Tuesday, March 4, 2014

First Look at RootsMagic App on Android Device - Post 2

RootsMagic announced at RootsTech 2014 that the RootsMagic mobile app for Android was available.  I was busy at the time, so I didn't seize the opportunity to download the app and report on it.  You can learn more about the app at http://www.rootsmagic.com/App/.

I wrote about the downloading task and navigating around the View menu yesterday in 
First Look at RootsMagic App on Android Device - Post 1.

Today, I want to investigate some of the other features in the Android RootsMagic app:

1)  I tapped on the "Lists" icon at the bottom of the screen, and saw 8 tabs at the top of the screen for "Source," "To Do," "Research," "Media," "Address," "Repository," Correspond," and "Place." 

I tapped on the "Source" list tab and the list of master sources appeared:


i could see the master source title, and the source comments.

2)  Tapping on the "Research" tab, the "Research Log" appeared with the different logs on the left and information in the highlighted log on the right:


3)  The "Media" list tab shows all of the Media items in the database on the left, and the thumbnail picture of the media item, the caption and URL on the right side:


4)  The "Place" tab on the "Lists" screen has an alphabetical list of place names on the left, with the standardized and abbreviated place names, geocoding and notes for the place, on the right:


 5)  I took all of those screen images above in "portrait" mode - what do they look like in "landscape" mode?

In "Landscape" mode, the "View" menu of the pedigree chart looks like this:


There is an alphabetical list of the surnames on the left, and a four generation pedigree chart of the highlighted person on the right.

6)  When I tap on a person, there is a popup window for the person in the lower right-hand corner of the screen:


The user can navigate to the Parents and spouses, but the "View Full Details" link to see information about the person is not there as it was in the "Portrait" mode for some reason.  The only way to see the "Full Details" was to turn the tablet to be in "Portrait" mode.  

7)  The only significant problem I have with this RootsMagic app is that it needs to be updated occasionally.  To do that, I can copy my current database file into the Dropbox folder for the RootsMagic App, and then load it into the app itself as the active database from the "File" icon menu.  I will do that before I go on a major research trip.  

I love the functionality of the RootsMagic app on both iOS and Android - I have my family tree in my pocket, and it's free (but I have to be able to create a RootsMagic file)!  

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Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver



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