Researching your family history has become a lot easier now that we have computer software and the internet to help in searching and organising family data.
There’s masses of family tree and genealogy software out there, so much in fact, that choosing the right program can be a daunting task. This article is the first in a regular series to highlight and evaluate a specific program and this is where I need your help.
At the end of each article I’ll flag up the next program to be featured. If you have any experience, comments, hints, tips and advice for fellow genealogists regarding the upcoming piece of software then please feel free to email me with your views and comments. I’ll include them in the article. You can find my email address is at the bottom of this article.
Don’t forget you can also comment on this article using the comments box below so don’t hold back, let’s hear what you have to say… and that goes for all artcles on The Time Machine:)
To kick things off let’s take a look at family tree software aimed at a steadily growing minority group (and I’m one of them) ‘Mac’ owners.
A vast majority of family history and genealogy software is PC based, mainly because most folks use windows computers. However the Mac family is expanding at aphenomenal rate, so much so that Synium Software has just launched its newest version of MacFamilyTree for the Mac.
MacFamilyTree 5.6 update brings a raft of new features including the ‘Virtual Tree’, which was first introduced last year.
The Virtual Tree revolutionized the way you approach all the branches of your family tree. Now, with version 5.6, this unique feature has been rebuilt incorporating several customer requests.
You can navigate through the three-dimensional representation of your family data and literally dive into your family history.
MacFamilyTree will single out specific branches for you, see your ancestors’ photos instead of generic symbols and offer tremendous speed improvements for large trees. Even older Macs gain performance thanks to the improvements.
What else? The extended media management, for example… select persons on your family pictures and assign them to entries in your database: persons, families, events or sources. This feature comes in handy when you start identifying your family members on those old group shots. Draw a rectangle on the photo and tell MacFamilyTree who that person is. This cut-out is automatically added to that person’s profile.
Bookmarks have also been enhanced, allowing you direct access to your Media Library. Last but not least, you can edit your images within the Media Pane, letting you crop, change hue, brightness, sharpness and reduce noise.
The virtual Globe features new maps with higher resolution while simultaneously increasing the processing speed on older machines.
Take a sneak peak at this online demo video here
You are interested in trying out MacFamilyTree 5.6? Just download the new version!
MacFamilyTree 5.6 is a free update for existing customers of MacFamilyTree 5.
If you’re a MacFamily Tree user or you simply have a comment then leave your reply in the comments box below.
Next family tree and genealogy software review ‘Family Tree Maker’. Do you have experience of this program? Then feel free to pass on your tips and advice for inclusion in the next article to me at editor@oldphotoforum.co.uk
——
Version 5.6 released (9/7/2009)
- New Virtual Tree
- – Drastic performance enhancements by using multiple processors/cores when available
- – Much improved 3d alignment, especially in complex scenarios
- – Can only show partial subtrees within a database
- – Displays pictures of persons directly in the 3d tree when available
- – New palette to directly jump to near ancestors or descendants
- Improved Media Management
- – One picture, audio, web page or video can now be assigned to multiple persons, families, events or sources
- – Persons or families can be tagged on group fotos for easy identification
- – Pictures can be edited from within MacFamilyTree (cropping, hue control, saturation and noise reduction)
- – Images with embedded DPI information are now handled correctly and are displayed in full resolution
- – Media can now be bookmarked as it has already been possible for Persons or Families
- – Improved playback of Video and Audio media entries
- Virtual Globe
- – Improved rendering performance on slower Macs
- – More detailed map
- Other Improvements
- – Text-based Descendant and Ancestor Reports are now available in the Person Report
- – Full screen mode for the Virtual Tree and the Virtual Globe
- – All dialogs or sheets have been improved to a consistent and user friendly look
- – Further performance enhancements throughout the whole application as well as a reduced memory footprint
Minimum System Requirements:
- Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
- ATI Radeon 7500 or GeForce 4 MX Graphics Card or Intel GMA 950 or better
Available directly from Synium Software’s Online Store
MacFamilyTree 5.6 Update from any previous version of MacFamilyTree. The Update ist only necessary if you own Version 1, 2, 3 or 4. If you own Version 5, all Updates for Version 5 (like 5.1 or 5.2 for example) will be free of charge.
Help to spread The Time Machine word. Please share this article via email, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon and more by clicking on the “Share This” link below, it only takes a few seconds… thank you.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!