Family Tree Maker 2012 Notes and Problems

This is a collection of notes on FTM problems and needs.

FTM Fixes (rare but it does happen):

• Hey! The recently updated FTM 2010 (19.0.0.206) does proper line breaks in GEDCOM Notes!
• FTM 2012 now puts media links in the GEDCOM, but not quite right for TNG yet. The TITL and TEXt does not get set in the TNG media data.

FTM Problems: 

• Exported GEDCOM files sometimes have junk data that cannot be accessed with FTM itself. Perhaps the result of a merge.
• FTM now has a global spell check but the check should ignore proper names in the database and ignore "http", ".pdf", etc.
• When a spouse is deleted, FTM writes empty family data to the GEDCOM file with a "-" in the ID (for example "@F00-54@"). This is cleaned-up only if Tools/Compact File is done.
• Sometimes FTM leaves an empty spouse ("[no spouse specified]" in the spouse list and the spouse count in the Family display is one too high. Delete it in by right clicking in the wife panel of the Family display and select Add Spouse. Add a dummy name such as "XXXXX" then when done select that person and use Person/Delete Person.
• Sometimes FTM looses the connection between a child and its parent. The data seems to be there, but as you move down from the parent to the child in the Family display graph or the Person display graph, the ancestors vanish.
• After deleting from a list such as individuals or source-citations, the display pane snaps back to top instead of remaining at the chosen scroll position. This happens with other lists. This is very tiresome for long lists!

FTM Needs: 

• Needs to consistently apply Windows conventions:
  • When editing text boxes such as note, citations, etc., the Edit/Undo does not work! A tiny typing error requires retyping the whole text! (and remembering what it was!)
  • Formatted Note text does not Cut into a Windows metafile so that it can be pasted as formatted text into other applications (and vice versa).
  • The Family list should seek using typed letters as is the Windows convention. Also in all other lists such as Find Source Citations - Source-Citations, etc..
• Needs simple formatting in Source-Citations as it does for Notes.
• The FTM file needs to be a true database in some standard format such as Microsoft Access. It should be possible to edit/compact/etc. in Access and then reuse in FTM. Or export/import to Access.
• Needs a distributable display program that works from CD/DVD or USB stick, etc.
• Needs method to step through all individuals for review.

Page modified: 25 Oct 2011 10:58:30 -0700