Making Family Tree CDs/DVDs

[kimday12 0]

Hello,

 

I am new to genealogy and genealogy software. My parents and I have spent days upon days researching which software to buy. We are now stuck between The Master Genealogist version 9 and Family Historian.

 

My grandmother has done years of research into our family history, but it is all on paper. I would like to take our genealogy into the present and put it on the computer. I have recently impulse bought RootsMagic and to be honest, can't stand the program. I purchased it because it was ranked on many review sites as very good and because it can make read-only CDs to be given to other family members. I have had major problems with the source documentation as I am a type A/perfectionist personality and want to document everything accurately, and I am also having to lower the resolution of scanned photos to place into the media portion of the program. Even at the lower resolution, the photos still have a number of problems (including resolution dots and lines that aren't on the original imported image).

 

What I would like to know is:

 

1.) Does The Master Genealogist version 9 allow the user to make CDs/DVDs of the information?

 

2.) Does The Master Genealogist version 9 work well with scanned photographs?

 

Thank you very much for any response.

 

Kim

[Michael Hannah 0]

Hi Kim,

 

I am just a user, but would answer a resounding Yes to both questions.

 

Concerning CD/DVD creation. One of the built-in output types for reports in TMG is to produce HTML. Those files can then be written on a CD/DVD and shared. However, even better is the separate companion program to TMG called "Second Site". Its whole purpose is to take absolutely everything you record in TMG and "magically" create a set of web pages which can either be posted on-line, or written on a CD/DVD. While Second Site has quite good default options which literally will produce a complete CD/DVD of your entire database in minutes with just a few clicks of your mouse, it also has lots of options to let you customize those pages in a variety of individualized ways.

 

Concerning scanned items. First TMG itself does not impose a resolution limit on these items. These items can be left as external computer files in just about any format and resolution they were created. TMG can simply link/point to the actual file as an exhibit for a person or event or source. You can even choose to have a TMG report automatically shrink the "apparent" size of images so they will fit within a page, but the full resolution file is still available as part of the report to view the full size image. Further, those full resolution external files can be included as part of the created Second Site web pages, where a narrative page will have a web link to a created page displaying the full resolution image.

 

Hope this answers your immediate questions. Other users will probably offer further comments.

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

See examples of user web sites built by Second Site here.

 

Virginia