Friday, November 29, 2013

Reader Comments About Legacy Family Tree Version 8.0 Posts

I've had some helpful reader comments about my two Legacy Family Tree Version 8.0 blogp osts to date, including:

A)  In First Look at Legacy Family Tree Version 8.0 - Post 1: A Walk Around the Menus, Buttons and Tabs (posted 27 November 2013):

1)  Lauren Mahieu noted:  "I agree - the look and feel of the UI is great. There 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 be 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..."

I think what Lauren is saying is that, on the "Individual's Information" screen, you can see the list of Events and that there is an icon indicating the presence of a Source and/or a Media item (or not) for the Events, but they cannot see a Source or Media icon for the vital record (e.g., Birth, Marriage and Death) Events, as shown below:



However, if you click on the "Sources" icon (the three books) next to the person's name, you can see all of the "Assigned Sources" that includes the vital record Events:



2)  TangledRoots asked:  "I've been anxiously awaiting this update. I've used 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."

There are many changes, and many new features, in Legacy 8.0 over Legacy 7.5 and earlier, so the Legacy 8.0 book may be helpful if that is your preference.  There is a "What's New in Legacy 8" video at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/WhatsNew8.asp, and that web page has a comparison chart.  It appears to me that the last four video items mentioned on the chart are from before Legacy 8.

I use the Help function, and check the available online videos when I need more information about how to do something I haven't done before.

3)  Anonymous inquired:  "Just read your latest post. Do you advise waiting to purchase until some of the bugs are out?"

My answer is this:  While this is the initial release, I'm pretty sure that updates to Version 8.0 will be free to registered users and will be ongoing over the years.  So if you buy it now, you will be able to update it for free when updates occur.  

B)  In First Look at Legacy Family Tree Version 8.0 - Post 2: Pedigree Charts (posted 28 November 2013), I had a problem with several items, including:

1)  The four-line color coding didn't work for me when I clicked on the radio button in the "Custom Color" screen.  My expectation was that all of the boxes in the pedigree chart would show the color scheme when this was checked.

Debbie Blanton McCoy commented:  "Randy, the 4 colors show up in my report. I think you have to set the ancestor colors before they will show up. Go to Tools - Set Ancestor Colors and be sure you select yourself as the starting person."

That sounded promising, so I went to the "Tools" menu, clicked on the "Set Ancestor Colors" and for the "Ancestor Group 1" tab I selected the "Track the eight great-grandparents lines with eight colors" and clicked on the "Apply Ancestor Group 1 colors" and saw on the "Pedigree" View:



That certainly is colorful!  I like it.

Having done that, I then tried to use the four-line colors on the "Pedigree Chart."  Here is the result:



It colored the boxes for myself, my parents and my grandparents, but not for the ancestors in earlier generations.  My expectation was that all of the boxes would be colored in.

When I make a pedigree chart for one of my parents, only the boxes for my parent and grandparents are colored in.  If I make a Pedigree Chart for a great-grandparent or earlier, none of the boxes are colored in.

2)  I noted that the source list had put all of the sources for a name or Event in one source number, separated by four periods.

The Lurking Genealogist commented that: "I  was just experimenting with Legacy and when I printed the Pedigree Chart with sources, I clicked on the combine sources to turn it off and then the sources showed up individually in my report."

In the "Report" menu and "Pedigree Chart" button and the "Select A Report" for the "Pedigree" tab, the "Report Options" button has a "Sources" tab, and I unchecked the check box that says "If an event has multiple citations, combined them into one paragraph."

Here is the resulting "Pedigree Chart:"


As you can see, there are multiple numbers for some names and events.  Here is the "Source Citations" listing for the sources noted on the Pedigree Chart:


There were 127 sources (listed over five pages) for this one Pedigree Chart.  

3)  I noted that Sources for the Events for females on the "Pedigree Chart" were not denoted at all - that is still the case, as shown on the Pedigree Chart above.  There are source numbers for the Names of females, but not for the Events.  

C)  As you can probably tell, I'm blundering my way through learning the nuances and new features of Legacy Family Tree Version 8, and once in awhile I find something intriguing or seemingly a bug and write about it.  My readers help out, for which I am thankful!  I'm sure that, once the Legacy Family Tree gurus dig out from their pile of orders, they'll chime in on the real problems and my outright mistakes.

UPDATED:  Debbie suggested Setting Ancestor Colors to the four grandparent lines rather than the 8-great-grandparent lines.  I did that, and she was right - the Pedigree Chart looksl ike this:


Thanks, Debbie!!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/11/reader-comments-about-legacy-family.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver



2 comments:

Debbie Blanton McCoy said...

I think I know what the problem is now. When you go to "Set Ancestor Colors," you need to click on "Track the four grandparents' lines with 4 colors" instead of tracking the 8 grandparents' colors. The Pedigree Chart will only track 4 colors, not 8.

Unknown said...

When printing a report in 8.0 which utilizes the notes section, Legacy adds formatting characters to the beginning of each line within the notes section. I contacted Legacy concerning this issue back in January and they acknowledged it was a programming problem but have not as yet fixed it. If you intend to use the publishing aspect of Legacy I do not recommend this program. Too many bugs and not enough fixes.