Time for a change; Software reviews

I've decided that it's time to switch genealogy software. Since I started, I've been using PAF (now on version 5.2). PAF was the perfect beginner's software--free, easy to use, and powerful. But PAF isn't being updated anymore, and frankly, it's lacking a lot of features that most other programs have, and some of the newer programs make some tasks (like managing sources) easier.

I found an article on Diane Haddad's Genealogy Insider blog (a part of Family Tree Magazine) that gave the results of FamilySearch's genealogy software awards (original article here). I thought this would be a good place to start, so I downloaded the trial versions of Ancestral Quest 12.1 and RootsMagic 4. I borrowed a copy of Family Tree Maker 2008 for evaluation purposes. I looked briefly at a few other packages (Family Tree Magazine has a useful software guide, with price and reviews), but none really impressed me enough to even warrant a test drive.

So the choice came down to Ancestral Quest, Roots Magic, and Family Tree Maker. I started with Family Tree Maker, expecting to be wowed by it's comprehensive feature list. And yes, it does a lot. But the interface is very busy--there's a lot of information on the main screen, which can be good, but it also looks cluttered, and it's not always easy to read on a laptop. I also didn't care for many of the dialog boxes, like the source entry box. It just wasn't particularly intuitive. The big draw for FTM was its integration with Ancestry.com, and some versions of the program come with subscriptions to Ancestry included. This could be very helpful, especially for beginners who haven't used Ancestry before, and who would be bringing a lot of info from there into the program. I've already done most of that, so Ancestry isn't as useful to me now as it used to be. Most of the time when I use Ancestry now I'm doing so on the computers at the Family History Center, so I wouldn't be using that feature anyway. So FTM wasn't crossed off immediately, but it didn't really impress me, either.

I tried RootsMagic next. After a few minutes, I really started to like this program. It's not as big as FTM, and it doesn't write itself into the registry like most packages, either (that's a good thing). It also means that it can be run from a flash drive, so you could go to the library to do your research and take just a flash drive and leave your laptop at home. There are a lot of reasons why someone might not want to do this (security, viruses, etc), but it's a neat feature. Anyway, the program begins with a godawful Tahoma font that's very ugly. Luckily, that's easy to change, and once I did, the program looked 100% better. Why the people at RootsMagic didn't set Arial or Times as the default font, I'll never know. The program has a much more streamlined interface than FTM, but it shows mostly the same information. It has most of the same features as FTM, including a mapping feature (that requires a 68MB download, but it's worth it--this might come on the CD should you choose that method of purchase), and it just feels smoother, easier, and more straightforward than FTM does. What really impressed me was how easy RootsMagic makes entering sources. When you choose a source type, you get a dialog window that tells you exactly what information to enter:


I have a bad habit of not entering source data when I first find a piece of information, largely because it was kind of a pain-in-the-rear with PAF. Consequently, I have a lot of source information that still needs to be entered into my file. With a program that makes it this easy, I might even get around to doing that!

So RootsMagic really impressed me. The only downside I can see is that, if I decide to change packages again in the future, most other programs don't import directly from RootsMagic's file type. I can still export as a GEDCOM, but not in any other format. This shouldn't be a problem, but it's a feature that really should be there.

Finally, I tried Ancestral Quest. This program is pretty easy to describe if you've ever used PAF--Ancestral Quest looks and works a lot like PAF, so much so that it almost looks like a new version of that program. It took only a few minutes for me to conclude that it's simply not different enough and doesn't have many of the nice features that I liked about FTM and RM. If I'm going to go through the trouble of switching, I want to switch to a package that is going to be a lot better than what I have, not just (essentially) an incremental update.

So the choice really came down to Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic, and RootsMagic's ease of use, more elegant appearance (once that hideous Tahoma font was banished), and the killer source function made it a clear winner for me. Now I just have to upgrade from the trial version, and uninstall the others. But first...lunch!