Preparing to Transition

For those preparing to transition to another Genealogy software program.

This is one of several videos on transitioning to another Genealogy Software program. I think this is important to understand a few things about Family Tree Maker if you are going to move your genealogy database from Family Tree Maker to another program.

The move will be different based on the VERSION of Family Tree Maker that you have AND the Genealogy Program you might move to. This video is to help you find the Version of the program you are using and what you need to do just before you make that move.

Family Tree Maker started in the DOS days, and the Version numbers were just that, a version number. For example, my first version was Version 3.4. The Version number when up to Version 9, then Version 10, then Version 11. BUT in 2005, then changed to Version 2005, then 2006, then back to Version 16.

In 2008, then structure of the program was moved out of the DOS environment into the Windows environment. The Version numbers then started with FTM2008, FTM2009, FTM2010, FTM2011, FTM2012, and FTM2014.

In the Version 16 and earlier, all Media Files were INCLUDED in the FTW (file extension), making the files very large over time. This important to note for your transition.

Starting with FTM2008, the Media Files were in a < filename > Media folder. You would have a Filename for the Data, and a < filename > Media folder for all of the Media Files. Those media files would normally be in Media folder, but some users and their own filing structure for their media, maybe leaving those media files elsewhere on the computer. The program "knows" where they are so there are links from the database to those media files.

For Back Ups: as long as you manually back up, or Back Up as I demonstrate in this video, those Media Files will be in the Back Up file. For Version 16, the back up file extension would be FBC. For FTM2008 - FTM2014,the file extension is FTMB. Both the FBC and the manually generated FTMB file include those media files. IF you find a FTMB file that has the words "Automatic Back Up" that FTMB file would NOT include the media files, only the Data. The automatic back up would be generated if you just closed down the program without manually backing up the file.

In upcoming blog posts, I will deal with GEDCOM files. A GEDCOM will NOT include any media files. It is important thing to understand, with this transition, is the links to the Media Files. In FTM2008 through FTM2011 a GEDCOM file will NOT contain any information linking to the media files. With FTM2012 and FTM2014, the GEDCOM WILL include Links to those media files.

Here is a link to a number of blog posts on this

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

Here is a blog post I did about transferring a GEDCOM to Roots Magic

http://ftmuser.blogspot.com/2013/12/blog-post-on-hold-update.html





Bottom line here, KNOW the Specific Version of Family Tree Maker that you are using and Compact and Back Up your file when the option is offered using the Compact File utility.

Me: No Change. FTM2014 and all of its features work for me.

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Copyright © 2015 by H R Worthington