9 replies to this topic

[Bryan in Texas]

I am using RM 7.5 and its tree share feature.  I will also be installing FTM 2017, which also has a synch feature.

 

Is it possible to synch the Ancestry tree to both or will that cause one or more of the trees to blow up?

 

If anyone has tried this or knows the answer I'd appreciate some guidance.

 

If the FTM synch feature is like the old FTM synch feature, then it will be possible to automatically synch the FTM tree with an Ancestry tree with one click of the button, which will be very convenient for me, as I am still adding a lot of material on Ancestry.

 

In RM the most efficient way to keep the RM tree aligned with the Ancestry tree if there are a lot of changes or additions appears to be to decouple the two trees and re-download the Ancestry tree to RM as a new tree.

 

As others have said, I would like an ability to do that in Roots Magic, which is the better program.

 

Thanks,  Bryan in Texas

[Jerry Bryan]

It is possible to connect the same ancestry tree both to an RM database and to an FTM database.

 

If you do so and if you make changes either in RM or in FTM, you would need to consider carefully exactly which data survives the round trip, either RM to ancestry to FTM or FTM to ancestry to RM. But you seem to be planning to make your changes in ancestry. You should still consider carefully which data survives the trip from ancestry to RM, but there are fewer complications in this model than there are if you are making changes to the databases on the desktop.

 

Jerry

[RobJ]

And it would be really helpful (if you have the time and interest) if you could document here what you find in your testing, what doesn't work well, what doesn't survive the trip between the 3 products, and what workarounds you find that make it work better.

[Bryan in Texas]

I appreciate the advice.  I probably won't install FTM 2017 for a few weeks to let the initial kinks be worked out by others.  It has been through beta testing, but the program was released generally only last weekend.

 

I will try to report on how things work after I have everything up and running and have experiment a bit.

 

Bryan in Texas

[Rooty]

FTM 2017 had far more extensive beta testing than rootsmagic. All upgrade users now have it and my copy seems to work pretty well. Synching is much less complex since FTM was designed to mesh with the Ancestry data structure and Rootsmagic was not.

 

It seems wisest to me to work in your FTM or Rootsmagic file on your computer and then only sync up to Ancestry. The master file then resides on your computer with all your media, notes, sources correctly included. Using 2 different programs to try to sync to the same Ancestry file seems like a recipe for disaster (oatmeal in your soup; gravel on your steak anyone?).

 

On a mac FTM is a native app while Rootsmagic is a windows xp program inside a crossover bottle. I fear that the huge user support effort likely needed to cope with Rootsmagic's sync feature will effectively limit any real focus on a native mac app.

[Jerry Bryan]

I fear that the huge user support effort likely needed to cope with Rootsmagic's sync feature will effectively limit any real focus on a native mac app.

 

That's an interesting comment. It does seem that resolving some of the remaining TreeShare issues might require a pretty huge effort while at the same time the native Mac app is still out there under development and is still extremely important. I have no idea what the RM developers have in mind as far as setting priorities and allocating development resources. From where I sit, I really have no idea how RM developers might best set priorities and allocate development resources. It's a very difficult problem and I wish the developers great success in working their way through it.

 

Jerry

[Rooty]

I wish Rootsmagic had ignored an Ancestry sync feature that won't work well and perhaps figured out a simple way to generate leaf hints from a Gedcom import. Then they could have put real effort into a native mac version. Apple owns the consumer high end computer market and those potential customers have good choices other than Rootsmagic.

[Bryan in Texas]

Update;

 

I see a lot of issues with FTM 2017 being discussed at the FTM board at Ancestry.  I still haven't receved my DVD yet either.  They say they started shipping them on 8/25.  They are to send an email advising when it is actually shipped and delivery will be approximately a week later. 

 

I prefer to install fom a DVD rather than to download the program.

 

So, I will it will be a while longer before I install it and try it out.

[Rooty]

Using DVD based software is a poor choice. Download installs are the modern approach, work far better than DVDs, cost much less and are always up to date. Your dvd will not have the latest bug fixes by the time you get it. I am surprised anyone still offers software on dvds.

[Ken Funk]

I wish Rootsmagic had ignored an Ancestry sync feature that won't work well and perhaps figured out a simple way to generate leaf hints from a Gedcom import. Then they could have put real effort into a native mac version. Apple owns the consumer high end computer market and those potential customers have good choices other than Rootsmagic.

I wouldn't say Apple owns much of anything in the regular computer market.  They were hanging in around 7% last I checked and they had lost market share over the last couple of years.  Most of their money comes from other devices now, phones, watches, iPods, iPads etc.  With that small of a market share, software developers are going to focus on where they can generate a decent revenue stream and whether we like it or not, PC's have a many times larger slice of the pie.  I would say that a good mobile app for tablets (iPads included) would generate better revenue that spending a lot of time on a native Mac program.  Software devs got to eat too!