Tools on the RootsMagic App

I posted First Look at RootsMagic App for iOS Devices on Monday, and went through the highlights of the "Views" menu on the app on my iPhone.  On Tuesday, I posted Lists on the RootsMagic App and showed the different lists that the App can provide.

Today is "Tools" day - the Tools offered on the RootsMagic App.  Tapping on the "Tools" item on the menu at the bottom of the screen opens the list of Tools:

The "Date Calendar" is very useful - you input information into two of the three fields and tap the keyboard icon to get the information in the third field:

In the screen above, I entered two dates and found out how old I am.  If I had entered, say, a death date and an age at death, the tool would calculate a birth date.  

The "Relationship Calculator" is also very useful.  You select two persons from the list of names in the database and tap the "Calculate" button and see the relationship:

On the screen above, I picked a person at random and myself, and saw:

It took awhile (at least a minute) for the App to tell me that we weren't related.  Still, it is useful.

The "Soundex Calculator" is also useful if you need the information.  You put a surname in the field, and tap "Calculate" and the Soundex code is calculated (true Soundex, plus an alternate Soundex code):

The last Tool is the "Calendar."  The user select the month and year and see the calendar for that month:

This is also useful; for instance, if you have a newspaper article dated 5 May 1890 and the article says the person died, say, "last Friday," you can determine the date they died. 

For a video explanation of how to add the App to your iOS device, add your RootsMagic database (any RootsMagic 4, 5 or 6 database will work) to your device, and go through the Views, Lists and Tools menu items, watch the RootsMagic App webinar at http://www.rootsmagic.com/Webinars/ (when it becomes available).

After working with the App for three days now, and writing three blog posts to try to explain it to my readers, my opinion is that this is an excellent "family tree viewing" app that can be used anywhere in the world (since it doesn't rely on n Internet connection) to inform me about my research to date, and can be used to show my family tree information to family, friends and colleagues.  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/12/tools-on-rootsmagic-app.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver