What's New in Family Tree Maker 2010

As followers of this Blog and that of Randy Seaver and his super genea-musings blog, we have been looking at what is in store for us in Family Tree Maker version 2010.

Sunday, August 2, 2009, I had a chance to sit in on a Presentation by Duff Wilson, of Ancestry.Com on Version 2010 as a preview. You may know Duff from the Webinar's that Ancestry.com has provided us about Family Tree Maker. This presentation was part of the 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy. You can follow what is going on there on Schelly Talalay Dardashti's blog at Tracing the Tribe.

A Version 2010 is not yet available, I don't have screen shots, but a bunch of notes on each of the new features that Duff went through. Over the next couple of days, I will try to describe what I saw during the presentation to put a little more information about the features listed below.

The audience was a very wide variety of Family Tree Maker users. One user said she started using Family Tree Maker with Version 1.0. So there were users from Version 1.0 (DOS days) to Version 2009 (Product Version 18.0.0.307). A large number of 2009 users were in the group of about 90.

Duff is a great presenter and teacher. He took this group of users through the Various Work Spaces in the Current Version (2009) and some of the neat things that we, users, might have overlooked. I know there were a couple that I hadn't seen, or recognized before. I may have seen them, but not part of my normal way of using the program. I have a list of existing features to Blog about in the future. Little tricks that we might use.

Then he launched into the New stuff. I will start to talk about them from my notes and will return to them when 2010 is released.

From the Ancestry.com's website, found through a Google Search, here is a list of what is New in 2010. You see the earlier postings on 2010 here:

http://ftmuser.blogspot.com/search/label/FTM2010

What’s New?

• Easy family tree download from Ancestry.com – Import your Ancestry.com family tree, along with attached photos.
• Improved organization – Enjoy new ways to organize photos and other media.
• Slideshows – Create slideshows from photos in your tree.
• Family books – Publish beautiful keepsakes and books to share with friends and family.
• Standard source templates – Cite the right information every time.
• A new person view – View relationships within the context of your entire family tree.
• Scanner support – Add photos directly from your scanner.
• Family migration paths – View timelines and interactive maps highlighting events and places in your ancestors’ lives.
• Better Performance – Experience faster load times and navigation.