean time at least my stored batches will give me something to work on.
See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!
I found it interesting the message FamilySearch Indexing had for us, dated 30 July 2007.
"Dear FamilySearch Indexing Users,
Due to the overwhelming reader response to the FamilySearch Indexing article in the Ensign Magazine, the system has been much slower than normal. We appreciate your patience as our engineers make adjustments. We hope you will not become discouraged because of the slow response time. We are grateful for your willingness to work and understand the frustration of dealing with slow system response times. We truly appreciate your understanding and dedication."
Seem I wasn't the only one having problems Sunday. Since this was my first batch I didn't notice any slow response time. Everything went fine on my end. What I'm thinking is that I will download two batches now so I won't have any problem working on them Sunday. I guess we will have to wait until next Sunday to see if the engineers have made all the needed adjustments. In the mean time at least my stored batches will give me something to work on.
See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!
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