Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 - Post 15: Creating an Ancestor Name List Report

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In Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 - Post 9: The "Ahnentafel Report" I created an "Ahnentafel Report" (FTM's term) for my ancestral families.  The report included notes, sources, and children. 

One of my favorite reports is the "Ancestor Name List." Some genealogists call it an "ahnentafel" which means "name table" in German, but as constituted here it is not a table, but a list with standard pedigree-ordered numbers.  Tamura Jones calls this an "AhnenList" which is appropriate, with only the ancestors' names and their birth, marriage and death dates and places.  In other words, no Notes, no Sources, no Children - just a list of ancestors.  I find this is much easier for me to use than an interlinked pedigree chart. 

Here is how I created my "Ancestor Name List" report:

1)  In the "Publish" workspace in Family Tree Maker 2012, I selected the "Genealogy Report" collection. 

2)  In the screen above, I clicked on the "Ahnentafel Report" item and a report was created:

A four generation "Ahnentafel Report" with Notes, Sources and Children was created (because that was what I created last time I worked with this particular report).

3)  I wanted to not have Notes and Sources, so on the "Ahnentafel Report Options" (right-hand panel) I clicked on the "Items to Include" icon and de-selected Notes and Sources from the check boxes:

4)  After clicking "OK" I was returned to the "Ahnentafel Report Preview" page and saw that the Notes and Sources were eliminated.  But the Children are still there:

5)  I clicked on the "Exclude Children" in the "Ahnetafel Report Options" list (right-hand panel), then entered 15 generations in the Generations" field  The resulting "Ancestor List Report" is shown below:

 here are 142 pages in my 15-generation "Ancestor List Report."  With Sources selected, the report is 189 pages.

I clicked on the "Share" button and exported this report as a PDF file, and it is 2.2 mb in size.

6)  I scrolled through  the report looking for flaws, and the only thing I saw, in several places, was the bottom line on some pages was partially showing on the bottom of one page and partially showing on the top of the next page:

That flaw appears to be a Footer spacing issue and should be corrected in the next program release.

This "Ahnentafel Report" process is very flexible - in the "Ahnentafel Report Options" panel, the user can add whatever Fact items they want (using the "Items to Include" icon), can change the Font colors, size, typeface, etc. (using the "Fonts" icon), and can change the page orientation and margins (using the "Page Setup" icon).  The user can add a background image (and transparency) to their report (either from the FTM2012 Background image collection, or from the user's computer files).  There are check buttons for "List non-vital Facts separately;" "Include parent/child relationship types;" "Exclude children;" and "Include preparer information."

What other information would you like to see included in the "Ahnentafel Report" in Family Tree Maker 2012?  Please make a comment here, and I'm sure the FTM developers will read it.

See all posts in this series at Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 Compendium.