CGSSD Meeting - FTM Class

The Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) meeting is today at UCSD. Since there is wireless access all over the campus, I can log on and "live blog" the FTM Class and the program presentation.

I got there at 9 AM and went to the FamilyTreeMaker class, led by Lance Dohe. Lance showed 5 minutes from the movie "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" with a fellow running through a graveyard, which was sohwn by dick Eastman at the seminar in May. One of Dick's topics was the movie title.

Lance conducts his class as a Q&A session, since most attendees (about 20) havbe FTM and use it effectively. Among the questions asked in the class were:

1) How do I add birth parents to my database and associate me with them and my adopted parents? The answer is: in a Family View, put your cursor on the adopted child. Then go to [People] and click on "Other Parents." Here you can click on the "Create New Parents" button and add parents names. You should also change the "Relationship with father" and "...with mother" to Adopted or Natural or Step as necessary.

2) How to do a large printout of a family tree? The answer is: You can print it out on your home printer and tape it together. Or you can "Print to File," save it on a flash drive, and take it to a print shop that can make the large print.

3) How do I add a video to my FTM file? The answer is: Click on the Scrapbook icon for the target person, and then click on the [Picture/Object] menu item. In that menu, click on "Insert Object" and an input box comes up. Here you have to click on the "Create from File" button, then browse your computer files to find the video, and click "OK." The video should be on your Scrapbook page. There may be a size limitation for the video.

4) How do you make an AKA Name show up in the Index and in Reports? The answer is: For the target person, click on the "Edit" icon. On the "General" tab, you can add an AKA name. If you want the AKA name to show in the index and in reports, go to the Name Index (F2 shortcut) for the target person, and click on the "Options" button in the lower right corner. Here you can click the appropriate box to "Use AKA if available" and "As an additional entry" or "After Middle Name."

5) How do you make the Surname include pre-names (like the "van der" in "van der Meter? The answer is: Put a back slash before the complete surname and after the complete surname in the Name field. This also works for notes you might want to insert in the surname field - like "son of John and Mary (Jones) Smith" - to differentiate one person from another.

On to the presentation!