Tuesday, May 31, 2011

MyHeritage Family Tree Builder Updated

I think I've mentioned that my primary genealogy software is MyHeritage's Family Tree Builder.  I've also used Family Tree maker, and played a bit with Legacy 7.5 and RootsMagic 4. 

Today when I started up Family Tree Builder, I was notified of the availability of an update from version 5.0 to 5.1.  I downloaded and installed it.   There aren't any obvious changes.  Rather, here's what the update consisted of, from the MyHeritage website:


New features in Family Tree Builder 5.1
Last update: May 21, 2011
Major new features
  1. New genealogy file importer
    • The program's file importer was enhanced. In addition to importing GEDCOM files and Family Tree Legends (FTL) files, you can now directly import family tree files from 4 additional genealogy programs. This allows you to move over family tree data with photos from other programs directly to Family Tree Builder without losing information or going through GEDCOM export/import. This is especially useful if you no longer have or are no longer using the software used to produce the family tree files.
      Support was added for importing Family Tree Maker files (FTW, FTM or FTMB file extensions), Personal Ancestral File files (PAF extension), Legacy files (FDB extension) and The Master Genealogist projects (TMG, PJC or VER extensions). Importing family tree files directly from other programs is based on GenBridge(tm) technology under license from Wholly Genes, Inc. This new functionality is available from the "Import GEDCOM or genealogy file" entry in the File menu
    • New super-fast scan tool was added for finding lost genealogy files on your computer. Also available from the "Import GEDCOM or genealogy file" entry in the File menu, you can have Family Tree Builder scan your computer for all family tree files (of different programs) and then select which one to import into Family Tree Builder

So, all of the recent discussion about interoperability and the ability to import and export files from one software to another has been heard!  The software developers are definitely getting the message that GEDCOM is no longer sufficient for transferring and exchanging genealogy data.  FTB is not the only software to get a recent change allowing import of other software's' formats.  Note the blurb above says the import capability is based on GenBridge from Wholly Genes, Inc. 

This is a Good Thing.  It's not a complete solution, for sure, but it's a good start.

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