Re: Show All - Family Tree Maker software - Family History ...

I am going to make an assumption that you do not mean everybody in your database, but every body in a family. As I remember when installed FTM show four windows. On the right is the index, with bookmarks history etc at the bottom of the column. In the top middle is the tree structure, on the right is the window with personal facts, and in the middle the parents and children.

Any of these windows can be closed or opened to cover the entire screen by right clicking on the multiple dots in the boarders and dragging them to the width you want the window.

Assuming you have closed the right, top, and left windows you can show three generations of the family in the People view, clicking the Person tab, and then the Relationship tab.

As said previously you can view all of your people in the index and sort and filter it as you desire. In several of the windows you can access this index by clicking icons in various places in on the screen. there are several.

The beauty of FTM it is a database and you can arrange the windows to any size and thing you want.

You said you have your data in a Excel spreadsheet. I believe that once you start using the database structure, you will not go back to a spreadsheet for large quantities of data like genealogical data. Spreadsheets work well for sequential data that has no relation between the entries, (Like assay reports that are taken every day.). For Genealogical data where there may be a dozen facts that are shared by a dozen people, and each person's connections are different. You will find the database structure works best for this type of data.

My major complaint on FTM is that the windows that can be open at one time is tied to one family. I wish that I could have multiple windows of several families open at the same time, like is possible in a real database.

In the reports you can also create an outline report of everybody in your tree. FTM has many different reports and charts so you can get the presentation of your data in the format you want.

Source: http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/topics.software.famtreemaker/9071.2/mb.ashx

NBCOlympics Danell Leyva