Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 10: Places II

I installed FamilyTreeMaker 2008 three weeks ago and uploaded a large database to see how it worked. I also started a new database to test other program features. Please see the list at the bottom of this post for the earlier posts.

In this post, I want to describe the different mapping options that you see when you click the map controls.

By the way, FTM 2008 uses Microsoft Virtual Earth for the mapping feature.

Here's the FTM 2008 screen after I resolved Westminster, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA in Post 9. There's a stickpin in the road map that shows where Westminster is:



There are several buttons in the upper left-hand corner of the map. The Zoom In (+) and Zoom Out (-) buttons are hard to see, they're to the left of and below the circular feature, which can be used to move north, east, south or west on the map. There are 17 levels of Zoom available - from a world view to a neighborhood view (about 60 feet to the inch). You can also move the map around at any Zoom level or view using the "magic hand" by left-clicking and holding the mouse button down.

There are buttons for 2D, 3D, Road, Aerial, BirdsEye and Labels across the top of the map (with the blue background). What is shown below is both 2D and Roads, but zoomed in so I can view beautiful downtown Westminster.


I clicked on the Aerial button and the image changed to the terrain view - you can now see the visible features of the view, roads, houses, vegetation, etc. Some of the roads are overlaid with road names and the roads shown are wider than they actually are, as shown below:


Lastly, I clicked on the Birds button and got a birds-eye view of the area where the stickpin is located, as shown below:


Again, the roads are overlaid with the street names and now the actual roads shown, in this Zoom level, are wider than the overlay. You can see the large church in the lower right, the town hall on the east side of Bacon Street, the library on the north side of Main Street just west of Bacon, etc. It sure looks like the picture was taken in winter or spring, doesn't it?

I really like these features of FamilyTreeMaker 2008. In the upper right-hand corner of the screen are menu items for Delete, Print and Share. The Delete item deletes the place name highlighted in the index. The Print item permits you to print the map, a Place Usage Report for the highlighted place name, or a complete Place Usage Report. The Share item permits you to upload the map image to Ancestry.com, to Send the Place Usage Report, or the Place Usage Report for this place, to an email address, or to Export the Place Usage Report, or Place Usage Report for this place, to a file.

Previous posts in this series:

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 1: Loading. Installing the program and uploading an existing database file. *

Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 2: Exploring. Looking around the uploaded database file to see what the different views look like.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 3: The Menus. Most of the menus were itemized and described.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 4: Starting a New Tree. I started a new tree and added some people demonstrating the program options to do this.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 5: Adding a Source. I added sources to the Facts that I previously entered.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 6: Adding Children to a Family. I added children to a family.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 7: The Person Menu. I described the items in the Person menu and attached a spouse to a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 8: Finding a Person in the database. I described three ways to Find a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 9: Places I. I explored the vagaries of the Places icon.

In the next post, I'll demonstrate how to Resolve all of the Place Names that don't satisfy the FTM2008 Place Authority.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Randy, Thanks for the great run down of the features of FTM. Having grown up in Westminister, it was a neat surprise to see the town used as an example.

I am looking for the ability to print maps in some report form - ideally a family migration history. Does FTM offer anything of the sort? Thanks.