Back in early December, Ancestry.com released a new version of its popular genealogy software—Family Tree Maker 2012. About a week later, the company released an upgrade for its Mac version of the same software. Family Tree Maker for Mac 2 offers a number of new features.
One big change was the inclusion of TreeSync, a popular Family Tree Maker utility that lets you update and synchronize your family tree in multiple locations, including on Ancestry.com’s iPad and iPod apps and on your Ancestry.com account. Other key enhancements were noted in an Ancestry.com Blog, as follows:
- New Mac-only features. Now you can capture photos using your iSight or built-in camera and import it directly into Family Tree Maker. And if you’re using OS X Lion, you can take advantage of the new full-screen capability—with one click fill your entire desktop with the Family Tree Maker workspace.
- Easy-to-understand combined family view. The family group view has a new “blended families” option that lets you display all of a couple’s children in one location, including stepchildren and adoptees. An icon next to a child’s name lets you see at a glance whether he or she is the child of the father, the mother, or both parents.
- More Ancestry integration. Find other Ancestry members who are searching for your ancestors by viewing Member Connect activity in the expanded Web Dashboard. You’ll also see links to message boards and notification of your new Ancestry messages.
- Enhanced performance. Now you can choose the type of Internet connection you’re using, which allows Family Tree Maker to tailor how it downloads information from the Web. Uploading and downloading speeds have been improved, and there is an increased ability to upload large files to Ancestry.com.
- New image collection. Create beautiful family trees and reports with a variety of new backgrounds and images.
You can order Family Tree Maker 2012 or Family Tree Maker for Mac 2 directly from Ancestry.com’s online store.
I have used Family Tree Maker for about 8 different versions going back into the 90’s and I have looked at ancestry.com and genealogy.com but this year I decided to start my quest more aggressively. In Sept. I contacted FTM and after taling with them I ordered FTM for Mac. I was considering the windows version as I understood that it would link the material form ancestry.com to my home FTM, but decided that since I was switching to a MAC that I should buy the MAC version (I could run either) At the time I know I thought they were about the same. After I started the new program I realized it said FTM for Mac 2010 but did not pay too much attention to that but I thought I had bought 2011. I had some difficulty transferring my data from my old FTM 8 ( I think) to the new program, esp. the extended links, etc.
About the same time (maybe in Nov. 2011, I also ordered the dna and decided to get on with the research. Then in Dic. 2011 I took up the offer for a 6 month membership of Ancestry.com with the intention to continue if I was satisfied with how it worked.
Now the issues have really began to grow:
1. I find that I cannot swap info between FTM Mac 2010 and Ancestry.com or at least I have not found a way. I talked with the help line and they said that I should upgrade to FTM 2012 and somehow that would solve all of my problems. Sounds exactly like what I was told in Sept. about the change from FTM 8 to FTM Mac 2010. I was told that they would give a SPECIAL UPGRADE for something in the $40+ dollar range. I was very upset and did not take it as I think I was notfully informed by FTM in Sept.
I am not sure that I even want to continue with either FTM or it’s parent company ancestry.com but if I do it would require that I got a better customer service response. About the only thing that might work is to be upgraded to either FTM MAC 2012 or maybe Window FTM 2012 as I can us either. At this time I think maybe the window might work best although I had hoped for the MAC. After finishing both my paternal and maternal search on my family I will need to do my wife’s family so I hope you can be helpful. I have about 5 or 6 different versions of windows FTM so I have been a faithful user oo the product but I can switch if I have to. Having to type in all of the data is a pain when I though I would have a product that synced. Charles Hill
I’d not recommend this software at all. It is buggy and slow – crashes frequently and is a poor substitute for the PC version.
I moved to the Mac last year (2011) and having been a regular FTM user on a PC looked forward to this latest version. What a disappointment! It lacks several features of the newest PC version – in particular the long awaited indexing of the Description field, as well as the logical tabbing between fields – for example I add a new fact – add the Date then tab to Place then tab to Description – simple enough but no it works like this – add the Date then tab to Place then tab to Date???!!!
There are many more things – such as inability to add a large family using the Merge feature – anything more that 5 people the app crashes.
May advice is to leave this well alone. For myself I’m going back to the PC version via Bootacmp.
I am so sorry that I bought this software. It crashes frequently and I can not get it to sync with my online Ancestry.com tree. I have waisted hundreds of hours trying to get it to work. I’ve given up on calling customer support. The representatives try to be helpful, but I’ve tried all that they suggest and still have problems.
Why not try MacFamily Tree? It doesn’t sync with Ancestry, but it sounds like that’s the least of your worries 😉
FTM for Mac 2 has some wonderful features and the way it is integrated with Ancestry.com is awesome! The only problem is that they don’t work very well.
I have to agree with the other folks here who say to stay away from this program. It constantly crashes and is the buggiest piece of software I’ve come across since switching to the Mac 5 years ago. I spend more time on the phone with their customer support department than I do building my family tree.
I just got off the phone with them 10 minutes ago and after over an hour with them, they had no solutions.
I’m thoroughly disgusted.
I have been using FTM for MAC since early 2011. I had no problem with transferring data from FTM 2008. It still seems to work OK for me.
I thought i would like to upgrade to 2012 MAC 2. However its costs $100 here in Australia as against $56 in USA when our exchange rates are virtually equal.
What a ripoff!!!
I was a PC girl since there were PCs. I changed last year to a Mac. I’ve used FTM since the beginning and so continued with the Mac using FTM for Mac2. The program freezes up when I try to export. I can export using GEDCOM but that eliminates all my media files. I have used a GEDCOM to HTML program for sharing my trees on-line and want to continue to do this on my website. Now that I’ve used the Mac program and need to export to use the PC program I can’t export and keep all my photos. FTM for Mac2 has one option to export to FTM 2010 for Mac but it hangs up at 49% and requires a reboot. Bummer! I wish I had stayed with the PC!