Review: RootsMagic Platinum v4 For Genealogists
Don Bradbury tries the latest release of this powerful genealogical database application
| Product | RootsMagic Platinum Edition with v4.0.2.1 update |
|---|---|
| Company | S&N Genealogy Ltd |
| Web | www.rootsmagic.com www.genealogysupplies.com |
| Price | £49.95 (upgrade £18.40); or Standard edition £34.95. |
| We like | Excellent facilities; powerful interfacing with online databases; useful video tutorials; adequate quick start guide for beginners. |
| We don't like | No printed manual; occasional lockups while syncing with New FamilySearch |
| Rating | 9/10 |
| Requirements |
If you had to point to one particular activity that had leapt in popularity more than any other in recent years it would surely have to be the gathering of family history. TV programs such as 'Who Do You Think You Are' have added to the interest, and now, world wide, there are millions of people using their personal computers to seek and store this information.
The processes of gathering the information, and then collating, storing, and sharing it are inextricably linked, and these days, with many powerful database cum search engines available via the Internet it makes sense to utilise the power of these modern facilities from within the software you use for your personal database.
That's where RootsMagic comes in, and the newly released version 4 adds considerable power to avid researchers on such web sites as www.ancestry.com and particularly www.new.familysearch.org which can bring details of your ancestry to the desktop with a fascinating overview of your personal heritage.
Installation of RootsMagic v4 (RM4) went smoothly for us, and we could then import existing databases from a wide range of alternative family history software, and that includes the genealogical standard database format, GEDCOM. Here we might point out that Vista users who encounter difficulties with locating their existing data files to import should bear in mind that this Operating System won't let you store personal data files within the Program Files folder for security reasons, and without informing you, it will hide them in a hidden folder outside Program Files. If that's your situation, such that you cannot directly import your existing data into RM4, you can either save the files to a more suitable location first, or just carry out GEDCOM exports of your existing database first, and after you've installed RM4 and set up your first blank database, import the data from that.
The familiar pedigree chart presentation is, in RM4, enhanced with a scrolling list of all the individuals currently in the database (to switch this on or off, use View/Sidebar). Click on any name in the list and that individual becomes the temporary 'home' person, ie it occupies the first box in the pedigree chart. That's useful, not to mention quick, when you need to move around a large assembly of individuals.
On this display there's a neat little slider you can set for either five or six generations to be on display in the chart. Use six if you have a big screen, or the five setting if you're using a small screen netbook for example.
You can add new people in this view, or you can highlight the individual and use the Add menu item to link spouse, parents, a new child, or a new individual. You can switch to the Family view here, or descendants, or a people list.
Finally, there's also a WebSearch tab here that you can use to switch immediately, from a scrollable list, to a chosen web site for searching, and then sign in directly, or you can add selected service providers yourself.
Merging databases
In RM4 you can merge data from multiple databases either manually or automatically. This covers the situation where you decide you can safely integrate databases that others may have sent you, and link them onto a single well-defined individual.
There are also facilities for creating your own genealogy website, accessing message boards, planning family reunions, and getting technical support. Another sub-section lets you access a FAQ site where user can exchange ideas or problems with other users.
The Tools menu offers searches for problems in the database, and you shouldn't be surprised to find several in a large database, such is the nature if genealogical recording.
There's a Calendar dating tool, spell checking (for which you can get an immediate update after installation; just make sure you download the appropriate national version), and a useful Mapping function in which you can select a place name and immediately have a map put up that shows where that location was, or still is. You can print the map, and even scroll it, Google Earth-like!
GenSmarts
The publisher has added a link in the Tools menu to the commercial GenSmarts, a searching aid tool. It's a live web link, and to give you some idea of what it's about, we quote what it says on the first page:
"GenSmarts will directly read your RootsMagic database and produce research recommendations. GenSmarts tells you exactly where to look for missing information, and directly connects you to on-line resources. As your personal research assistant and complementary tool, it makes intelligent recommendations based on what you know, then takes you through time with your relatives, helping fill in the blanks and break down brick walls".
With tools aplenty, and report styles galore, including useful and saveable charts of various styles that will cover most people's requirements, we have no complaints in that section. On the question of photo charts, you can easily set up, or import, your media collection directly into RM4.
RootsMagic Explorer
Windows-like, RM4's Explorer function is the heart of the program. It lets you browse your database to select individuals for corrections or further additions. You can bring up the RM4 Explorer by clicking the 'Search' button on the toolbar, or by selecting 'Search, Person list' from the main menu, or by pressing Ctrl+F. Explorer can be resized by clicking and dragging the edges of the dialogue, and the program will, usefully, remember the size and position next time you open it.
Sundry facts can be amended here, including general Notes, Sources, Media, To-Do, and Address items. You can search by name, record number, or information, and there are 'prior' and 'next' facilities for progressing through the database. Close match finds are also useful here.
RootsMagic To Go
Two critical additions to the RM4 suite are included in the RootsMagic To Go add-on, for which a shortcut is provided by default. The first lets you put on removable media an auto-running copy of RM4, so you can transport the entire application to another PC, without installation on the host hard disk, for demonstration purposes. The second option lets you copy your databases to the removable media, whether it be external hard drive or USB stick.
Interestingly, the list of available "removable" drives also includes main drive partitions, ie additional to the C: partition. These are not, of course, removable. You can, if you choose, back up to them, but since the possibility of main drive failure is a primary reason for taking backups - in which case a backup partition on it would not be of much use to you - our advice is to at least supplement that and install and then select a genuinely removable drive.
Such backup facilities are additional to those available in the application itself, of course, where you can specify upon exiting, or at any other time, where to automatically store those critical backup files for the time when you corrupt the database, at which time you could lose everything were it not for your backup copy.
Being able to take the application with you, complete with all your databases, is a thoughtful provision that will be valued by many, but our recommendation is to routinely take the standard option, as well as backing up to at least two external locations when you prepare to exit RM4, with rotation between these media at subsequent sessions. We have known less knowledgeable PC-using genealogists lose up to thirty years worth of carefully gathered data in a single computer crash or incidence of corruption - not a pleasant thought. So having multiple backups is the answer, and you should periodically make sure your backups are viable by test restoring to a new database.
Standard backups can also be taken to a CD drive. RM4 uses it's own burning software to do this, but be aware that the track is closed upon completion, so multiple databases need separate burns on fresh disks. For this reason you might choose to run your own burning program, selecting all your databases for a single copy process.
Interfacing with on-line databases
RM4 eases the movement of information between the world's great genealogical databases such as you can find at www.new.familysearch.org for example. It bridges the gap between your personal family history data and the New FamilySearch site. Using RM4 you can match and seamlessly share your family data with others through this web site, as well as retrieve new information from it. It also makes cleaning up and correcting duplicates on New FamilySearch easier. But RM4 allows you to do things that are not possible with New FamilySearch alone, such as print charts and books, keep private information, and create Shareable CD's, so these are useful facilities.
We did note the occasional lock-up when matching and syncing data between NFS and RM4, though this has been substantially reduced by the latest updates. Using online databases always leaves the users open to potential problems with server viability at the time, or user overload. Fortunately, RM4 responds well if you have to shut down via Task Manager, and since with few exceptions your recent additions are safe due to immediate writing of data to disk as you enter it, there's little chance of significant loss. The editing facilities for personal data you have just added do require that you click on a Save button, but otherwise it's generally a case of 'type it in and it's saved'.
Platinum additions
For this review we were sent the Platinum Edition of RM4, and this includes six additional CDs bearing respectively: 1898 Atlas Maps, 1898 Atlas Index and Street Maps, Index to Changes of Name 1760-1901, Burke's Encyclopaedia of Heraldry, Scottish Landowners 1872-1873, and finally, English and Welsh Landowners 1873. Dedicated researchers may value these.
In conclusion
RootsMagic v4 is a native Windows program, it contains no .NET bloat, and it uses its own embedded database engine. A major re-write of the program has obviously been necessary to accommodate this, but not having to integrate an external database engine spells speed, and RM4 has plenty of that. Despite major additions to functionality in this release, especially its web interfacing, we found the program quick and convenient.
Indeed, the major development that's been added lies in this capability to search the major genealogical web sites of the world from within the application itself. Of course there's nothing to prevent you from running your chosen research sites from separate windows in your web browser, while having RM4 running in a separate window perhaps, but that would be to deny the considerable power of integrating such facilities into the single application where data exchange and update is direct and easy to carry out.
We say 'easy', but newcomers may still value the video tutorials the publisher has assembled. These take the user through the procedures to exchange and share data, and you may want to run some of these more than once before you understand the full implications of the technology.
One final word for Windows Vista users. If upon exiting the program you are confronted with the message "There was an issue with the following Application Preference C:\ProgramData\RootsMagic\Version4\RootsMagicApp.xml", then you should try giving Users full access permissions in the security settings. This is not necessary for RootsMagic to operate correctly, it's just Vista going overboard with its idea of data security.
While we have no doubts that further downloadable updates to this program will be forthcoming at appropriate times following additional advances in the technology associated with the subject, in all of it's many facets we could discover no major flaw by which to criticise RootsMagic v4 in a serious way. It's a recommended buy or upgrade, and the user's forum which you can join is useful for exchanging ideas on both the subject and the program.
