Wednesday, November 27, 2013

First Look at Legacy Family Tree Version 8.0 - Post 1: A Walk Around the Menus, Buttons and Tabs

For the record, yesterday Legacy Family Tree gave gifts to the Legacy Family Tree cruisers from 2009 to 2013 - a free Legacy Family Tree Version 8.0 and a one year subscription to Family Tree Webinars!  Thank you, Legacy Family Tree!!!

I downloaded the Standard version of Legacy Family Tree Version 8.0 last night (63.7 mb download), and received my Customer Number email early this morning, and upgraded to the Deluxe version immediately.

I uploaded a GEDCOM file of my master database (over 42,000 persons), selected a color scheme, and selected a startup family.

I want to show you the look and feel of Legacy Family Tree 8.0 in this post.  To do that, I have created screenshots that include one of the 11 menu items with their buttons (no dropdown menus!) along with one of the 7 View tabs (with some of the "Individual Information" dialog box icons also).

1)  The "File" menu, its buttons, and the "Legacy Home" tab:



2)  The "Edit" menu, its buttons, and the "Family" View tab (husband and wife have icons): 


3)  The "Add" menu, its buttons. and the "Pedigree" View tab (4 generations shown):


4)  The "View" menu, its buttons, and the "Descendant" View tab:


5)  The "Reports" menu, its buttons, and the "Chronology" View tab:


6)  The "Tools" menu, its buttons, and the "Index" View tab:


7)  The "Search" menu, its buttons, and the "Research" View tab:


8)  The "Internet" menu, its buttons, and the "Family" View tab (again! - do you see the red ! circles that indicate potential problems?):


9)  The "My Toolbar" menu, its buttons, and the "Individual's Information" dialog box (has icons for alternate names, address, notes, sources, media, calendar, to-do/research log, and LDS ordinance):


10)  The "Options" menu, its buttons, and the "Notes" icon button in the "Individual's Information" screen (fairly primitive editing functions, although has some symbols with diacriticals):


11)  The "Help" menu, its buttons, and the "Media Gallery" icon button in the "Individual's Information" dialog box:



12) Navigation to a related person is best done using the "Pedigree" View, and navigation to an unrelated person is best done using the "Index" View.

13) All of the menu buttons and screen views are available to investigate.  I won't write about all of them, but I will highlight some of the features that I am particularly interested in, including:

*  Source Citations
*  Media 
*  FamilySearch Family Tree interaction
*  Research Guidance
*  Reports and books
*  Charts

I REALLY like the look and feel of the graphic interface.  The screens are very clean looking, and there is liberal use of color to highlight person names, and to denote gender.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/11/first-look-at-legacy-family-tree.html

copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver


4 comments:

Lauren Mahieu said...

I agree - the look and feel of the UI is great. They are lots of really neat features that I'd hoped to "test drive." However, I'm running Legacy on a Mac using Crossover....not sure if that is what is causing the "bugginess" or if others on PCs are experiencing the same issues. It seems most of my issues stem from changing settings from the default - primary family, colors, etc. I'm sure those issues will addressed in upcoming versions/upgrades. I was really hoping that Legacy would adopt more of the RootsMagic spreadsheet approach. While they did for events (you can see what sources and media you have for each item), it doesn't appear that you have the same ability for b, m, d...the most important events...

Steadgreen said...

Hi Randy,
I've been anxiously awaiting this update. I've use version 7.5 for about 2 years. I would like your opinion on what to purchase. I own the manual and DVDs to support version 7. Can I get by with the upgrade alone or would you recommend buying the support materials for version 8? I'd like to make the purchase all at one time if possible. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Just read your latest post. Do you advise waiting to purchase until some of the bugs are out?

Anonymous said...

Randy,
I love keyboard shortcuts, and there is one I cannot find in Legacy8. To add a new, unlinked individual in Legacy 7,for example, I used Alt+A, then N. In Legacy 8, I have to click Alt+A, then grab my mouse. This is a deal breaker. Any tips??
Thanks,
Dee