Family Tree Maker 2011 Deluxe [Old Version]

by Nova Development US

Product Features

• Software for discovering your family history and preserving it for generations to come
• Brand-new user interface; organize media files with drag-and-drop simplicity
• Storytelling tools let you build your family tree, create charts and reports, plus incorporate photos and video
• View timelines and interactive maps; 5 new report styles and 4 new fan chart designs
• Includes Family History Toolkit DVD, Companion Guide to Family Tree Maker, and free 3-month Ancestry membership

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0041DTNI2
• Item model number: 40971
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 3, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (145 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,489 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #22 in Software > Home & Hobbies > Genealogy

Product Description

Amazon.com

Ancestry.com Family Tree Maker software gives you 100+ new and exciting ways to discover your family history and preserve it for generations to come. Rich storytelling tools let you build your family tree, create charts and reports, plus incorporate photos and video. The Deluxe version comes with a free three-month Ancestry.com membership that provides access to three billion U.S. immigration, marriage, and census records.

Brand-new user interface plus more than 100 software enhancements makes it easier than ever to discover your family's story.

Features

• Easily discover and preserve your family story privately and conveniently on your PC.
• For over 20 years, Family Tree Maker has been the choice of millions.
• Includes three months of free access to Ancestry.com, the world's largest online family history resource containing immigration and marriage records, census data, and more.*
• Organize media files with drag-and-drop simplicity.
• Write family stories that automatically update as facts change in your tree.
• View timelines and interactive maps highlighting events and places in your ancestors' lives.
• Bring your family tree alive with attractive books, charts, and reports; photos, audio, and video; timelines and interactive maps.
• Learn more with the Family History Toolkit DVD.

View maps to see where your ancestors may have lived--and track your family's migration paths.

Discover your family story.

Follow the hints.

Just enter what you know into Family Tree Maker. Soon you'll see green leaves or Hints when we've matched one of your ancestors with historical records, family trees, and photos. Click on the leaf to learn more.

NEW -- Learn more from other members.

Ancestry.com has a helpful community of millions. You could easily find other members researching your ancesters, compare notes, and discover more together.

Put your ancestors on the map.

View maps to see where your ancestors may have lived -- and track your family's migration paths.

1930 Census Record

Preserve your discoveries.

Save to your desktop.

Family Tree Maker makes it easy to save information you discover on Ancestry.com to your family tree, complete with an electronic copy of the original record.

NEW -- Create Smart Stories.

Just drag and drop facts from your tree to the new Smart Stories page. Each time you edit your tree, stories update automatically.

IMPROVED -- Manage photos and more.

Store photos, audio and video files, electronic records, and more right inside Family Tree Maker. New tools help you to manage them faster than ever before.

Share your family tree.

IMPROVED -- Print charts.

Choose from hundreds of chart options. Add images anywhere you like. Then print right at home -- or print professionally.

Invite friends and family.

Upload your tree to Ancestry.com and send email invitations to loved ones so they can view your family tree. You get to decide what each person can see and do in your tree.

IMPROVED -- Create reports.

See and share your tree from different perspectives -- by location, migration path, family name, birthdays, and more.

Use five new report styles and four new fan chart designs. Enhance your charts with new backgrounds and embellishments.

What's New?

• Write family stories that automatically update when facts change in your tree.
• Organize media files with drag and drop simplicity.
• View more events that occurred during your ancestors' lives. Even edit, delete or add your own historical events.
• Use five new report styles and four new fan chart designs.
• Enhance your charts with new backgrounds and embellishments.
• Automatically number every person in your tree for quick reference.
• And much more.

We make it easy for you.

NEW -- The Companion Guide to Family Tree Maker

Learn Family Tree Maker's most popular features with quick lessons that make research fast and fun.

NEW -- Family History Toolkit

Access six invaluable family-history reference books -- volumes of information that can help you with your research -- compiled on one DVD.

* U.S. Deluxe Membership term begins upon Family Tree Maker registration and activation of Ancestry.com subscription with a valid credit card. You won't be billed unless you let your subscription renew after the free three months has ended.

Product Description

With 100+ enhancements to help you, this new version creates your family tree faster, easier and better than ever before. Rich storytelling tools enable you to add photos, documents and videos. You can also incorporate historical records the worlds largest family history website. Family Tree Maker Deluxe Software comes with a free 3-month membership giving you access to immigration and marriage records, census data and much more. Even create charts and reports of your tree in a variety of new formats to share with friends and family. The end result is a family history youll treasure for years to come.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

92 of 97 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Huge improvement over early versions March 17, 2011

By Biff Bechenschnifter

Amazon Verified Purchase

I used a very early version of this software (the Broderbund release) and enjoyed using it to build family trees. At the time, though, the artificial intelligence aspects of the software (and associated website, ancestry.com) were not well developed, and I found the interface a little clunky (and unattractive). It's been at least 10 years since those early experiences with genealogy software, and I'm very happy to see how much things have progressed since then. The new software appears a little complicated at first glance, which I consider a good thing. In order to capture and correctly correlate reams of data, the application needs to be robust. I've found the new software (and the constantly improving ancestry.com) a joy to use. You can keep things as simple as you like, or dig (and substantiate) as deeply as you like.

I bought the Deluxe version, which I consider a huge bargain. For about $50 you get a very well-designed program (Family Tree Maker), a DVD full of reference books, and a 3-month subscription to ancestry.com.

I'm using the software on a system running Windows XP 64-bit. No problems.

Update (3/25):
I still like the software, but after using it for a few weeks, I have a few complaints. First, and most significantly for users who want to employ both Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com, the ability to move records back and forth between the local software and the website is poorly conceived and developed. It would be nice to have a button on the Person page that would let you synch the record between the two applications. Second, I've found the support for the product lacking. I've posted a few questions to the support staff, and have received no answers. Similarly, the issue of using the two applications together is not well explained either in the software package or on ancestry.com. I've downgraded my recommendation to 3 stars (from 5). Family Tree Maker is getting better, in my opinion, but still has lots of room for improvement (and subscriptions to ancestry.com need to be more affordable...they'd make more money in the long run).

Final update (4/25):
If I could, I'd downgrade my review to 2 1/2 stars. The software is very useful, and I think the interface is well-designed. The database seems solid, and there are some nice tools. My complaints persist, however. The product support is bad to mediocre, although you wouldn't know that from the "we're here to help" message on the website. After 2 or 3 weeks, I finally received a response to my e-mail question regarding the use of Family Tree Maker with Ancestry.com, and the answer was pretty much what I expected. The two applications (the desktop software and the website) don't really talk to each other. That's very unfortunate, since users of the software will need the on-line account to explore the available data on the web, but unless you're planning to maintain a lifelong account (relatively expensive), that data will never be available locally (on your PC). That may be the plan, which seems like bad marketing, in my opinion. I think the company would sell a lot more of both products if they produced desktop software that accessed the internet seamlessly, synched the local data with the web data, and offered the on-line subscription for a more reasonable fee.

47 of 52 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Needs .NET 3.5 or crashes February 13, 2011

By Neil

I've been using the FTM product line for about 15 years now. This version requires Microsoft's .NET 3.5 to work, which of course none of the packaging or systems requirements tell you, you need.

After spending about four hours to get my .NET framework to update correctly (had to de-install and reinstall several times), I finally got FTM to install properly. Then the software performed an "auto-update" to the FTM software and Windows performed an auto-update to the .NET framework. So... this morning FTM crashes and will not load. Every other program on my computer works fine... except FTM 2011.

Folks, until ancestry.com moves away from the terrible Microsoft .NET framework, stay far away from this product. I've lost money buying the last few versions of FTM. The last version that works for me is FTM 2006, which is what I'm going to have to use because of the FTM 2011 crashware.

65 of 75 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Version 2011 not that different than 2010, but both work under Win7 64bit January 2, 2011

By John D. Hillmer VINE™ VOICE

I had a really old version of "Ultimate Family Tree" by another company that stopped supporting their product way back in the late 1990s. I was able to keep mine running under WinXP, but when it came time to upgrade my PC to a Win7 Pro 64 bit version, my UFTM would not run. I purchased Family Tree Maker 2010 and yes, its a lot different, and very much integrated with ancestry dot com, but at least it worked under Win7! With a few months of paid subscription to ancestry's web resources, I was able to make incredible progress with my Tree (over 1,600 people connected, some going back to the 700-800AD period. Very cool. I would rate the 2010 version 5 stars, but some things are just not perfect from a user-interface perspective (in my opinion). I don't think it has locked up, not even once, under Win7 - so that's really good news.

I then purchased the Family Tree Maker 2011 upgrade directly from the manufacturer this past Christmas (2010), as the upgrade price was so low, and it came with 2 more free weeks of ancestry's access. I had let me tree research sit a few months, and I was really pleasantly surprised with how much data had been added to the internet resources that this program and the free subscription provided to me, in just those few months. I'd rate Family Tree Maker 2011 5 stars too, but I really didn't see that much new or better than the 2010 version. Sure, some nicer things in the user interface have been added, or done better (see their web site for the info) but it acts pretty much like the 2010 version did.

If you liked the 2010 version, stick with it, the 2011 version is not that different. If your old version won't run under Win7, then get the 2010 or 2011 version, and you'll be able to salvage your prior work - mine imported just fine! The upgrade from 2010 to 2011 also worked just fine.