difficulty with family tree maker

[laineywoo]

Is anyone out there using family tree maker? I would love to print out an "all in one" report, showing everybody in my tree, but have been unable to do so. I can do a chart, but it is so huge, it would literally cover the entire house I would have liked to do a report to enable me to give to the other members of the family [they may be able to add bits and pieces of info!] as part of a gift. Could anyone tell me if you can do something to make this possible, or is there another tree maker thingy I could get to enable me to do this? I can do a descendant report, but it doesnt show the marriages of siblings and their children etc. Any advice would be greatly appriciated
Lainey

[Bryan]

if you ever find a way to get a usable "all-in-one" out of FTM let the rest of us users know - please!

Most of the charts in FTM are fine but the AIO is just totally useless - it has everybody on but the placement on the page is just so random I can't follow mine even knowing who the people are. As for printing it out - I reckon mine would be about 60 pages and most of them blank.

I've yet to find a satisfactory AIO chart maker but would love to get hold of one.

Sorry this doesn't help much but at least you know it ain't you at fault.

[laineywoo]

Hi Bryan
Thanks for that! I did wonder if i was doing something immensly stupid! There must be something that lets you print out all the people.......will just have to keep looking. Did think that you could poss print the descant report, then go onto the "extra" folks and insert even a small chart for their family, but it's completely impossible to follow...........Whats the point in all these tree makers when you cant show anyone the ultimate result
Lainey

[hudggy]

Hi there I give my family a pdf file made in FTM this they can alter and add to it can also be printed. I know it is not a proper tree but it lets you have more info than the AIO.

[laineywoo]

Hi, Its great with the younger generations who understand computers, but the older ones are the ones who I think can help more, and I dont know about anyone else, but most of the older ones dont have computer access at all. On saying that, I will do as you suggest for the ones I know can use it!
Cheers

[Russell]

Hi Lainey
I use an older version of Family treeMaker and, like you, was horrified and the size and the confusionit would cause if you didn't already know you way around the Tree.
I simply printed out the relevant family lines for each person and gave them a copy of the cut-down version of the tree. Ask for your copy to cover only a limited number of generations.

Russell

[laineywoo]

Thanks Russell, I'm beginning to think that is the only way I will be able to do it! Unfortunate though, a full book type report to be updated annually or so would be much more informative. When buying the package, I didnt know really what to look for, but I doubt any would be so precise as to advertise that it could do a whole family tree lol. After saying all that, family tree maker has been fab in many ways, I'm not attempting to slag it off - I'd be lost with out it
Lainey

[Russell]

Hi Lainey

You can do a descendants tree by locating the person who is the farthest back in the line you wish to show. Click on them then select the descendent tree button on the top tool bar.
Choose the type of display you want - I usually go for 'standard'
From the right hand tool bar select number of generations and increase or decrease till it covers the span of people you want to show.
That way you only give the person the section of family you want to focus their attention on. You're not really doing it for them!! Be Honest ! All you want is to trigger more memories so that you can add stories and descriptions to your tree!

Play around with the settings. Some are quite good displays.

Russell

[laineywoo]

Hi Russell
Yea!! I freely admitted this in the first email The older generation in particular always seem to remember just that wee bit more when they read the reports. Up to now, I have been doing as you suggest, even to the point of making wee booklets to pass around, but by doing the direct descendants, it lists only the children as other siblings, but not THEIR marriages and children.......with me Its these wee bits that I find I could get the info from as I have most of the main lines so to speak. I just get frustrated when I find something new and they go "Oh yeah, I remember such and such", then they procede to give you the info you have been searching for for such a long time!! Ah well, all part of the fun

[Clydesdale]

I thought it was just me Laineywoo that had problems with Family Tree Maker. I gave it up as a lost cause and put together a layout in Microsoft Excel that seems to do everything I want. I printed out the main family line for my mother (she is 87) and she immediately picked out things to be changed, and others to be added so it was a real help.

This gave me another problem though - does anyone know of a site on the net that will print out documents in sizes larger than A4 and send them on to you? I had to glue 10 sheets together and it is getting bigger by the day!

Helen