RootsMagic 8

Show Notes: Bruce Buzbee, CEO of RootsMagic, the leading genealogy software program joins Lisa Louise Cooke for an update on what’s new at RootsMagic.

rootsmagic 8 update

Video and show notes

You’ll learn:

  • why you need a genealogy software database rather than just an online family tree,
  • Bruce’s 3 favorite features of RootsMagic 8,
  • and what’s new at the RootsMagic website.  

Watch the Video

Resources

Download the  ad-free Show Notes handout  (Premium Members exclusive)

Show Notes

One of the best and most popular software programs for genealogy is RootsMagic. Here to give us the latest on RootsMagic and RootsMagic. 8, which is the newest version, is the developer and the CEO of RootsMagic, Bruce Buzbee.

Genealogy Software versus Online Family Tree

Lisa: One of the questions I get a lot is how is having your genealogy on a software database, like RootsMagic, different or preferable to having just an online family tree?

Bruce: We get we get asked that a lot, why should I do this when I can keep my tree on Ancestry or FamilySearch, or MyHeritage?

No one can change your data

The biggest thing is having your data on your computer, on your own computer. That way you have complete control over it. You don’t have to be connected to the internet in order to access your data, and you don’t have to worry about somebody else coming in and changing your data. Some of the places you can put your data are global trees (where all users contribute to one shared tree). This means that other people can go in and change your information.

Control over your data without a subscription

Some of the online trees are not global, and you do have your own tree. But you have to pay per year to do that. And if you stop paying, all of a sudden, you’ve kind of lost some of that control over your over your data and linked records.

Backups

If you have your genealogy database on your own computer –  the pictures, scanned documents, all of those things are on your computer – you can make backups of them, so they’re safe.

Protection from website changes

The other advantage to having it on your own computer is just the peace of mind that if that website has problems or goes down or something happens, you’ve still got your own copy.  So, you don’t have to worry about that.

Reporting

Another advantage of having your data on your own computer is the fact that there are unique things you can do in a desktop program that there just isn’t the computational power to do on a website. Things like doing massive merges and generating large reports. Those are things that if your data is up on website, the only way you can get all of the data, for example, for your whole database in a report is to download all of that data into a report or have the website actually have the computational power to generate that report, and then send you that report over the internet. Both of those are very difficult to do, transporting that data back and forth or being able to generate enough computational power for each individual user. If you have thousands or millions of users you can’t, as a website, dedicate that much power to each one of those users. Whereas on your own personal computer, that computer is only working on your what you’re doing.

Lisa: That’s a great point. I mean, I’m a huge advocate of having what I call it my master family tree in my software on my computer for all the security reasons you mentioned.

You also talked about, which I think is so important, that ability to slice and dice and have so many layers of data that we can analyze. And I think the more ways we can look at our data the better so that we can learn more from it.

The Origins of RootsMagic

When did RootsMagic begin? I feel like it’s been out there forever.

Bruce: The actual RootsMagic program was released in 2003. I actually had written a program called Family Origins before that, which was kind of a predecessor to it. It was sold through another company. I did all the development and everything and they did the sales and marketing. That was release in about 1991. So, we went about 10 years as Family Origins, and probably about almost about 20 years as RootsMagic.

RootsMagic 8

Lisa: that’s amazing. And it’s gone through many different versions. Of course, the most recent release was RootsMagic. Eight. Tell us about that. When did that come out? And what are what are we getting now?

Bruce: RootsMagic 8 came out October 2021.  In January 2021 we released a kind of public community preview. So, we did about 10 months of just letting users pound on it and complain about it and give us opinions  – you should change this, this doesn’t work right, or I like this, or I don’t like that. We were able to use a lot of that information.

We released it in October 2021 and it’s by far our biggest update. It was a total rewrite. We basically started from scratch, because there were a lot of things in the earlier versions that could really bog you down. You’d go into the older versions of RootsMagic, and you’d be looking at a screen with people, and if you wanted to see your places you’d have to pop up another screen. If you wanted to see your sources, you’d have to pop up a separate screen to see your sources. And so, you had to go into these multiple levels of depth, screen after screen. to get to things. Then, when you were ready to get back to your people, you’d have to close each pop-up screen to get back. So that was one of the things that we really wanted to fix with version 8.

In version 8 one of the big things is kind of the overall workflow to doing things. Instead of always being on a person screen, and then hopping to sources, or hopping to places or hopping to tasks or hopping to something else, and then going into that, and then when you’re done backing out, and then to go to something else, you have to go back, what we did is we created multiple views in the program. So, there’s the person view. You can be looking at any person, and if you want to see the places, you just change your view to the place view. It’s not a separate pop-up window. You can switch to that view and switch right back. And you can switch from the person view to a place view, and then switch directly from that to source view, and then directly to a task view or the address view. You can switch between these views without having to always come back to that person view. So, it really speeds up getting things done. 

Another great thing about these views is since they’re not a pop-up, whatever you’re looking at on that view stays on that view. So, if I’m looking at the places and I select a particular place, I see all the information about it. If I want to look at a source, I can switch to the sources. And when I switch back to that place view, I’m still working with the same place as I was before, I’m not having to go back into a place pop-up and then search for that place again to get back to where I was. It just it basically keeps in its’ memory a lot more things. You’re not having to search over and over for that same thing. When you’re on it, you’re on it.

Lisa: That makes a lot of sense. What you offer over an online tree is all of these different ways to look at our data.

Why Does RootsMagic Need Changing?

Is it that over the years with all the different updates those layers kind of accumulated and then it brings you to a place where it needs updating?

Bruce: Exactly!

And every time you come up with an update, we think ‘oh, we’re going to add this new feature.’ So, for example, in the past we added to do lists, and then we added research logs and then we added the ability to do more stuff with sources. Every time we added something it was like, ‘Oh, well, the best way to do that is to pop-up a new screen and put everything there.’ And every time you added a new feature, it just added another thing you had to, like going back and forth.

Now if we were to add a new type of feature, we don’t necessarily have to make a pop-up. We can create another view and make it always available so that you can switch in and out of it without losing your place within that view.

Lisa: So, it was a complete rewrite, and I know that it synchronizes with some of the online family trees websites. It had to have been an arduous process. You said that you went through months and months of user testing, which I think is fantastic. So many times, you look at a website, and you think they must never have run this past anybody who ever used it, because it doesn’t look like it runs the way a user would use it. How was that process for you? Was that a difficult decision to invest the time upfront, and have people wait until it can be launched the way you felt like it needed to be?

Bruce: We were still fixing bugs too. So, it wasn’t like we took a completely bug free program and asked users to try it out. They were finding bugs and reporting bugs, and they were also reporting this is overly complicated here to do. And so, there were places where we would tear something out and change it a little bit, or we would leave something the way it was working because we liked it.

Some of the users found it was harder than what they were used to. So, we went back and added functionality that was more similar to what they maybe were used to. Probably our biggest challenge even now is users that are coming from RootsMagic 6 or 7 that have been using it forever. All of a sudden 8 works different. It’s not the same, and they feel like ‘oh, this is harder to use’ when in reality, it really isn’t, it’s just different. We have new users that are coming over from other programs or from no program at all, and they overwhelmingly love the way it works. They love the way they can get around and switch to any view. They overwhelmingly love it.

It’s our own existing longtime users that seem to have the most issues with it, which is unfortunate. A lot of that is just because it doesn’t work the same as it used to. I’m the same way. I understand completely! For example, with my programming tool suite, if a new version of my programming tools come out, and they work quite a bit different than it was, I almost immediately hate it! But after I use it for a while, I’m like, ‘Okay, I guess I can see why they did this.’ But I had my I had my groove, and now my groove was disrupted. The hotkeys are not the same, for example. I used to be able to do all this, this, and this and something was done. Now it’s like, I have to do different alt keys, I have to click twice instead of hitting four Alt keys. And so, for them it feels like it takes longer, when in reality, there are fewer steps. It’s just not what somebody is used to.

Lisa: Right, change is always a little challenging!

Bruce: I understand it completely because I’m the same way.

Can RootsMagic Run on a Mac?

Lisa: Can we use this on a PC and a Mac?

Bruce: Yes. With version 8, we now have a native Mac version and a native Windows version. They both work exactly the same.

If you use one and then switch to the other, it looks exactly the same except it’s got little red, yellow and green dots instead of x’s. But yes, they have the same file format. They have the same set of commands.

Many times, you’ll have a software product that the Mac version and the Windows version are quite a bit different. That’s because they’re completely separate sets of code. You have one team developing Mac, and one team developing Windows. They look and work differently and maybe sometimes even have different file formats.

With this, they’re the same. They look and feel the same. The command structures are the same, the screens are the same, the file format is the same. In fact, when we sell the program, you get a key, and it’s good for both the Windows and the Mac version. So, if you have a Windows computer and a Mac computer, when you buy the program, you’re entitled to use both versions. You can install one on your Mac and one on your Windows computer.

Top Features of RootsMagic 8

Lisa: That’s terrific. So, we’ve talked about all the new great views, and that it works on both PC and Mac. That’s two great features. What’s your third favorite thing about the new program?

Bruce: Well, it’s a tie. It’s a tie between tasks, which are new, and our new report engine.

Reports

We rewrote our reporting engine. In the older version our reports were using a word processor control that we licensed. It had some limitations. It couldn’t create really large reports. And there was a bunch of things with it that we didn’t like, but we couldn’t fix because it was a third-party product.

When we switched to going both Windows and Mac, the product was only available for Windows, so we had to rewrite the report engine from scratch. It’s giving us a lot more flexibility to do things on reports in the future.

One of the things we can do in reports is instead of saving as a rich text file, we can save report as actual Word .docx files, an actual Word document. It comes into your word processor, whether it’s Word, or whether it’s Libre, or whatever you use. They can all read a .docx file. It’s a lot more structured. It’s not quite as rolling the dice that it will work as RTF as RTF was. 

Tasks

Then with tasks, we kind of combined things in RootsMagic 7.  We had to do lists. We had research logs, we had correspondence logs, we had all these things, which all were very similar. What we did is we kind of replaced those all with what we call tasks.

Tasks are super flexible. You just create a task, and that task in RootsMagic can link to almost anything. It can link to people, places, sources, citations, addresses, and media. What’s nice is, instead of having like a hardwired Research Log, where you go in and say I want to create a research log, and this is what it’s, and going in and manually adding items to that research, you can just create a task. You attach it to whatever people or families or events or sources or places you want. Then when it comes time to generate a report, you just say give me all the tasks that are attached to this group of people that are within 50 miles of this place. You end up with customized research logs. So, instead of having to create a fixed research log, and then adding individual items to it that only belong to that, you take these tasks that are attached to any number of things. Then you just tell it, give me a list of all the tasks for whatever criteria you want. The result is a completely customized Research Log, customized to do list, whatever you want to use it for.

That’s one of my favorites. It’s super flexible. It can be a little confusing to work with at the beginning. But once you kind of see what’s going on and the simplicity – that all you have to do is create a task and attach it to whatever you want – it’s great.

RootsMagic Help and Website Features

Lisa: Tell folks a little bit about the website. You guys have always been in the forefront of providing support and education for being able to use your program to its fullest capability.

Bruce: From the website, you can access, basically everything we have.

Help Chat

When you go to the website, down on the bottom corner, there’s a chat feature. You can chat with our tech support if you need help. They can answer questions and help you out.

RootsMagic Wiki

We also have a wiki. We’ve moved away from the online help of the past. You’ll find it on our website in the menu under Learn. It’s nice because it’s much better than help, for several reasons. One, we can keep it updated. With the old Help feature, if we change or add something, you don’t know about it unless we remember to update the Help file. Now, as soon as we add something, we can stick it on the wiki.

The other thing that’s nice about the wiki is that we can put videos and more graphics and links in there to other topics. Everything you could possibly want to know about how to use RootsMagic is there in the wiki. 

Videos and YouTube Channel

We have tutorial videos and our YouTube channel. We have a bunch of YouTube videos on how to use the program.

Webinars

We also have the videos of webinars we’ve done. We’ve been slacking a little bit, the last few months, and we haven’t had a webinar recently. We need to get back on that. But all of the webinars that we’ve had, and we’ve recorded, they’re available up there to watch as well.

Online Community

We have an online community, a message board, that’s very active. We of course have a blog with articles on all kinds of help topics. And we have our email newsletter. That’s kind of where we notify people when there are updates or if there are things we need to contact them about. We do that mainly through our email newsletter. So, all of those things are available through the website.

New Website

We redid the website at the same time that we released RootsMagic 8. The old website was kind of clunky. It wasn’t mobile responsive. So, we redid it all.

User Groups

Oh, I guess we also have a list of user groups on our website, too. There are user groups all over the country, in fact they are worldwide. It also includes a list of people who want to start a user group. So, if somebody wants to start a user group in their area because there isn’t one, they can give us their name and contact information. We can put that up so people can connect easily and quickly.

Lisa: There is certainly a lot that’s new this year at RootsMagic. Bruce, thank you so much for stopping by. It’s been terrific talking with you!

Resources

Download the  ad-free Show Notes handout  (Premium Members exclusive)

 

Family Tree independence is here! TreeShare™ for Ancestry by RootsMagic

Big News: TreeShare™ for Ancestry has launched, and Ancestry Hints are now part of RootsMagic’s WebHints™. Both are now available as a free update to RootsMagic 7. No more missing data or trying to remember if you added a new ancestor to your database and your online tree at Ancestry. TreeShare™ for Ancestry makes it possible to synchronize your RootsMagic computer database with your online Ancestry family tree for the first time.

RootsMagic FamilyTree for Ancestry

 

TreeShare for Ancestry

From the RootsMagic blog:

“RootsMagic’s TreeShare for Ancestry will let you move data between your RootsMagic files on your computers and your personal Ancestry online trees. You can transfer people, events, notes, source citations, and even pictures between the two systems.

RootsMagic users also gain the ability to easily share and collaborate with others by giving family members access to their Ancestry online tree. Using the new TreeShare feature, family members can then synchronize the latest changes and additions to both the online tree and their desktop computers.”

This means that if you are an Ancestry subscriber and you have RootsMagic 7, you will finally be able to synchronize your tree between the two! According to Ancestry’s blog:

“You can transfer people, events, notes, source citations, and even pictures between the two systems.”

“Integrating with Ancestry’s trees and records has been one of our most requested features,” said Bruce Buzbee, president of RootsMagic. “It’s exciting to work together with Ancestry to make this happen. The feedback that we’ve received from those who have tested TreeShare has been phenomenal.”

Ancestry Hints Integration

Works-With-Ancestry

The new Ancestry Hints integration means that RootsMagic users now have the convenience of reviewing their Ancestry Hints from within the software. New information and media from matching records can be added into your own genealogy file.

Available Now

The update is free for users of RootsMagic 7 and RootsMagic Essentials 7 and is available via direct download or through the “Check for Updates” feature within RootsMagic.

Learn More

 

Free RootsMagic Essentials Software

From RootsMagic:

“For those that are just starting their journey into the world of genealogy, RootsMagic offers “RootsMagic Essentials”- a free version of their software with a limited set of features tailored towards beginners.

If you have an account with Ancestry, RootsMagic Essentials includes the ability to upload your file to Ancestry or download your existing online trees from Ancestry.  If you are a subscriber to Ancestry, RootsMagic Essentials also allows you to search and view all of the content in your subscription.  Those wishing to compare and transfer individual records between RootsMagic and Ancestry will want to use the full-featured RootsMagic software.”

You Still Need to Backup Your Data

Even though you can synchronize the tree in your database with your online Ancestry tree, you still need to set up an automatic Cloud backup system for you entire computer hard drive. In the end, your tree is your responsibility to preserve for future generations. I use Backblaze, and they are the official backup of my free Genealogy Gems Podcast. No matter what service you decide to go with in the end, the most important thing is that you do indeed set up automatic Cloud backup for your computer hard drive which of course, includes your RootsMagic family tree.
Our blog posts contain affiliate links and we will be compensated if you use them. Thank you for supporting the free Genealogy Gems Podcast and blog!

Free RootsMagic Guides to Download and Share

Free RootsMagic Guides to Download and ShareFree RootsMagic guides, called Magic Guides, are easy to download and share. This is just another reason why we love and recommend RootsMagic as the go-to genealogy software.

RootsMagic is downloadable genealogy database software that keeps all your family tree data nice and organized. It allows you to source your information, and create charts and reports. You can link to FamilySearch Family Tree and even access automated record hints at MyHeritage.com and Findmypast. Ancestry.com integration is coming soon; you can already import Family Tree Maker files easily.)

RootsMagic 7.0 can be downloaded for $29.95 by clicking here or you can try out the free version called RootsMagic Essentials.

Free Magic Guides

RootsMagic has many wonderful features you will want to try. Don’t learn by trial and error which can be frustrating. Download these free RootsMagic guides which make it easy to utilize the program to its fullest. These free guides are called Magic Guides. Each Magic Guide covers a single RootsMagic topic and includes step-by-step instructions with illustrations and tips. The guides can also be copied and distributed (but not sold) as handouts in groups when you teach others in RootsMagic classes, making them a perfect resource for genealogy societies.

You can find a list of all the Magic Guides available by going to the RootsMagic website and clicking on Learn at the top of the screen. Then, choose Magic Guides (handouts).

RootsMagic downloadable guides

From installing to importing and everything in between, Magic Guides are a helpful addition to your using RootsMagic.

How to Get Your Free RootsMagic Guides

To download a guide to your computer, click the Download button under the title you want. Some devices are already set up to open the guide in PDF format. Other devices may require you to click Save Link As. If you are required to save the link, remember to save it somewhere you will remember. I suggest saving it to your desktop where it is easily accessible.

RootsMagic downloadable guides

As an example, I downloaded the Magic Guide to Create a Shareable CD. I always enjoy sharing my new findings with the family and RootsMagic makes it so easy to do. The guide to creating a shareable CD is four pages long. It offers instructions on how to burn it now or burn it later, which is really nice in case I get distracted!

Here’s What I Learned from Free RootsMagic Guides

One thing I really love about these guides are the tips. In this guide, I learned that when creating a CD, you are making an exact copy of your database. That means all your private facts and notes that you may not want to share with the entire family, will be visible. With a few quick steps, the guide walks you through how to exclude these private facts and only share what you want to. Isn’t that great!

Share this Free Resource

If you have a friend who is new to using RootsMagic, be sure to share with them how they can use the free RootsMagic guides to enhance their experience. Share this article on Facebook or tweet about it! After all, everyone loves good news!

More Gems on RootsMagicBe_A_Dear_Please_Share

RootsMagic Review: Why I Use It

RootsMagic for Mac Users and More RootsMagic News

RootsMagic Update for FamilySearch Compatibility

 

Update Now! RootsMagic Update for FamilySearch Compatibility

Rootsmagic upgradeIf you use RootsMagic to work with FamilySearch Family Tree, you must install a RootsMagic update (version 7.0.6.0) to continue working with it after July 30, 2015!

FamilySearch will be making changes to its own site on July 30, 2015. These changes require RootsMagic to change their own code a little, so RootsMagic users can stay fully compatible with FamilySearch Family Tree.

Here’s the scoop from a RootsMagic press release:

“If you are running RootsMagic 7…. If you haven’t already downloaded the update, look for the “Update Available” indicator in the lower right corner of your RootsMagic 7 program screen, and click on it.  You will then be able to continue working with FamilySearch Family Tree as if nothing has changed.

If you are running RootsMagic 6….To continue working with FamilySearch through RootsMagic, you have 2 options:

  1. Order the upgrade to RootsMagic 7 [it’s $19.95] OR
  2. Download the free RootsMagic 7 Essentials and install it (leave your RM6 installed as well). RootsMagic 6 and 7 have the same file format, so you can switch back and forth between them with your same database. You can use all the features in your paid RM6, and use RM7 Essentials when you need to work with FamilySearch Family Tree.

For the full scoop on what’s new with this update, click here. Please share this important post with other RootsMagic users!

Read these articles next for more on RootsMagic:

Best Family History Software (And Why Use It!)

Why I Use RootsMagic Family History Software

Free RootsMagic Magic Guides

Free Support for RootsMagic Users

RootsMagic + MyHeritage = Heritage Magic!

 

Write Your Family History Book with RootsMagic

Writing a family history book is a daunting task. Check out this quick tip that will help you write your family history book with RootsMagic with just a few clicks!

rootsmagic_famhisbook_feature

Credit: Freepik.com

I love the many reports that can be generated from RootsMagic. RootsMagic is a genealogy software program that allows you to organize all your family history in one place. The software offers many types of printable reports like pedigree charts and family group sheets, but my favorite is the narrative report.

Write Your Family History Book with RootsMagic Using the Narrative Report

The purpose of a genealogy software program is to organize and analyze all of your genealogical data. The good news is that while you are popping in names, dates, and places in your RootsMagic database, behind-the-scenes, your book is actually being written.

Take a look at what I mean. Open your RootsMagic database and look at your family pedigree. Highlight yourself and then click Reports at the top.

Write Your Family History Book Using Narrative Reports

Choose Narrative Reports from the pull-down menu. A pop-up window will appear asking you to choose whether your report will include all the children or just spouses, how many generations to include, and some other format options.

I typically prefer to include as many generations as I can and I like to include the children. When you add the children of each couple to your report, it may be significantly longer so be aware of that.

When you have finished, click Generate Report.

family history with RootsMagic settings

RootsMagic slurps all your raw data into sentence form. Where you once recorded “Georgia Ann Smith, born 11 Nov 1913, Allen County, Ohio,” now reads, “Georgia Ann Smith was born on 11 Nov 1913 in Allen County, Ohio.” A sentence was created using your data.

RootsMagic_FamilyHistoryBook_5

Additionally, the narrative report allows you to:

  • Change the settings to influence how the sentences are structured,
  • Add notes to the appropriate section allowing a story to develop in chronological order,
  • Add pictures to enhance your story,
  • Alter the appearance and formatting of your printed report, and
  • Save in Rich Text format and work with it in a familiar program like Word.

Adding Enriching Details to Your Family History Book

Most people would agree, the best family history books are the ones that have fun, memorable stories and pictures. You can easily do this with RootsMagic.

I have a fun story about when Grandma was born. I want to add it to my family history book. If I double click on her name from my pedigree chart, her “edit person” window will pop-up. Then, I can click the Notes column (see the green notebook icon) in the birth line, and add a note specifically about when she was born.

Write Your Family History Book with Stories

After I have finished writing the story about her birth, I simply click Save note.

Now, when I generate my narrative report, the story about her only weighing about 1 1/2 pounds at birth appears right after her name, birth date, and location.

Add special stories to family history book

Adding Pictures to Your Narrative Report

Along with the stories, adding pictures offers another level of depth to your family history story.

RootsMagic’s narrative report will currently only print one image for each person. For example, if I wanted a picture of Grandma to appear in the narrative report, I would need to add the image to her “person.”

Let me show you how simple it is to link an image. In the example below, I have double clicked on Grandma and opened her “edit person” window. Then, I clicked on the media column where the little camera icon is. Notice that the camera icon I choose was in the “person” line. This is the only place you can add an image that will then appear in the narrative report. If you were to add a photo anywhere else, the image would appear in the scrapbook report, but not in the narrative report. When you have clicked the camera icon, follow the prompts to add the image you have already scanned onto your hard drive or disk.

newimage

Now, when you run the narrative report, Grandma’s picture shows up next to her name.

Write Your Family History Book with Images

One Last Quick Tip to Write Your Family History Book with RootsMagic

If you don’t like the way your narrative report is formatted or if you want to enlarge a picture or even add additional images, here’s one last tip! Saving your narrative report in a rich-text file format will allow you to edit the report from Word or another word processing program you are more familiar with.

To save in a rich-text file format, first create your narrative report as written above. When you reach the view screen, click Save at the top left. Then, choose Rich-Text File from the pop-up window options. The program will open your narrative report in your word processor for easy editing.

rootsmagic_famhisbook_1

rootsmagic_famhisbook_2

If you have already been using the software for your family history, you have already started writing your family history book with RootsMagic without even knowing it! Why not print your report today and make it a special gift to yourself. It’s always a good thing to have your family history in written words! What are your favorite reports to create in RootsMagic? We would love to hear from you in the comment section below.

More Gems on Using RootsMagic

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Free RootsMagic Guides to Download and Share

RootsMagic Review: Why I Use It

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