FTM 2008-RC1 The Good and BAD

Updated for Version 17.0.0.559 & SP3

The description that follows is an attempt at trying to show what is good in the new FTM 2008 version but also what is bad. This is being done as a webpage rather then emails to FTM-TECH so that members of that list can readily access this page and it also allows me to update the evaluation without causing literally 100's - 1000's of  email messages.

To best understand how I am writing this is to understand a little of the kind of system that I have and how I use my FTM database and the data therein.

Hardware Configuration:

• HP Pavilion, 2.53 GHz, 2 GB RAM, OS: Windows XP SP2.

• Dual Displays. each set at 1280x1024. This allows me to have my FrontPage HTML on one display while I have FTM open on the second display so that as each feature is tested, I can see the good features and the bad and record this in the page(s) you are viewing.

• The Dual Display also allows me to effectively test FTM 2008 using the full dual screen capability of 2560x1024 as the window for FTM can be stretched to occupy any or all of the second display. This is an added feature that is handy with the window approach in FTM 2008.

Database:

• My database is a little non-conventional in that I have what you might call a "Forest of Trees". To see my purpose and goals, go to my main homepage.

The following list of topics will show the features of FTM 2008 and the list will grow as each feature is tested and the Good and Bad features are found either by myself or others who will be asked to join in on this process.

The tests reported below were done on RC1, a Beta version of FTM-2008, and since it is no longer usable after 24 Aug. 2007, I am unable to continue testing FTM-2008 and if  FTM wants me to remove some of the BAD features of FTM-2008 then I expect them to make a version of FTM-2008 available at no cost to me as I will not buy a version just to test it for FTM.  If I were to send them a bill for my consulting time it would be way in excess of a copy of their program and I don't expect to be paid for my consultations. Right now, my data shows NEGATIVE ADVERTISING for FTM and that is not what is needed by TGN.!!
A fully registered commercial release of FTM-2008, version 17.0.0.559 was recently acquired and further testing has shown very few improvements in speed and capability. True there are some improvements but still a lot is missing.

Updates: SP3:
Attempted to import my datafile from FTM-16 into FTM-2008/SP3 and all seemed to be working but 55 minutes latter, the process failed with an "Unknown Error" when 90,587 individuals had been processed. This was about 33% of the total import according to the process indicator. Not very impressive for a new and improved version!! A subsequent test after a fresh reboot gave the same error for 85,199 individuals. This is some sort of a random error problem and since the development team have chosen not to provide any information in the import.log file it is just about impossible to determine what the problem might be. This error has been reported to FTM when I first started doing tests on the Beta version last August but they have chosen to do nothing to clear the problem. I guess that I will just have to wait for another version to arrive to see if anything has improved.!!!!!!!

Topics:

1. First impression when FTM 2008 is first loaded:

2. Importing your first data file or opening an existing file:

3. GED file import and Errors Reported:

4. Size of data file and problems with files that have a large number of individuals:

5. Data entry:

6. Reports and Charts:

7. Books:

8. Sources:

9. Exporting to a GED file:

10. Other features to be added as determined.

11. DNA Genealogy Reports needed in future versions:

12. What Others have to say about FTM-2008:

First impression when FTM 2008 is first loaded:

The program opens in a visually pleasing screen called "Getting Started"  From this screen, you can select two options:

• "Enter what you know" Allows the beginner to enter their name, parents names, sex, date and location of birth, and chose the name they want their tree known as.

• "Import a tree from an existing file" This allows one to import a tree that you have created previously with other versions of FTM, GEDCOM, or a selected few other programs like PAF, Legacy, and The Master Genealogist.

• Other sub-windows on this screen show any Trees that are compatible with FTM 2008 and also a Web Dashboard that has links to the Generations Network. If any of these links are selected then your browser will open with the link selected. My dual screens work well with this so that I can view both FTM and the net on separate screens

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Importing your first data file or opening an existing file:

When I attempted to import my tree from FTM-16 which has a very large number of individuals (153,861), the process failed with an "Unknown error report". Successive attempts to use any file with a large number of individuals also failed. However, if a subset of individuals was produced then the file could be loaded but all non-GED items in the exported portion were lost from the original data. Any images from scrapbooks were imported. Testing of verision 559 has shown that with a database of 157,266 individuals that the failure when trying to load directly from the FTM-16 file is random. The unknown error condition has been noted when 106,866, 32,455, and 37,067 individuals had been read. The same input file was used for all tests and in the last case the operating system was modified to have no extra programs running other then the essential ones. When the error is random and no trace-back is provided it makes it very difficult to determine what the problem might possibly be.

The smaller window for "Trees" shows any files that are compatible with FTM 2008 and to load the desired file, you can either double click on the name of the file or click on the file name then select the small icon that looks like a very small tree viewed from space(much too small for any person without a magnifying glass.

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GED file import and Errors Reported:

I was finally successful in importing my large datafile if I first created a GED file using FTM-16 then importing that into FTM-2008. Using this technique, I was able to test many of the features as indicated in this document. One of the interesting thing that is puzzling is that several errors were found when importing the GED file and upon looking at the errors most appeared to be of an unknown nature but reported as Invalid Dates. These files are shown here so that others may see the kind of errors reported and maybe help to determine the cause. All files were imported using the RC1 version of the FTM-2008-Beta. First test of RC1, New GED file produced with FTM-16 and imported to FTM-2008-RC1, second import using the same file as input, called SecondTry.(nothing astounding that these last two should be the same but a test was done to prove they were). From these test, it can be seen that the last two gave identical results as the input file was the same in both cases. However, the differences between the first test and either the 2nd or 3rd is very puzzling as none of the errors match and the only difference is that two more individuals and two marriages were added to the datafile from FTM-16. Is the problem with the GED production of FTM-16 or the import feature of FTM-2008?? The recent results with version 559 required 5 hours, 30min, 43 sec to input the datafile with 157,266 individuals and 52,662 marriages. The time factor to load a GED file is a MAJOR problem. The bug needs to be fixed. BAD

An email received from Courtney, gave examples of how FTM-2008 has major problems with the following process:

End of email segment from Courtney.
This example shows the problems with forward and backward compatibility and needs to be resolved. BAD

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Size of data file and problems with files that have a large number of individuals:

Large datafiles seems to cause a major problem with FTM-2008 as the system becomes very slow and unresponsive. If the Task Manager is activated (right click on the bar at the bottom of your screen where the "Start" icon is located and when the little window opens then select "Task Manager(TM)" Select Performance tab for the TM and you will see how much cpu activity in the top graph). For a database with only 1633 people, the activity is low at approx 3-4%. However, if the database with a large number of individuals is loaded then the utilization increases to 100% and stays there. What it is doing forever is known only to the programmers and is a big shortfall of this version of FTM.

When the datafile is first loaded it opens as a new tab and shows information for the Current Tree. This is a very good screen and is very informative showing:

• Home Person: name of person who has been selected as the home person in the file.

• Current Person: person that will appear in the window when "People" are selected.

• Creation Date: date that datafile was created.

• Last Saved: date that the datafile was last saved.

• Last backup: a very good reminder  as you can see when you last created a backup of your database.

• Also shown is information on: number of People in the database, Marriages, Generations, Surnames, and file size.

• The lower portion of the window shows the Tasks that are in the task list for the current tree. If any errors were found during the import process these are shown.

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Data entry:

To get to the next step where you can see the People in your database you have to click on the icon for People. The screen now opens with an Index window on the left side. A Pedigree diagram in the middle with the data on the individual, spouse, and family shown in the lower portion of the middle window. The right window is the data screen for the individual that is selected. The window is quite narrow but can be made wider by moving your mouse to the left edge and moving the boundary to either increase or decrease the window size. This window can also be customized to allow data to be added for a range of items. Very good but sure shows the need for displays that have either multiple screens or a huge screen with a size of  many hundreds of pixels width and height. I can see a 3-screen display so that the Index could be on the left display, pedigree on the center display, and data window on the right display.

The left widow that shows the Index shows the Family name, given name(s) and an option can be selected to show one other item which is either one of None, Birth date, Marriage date, or Death date. The main problem here is that if any info with date is selected then part of the date information is truncated unless the space provided for the name field is decreased which means the name is now truncate as the window width does not appear to be changed. A special icon appears between this left window and the middle window that allows the left window to be hidden or recovered when desired. A very nice feature. This same icon appears between any of the other windows and allows them to be either hidden or recovered.

All of the features present for data entry appear to be well thought out an implemented with the exception of the one to allow the Index window width to be changed.

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Reports and Charts:

As stated above, the data entry portion of  FTM-2008 receives a very  positive rating. However, when the section on Reports and Charts is selected by using the Publish icon at the top of the screen it appears that the development group under estimated the time required to do a complete re-write of what used to be one of the most popular genealogy programs that had developed over the years to fulfill the needs of the genealogy community. This was not done in on update but took 16 different updates and the program still had features that did not work properly. With the compete re-write FTM-2008 is more like a version 1.0 of a new software product and will take many updates to bring it to the same level of functionality as was previously available in version 16.

Family Group Sheets, Charts, and Reports :

Family Group Sheet(FGS): Available. GOOD Example.

Individual Report: This new report seems to have some of the information that is normally contained in a FGS but in a greatly reduced manner.
Example.

1. Pedigree Chart:
   This chart seems to be working at a somewhat reduced level but when wanting to print a hard copy, an error occurred that would not allow any hardcopy to be obtained. However, a PDF version worked. Example. BAD- MEDIUM

2. Descendant Chart:
   This chart is only available that shows the names of descendants since the include facts has only that one item. Much more work required on this one as it is just barely available and shows only the descendants of the selected person down to the Home Person. BAD

3. Other charts available in FTM-16 but missing in FTM-2008-RC1: All those shown below are missing. BADx8

   • Ancestor Tree:

     • Standard

     • Fan

     • Vertical

   • Descendant Tree:

     • Standard

     • Fan

   • Hourglass Tree:

     • Standard

     • Fan

   • All-in-One Tree

4. Relationship Chart:
   This chart seems to be working and printed hardcopy could be produced on both my laser and also inkjet color printers. Example. GOOD sometimes BAD other times.
   The example shown above is for my grandson's great-grandfather, Harry Jackson, when the Home person has Abraham Lincoln,  However,  when I try to do a Relationship Chart from my grand-son, it shows no relationship between him and Abraham Lincoln who is still the Home person. This is a bug in the algorithm as a Kinship report show my grand-son related to Abraham Lincoln. It becomes very apparent as to why the system is so slow and the CPU is working 100% when using FTM-2008 as the program is attempting to calculate the relationship of any and all persons to the Home Person. To prove this all you have to do is to move the mouse to any person in the index list and the relationship is shown. For small databases this may be a very good feature but for a large number of individuals it is beyond the capability of all but the best super computers if speed of response has any significance.  This feature should be an option that can be turned on or off and not be running all the time.  BAD

5. Ahnentafel(Ancestor Ordered), Register(Descendant Ordered), and NGS Quarterly (Descendant Ordered) None of these are available. BAD BAD BAD

6. Outline Descendant Report: To use this report, you first select the person who you want to show the descendants. This is done in the People screen then you have to click Publish>Relationship Reports>Outline Descendant Report>Create Chart/Report. This requires four clicks rather then the much shorter and easier method used in FTM-16. Yes, a very primitive version could be produced. It could only show names followed by (yob- yod). The number of generation can be changed two ways, the first is to change the value shown in the small window to the desired number of generation. The second method is  to click on either an up or down arrow to change the value by one generation. No options available for items to include which is a must for this kind of report. Items that I normally include on this kind of report are: full date and location of Birth, Marriage, and Death, Sex, Spouses Parents, and sometimes Burial location. Example. Example. BAD

7. Direct-line Outline Descendant Report: Not Available. The ability to develop this kind of report is very important when corresponding with different people via email as I just create the report when using FTM-16 then click  "Edit" then "Copy of report or CTRL C", and then paste this report info the email. BAD

8. Outline Reports -- General: When an outline report is on the screen in FTM-16 it is possible to click on Edit then select "Copy Outline Descendant Tree" or use "CTRL C". This places a copy of the report in a buffer so that it can be easily pasted into an email or other document. This seems to be totally missing in FTM-2008 and this feature alone was one of the reasons that FTM was the best genealogy program for me as it allowed ease of use when corresponding with others. Other genealogy programs do not have this feature and for that reason I don't use then and would not even consider them as a serious program. Since FTM-2008 does not have this feature my rating of it is: BAD

9. Custom Report: Want a custom report to show the following: Name, date of birth, Birth location, Parentage relationship, and spouse.  Columns to be sorted first based on Parentage then Name. Only items available are name, Birth, Marriage, and Death. No Parentage. No options for layout, column width, or sorting.  BAD

10. Parentage Report: Only allows Name, Parents, Relationship. Sorts on Name. For Parentage is is ok but not for the custom one shown above.  GOOD

11. Kinship Report: Yes, the report is available but it does not seem to work properly. The best way to describe this is to show an example of a Kinship Report for my daughter using FTM-16 and FTM2008-RC1. These two reports open in new screens so that both may be open at the same time and comparisons made between the information in each. The results are interesting as the one from FTM-2008 shows names missed in FTM-16 was well as those missed in FTM-2008 where approx. 1200 pages are missing!! Where have all the people gone????!!!!
    The other bad feature in the FTM-2008 version is that there is no search window to find a person in the list. This is a must. BAD

12. Other specialized reports. Some appear to be available and will be checked as time permits.
    
    DNA Genealogy Reports needed in future versions:

13. Features that other genealogy programs have and FTM does not and will be doing catch-up if they don't incorporate these into new versions: Modern day genealogy has a new tool in the form of DNA testing which can give very valuable insight into the ancestry of your direct line male ancestry in the form of Y-Chromosome DNA and mtDNA for your maternal line. Legacy 6.0 Deluxe has the option of including DNA results as part of the database which is a very nice feature. I have entered data into it but have not had a chance to see how powerful it is in that program or the limitations.

14. Special Outline Reports for DNA Genealogy Research: Two outline reports that are very useful for this kind of DNA genealogy research is the ability to produce a male descendancy tree for a male whose Y-Chromosome was passed from father to son down the line. By doing a report that shows only the males and no females then it is easy to find possible living individuals who could be tested to gain further insight into any mutations that may have happened in this line. The same holds true for a report that will show only the female descendants for the maternal line where the mtDNA is passed from mother to her children. The way the outline reports are produced now is that both male and female descendants are shown and this should be the default but a drop-down menu should be available to select the other two options of Male or Female. For anyone who wants to see more about DNA Genealogy then I invite them to go to my webpage on that topic. An example of a male descendancy tree is also available. A female descendancy tree would show only the females that descend from that one female who is at the top of the list and is where each one of us, male or female, received our mtDNA from. The ability to find other living persons who could have their mtDNA tested would give proof that the proper wife was found for the children in any line. This is a very difficult proof to find when records are few or non-existant.
    The process used to generate either the male or female descendancy tree is as follows:

    1. Determine the earliest ancestor, either male or female by going from yourself and selecting your father, then his father and so on until you come to the earliest male on your fathers side. If you are doing the female one then select your mother, then her mother and so on until you are at the earliest female. There are other ways but you have to be careful to make sure you  are on the extreme limits of your tree and not on the inside portions. A diagram of this is shown as an example.

    2. Now do an outline report based on that person then export the persons from this report to a new FTM file that contains only those in the report. Select a name for your file like My-mtDNA-Tree/My-Y-DNA-Tree.

    3. Open the new file and delete all the male children in each family all the way down if doing an mtDNA tree or female children if doing a Y-DNA tree. The spouses could also be removed as they tend to make the resulting file twice as long as required.

    4. Check to see if all of the children of the proper sex have been removed by looking at an outline report where one of the items to include is the Sex of the children. This makes it much easier to spot any that need to be deleted.

    5. Once you have all of the children deleted that do not carry the proper genes then with an outline report on the screen and the options set to what you desire. Now click Edit then Copy the report.

    6. To create the webpage, I just paste the resulting report into the desired area and add the notes that I want. Would be nice to have these notes already built into the genealogy program and all of this could be done be a few options and presto you have your desired tree. However, you must be able to save a copy so that it can be pasted into the desired page or document.

    7. If you find more information on your family line and want to produce a new tree of this kind then you have to start at the first step and go through the whole process again as this was all done manually.

15. Other items that would be nice features.

     

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Books:

This has been left out completely form FTM-2008 and appears that books will only be available from Ancestry Press. This requires that your database or subset be sent to Ancestry. COM and  the book produced there. This is a completely unacceptable situation and leaves many of the present users of earlier versions of FTM hanging as they cannot upgrade to the new product that does not meet the functionality of what they are presently using.
In my case, I have over 55 eBooks that I try to keep updated as new information if obtained. Since FTM-16 only allows 31 book then I have to either delete the template for one of the books that have so that a new book can be created and produced for inclusion with the other eBooks that were produced previously. The direction that I go is to export my database to FTM-11 and since the books are compatible for that version of FTM then I can delete a book and create the book for the new family line. The eBook that is created is the same as that from FTM-16 so no difference is noted. However, that book is in the database on FTM-11 and that database cannot be used for additions so any additions of new information must be done on the one in FTM-16 which then requires that one export the file again to FTM-11 and recreate the book template from the beginning. A poor waste of time but the only solution that I can see as book templates are embedded in the database and not stored separately so that there would be no limit on the number of books that could be available to be produced.
My eBooks are not a once printed, they are done, but rather a living and dynamic way of sharing and exchanging information with other researchers who are working on the same family lines. They are all produced with protection so that a password is required to view the book and the option can also be set to prevent printing. This greatly assists the group to gather information and only when the time is correct to release the book for printing can the others who have the password view the book and print it if they wish. Sure saves on trees as some of the books are in excess of 1000 pages.

BAD

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Sources:

This at first appeared to be  a real disaster as my database in FTM-16 has 156 sources shown in the Master Sources list, when a GED file is imported into Legacy 6.0 the sources still show as 156. However, the sources list when exported to FTM-2008 becomes 19,276. This is completely unacceptable and much needs to be done to reduce this count or more explanation as to what the number really means.
There has been much debate on this on the FTM-TECH discussion group and I am one of those who say that what direction the development group for FTM-2008 wanted to go, first they should be able to import the source data from previous versions of FTM without error and once it is internal and follow the general guidelines of the Master Sources in FTM-16 and the Source Window data for any individual source then create that source so that much more is compatible  then what is now shown. If a major book of 1000 pages is used as a source for 500 different data entries then this should not create 500 sources shown in FTM-2008 but a single source as in FTM-16 where the 500 individual data item all refer to the same source but the only difference will be that for the individual item it will show the citation page or citation text in the book that is being referenced. From what I can interpret in FTM-2008 this would be a count of 501 which is made up of 1 for the source name and 500 for the source citations that were all counted in the number of sources reported.
This reporting of the number of sources may be an artifact of the import process as the number of sources that appear in the Source title when viewing the Source-Citation for an individual shows the same list of 156 as from FTM-16. However, the source Citations for any one source can best be viewed by selecting the icon for Sources at the top of the screen. The new tab that opens shows four separate windows. The left is for Source Groups and this shows the 156 sources that FTM-16 had in the Master Sources list. The middle of the screen is divided into two separate windows and the top window shows the source citations for any source name selected in the left window. These entries are for every entry in a Citation page or text entry in FTM-16. Using an example of PANB(Public Archives of New Brunswick) in my Source list, it shows a total of 44 source-citations that have  that have been entered into the area in the FTM-16 sources for individual item in the area reserved for citation page or text. When looking at this list, I was able to see several errors that needed repair so have done so in my FTM-16 version of the database. This has now turned my response to the source question in FTM from Bad to GOOD
One area in sourcing that I have not been able to check is when my datafile is exported to WorldConnect and the sources are shown for any individual will they still contain the HTML links that allow the person viewing my database to to directly to the electronic source and verify the information or better yet to find that this is a source to them for persons in their own database. An example of this is shown by going to WorldConnnect when the date of birth for Harry Jackson shows a source and link for viewing the source info.
When the large datafile was exported from FTM-16 to FTM-2008 using a GED file then exported back from FTM-2008 to FTM-16 again using a GED file the following was noted:

• The data that was originally in the "Source medium" field of the Master Sources list now was shifted into the Comments field. BAD

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Exporting to a GED file:

When you export a datafile to GED the values reported for Individuals, and Families seems to be the value from the last update to the counter and not the final value. However, the number exported is correct from what I have been able to determine when importing the file info FTM-16 or to WorldConnect. This is an annoying error and needs to be fixed as several people have reported this on FTM-TECH.  BAD

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What Others have to say about FTM-2008:

A number of sites have become available recently that show the features of FTM-2008. Any person viewing these sites must take into account the source of the information. If the site is associated with the  FTM family of companies then they are using the site to advertise their product. A good example of this is the Media Guide. where many of the features reported are not even available in the Beta version of FTM-2008, only sales hype with lots of glitz and glitter. However, the Eastman Online Genealogy Newsletter should be a more "at arms-length report". The Eastman Newsletter also includes feedback responses from persons who have tested the Beta version.

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Last updated: 26 July, 2009

Visitors to this page:  Since 26 July 2007.