Mac Family Tree User Guide

MacFamilyTree 5
Manual
English
MacFamilyTree 5 – Manual
Contents
Page No.
Welcome To MacFamilyTree 9
About This Manual 11
First Steps 13
2.1 15
How To Install MacFamilyTree 15
From CD 15
From An Internet Download 16
The »Sample Tree« 18
2.2 19
Registering MacFamilyTree 19
Locating your product key 19
The registration dialogue 19
»Standard« vs. »upgrade« keys 20
Is my installation properly registered? 21
Troubleshooting registration issues 22
2.3 23
Don't Lose Your Product Key! 23
When do I need the product key? 23
… but I absolutely cannot find it — what now?!? 23
Important: 24
Don't post registration issues online! 24
2.4 25
Demo Mode — Using MacFamilyTree Without A Product
Key 25
2.5 26
Updates — Keeping MacFamilyTree Up-To-Date 26
Why Updates Are Important 26
Automatic update notification 27
Checking for updates manually 28
Downloading an update 28
Backup before proceeding! 29

The installation window 29
Installing is replacing! 30
No additional registration necessary… 31
2.6 33
Don't Throw Away The Box! 33
Tipp: 33
2.7 34
What Are »Public Beta« Downloads? 34
2.8 35
What About Support? 35
This manual 35
Tutorial & FAQ 35
Demonstration movies 36
Support forum & e-mail 36
Your First Look At MacFamilyTree 37

3.1 39
The Startup Window 39
3.2 40
The Main Window 40
Window Title Bar 41
Main Toolbar (consisting of 5 different sets of tools) 41
Main View 42
Navigation Bar 43
Contextual Toolbar 43
3.3 44
Context-sensitive GUI 44
Using MacFamilyTree 49
4.1 51
Importing Your MacFamilyTree 4 Database 51
4.2 53
Step-By-Step To Your First Family Tree 53
Step 1 — Create a new database: »New…« 54
Step 2 — Name your Family Tree: »Save as…« 55

Step 3 — The first family: »Add Family« 55
Step 4 — Defining the »Man« 55
Step 5 — Defining the »Woman« 56
Step 6 — Adding »Children« to a family 56
Step 7 — Editing a person: »Person Editor« 57
Step 8 — Date of birth: »Person Events« & »Event Editor« 58
Step 9 — Know where you are: the »Navigation Bar« 59
Step 10 — Marrying a couple: »Family Events« 59
4.3 64
More »Events« 64
Person Events 65
Family Events 65
4.4 67
Referencing »Sources« 67
4.5 69
»Media« — Multimedia Contents In MacFamilyTree 69
4.6 71
Keeping Everything Organized 71
MacFamilyTree's »Preferences« 71
Working with »Date Formats« 72
Attention When Mixing Date Formats! 74
»Database Maintenance« 75
Using the »Search« 75
»Bookmarks« & »Labels« 76
4.7 78
Understanding Family Relations 78
»Family Assistant« — visualize, edit & navigate 78
»Virtual Tree« — the full scope 83
Track your past: »Virtual Globe« 87
Where it all comes together: »Kinship Report« 91
More »Reports« 91
4.8 92
Presenting Your Research — View, Create, Publish,
Export 92
Viewing A Chart & Customizing View Options 92
Creating Graphic Charts For Online And Print 95

Generating Comprehensive Reports 100
Publish Your Trees On The Web 101
4.9 106
Sharing Your Research — GEDCOM Import & Export106
What Are GEDCOM Files? 106
GEDCOM Import 107
GEDCOM Export 107
Special GEDCOM Support 108
Web-based Genealogy Services 109
4.10 110
One Step Beyond — MobileFamilytree 110
4.11 111
Don't Lose Your Work: Saves & Backups 111
Browsing And Editing In MacFamilyTree 115
5.1 117
Single-Click Or Double-Click 117
5.2 118
Entry Lists 118
5.3 120
Buttons Or Shortcuts 120
»Go-to-Editor« button (!): 121
… more buttons 121
5.4 124
Text Fields 124
5.5 125
Panes, Subviews & Tabs 125
5.6 127
List Views 127
What are »List Views«? 127
Different List Views in MacFamilyTree 127
Common Elements in List Views 131
5.7 137
Icons, Labels, Bookmarks 137
Icons 137
Labels 137
Bookmarks (»Quick Access«) 140
5.8 142
Navigation Bar — Keeping Track 142
5.9 143
Quick Navigation 143
5.10 145
Problem Solving: »Where's that pane gone?« 145
How subviews disappear… 145
… and how you get them back! 145
Read more about MacFamilyTree's flexible GUI 146
5.11 147
One Database Per Window — Multiple Databases Per
Installation 147
5.12 148
Single vs. Multiple Database Files? 148
5.13 149
Working With Multiple Windows And Views 149
5.14 151
Customizing MacFamilyTree's User Interface 151
(Re-) Positioning Subviews 151
Detaching And Combining Subviews 151
Resizing Subviews — Before… 152
Resizing Subviews — … And After! 153
Less Is More — Closing Panes You Don't Need 155
And Once You Reduced The Clutter… 156
5.15 157
»Tiger« vs. »Leopard« 157
Reference 159
6.1 161
MacFamilytree 5 161
Virtual Tree (new with version 5.2) (cf. EN–83) 161
Ancestor Chart 161
Fan Chart (new with version 5.1) 162
Descendant Chart 162
Timeline 162
Virtual Globe 163
Family Chart 163
Statistics 163
Genogram 164
Saved Views 164
(Reports) Reports 164
Person Report 164
Kinship Report (cf. EN–91) 165
Places 165
Events (cf. EN–58, EN–59, EN–65) 165
Distinctive Persons 165
Birthdays 166
List of Persons 166
Saved Reports 166
Publish Web Pages (cf. EN-101) 166
6.2 168
Keep It Safe — Backing Up Your Research 168
Core Data to the rescue 168
Spotlight — track your database files 169
Backup strategies 170
History lesson: how files were stored in MacFamilyTree 4 174
6.3 175
MobileFamilyTree 175
Provide Feedback 176
Software & Copyright 177
Documentation 178
Software Translation/Localization 179
1
Welcome To
MacFamilyTree
EN–9
About This Manual

In the first part of this manual, we'll teach you all the basic skills to
quickly achieve impressive results with MacFamilyTree: we'll show you
how to create your first family tree in just a few steps. How to view it
from different perspectives and how to navigate it using
MacFamilyTree's intuitive user interface.
Further below, we will then describe every single feature of this fifth
generation of our popular genealogy software. And we will guide
you through creating beautiful printed output as well as sharing your
research with family and friends.
Please regard this manual as a »text book« and as a general reference
— it is probably the best idea to read and work through these pages,
chapter by chapter, but not necessarily at once: put the manual aside
whenever you wish and try to apply what you've learned. Also,
»learning by doing« may be the perfect complement: just play with
MacFamilyTree's wealth of features. Experiment and click around in
the intuitive user interface — you will quickly find your way.
Additional information is also available on our product page on the
Internet in the »Tutorial« section and in the Support area.
EN–11
2
First Steps
EN–13
2.1
How To Install MacFamilyTree
From CD
Insert your MacFamilyTree CD into the optical drive on your Mac. A
»MacFamilyTree CD« icon will appear on your Mac's Desktop. Double-
click the CD symbol to show the contents of the installation CD.
The installation consists of the MacFamilyTree application and some
optional items (such as a »Sample Tree«, this manual, possibly some
demo movies and a tutorial in HTML format to be opened with your
favorite Web browser). You may need to double-click the CD icon to
display its contents. The following window will open on your screen:
EN–15
Drag the »MacFamilyTree« icon from the gray area on the left over
onto the »Applications« icon on the right and simply drop it there.
MacFamilyTree will be copied to the Applications folder on your Mac.
A small pop-up window tells you about the installation progress.
From An Internet Download

If you purchased the download-only version over the Internet, you
will need to load the latest version of MacFamilyTree from our
product Web page:
http://www.synium.de/latestversion/macfamilytree.dmg
EN–16
The installation package will be downloaded as a so-called »Disk

Image« (.dmg) and stored either on your Mac's Desktop or under
»Downloads« in your user folder.
Depending on your system configuration, you may need to double-
click the downloaded file. The following window then displays the
contents of the disk image just like it did with the contents of the CD:
Inside the disk image are only the MacFamilyTree application and our
»Sample Tree«. Drag the »MacFamilyTree« icon from the gray area on
the left over onto the »Applications« icon on the right and simply
drop it there. MacFamilyTree will be copied to the Applications folder
on your Mac. A small pop-up window tells you about the installation
progress.
Note: depending on how your Mac is configured, you may need to
authenticate when copying MacFamilyTree to Applications. This is a
normal procedure. Should your authentication be rejected at first,
please try a second time.
EN–17
The »Sample Tree«

After copying MacFamilytree to your Applications folder, copy the
»Sample Tree« to your Documents folder. The Sample Tree is a small
database containing fictional persons and families, together with
some pictures and other information. The Sample Tree can be loaded
into MacFamilyTree and you can manipulate it freely, to get some first
experience with the program.
EN–18
2.2
Registering MacFamilyTree
You need to have your license with the »Product Key« (sometimes
also called »License Key«, »Registration Number« or »Serial Number«)
ready at hand. Where you can find your product key, depends on how
and where you purchased MacFamilyTree:
Locating your product key
Boxed retail version (CD)

The key is printed on the back of the MacFamilyTree »User Guide« or
»Quick Start Guide« if you purchased the boxed retail version.
Download-only version
In the case of an online purchase at one of our Internet shops, you
have received a registration e-mail with the product key..
The registration dialogue

Once you have your product key ready, double-click the
MacFamilyTree symbol in the »Applications« folder on your Mac to
start the program for the first time. On its first start MacFamilyTree
displays a small window on top of the »Welcome« screen which
prompts you for a »Registration«.
EN–19
Enter your product key in the empty field on the bottom of this
window and click on »Register«.
»Standard« vs. »upgrade« keys

Product keys, also called »Serial Numbers«, are unique strings of
alphanumeric characters. At first, you only need one key to unlock
your copy of MacFamilyTree. If you are a long-time user of
MacFamilyTree though, you might have upgraded from e.g.
MacFamilytree 1 or 2 to version 3 or 4 some years ago. Now, with
MacFamilyTree 5, as everything is new, you will need to perform
another upgrade. That is where you will need a so-called »upgrade
key«. The difference between »standard« keys and »upgrade« keys
may not be visible at all.
However, for these special upgrade keys, taking you from earlier
versions of MacFamilyTree to MacFamilyTree 5, we chose the heading
»MFTU-«, with »U« for Upgrade. The rest of the keys consist of numeric
quadruplets separated by »-« (hyphens) again, just like with the
standard product keys:
Standard MacFamilyTree product key (Version 4):
MFT4-1234-1234-1234-1234
Standard MacFamilyTree product key (Version 5):
MFT-1234-1234-1234-1234-1234
MacFamilyTree »Upgrade« product key:
MFTU-1234-1234-1234-1234-1234
EN–20
Is my installation properly registered?

There is a very easy way to check if your installation of MacFamilyTree
5 has been properly registered:
Please go to the Menu Bar at the top of your Mac's screen. Make sure
it reads »MacFamilyTree« right next to the Apple logo. Should it not
read »MacFamilyTree«, please click once on your MacFamilyTree icon
in the Dock.
Now, open the »MacFamilyTree« menu and look for the »Register…«
and »Buy« entries. If they are grayed-out and unaccessible for your
mouse, everything is OK: you have successfully installed and
registered MacFamilyTree! This is how the »MacFamilyTree« menu
should look after a successful registration:
EN–21
Troubleshooting registration issues

Should the product key you entered be refused during the
registration process, this may have different reasons:
! you did not enter the product key correctly, or…
! you inserted the product key into the registration texd field using
the »Copy & Paste« method, accidentally copying invisible
characters (Line Break, Space).
Please re-enter the product key, just like it is printed on your booklet
or in the e-mail you received. Include the prefix »MFT-« and all
separating hyphens (»-«). Should you need help with the registration
process, please contact MacFamilyTree support at Synium Software:
macfamilytree@synium.de
EN–22
2.3
Don't Lose Your Product Key!
Keep the printed booklet (from the retail box), or the registration e-
mail (from your online purchase), respectively, because each of them
contain your product key. Best is to store the booklet or a hardcopy of
the registration e-mail in a safe place.
When do I need the product key?

The product key is required whenever you want to install and use
MacFamilyTree on a new Mac or after reinstalling your Mac OS X
operating system. You may also need it for future updates, special
offers and support requests.
… but I absolutely cannot find it — what now?!?

This is an easy one: just send us an e-mail, and we will respond as
soon as we can:
EN–23
Important:
Please include as much detail as possible about your purchase:
! which product are you inquiring about (in this case
»MacFamilyTree«)
! (estimate of) date of purchase
! your first and last name(s)
! some contact information like city, ZIP code, state, country
! e-mail address (the one you have purchased from). If you are
unsure which e-mail account you used at the time, please send as
many potential e-mail addresses as you can.
But, because of reduced support capacities afterr office hours and
over weekends, you and us being probably in different time zones
and with the usually high work load, please give us some time to
respond. Mostly though, we have a turnaround of just a few hours for
anything related to lost product keys.
Don't post registration issues online!

If you need help regarding MacFamilyTree, you can find a lot of useful
information in our support forum on the Internet. However, please
never post anything regarding registration troubles, lost or seemingly
invalid keys online! You never know, who'll be reading your inquiry!
The Internet is being watched constantly by people and so-called »robots«,
from all over the world. And one of the biggest threats nowadays is identity
theft and fraud resulting from it. We strongly recommend that you post any
requests containing sensitive personal information via e-mail:
EN–24
2.4
Demo Mode —
Using MacFamilyTree
Without A Product Key
Should you read these pages without having purchased
MacFamilyTree yet, that's fine! You can try the program in »Demo
Mode« for as long as you like, but only with a valid product key can
you activate »Save«, »Export« and »Print«.
To work in Demo Mode, simply start an installation of MacFamilyTree
wherever you wish, and in the registration dialogue popping up on
every start of an unregistered copy of MacFamilyTree, just click the
button labeled »Try Demo«.
Demo Mode is also useful if you want to show your database to a
friend or when trying out a new Mac: if you have your database file
with you (the one with the ».mft« suffix; more on this later…), e.g. on a
USB flash drive, you will be able to open and demo your family
research even on an unregistered installation of MacFamilyTree: so
Demo Mode is actually like a »viewer« for MacFamilyTree data.
EN–25
2.5
Updates —
Keeping MacFamilyTree
Up-To-Date
Software has a number of great advantages over »hardware«. If e.g.
your lawn mower or TV set need a major overhaul, things get dirty
and heavy: you may even have to take them to a specialized service
contractor. Instead, with MacFamilyTree, such maintenance is done by
downloading a new version of the program over the Internet. You
then install this update on your Mac, most likely with only a few clicks
with your mouse, and that’s all.
Why Updates Are Important

When we add some exciting new features to MacFamilyTree, we will
make these enhancements available »online«. Many of these updates
are free for registered customers of MacFamilyTree, and since you
have already paid for MacFamilyTree, it makes sense to protect your
investment by keeping it up-to-date.
Sometimes, we also may have to deliver important bug fixes which
you surely don’t want to miss. However, most updates include some
EN–26
more or less important new features, performance improvements and

also bug fixes.
Automatic update notification

MacFamilyTree regularly checks for updates over the Internet. Once
an update becomes available, you will be notified and are guided
towards downloading the latest version of MacFamilyTree. Updating
is just the same process as described above for your first installtion of
MacFamilyTree.
EN–27
Checking for updates manually

If you want to check for the availability of software updates yourself, you
may go to the Application Menu »MacFamilyTree« and choose »Check
For Updates…«. Either you receive above message, and you may then go
to our Web page and download the latest version of MacFamilyTree. Or,
you receive the following message, telling you that your current
installation of MacFamilyTree is OK and does not need to be updated:
Downloading an update
On our product page for MacFamilyTree, you will see at least one big
»Download« button. The one you should be looking out for has a
green arrow on it:
Clicking once on that button will immediately start the download. Your Web
Browser may open a small window and show you the progress while
MacFamilyTree 5’s installation package is being loaded over the Internet.
The downloaded file is the same for updates and full releases. It contains the
latest version of MacFamilyTree. Once it has been successfully transferred to
your Mac, please refer to our tutorial for further information on downloading:
EN–28
http://www.synium.de/products/macfamilytree/index.html#Tutorials
Backup before proceeding!

Important: before continuing with the update process, we
recommend that you always create a working backup of your current
installation. At least, copy your database file, your »family tree« data
file, to a safe place. Remember: the MacFamilyTree program in your
»Applications« folder ist not your family tree!
Please read below about how to create backups of your precious data
(EN–111).
The installation window

Once the download is complete, an installation window opens, with a
text message prompting you to »copy MacFamilyTree to the
Applications Folder« on your Mac. This is really easy — simply drag &
drop the MacFamilyTree icon onto the »Applications« folder icon
inside the installation window.
EN–29
Installing is replacing!
When copying the downloaded MacFamilyTree program into your
»Applications« folder, you will be prompted to replace an existing,
older object. This older object is the older version of MacFamilyTree
already on your Mac's hard disk. Make sure that the application
»MacFamilyTree« is not running and then continue: Acknowledge the
small warning by clicking on »Replace«. This will of course only
replace the MacFamilyTree application. Your family tree and other
settings or data will not be touched.
By the way, depending on how your Mac is set up, you may have to
authenticate as »Administrator« to be able to perform the update: if
an authentication window opens, enter your administrative name
and password.
EN–30
No additional registration necessary…

If prior to the update, and during the update process, everything
went just as supposed to, you can simply start MacFamilyTree and
continue using the program as before — you should not need to re-
register. However, sometimes, you want to make extra sure that your
copy of MacFamilyTree is properly registered.
With your mouse, open the »MacFamilyTree« menu on the top left of
your Mac's screen and look for the two items »Register…« and »Buy«.
Both should be grayed-out and unaccessible:
EN–31
If both are black and can be accessed, then, please register

MacFamilytree (again) by entering your product key — the one that
came with your purchase of MacFamilyTree.
Please refer to page EN–19 for more information about product keys.
EN–32
2.6
Don't Throw Away The Box!
We recommend that you keep the MacFamilyTree retail box —
complete with the »Quick Start Guide« and your original CD: in case
you need to reinstall MacFamilyTree later, even without an Internet
connection, you then have everything at hand: installation and
update instructions, your product key and at least a basic version of
the software itself.
Tipp:
It may be a good idea, to burn an additional CD or DVD with the
download disk image (.dmg) of the most recent version of
MacFamilyTree — from time to time. Even better still to then, on the
same disk, include a backup of your Family Tree database (the ».mft«
file). If you store this CD or DVD in the original retail box together with
guide and product key, you can instantly recover your entire
MacFamilyTree setup.
More information on keeping your data safe can be found in »Don't
Lose Your Work: Saves & Backups« (EN–111).
EN–33
2.7
What Are
»Public Beta« Downloads?
Depending on whether we have a so-called »Beta« test going on,
there may be a second download button with a red »Beta« visible.
Beta versions of any software are considered »unstable«, although
they have in fact been developed with the same care that goes into
the normal, »stable« versions. But Beta software has definitely not
been subject to intensive testing prior to being made available. So,
please, be careful.
EN–34
2.8
What About Support?
This manual
Our first line of support for you is this manual. It is meant as your
companion guide. Use it as a textbook or as a reference. We will also
continuously improve this manual, based on your comments and
suggestions, as well as following our frequent updates to
MacFamilyTree as a software. Please visit the »Download« section on
our product page from time to time, and check if a newer version of
this manual has been published:
http://www.synium.de/products/macfamilytree/
index.html#Download
Tutorial & FAQ

On our MacFamilyTree product page on the Internet, we host a
number of illustrated tutorials for MacFamilyTree. Some of the texts
have been incorporated into chapters in this manual. All have been
inspired by your requests and suggestions, that's why you may also
regard them as »FAQs« (Frequently Asked Questions). Make sure you
have a look at the tutorials availble online:
http://www.synium.de/products/macfamilytree/index.html#Tutorials
EN–35
Demonstration movies
Also to be found on the Internet are some demonstration videos:
http://www.synium.de/products/macfamilytree
Sometimes it is nice to get a first impression of how something works

by just letting someone show it to you. We will add more videos over
time.
Support forum & e-mail

Finally, if you really feel like you need personal assistance, we are
happy to respond to your e-mailed requests, sent to
Although we try to keep response time low, please be patient. Due to

reduced support capacities over weekends and after office hours we
cannot always guarantee an immediate reaction to your requests.
In the meantime, you may want to consult our support forum for
MacFamilyTree:
http://www.synium.de/support
The forum is freely accessible on the Web and intended as a place for
you to discuss ideas and issues with other users. Many answers to
questions others have had about MacFamilyTree are readily available
by searching the forum. And you may also be able to help others by
sharing your own experience.
EN–36
3
Your First Look At
MacFamilyTree
MacFamilyTree 5 has a very intuitive and clean graphic user interface
(»GUI«). We made sure that you can easily collect, manage and share
your family tree. However, as with every new technology, your first
contact may require a helping hand. That's what this manual is about.
Please read below, and also refer to our dedicated online »Tutorials«
for more in-depth information.
EN–37
3.1
The Startup Window
Now — if you haven't done so already — start MacFamilyTree by
either double-clicking the program icon in your »Applications« folder,
or by single-clicking ont its icon in the Mac OS X »Dock«. You will be
greeted by the Startup Window:
Select »Create New Tree« and read on…
EN–39
3.2
The Main Window
After selecting »Create New Tree« fromt the Startup Window,
MacFamilyTree's main window opens:
Take a closer look at the window title bar: can you spot the name
»Untitled«?
EN–40
As we did not save your new family tree under any name it still carries
no »title«, i.e. no name. Saving the your family tree gives you the
opportunity to name it, so you can always tell which tree is yours and
which probably one you received from a fellow genealogist.
In the main window you can clearly identify 5 distinct areas:
Window Title Bar

Here you will find our »Quick Access« buttons to easily add new
persons, families and sources to your database. Also, you can create
and edit »Labels« which are very useful for keeping a well structured
database. More information on the use of labels can be found below
(EN–137).
We've recently added quick access to MacFamilyTree's preferences,
and in the center of the window title bar you find »Bookmarks« — a
brand-new feature (EN–140).
Main Toolbar (consisting of 5 different sets of tools)

MacFamilyTree 5 comes with a large number of tools for you to work
with genealogy data. In the main toolbar to the left, you will find four
sections:
»Edit« (Editors)
With these tools you browse and edit your family tree database. It is
here that you actually add or change information, e.g. add single
individuals as well as entire families, sources, events and e.g.
multimedia files like pictures and movies. Our revolutionary »Family
Assistant« can also be accessed from the Edit section.
All the other functions below serve to visualize or export. But,
whatever information you e.g. leave out of a report, it is still available
EN–41
in the database — you can only edit the database itself with our
»Edit« tools:
»Views«
Generate, edit and print charts and diagrams; visualize your family
tree using interactive 3D views. Charts and diagrams can be output as
graphic or PDF files easily.
»Reports«
Generate, edit and print comprehensive reports in list form. You can
customize every report to only include the information you require.
»Publish Web Pages« (Publishing Tools)

Publish your family tree as HTML, anywhere, including your own Web
page, Apple's »Mobile Me« (.Mac) and our own service at
»MacFamilyTree.com«. The CD/DVD feature allows you to quickly
create HTML representations of your family tree on an optical disk.
These can then be distributed e.g. among family and friends as nice
give-aways on family reunions or as presents over the holidays.
»Mobile Devices«
This feature requires a dedicated mobile device. We currently support
Apple's »iPhone« and »iPod touch« through our mobile client
application »MobileFamilyTree«. MobileFamilyTree is a separate
software which needs to be purchased at the iTunes App Store.
Main View
Most of what you will be doing in MacFamilyTree 5 is achieved
through functions accessible in the »Main View«. Until you select a
tool from the left, this huge central space is empty and gray, with the
application's version number in the lower left and a »tree card«
graphics on the right. The Main View will change contextually,
EN–42
depending on what you click on in the left toolbar and on the actions
you perform in MacFamilyTree.
Navigation Bar
Whenever you work in the Main View, starting out from one of the
tools in the main toolbar, you may move between different editors
and views of items and persons. MacFamilyTree keeps track of your
itinerary and will display a step-by-step »Path« of your movements.
This prevents you from getting lost, but you may also click any of the
wedge-like »Steps« to quickly go back to a previous context.
Contextual Toolbar
This is an area where, depending on the context, MacFamilyTree
offers different options and tools to rapidly access certain, frequently-
needed features. You will also find View Options or other settings
dialogues to change the way the current contents of the Main View
looks or behaves.
EN–43
3.3
Context-sensitive GUI
Like the »Contextual Toolbar« before, much of MacFamilyTree's user
interface changes, dynamically, depending on where you click and
what actions you perform while working with your family tree. This is
intentional and helps you concentrate on whatever you are doing.
Now, before continuing, please close the family tree file you may have
been working on (save it if you have entered any valuable information
already). Then, please open the »Sample Tree« database file we've
talked about earlier. You should have copied it to your »Documents«
folder. If you did not do so, the Sample Tree is still available from the
Download package or CD you used to install MacFamilyTree. Just
make sure you open the Sample Tree before continuing, because it is
easier to follow while immediately trying out some of the hints I'll be
providing.
To keep you focused, we »grouped« certain tools in a way that they
are only visible while you really need them. For the rest of the time,
those tools stay completely out of your way.
For instance, after selecting a family from the »Families« entry list, you
can proceed to the »Family Editor« by either clicking on the small
right arrow (!) or by double-clicking the row for the family in the list.
The Family Editor then opens in the Main View, showing a set of
subviews with information for the selected family. These subviews
EN–44
immediately allow to add and edit some basic information, right

within their text fields and lists:
Now, look below the Main View at the Contextual Toolbar: a number
of »Shortcut« buttons gives you immediate one-click access to some
tools you'd otherwise have to invoke with quite a few clicks more:
Ancestor Chart
Opens the Ancestor Chart of the current family.
Descendant Chart
Click the button to open the Descendant Chart of the current family.
EN–45
Genogram
Click this buttton to generate a Genogram for the current family.
Family Chart
Open the Family Chart of the current family by clicking this button.
Virtual Tree
Jump directly to the Virtual Tree with the current family in focus.
Another important notion is that MacFamilyTree remembers the
context you're working in — independently, for each tool from the
Main Toolbar:
Look at the Navigation Bar, above the Main View. This tiny strip shows
your current location as the rightmost of a series of steps. By a single
click on any of the preceding arrow-shaped steps, you can jump back
to a previous context, e.g. from a family's Descendant Chart to the
editor of the same family.
Note: while you lose the progress in the Navigation Bar, you will still
keep any changes applied to the database. Persons and Media you
added, information you edited — everything will be preserved.
And you can access almost every tool from everywhere: using
shortcut buttons and other contextual user interface elements thus
saves you from jumping around from one tool to another while e.g.
browsing, editing and visualizing all members of a family.
Furthermore, you could be working on several different parts of the
family tree at once:
Starting from the »Persons« list in the Main Toolbar, you could have
added a new person and then created a family with him or her as a
partner or child. While still in that person's context, you could then
access one of the beforementioned chrarts. From within any of the
charts you'll then again have several contextual options to either edit
the person or to access another chart.
EN–46
E.g. in an Ancestor Chart you will see tiny plus (»+«) buttons at every
person's info field. Clicking it then brings about a tiny floating pane,
just like the one you know from the Family Assistant (cf. EN–78).
EN–47
4
Using MacFamilyTree
EN–49
4.1
Importing
Your MacFamilyTree 4
Database
The fourth option in MacFamilyTree's Startup Window is »Import GED-
COM or MacFamilyTree 4 File…« which does excactly what it says: it
imports and exports GEDCOM files from genealogy applications you've
previously worked with, saving you the work of re-entering all the
thousands of persons and their information…
From the Import dialogue, just point MacFamilyTree 5 to your old Ma-
FamilyTree 4 or PC GEDCOM file, and once you acknowledge the dia-
logue, the program starts transferring all the information into a new
database in the MacFamilyTree 5 format. If any media files are linked to
the GEDCOM information and if their location has not changed, this
process automatically imports them too.
GEDCOM makes your genealogy research compatible to various com-
puter operating systems and it also frees you from language bounda-
ries. GEDCOM (GEnealogy DAta COMmunication) is the most widely
used standard for the exchange of genealogy information worldwide.
Thanks to GEDCOM, the same genealogy data is available on Mac OS,
Windows, on Linux/Unix and to some extent also on mobile devices:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEDCOM
EN–51
The procedure you follow while importing your MacFamilyTree 4

database should apply in more or less the same way to importing
information from any GEDCOM-compatible genealogy porgram.
Please also refer to page EN–108 on how to »append« and »merge«
GEDCOM imports and about the »Selective GEDCOM Export…«
feature.
EN–52
4.2
Step-By-Step
To Your First Family Tree
If you have not yet worked with MacFamilyTree you may follow this
guided tour for a first impression on how to use this powerful
genealogy application to compose and browse a sample database of
several generations:
EN–53
Step 1 — Create a new database: »New…«

After registering MacFamilyTree, please have a look at this picture,
showing the Startup Window, giving you a hearty »Welcome!«:
This is how you will be greeted whenever MacFamilyTree starts up.

Click the topmost button »Create New Tree…« to begin your first
family tree. Alternatively, you can pick the »New…« item in the »File«
menu of the title bar, should the Startup Window be invisible.
MacFamilyTree's main window opens and at first displays the name
»Untitled«. You can see the main »Toolbar« to the left: »Edit«, »Views«,
»Reports« and »Publish« group all the available choices for working
EN–54
with your genealogy data lateron. And you will find many more
functions once you start exploring the individual features. At this
point, we will focus on the options in the gray bar on top:
Step 2 — Name your Family Tree: »Save as…«

Now, before really entering any valuable information, you should save
this still »Untitled« database file under a distinct name:
Go to the »File« menu and select »Save as…«. We'll name the file »My
Family Tree«, but you'd probably better use your own family name to
make it »more unique«. Please also choose a place where you want to
store the database file. The recommended place is in you user's
»Documents« folder.
Step 3 — The first family: »Add Family«

Now, click on »Add Family«, the second symbol in the gray bar: The
big space right of the main Toolbar changes and displays
MacFamilyTree's »Family Editor«. As you have not yet input any
personal information about anyone, this family is still basically
»empty«.
Step 4 — Defining the »Man«

In this example we'll continue by first entering information for the
male parent in the new family, the »Man«. First, click on the »+« (plus)
symbol in the lower left corner of the »Man« pane, and watch the
pane change its appearance: enter first and last name, then date and
place of birth. For this step-by-step tutorial, please use »Hansen« as
last name and »Tobias« as the first name. Tobias Hansen was born in
»Hamburg« on »01.01.1950« (January 1, 1950).
EN–55
We recommend entering dated information, like date of birth,

marriage, immigration and death like above (dd.mm.yyyy). This is the
standard GEDCOM format. Especially the »Year« should be entered
using four digits. But obviously, you can use other styles and define
your own date formats too. Go to the »Preferences…« menu of
MacFamilytree to find out more about date formats. Please refer to
page EN–72 for a comprehensive tutorial on working with dates.
Step 5 — Defining the »Woman«

Move over to the right side of the window, to the »Woman« pane.
Again, click on the »+« (plus) symbol in the lower left corner, and
enter the required information: last name »Mandlbauer«, first name
»Martina«, born in »Bremen« on »30.06.1955« (June 30, 1955).
In Genealogy it is a useful habit to work with Birth Names (»Maiden
Names«) instead of family names for parents of a family. This heavily
improves the traceability of women within the given pedigree.
However, MacFamilyTree gives you the freedom of choice: use
Married Names instead of Birth Names or enter both — we have
provided an »Additional Names« pane with all the options.
Step 6 — Adding »Children« to a family

Below the two panes for Man and Woman, you see another big pane
for »Children«. Entering information for Children is slightly different
from above workflow: children are seen more like individual persons,
while parents form the special entity »Family«. The difference will
become clearer over the course of this tutorial and the longer you
work with MacFamilyTree:
Again, use the »+« (plus) symbol to add a new child to the »Children«
list. The newborn automatically inherits the father's last name, though
you may change this at any time. But before we can add or edit any
further information (apart from the date and place of birth and
EN–56
death), we need to change from the family context to the individual

Person Editor of this child:
Step 7 — Editing a person: »Person Editor«

Either double-click the list entry or click the small black »!« (right
arrow) symbol in the lower right corner of the »Children« pane —
MacFamilyTree immediately jumps to that child's »Person Editor«
screen. Alternatetively, you can also double-click on the child's row in
the Children list.
Look for the »Name & Sex« pane. Leave the last name »Hansen« as it is
and add »Felix« as first name. Here, you can also add a Middle Name,
Academic or Aristocratic Title like »Ph.D« and e.g. the »Jr.« suffix. In the
Person Editor, you can also specify a person's sex: click and drag the
pop-up button to select the correct sex. MacFamilyTree currently
defaults to male (blue bubble), so for our example you do not need to
change anything.
EN–57
Step 8 — Date of birth: »Person Events« & »Event Editor«

Date and place of birth have to be entered in the »Events« pane: look
for a number of »Tabs« in the lower part of this window: »Events«,
»Notes«, »Sources« and »Label«. Make sure the »Events« tab is
selected (light blue color), so that the Events list is frontmost. Like
with the Children list before, you can add a Person Event by clicking
the small »+« (plus), and a new event is added to the Events list.
MacFamilyTree automatically generates a »Birth« event as the first
event for any person, but you can pick another event type from the
pop-up button. To further edit an event, you must click the »!« (right
arrow) or double-click the new event in the »Events« list, for the view
to switch to the »Event Editor«. Here you can add specific information
for the selected event. For this tutorial, just add
»20.12.1980« (December 20, 1980) as date of birth and »Hamburg« as
place of birth. Please remember to enter a four-digit year of birth.
EN–58
Step 9 — Know where you are: the »Navigation Bar«

Now, please have a look at the »Navigation Bar« above the main view
of MacFamilyTree: here, you can see a so-called »Path« with single
»Steps« for the instances you have navigated through, to the view you
are currently working in. In our example, this path now leads from
»Families« (on the left) via »Family Tobias Hansen« to »Person Felix
Hansen« and terminates in »Event Birth« (on the right). A simple click
on »Family Tobias Hansen« brings you back to this family's editor.
Step 10 — Marrying a couple: »Family Events«

In line with the GEDCOM standard, »Family Events« are distinct from
person events like »Birth«, »Immigration« and »Death« in the way that
they do only indirectly affect each family member: »Marriage« and
»Divorce« are examples for family events. This is why they have their
own pane and editor in MacFamilyTree.
In the lower portion of the Family Editor view, you probably recognize
a number of tabs and panes similar to the ones you know from
working with events in the Person Editor: Look for the »Family Events«
tab. Should it not be selected (light blue color), click on it to bring the
Family Events pane to the front.
Click on the »+« (plus) button in the lower left of the Family Events
pane to create a new event. By default, the first event for a family is
»Marriage«, and we will leave it like this for our tutorial. However, you
can select any type of family event by clicking the pop-up button and
selecting another item from thte list. You can further edit a family
event like before: double-click the row for the event or use the »!« to
switch to edit mode. Now enter »14.02.1975« (February 14, 1975) and
»Passau« as date and place for this marriage.
Step 11 — Growing the Tree: Adding more Generations

There are several different ways to add the parents and other relatives
of Tobias Hansen and his wife Martina Mandlbauer:
EN–59
Step 11.1 — Using the »Family Assistant«

Activate the Family Assistant in the main Toolbar to the left. It is the
topmost item under »Edit«, a single click brings it up, first showing
just a dark, blank space and two tinier areas to the right: the dark
space reads »Person Chart«, the one to the top right is the »Person
Information« pane, while the list to the bottom right is the »Persons
List«.
Look for »Tobias Hansen« in the list and single-click his entry, and the
Person Chart's dark screen changes to show the Hansen family. Tobias
is highlighted by a moving circle since he's the one you selected in
the list.
In the upper left of this circle is a tiny »+« (plus) icon. Click on it with
your mouse and a floating window spawns under your mouse
pointer, offering you the choice of adding a father, mother, another
partner and (another) child to Tobias' line of the Hansen family. Please
select »Add Father« and a blue (male) person symbol will immediately
appear in the Family Chart. This person is automatically linked to
Tobias as his biological father.
In »Person Information« top right, you can now enter the basic
information for the father, like »Johannes Hansen« as his name,
»04.04.1920« (April 4, 1920) as his date of birth, and »Kiel« as his place
of birth. Once you have entered all this data, please return to the
»Family Chart« and select Tobias Hansen's person symbol again. Click
on the tiny »+« (plus) and add a mother: a pink woman symbol
becomes visible on the chart. Again, turn to »Person Information«,
and edit Tobias' mother's data to show »Martha Seeberger« as name,
»03.02.1923« (February 03, 1923) and »Frankfurt« as date and place of
birth. All this time, you can see the »Persons List« below grow, the
more people you add to your database.
Using the Family Assistant, it is very easy to quickly add family
members to your family tree — regardless if they are ancestors or
descendants from the perspective of the person you are starting with.
EN–60
Moreover, the Family Assistant is a handy navigation tool to browse

your family database, like you will discover over time.
Step 11.2 — Use the »Persons« tool

There is another, simple way of adding relatives to persons already in
your database — directly from within the »Person Editor«:
Select »Persons« (the second item under »Edit«) in the main Toolbar
on the left. Just single-click, and MacFamilyTree's main view changes
to a list with the five persons we have created so far. This list generally
displays every person in your database. Double-click on »Martina
Mandlbauer« and you will immediately get to her personal
information.
The central pane in Martina Mandlbauer's Person Editor reads
»Person's Families«. From here you can directly jump to persons listed
there (e.g. Martina's mother or father). With a single click of your
mouse on the names of »Partners« or »Parents«, who are easily
distinguishable by the colored bubbles for their respective sexes.
Starting precisely from the »Person's Families« pane, you can also
rapidly add more relatives: single-click on the tiny »+« (plus) symbol in
front of »Add Parents…« and you will see a familiar view: a »Family
Editor«, with Martina Mandlbauer already present as a child in the
»Children« list, above two empty panes for »Man« and »Woman« and
everything you already know from the start of this tutorial. With a
click on the »+« (plus) Symbol underneath their respective panes, you
can now add Martina's parents: for her father, enter »Maximilian
Mandlbauer«, born on »01.09.1919« (September 01, 1919) in
»Starnberg« and »Anneliese Bender«, born on »02.12.1921« in
»Regensburg«.
Now click on the right arrow »!« below Anneliese Bender and go to
her Person Editor. Next to the »Name & Sex« pane at the top of this
view, click on »Additional Names«: the view switches, and you can
now add »Mandlbauer« as Anneliese's »Married Name«.
EN–61
Step 11.3 — Use the »Families« tool

Like with »Persons«, you can use the »Families« tool to grow your
database. It's the third item of the »Edit« group in the left main
Toolbar. In our example, Tobias Hansen and Martina Mandlbauer will
have another child:
Once you select »Families«, MacFamilyTree displays a list of all the
families available so far. Double-click the row with Tobias, Martina and
Felix to open their Family Editor. In the central »Children« pane you
can add children by clicking the »+« (plus) button. Every new entry
automatically inherits the father's last name. If you want to change
this and in order to add the new child's first name (»Britta« in this
example), sex (female) and other information, you need to select the
child you wish to edit with a single click, then use the right arrow »!«
in the right corner of the »Children« pane to go to the Person Editor
for this child. Alternatively, you can always double-click a list item like
this child to get to the respective edit mode.
While in the Person Editor, make sure that »Name & Sex« is the active
pane at the top. Here you can enter first and last name and also select
the correct sex. Below, you see four tabs for »Events«, »Notes«,
»Sources« and »Label«. If »Events« is not already active, please bring it
to the front. Click the »+« (plus) symbol to first add a new entry and
then the right arrow »!« to immediately go to edit mode: enter
»07.08.1978« (August 07, 1978) and »Hamburg« again as Britta's date
and place of birth.
Step 11.4 — Use the »Add Person« button

If required, you can also add new persons idependantly of any family
and later connect them to their relatives. Click the »New Person«
button and enter all the information you have like we've just
explained in our tutorial. E.g., »Hansen«, »Anna«, female, born on
»06.06.1974« (June 06, 1974) in »Passau«. At this point, there's still no
connection to any of the other persons in your family tree, but it's a
snap to add such a relation:
EN–62
Via »Families« in the main Toolbar, go to the family of Tobias Hansen

and Martina Mandlbauer. In their »Children« pane, Felix and Britta
Hansen show up as the first two kids of this relationship. Bring up a
chooser panel by clicking the »Magnifying Glass« symbol underneath
the Children list to select »Anna Hansen« from the database, instead
of now manually creating new entries in this list. MacFamilyTree now
automatially adds Anna as a biological child to her parents Tobias and
Martina.
EN–63
4.3
More »Events«
Like we learned before, events are strictly
split into two different categories:
»Person Events« and »Family Events«.
Whenever you add an event, find out if it
formally applies to both partners/
parents within a family (and potentially
their children) in exactly the same way
— just like marriage, divorce and other
Family Events. If it does, add this
particular event via the »Family Events«
subview in the Family Editor.
If the event you are about to add does
not automatically and formally apply to
both partners/parents — it then is a
»Person Event« and will be added via
»Person Events« in the Person Editor.
Immigration, for instance, is always a
Person Event as each person is
individually registered and may or not be
permitted access to a foreign country.
EN–64
Person Events
We have already used the Person Event »Birth« and the Family Event
»Marriage«. Now, following the GEDCOM standard, most information
you enter into your family tree will be added in the form of events.
For example, someone's professional career will follow a series of
Person Events of the type »Occupation«. And there are various Person
Events to reflect the most common entries, like »Place of Residence«,
»Immigration« and also »Illness« or »Military Service«. But also
»Nickname« and »Social Security Number« are among the many
available Person Events.
Please click on the »Event Type« pop-up button in the Person Events
subview of someone in your FamilyTree and have a look at all the
events available.
Family Events
»Marriage« certainly is the most frequently used Family Event. But you
can see that there are a number of other events available for a family,
all of them having in common that they either formally define
partnership, either by building it through e.g. »Engagement«,
»Marriage« or another form of cerimony or contract — or that they
dissolve a partnership through »Annullment« or »Divorce«.
Please click on the »Event
Type« pop-up button in the
Family Events subview for a
family in your FamilyTree and
have a look at available
events.
Whenever you need to add
an event for a person or
family, but the type of event
you require is not available
EN–65
from the choice of standard events under either »Person Events« or

»Family Events«, choose the generic item »Other Event« and then
further describe it in its »Description« field. You may also want to add
a »Note« with more information.
EN–66
4.4
Referencing »Sources«
Sources are independent entities, just like persons and families. And
just like a person is usually related to more than one other person, a
source can be »referenced« to from various instances in your family
tree.
To set up a new source without any references, you either use the
»Add Source« Quick Access Button in the top window bar of
MacFamilyTree, or you choose the »Sources« tool from the Main
Toolbar on the left and then click the »plus« (+) underneath the list of
sources already in your database.
You can also generate a new source »in context«, that means it will
then be automatically referenced to the person, family, event or
media file for which you are creating it.
For example if we wanted to create a source for a specfic person
event, go to the »Sources« subview in the editor for this event. Click
once on the »Sources« tab to bring that subview to the front of the
stack of subviews:
Click on the »plus« (+) button underneath the list to create an empty
source entry. Because you are still in the context of the person event,
the source has already been referenced to this event.
To complete a source entry, regardless if created as an independent
entry or within a given context, please either double-click the new
EN–67
source's row in the list or select it with your mouse and then use the
right arrow (!) button to proceed to the editor for this source.
To check what sources you have available in your database, first go to
»Sources« in the Main Toolbar. But for research and analysis is will be
more interesting what sources are available as references for a certain
entry and if a source has been used more than once. That's why we
also provide you with an overview of all places to which a given
source has been referenced. In the editor for a source, look at the
subview labeled »Entries with this source«:
EN–68
4.5
»Media« — Multimedia Contents
In MacFamilyTree
The »Media Browser« provides an overview of all the pictures
available in your database.
Different name plates in the Media Browser hint on where a certain
picture or media file is linked to. Remember: media files can be added
to family and person events, but also
directly to persons or families, and of
course can they be added to sources too.
Person media: »gold« plate (yellow)
Family media: »silver« plate (light gray)
Event media: »copper« plate (red)
Source media: »Paper« note (light gray)
To add a media file such as a photo, movie
file or voice recording, select the »Media«
subview within any »Editor« for a person,
family, event or source and click on the
»plus« (+) button. A small floating pane
opens and presents several media import
functions:
EN–69
»Add Picture«, »Add Picture from iPhoto«

All QuickTime-compatible file formats for pictures are supported. You
can add pictures from anywhere on your Mac and also directly from
your iPhoto Library:
»Take Picture«
You can also take pictures with an iSight built in or connected to your
Mac: imagine being at a family reunion with your MacBook and
quickly adding photos for all those relatives you may only see once in
a couple of years!
»Add PDF«
Import PDF files just like pictures or other media files. MacFamilyTree
also supports multipage PDF documents, and you can browse their
pages from within any Media view in MacFamilyTree.
»Add Sound«, »Add Video«

If you have previously made a telephone interview or audio chat with
a distant relative from overseas, you can add such an audio recording
directly to MacFamilyTree — just like the short movie from your
newborn's first moments after birth.
As with pictures, MacFamilyTree supports any QuickTime-compliant
audio or video file: bascially, everything Mac OS X is able to play or
display will work with MacFamilyTree too.
»Add URL«
And all the Web pages important as references for persons and
sources can be added too…
EN–70
4.6
Keeping Everything Organized
MacFamilyTree's »Preferences«
Go to »MacFamilyTree« in the Menu bar and click the »Preferences«
item:
EN–71
In the window which then opens, you can find a number of useful
functions for setting MacFamilyTree's behaviour and look: you may for
instance and modify name or date formats and define custom icons
for events, choose color/pattern settings for the window
backgrounds, and more.
Most of the options availble here are self-explanatory. On the next
pages, we will talk about how to handle dates of events. The »Date
Formats« preferences are possibly the most important item for you to
consider in this menu…
Working with »Date Formats«

Dates can be formatted in a multitude of ways. Depending on your
country or region, the »official« date formats differ. There also are
many variants, so we decided to provide for an »open« date format
which you can adjust to your needs or personal taste.
Please open »Date Formats« in MacFamilyTree's preferences. You will
see that we ship MacFamilyTree with a predefined set of formats. The
most frequently used date format should be topmost in the list. You
can rearrange the list of formats by grabbing and dragging items with
your mouse:
EN–72
When defining a date format, be sure to use the correct combination

of letters and punctuation characters or spaces:
The letters are placeholders for day (d), month (M) and year (y).
Depending on how many times you repeat the same letter,
MacFamilyTree represents day, month or year in a different format:
e.g., the quadruple »yyyy« means, that the year should be presented
with four digits, like »2008«. A common date format (the default one
for MacFamilyTree) is »dd.MM.yyy«, e.g, »10.07.2008« (July 10th 2008).
For example, to tell MacFamilyTree to handle the month in verbose
form and in a way like it is common in the U.S., »July 10, 2008«, you
need to…
Step 1 — Click on »Add« to add a new date format to the list.
EN–73
Step 2 — Drag your new date format to the topmost position in the
list, if it is not already there. You can simply grab an item with your
mouse by clicking and holding it with your left mouse button
Step 3 — Edit the new entry with your mouse and keyboard so that it
matches the format »MMMM dd, yyyy«.
Attention When Mixing Date Formats!

Although MacFamilyTree practically supports all date formats, it may
happen that you have incompatible or inconsistent dates in your
database. Most frequently, the US and French/European date formats
conflict — »MM/dd/yyyy« and »dd/MM/yyyy« or similar.
This is not a fault within MacFamilyTree, but stems from GEDCOM
maintaining the date information without a reference to the format in
which dates have been entered:
For instance, 12/12/2008 can be December 12, 2008 and 12
December 2008. And this would not be troublesome, if not all the
dates where month and day are 12 or less could be messed up
completely by a GEDCOM import:
1/3/2008 or 3/1/2008 can both be read as January 3, 2008 or March 1,
2008, 10/11/2008 and 11/10/2008 could both stand for October 11,
2008 and November 10, 2008. It is a simple matter of where you live
and what your regional date format looks like.
Please always make sure you do not have two or more of such
conflicting formats among your preferred date formats.
Note: the standard GEDCOM format is dd.MM.yyyy, e.g »10.Step
11.2008« (for »November 10, 2008«).
To help you avoid inconsistencies from the start, in MacFamilyTree 5.3,
we added a warning dialogue on every import of a GEDCOM file. This
dialogue tells you two things:
EN–74
Date formats which cannot be interpreted correctly with the set of

date formats currently defined in MacFamilyTree.
Other (special) strings in the GEDCOM file which do not match
GEDCOM specifications or cannot be interpreted for other reasons.
We recommend that you keep the original GEDCOM files of all such
imports for reference at a later time.
If you see that there are a number of date formats which cannot be
handled correctly, you may want to verify and possibly adjust your
Date Formats preferences. Please also read below about how our
»Database Maintenance« feature can help you here.
»Database Maintenance«
After verifying your settings for Date Formats in MacFamilyTree's
preferences, use »Database Maintenance« from the »Edit« section in
the Main Toolbar. We have provided this tool to automatically adjust
the date formats to your preferred standard.
In Database Maintenance click on the button labeled »Adjust Date
Format«.
Now make sure the format we have just defined is present and
topmost in the pull-down menu. To adjust all dates in
MacFamilyTree's database to the new format, click »Adjust Date
Format« in the top section, and MacFamilyTree converts all the date
entries it understands:
Using the »Search«

»Search« bascially is just
another entry list like the ones
for Persons and Families. The
difference is that here you can
see all persons, families but also all events and media entries.
EN–75
In the "search field" in the bottom right corner of the contextual

toolbar you can enter a string of letters, e.g. your name, to search for
all persons with that name. If you enter text which is not in this literal
way stored anywhere in the database, obviously, the list disappears as
nothing seems to match your "filter".
»Bookmarks« & »Labels«

Labels
Labels are created database-wide. This means you can attach the
same label to any person, family, source, event or picture in your
family tree. You may choose the label colors freely, and all labels can
be easily managed from within their own »Editor«. Just click on the
»Edit Labels« button in
the topmost title bar
of MacFamilyTree's
window, and a pane
opens with all the
necessary options.
Note: to change a
label color, click with
your mouse on the
colored patch right of
the label you are
editing and choose
the color you like from
the Mac OS X color
selector.
EN–76
Bookmarks
Think of Bookmarks as of »special«
Labels with quick access
functionality: you can bookmark a
person or family with just a right-
click of your mouse, and you can
immediately enter edit mode for
this person or family from
anywhere — simply select the
entry from the »Quick Access«
feature available in
MacFamilyTree's window title bar.
Read more about Labels and
Bookmarks on page EN–137.
EN–77
4.7
Understanding Family Relations
»Family Assistant« —
visualize, edit & navigate
Intuitive and unobstructive, you can navigate the Family Assistant
with only your mouse. This and it being very »visual« is probably the
reason why it has quickly become the favorite new feature of
MacFamilyTree 5 for many of our users.
EN–78
Grasping the context:

The Family Assistant is a powerful tool to quickly and interactively
travel along your lineage and also to visualize the immediate family
context of any person within your database. It basically is an
animated 2D chart displaying male and female person icons. These
icons serve as buttons, and you can click any of them to change the
perspective to a specific person's family context
Persons are represented by male and female silhouettes. Ancestor
generations (parents, grandparents) above and descendant
generations below the silhouette in »focus«.
The person you are currently focussing on is highlighted by an
animated bright »sun« behind her. While a certain individual is in
focus, the »scope«, the active »context« in the Family Assistant, are all
immediately related persons as seen from the perspective of the
focus person.
To shift the focus, double-click on any other male or female silhouette
in the current context. Alternatively, you can also single-click on any
person in the »List of Persons« in the lower right portion of the Main
View: selecting a person here also shifts the focus immediately.
And, whenever you shift the focus one way or the other, you will see
the »Person Information« in the top right pane change too.
The other highlighting symbol is an animated circle, initially also
around the focus person. This circle tells you who is »selected«. You
can move the selection from one person in the current context to
another to display some basic information in the »Person
Information«.
To move the selection, single-click on any other silhouette. And
observe the »List of Persons« bottom right — this time, it does not
change, whereas the Person Information pane changes on every click.
EN–79
Relationship symbols in the Family Assistant

Straight continuous lines symbolize »biological« or »bloodline«
relationships, between the persons — across generations if required.
Dashed lines symbolize »non-biological« relationships, i.e. a child
linked by a dashed line to one parent while still connected by a
straight line to the other parent is a »step« child in that relationship.
An »adopted« child connects with dashed lines to both parents.
Partners of a relationship are linked by
a gold-colored arc over their heads. If
they are married, i.e. if a marriage
event has been defined, the arc has
two wedding rings, if the relationship
has been divorced, the arc still shows,
but the wedding rings take on a
different shape.
In the case of multiple or consecutive
partnerships, you may see more than
one arc originate from one partner or
both and linking with different other
men and women.
Other symbols and icons

The »more related persons available«
icon
Whenever a person's silhouette has a
pair of tiny silhouettes at his or her lower right, you know that there's
no total »dead end«, and that at least some relationship information is
available for that person. It makes sense to refocus on him or her and
also to change the view options as described below, to see what is
hidden: parents or siblings or children.
Labels
To help you work efficiently with all the information in your family
tree, we've added »Labels« (EN–137). Labels can have various colors
EN–80
and — just like multi-color Post-it tags — can be applied to persons,

families, sources, events and media. Labels help you to keep track of
who you've recently imported or where further research is necessary.
If a person has been tagged with a label, you will see it appear to the
bottom left of the person's silhouette in our Family Assistant.
Say, you labeled all persons in red, if any essential information (date of
birth or death, parents, children) were missing or unconfirmed, you'd
then be able to spot these persons while browsing the Family
Assistant — at a glance!
Interactively edit & navigate

Apart from visualizing a specific context, you can actually add and
edit person and family information starting right from within the
Family Assistant.
To the upper left of any person
silhouette is a tiny »plus« icon.
Clicking it brings about a
small menu or palette with a
contextual choice of options:
»Add Father«
»Add Mother«
»Add Partner«
»Add Son«
»Add Daugther«
»Add Brother«
»Add Sister«
A single click on any of these
items takes you into the
appropriate Family Editor for
the person and instantly
creates a new relative or
partner just as selected.
EN–81
Customizing the Family Assistant

You can configure the amount of information for the Family Assistant
to display. This helps you fit this view to your needs. You can also
color the person icons according to either gender or generation. This
further improves visibility. Just click on the »Eye« symbol in the
bottom right corner of the MacFamilyTree window to open the view
options menu to
adjust settings:
»Show Ancestors«
and »Show
Descendants« allow
you to limit the
number of
generations to show
from the perspective
of a focus person: 0, 1
or 2 generations into
the past or towards
today.
»Also show persons
not in the same
genetic lineage« also
add in-laws, aunts
and uncles and their
descendants to the scope. This option quickly clutters the Family
Assistant's context view, but it is a useful switch to toggle on or off
quickly to gain a broader perspective while actively working in this
view.
With »Person Coloring« you can switch between highlighting the
persons' gender or the generations they belong to: as a man always
has the male silhouette, you could want to use the color scheme for
something probably more useful. But this is very much a question of
personal taste.
EN–82
»Virtual Tree« — the full scope

The Virtual Tree was first introduced with version 5.2 of
MacFamilyTree. It is a three-dimensional representation of all persons
inside your database. And, being a true »tree« it also displays all the
relationships, graphically, in 3D.
You can think of the Virtual Tree as of our Family Assistant, but in three
dimensions.
The Virtual Tree is part of the »Views« set of tools. This is because not
all those editing shortcuts are available which you can so easily access
in the Family Assistant. We think of the Virtual Tree as being rather to
visualize and understand your family history and structure. Editing
the database in three dimensions can quickly become very confusing,
the larger the family tree grows.
EN–83
Navigating in three dimensions

As with the Family Assistant, the Virtual Tree is also navigated simply
by clicking and dragging your mouse. Actually, there are two ways of
browsing aroud and zooming in and out of the tree:
Mouse-only
Hovering with your mouse over icons in the 3-dimensional tree
displays a small pane with some basic person information like date
and place of birth, as well as known person events. But you can also
see labels and bookmarks, and if a person has a picture attached too.
With the scrollball of your Mighty Mouse, you can not only zoom in
and out of the Virtual Tree (backward/
forward scroll) but also turn left and
right. With the standard scrollwheel of
most computer mice on the market
you can still zoom in and out easily.
If you don't like using the scrollball for
turning left or right, you can simply
hold the primary (left) mouse button
while dragging your mouse around
and you'll again change the
perspective, always following your
movement.
A single mouse click on any icon
focusses the view on that person. All
changes of your perspective always
happen relative to the person you
have focussed on.
EN–84
»Navigator«
To make browsing the Virtual Tree really simple, we have added a few
controls to MacFamilyTree itself. To the right of the Virtual Tree view is
the »Navigator« with dedicated buttons for every movement. You can
use it by clicking (and holding) the different control buttons with your
mouse.
Note: while you are clicking and zooming around in the Virtual Tree,
the »List of Persons« is constantly being updated to show the
currently »focussed« person. And this works the other way around
too: by searching and selecting someone in the List of Persons, you
can precisely change the perspektive of your 3D family tree.
Configuring the 3D view

And, again, as for most of our views and tools you have a nice set of
controls to
customize this
view as you see
fit: use the
»Eye« symbol in
the bottom
right corner of
the
MacFamilyTree
window to
make the view
options for the
Virtual Tree
appear.
Especially the
»Color« options
are handy to
help you grasp
the structure of
your family tree. They also provide very basic analytic functionality.
EN–85
Printing the Virtual Tree

Although printing a 3D model does not always produce useful results,
we have added the option to save the current view as a PNG image
file in printable quality. This allows you to quickly take snapshots of
what you are seeing in your Virtual Tree view, before importing it into
any graphics tool or simply to produce hardcopies on paper.
Please look for the »PNG« button in the contextual tool bar in the
Virtual Tree.
EN–86
Track your past:

»Virtual Globe«
Did you »geolocate« your events?

Events do not only happen at a certain date and time, but they also
usually take »place« somewhere on this globe. That's why you can
assign them geographic coordinates. These coordinates then allow
you to locate an event, either on Google Earth or on our own »Virtual
Globe«.
To add geocoordinates to an event, please open the event's editor

and look for the »Coordinates« subview.
You can enter the coordinates directly into the appropriate fields. But
it is more likely that you will need to look the coordinates up
somewhere, so we have built this feature right into MacFamilyTree!
Just click on the magnifying glass to bring about a floating pane: if
EN–87
your event already has a place name, MacFamilyTree will have

performed a search for all places with similar names, right when the
small window opened:
You can see a list of search results, in this case for various instances of
»Boston«. In front of every entry, you see either a small starry bubble
or something resembling a stack of gray and blue disks —
representing your local family tree database: entries with the bubble
icon stand for places which are available in the online database
MacFamilyTree queries for unknown place names.
Geolocations which carry the database icon have been encountered
in your family tree, so these are places you already know, resp. which
have been used previously. It is very likely that another event which is
said to have taken place at a location with the same name actually
happened at exactly the same location as the first one. That's why we
placed the known locations topmost in the list.
To choose one of the geolocations from the list for the event you are
working on, simply double-click its row or select it and click »Add«.
Note: take a look at the bottom of the »Coordinates« subview. There's
a tiny gray button in the shape of the »Google Earth« icon. If Google
EN–88
Earth is installed on your Mac, this button brings you directly to the
location for which you've just entered the coordinates.
Navigating through time and space

Using the Virtual Globe is similar to navigating the Virtual Tree: you
can zoom in and out and rotate the globe by clicking and dragging
with your mouse.
But the globe still is a different kind of tool — it shows you where
events within your
database have
taken place, and,
possibly, where
your ancestors or
relatives came
from and live
today.
Red dots indicate
places where one
or more events
have been
geolocated, small
green dots on the
surface of the
Earth symbolize
bigger cities and
serve as points of
reference. If you
see animated
lines connecting
various of your red dots, this means that people have moved from
one place to the other — and the orientation of the animation
indicates the direction of those persons journeys.
EN–89
Using the »Events« list

To the right side of the globe is a list of events. This list hosts all
geolocated events in your database. Those events within the user-
defined »scope« (read below…) can be focussed with a single mouse
click in the list.
You will see that the event currently in focus is highlighted by a
pulsating red-orange dot, making it still easier to spot the location on
the globe.
Fine-tune your view

And, once more, you should definitely look at the available »View
Options« from time to time. You may fine-tune the appearance of the
Virtual Globe, the precision of the place »dots«, as well as you can set
a year range for the events MacFamilyTree should consider and
display on the globe surface.
More »Views«
Apart from the Family Assistant and 3D views we've just seen,
MacFamilyTree offers all the »classic« charts you'd expect from a true
genealogy program, too…
Ancestor Chart
Fan Chart
Descendant Chart
Family Chart
… plus some graphic views which are more analytical :
Timeline (cf. EN–162)
Statistics (cf. EN–163)
Genogram (cf. EN–164)
We made sure that you'll enjoy using our charts. They are colorful and
flexible. You can edit them (cf. EN–92) for export and print. And if you
like it less »fancy«, you can always choose grayscale or line art styles
for even better readability in quick draft printouts.
EN–90
Where it all comes together:

»Kinship Report«
While the »Kinship Report« is not as graphic as the 3D views we've
just seen, for many users of MacFamilyTree it is one of the most
important features.
When you access the Kinship Report from the Main Toolbar on the left
of MacFamilyTree's main window, you will need to first select the
person you want to generate the report for. After double-clicking on
that person's row, MacFamilyTree then presents a neatly layouted
sheet for that Person with all known relatives you have in your family
tree database.
For every person MacFamilyTree calculates the degree of kinship and
also displays the most essential information like date and place of
birth and death.
More »Reports«
Just like with the views, in addition to the Kinship Report, our
»Reports« comprise the whole set:
Person Report
Places
Events
Distinctive Persons
Birthdays
List of Persons
EN–91
4.8
Presenting Your Research —
View, Create, Publish, Export
Viewing A Chart
& Customizing View Options
Select a view — e.g. »Descendant Chart«
Like with most tools from the Main Toolbar, please first select the
family or person you want to create a chart for. In the case of a
Descendant Chart, the starting point is the family for which you
create the chart, displaying all their children, grandchildren and so
forth.
Clicking on the »Descendant Chart« item in the Main Toolbar brings
up the usual entry list for families. Choose a family by either double-
clicking it, or by selecting its row and then single-clicking on the right
arrow (!) below the list.
Now, the Main View changes to display the selected Descendant
Chart, with the generations evolving from left to right.
Underneath the chart are several buttons and controls:
EN–92
Pencil icon — »Edit Mode«

Hard disk icon — »Save Chart«
PDF file icon — »Save as PDF«
PNG file icon — »Save as PNG Image«
Framed picture icon — »Zoom to fit«
Slider — »Zoom«
Eye icon — »View Options«
While we will still discuss editing and saving in more detail, let's look
at the two »Zoom« controls:
The left icon shows a picture which is framed by four brackets. This is
the »Zoom to fit« button: one click resets the current view so that the
entire chart becomes visible. However, for very large families and
charts with much information in general, it will be difficult to read
names and text details from this perspective. So, you might want to
zoom in on specific portions of the chart…
EN–93
… that's what the »Zoom slider« is for: grab the round knob with your
mouse and drag it either to the small picture icon on the left or
towards the big picture icon on the right: you will see that
MacFamilyTree either zooms out (left) or in (right), instantly.
Configure your chart — »View Options«

The chart you see now can be customized in several ways. First, it is
important to understand that you can not only perform modifications
to every single chart prior to either saving it or outputting it to paper
or PDF. Instead, MacFamilyTree allows you to define view options for
all chart types — and your settings will be remembered the next time
you need the same type of chart again.
We've placed the »View Options« in the lower right portion of all
configurable views. And as these options modify a view's look, we
thought up an »Eye« icon for this feature:
This »Eye« icon is present for almost all Views, Reports, on the Globe
and even on our Family Assistant. Here you will find varying options
on how the current view or mode works and displays information. As
with all such contextual modifications to appearance and behaviour,
MacFamilyTree 5 remembers whatever you change.
Still before you proceed to individually and manually adjusting the
looks of any chart or report, please check the options here. This saves
you a lot of repetitive work.
EN–94
Creating Graphic Charts For Online And Print
Edit your chart

With a click on the small »Pencil« icon in the lower left of the Main
View, you can switch to »Edit Mode« for the current chart. In Edit
Mode, you can modify all elements of a chart or report: font size, line
width (thickness) and color can be adjusted, text can be edited, you
may even rearrange the entire layout and positions of all the
elements in your chart. The pencil icon is present in most Views and
all Reports, so that you can change the way a chart or report looks
before you print it out:
Editing is done through simple point-and-click and dragging gestures

with your mouse. The item you edit will be marked with a set of
»knobs« and other symbols which are handles for resizing and
rotating too. You can select multiple items at once by either dragging
the so-called »Lasso« over them with your mouse (press and hold the
left mouse button, then drag your mouse pointer). And you can use
the keyboard to multiselect: press and hold the »SHIFT« key and then
single-click every item you want to edit.
Whenever an item in your chart has been selected, you will see all
tools available for editing appear in the area to the right:
EN–95
Some additional functions are also accessible from the window title bar:
Insert Text
Connect Objects
Save as PNG Image
Save as PDF
Bring To Front
Send To Back
Zoom
Print Options
Print
EN–96
Note: the »Zoom« button works differently from the slider

we've just seen in the chart view above. This pop-up
button offers you a choice of fixed zoom values from 25%
to 200%.
Please also understand that these zoom settings do not
have any effect on the size of your printout.
Print your chart

In Edit Mode you have access to a dedicated print feature.
Though, like with most other programs on Mac OS X, you
will need to configure your paper size and choose your
printer in a different dialogue, outside of MacFamilyTree:
Please go to the »File/Page Setup…« menu on the top of your Mac's
screen and make sure that the correct printer and paper size are
selected.
Using this menu
you can also
define custom
paper sizes. Please
refer to your Mac
OS X documentation
should you need more
information on handling
printers and output
options.
EN–97
After configuring your printer and choosing the correct paper size,
use the »Zoom« pop-up button to make the edit window display as
much of your chart as possible. But, regardless of the zoom factor,
MacFamilyTree 5 always prints out the entire chart.
Also, the zoom factor you set here will not affect the scale of any
printed output. Should you want to globally reduce or enlarge the
size of your chart for print, e.g. to ensure better readability of
information in huge family charts, you will need to adjust the »Scale«
in the »File/Page Setup…« menu too.
To optimize your prints, MacFamilyTree supports »spreading« the
output onto multiple pages — or instead to combine everything as a
single page. Especially for saving your chart as a PDF document, via
the print dialogue, it makes sense to deactivate the page spread.
Such a single-page PDF is ideal for handing your chart to a print shop
for output over a Large Format Printer. And, if viewed digitally, on a
computer screen, a single-page PDF is much more handy too: it keeps
the entire chart in its original form, so everybody can simply zoom in
and out and pan around the graphics and text, without the need of
jumping from one page to another.
EN–98
Save the edited chart for Web Publishing

When leaving edit mode, MacFamilyTree prompts you to save the
current chart. Saving a chart creates a new entry under »Saved
Views«:
Saved views are basically »snapshots« of portions of your family tree

database in graphical form: they will not change after you have
created them, but you can re-edit them at any time: just double-click
a saved chart and you will be taken into edit mode again.
Now, when you use any of the tools in the »Publish Web Pages«
section, you will see an »Export Charts« checkbox during the
publishing process. Activating this checkbox tells MacFamilyTree to
take everything in the »Saved Views« section and add it to your Web
page too.
PDF and PNG export

Underneath any of the Charts are two buttons which allow to directly
save the current view as a PDF document or PNG picture file.
EN–99
Generating Comprehensive Reports

Our »Reports« work much like the »Charts« above:
You first select a report — e.g. Person Report — and choose the
person to generate the report for.
Next, you customize your report using, again, the »View Options«.
Note, however, that we have recently redesigned the »Reports«
section, and all reports are now much more configurable and can be
adjusted to include exactly the amount of information you require.
Finally, edit, save and print your report just like you would any of the
charts.
EN–100
Publish Your Trees On The Web
Publish Web Pages

MacFamilyTree makes it easy to publish your own family research on
the Web — complete with graphic charts and pictures. We support
generic HTML export, direct upload to our own Internet hosting site
»MacFamilyTree.com« and also Apple's »MobileMe« service. You can
also use the same feature to create stunning CDs or DVDs with your
family tree as giveaways for family reunions.
Where to publish?
Your own Web page — »Hard Disk«
If you are Web-publishing-savvy, you can use the "Hard Disk" feature
to export the Web page to your hard disk first (default is to create a
folder named "Web site" on your Desktop) and then for you to
manually incorporate that folder's contents into any Web page on any
kind of server.
MacFamilyTree.com
We offer our own Internet publishing service, which is
"MacFamilyTree.com". It is free for you as a MacFamilyTree 5 customer.
Publishing here works indentically. Yet, you'll have to first create a user
account and then log into it to have access to just the same
publishing process.
EN–101
The one difference between MacFamilyTree.com and the other

services or options is that you can choose to protect your family tree
online from unauthorized viewers with a separate login.
MobileMe
If you have a Mobile Me account (formerly known as .Mac), this is
where to go to for publishing your family tree using that service. Use
it just like the other options before.
What are the steps to follow?

First make sure you have MacFamilyTree up and running, and that the
tree which you want to load onto the Internet is also »loaded« into
MacFamilyTree
Now select the appropriate publishing channel under »Publish Web
Pages« on the left of MFT5's screen. You will see the main window
element change:
EN–102
If you are using MacFamilyTree.com, you will first have to log into your
acount, before you can then choose to upload a new family tree onto
the Web, or which existing tree to replace with the current one:
Also, with
MacFamilyTree.com,
we allow to protect
your family tree on
the Web from un-
authorized access by
a second username
and password. These
allow visitors to view your tree and download the optional GEDCOM
data file. Please make sure that you choose distinct user names and
passwords for your account login and for the visitors' viewer authen-
tication.
EN–103
Before the actual upload starts, you'll have to select a few options in
this window. You can decide, if you want to include charts or pictures
(»Media«), but also can you specify some more options defining how
your tree will look on the Web:
Note: please be careful with these two checkboxes:

! »Hide events of living persons«
As you will most likely have some living relatives and probably friends
in your database, you should always activate this checkbox when
publishing a family tree on the Web: this option ensures that no
strictly confidential information like a person's date of birth, social
security number or address are published. This is very important, as
you will definitely not add to the danger of identity theft which is so
imminent on the Interrnet these days.
EN–104
! »Generate downloadable GEDOM file«

Also, this option should be used with some care: if you activate the
checkbox, MacFamilyTree creates an archive containing a GEDCOM
export of your entire database, including scaled down versions of all
pictures. Anyone with access to your online family tree could
download this tree and access all information and re-use it in another
software program capable of importing GEDCOM files.
Once the upload is complete, you'll be greeted by this window,
allowing you direct access to test the web page in Safari or any other
web browser on your Mac:
Note: you can highlight the Web address for your family tree page
with your mouse and copy it to any text editor, e-mail program or
Web browser by using the Mac OS X »Clipboard«: press and hold the
»COMMAND« key (<">) followed by the »C« key to copy and
»COMMAND« followed by »V« to paste the address string.
What is the CD/DVD feature for?

Finally you can use the "CD/DVD" feature to burn the Web page
directly to a CD or DVD. This is nice for giving away such disks for
Christmas. The CDs or DVDs you create will contain the same
information you could publish to the Web.
Note: it is a good idea to first test how an export to any optical
medium looks like by using the »Hard Disk« function. This will save
you time and avoid the wasting of CDs/DVDs.
EN–105
4.9
Sharing Your Research —
GEDCOM Import & Export
MacFamilyTree 5 saves its databases in its own file format.
MacFamilyTree 5 database files carry the suffix ».mft« and they can
only be opened and understood by MacFamilytree 5. To share
information with other users, e.g. on a Windows or Linux PC, you will
need to go the way of importing or exporting your family tree data
via the »GEDCOM« format.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEDCOM
What Are GEDCOM Files?

GEDCOM files are plain text files in either some form of ASCII or using
the more compatible UTF-8 or UTF-16 encodings which are part of
the Unicode standard. Unicode supports more and special characters,
like »umlauts« and accented characters in most European scripts, but
Asian and African scripts are included in Unicode too.
GEDCOM files come either with the ».ged«/ ».GED« suffix (this usually
designates them as ASCII-encoded) or with the ».uged«/ ».UGED«
suffix.
EN–106
GEDCOM files only include text information and references to

external resources such as media files or URLs for Web pages. Pictures,
movies, PDF documents and other resources would either be left in
their original places or they may be imported and stored in a
dedicated folder. Such a folder will most likely be located adjacent to
the associated GEDCOM file and may be named »Media«. Sometimes,
the Media folder will only be created when you export your family
tree via GEDCOM.
GEDCOM Import
MacFamilyTree's »Welcome« screen allows you to directly import
GEDCOM files into a new family tree database:
<picture> (@ 100%, 240 dpi) (Startup Window gedcom import)
Using the »Import GEDCOM or MacFamilyTree 4 File…« button
immediately creates a new database file from the import.
MacFamilyTree will also attempt to locate all media files for the
imported GEDCOM file and copy them to its own database. The same
import function is also available from the »File« menu:
<picture> (@ 100%, 240 dpi) (file menu gedcom import selected)
GEDCOM Export
From the File menu you can also access the »Export GEDCOM or
MacFamilyTree 4 File…« feature. This function works the other way
around and creates a GEDCOM text file (with all the genealogy
information from your family tree) plus a separate »Media« folder
alongside. The Media folder holds all the pictures and other media
resources. While preparing the export, you will have to select the
export format. Please choose either ASCII, UTF-8 or UTF-16,
depending on whom you are exporting for.
EN–107
<picture> (@ 100%, 240 dpi) (file menu gedcom export and gedcom
format options)
Special GEDCOM Support

The »Special« menu contains some more advanced GEDCOM
features:
Append GEDCOM File to current Tree…
This option simply adds the imported GEDCOM file to your family tree
database.
Merge GEDCOM File with current Tree…
When importing a GEDCOM file, the »Merge« dialogue presents you
all potential duplicate entries with individual options for every one of
them. Please use the pop-up menu button to decide which entry to
keep or replace, or if you want to rather not do anything at all.
Selective GEDCOM Export…
This option is handy if you need to share all the information you have
on someone: instead of sending a GEDCOM export of your entire tree,
use our Selective Export feature to select this person or to collect any
number of individual persons (and, optionally, their families). They will
then be exported as a single GEDCOM file (with an accompanying
»Media« folder if there are any pictures or other media files
associated).
Tipp:
If you want to try these GEDCOM features for yourself but do not have
GEDCOM files readily at hand, you can always load the »Sample« tree
we provide with every MacFamilyTree download. Open this tree,
change some information (remove/add a person or family, change a
source entry, take a picture) export the result as a GEDCOM file, and
you have some data to »play« with.
EN–108
Web-based Genealogy Services

On the Internet, a lot of companies and institutions host dedicated
contents for genealogy research. Database retrieval of census and
person information, as well as genetic analysis are among the offered
services.
Those services may use their own proprietary file formats and online
tools for visualizing and editing your genealogy data, however, most
offer an option to export information in GEDCOM format.
You can thus access this information right from within MacFamilyTree,
already today, just by going the most compatible way — that of
GEDCOM import.
Please use the »Append GEDCOM File to current Tree…« menu under
»Special« to add information you retrieved online to your current
family tree.
EN–109
4.10
One Step Beyond —
MobileFamilytree
»MobileFamilyTree« is our companion application for MacFamilyTree
and your iPhone or iPod touch. With MobileFamilyTree you can
access, review and edit your family tree on your Apple mobile device
and later synchronize all changes with MacFamilyTree on your Mac.
A license for MacFamilyTree 5 as well as a separate license for
MobileFamilyTree are required, and you will need MacFamilyTree on
your Mac to first setup MobileFamilyTree.
EN–110
4.11
Don't Lose Your Work:
Saves & Backups
These are some basic hints on how to keep your family research safe.
Further below is an extra section on backup options and strategies (cf.
EN–168).
Regularly save your database during longer sessions
Please remember to save your work from time to time, when you are
working in MacFamilyTree for long consecutive hours, e.g. while
transcribing complete batches of family records: just go to the »File«
menu and select the »Save« option to save the same file you've been
working on.
EN–111
Save your database when closing a session

After working on your family tree you will leave the session, either by
selecting »Quit MacFamilyTree« from the »MacFamilyTree« application
menu, or by simply pressing and holding the »Command« or »Apple«
key followed by the »Q« key on your keyboard.
In case there have been any changes to your family tree during the
session you are about to leave, MacFamilyTree prompts you to save or
discard the previous changes. Select »Save« from the small requester
window, and all of your recent additions and changes will be
preserved.
Create additional backups — at least once in a while

Your precious genealogy information is probably worth many years of
tedious work and possibly contains unique historical documents. As
an additional layer of safety for this valuable data we recommend that
you save extra copies of your database from time to time.
These copies should be kept separate from your main data, on
another hard disk or storage medium.
Each of the backup copies preserves your family research at a certain
stage, not only offering a means of retrieving your information in case
your main hard disk breaks or you computer gets stolen, but also to
possibly »go back in time« to revert your family tree to an earlier
version.
EN–112
There are various ways to create backups. Please read below on

different backup strategies (cf. EN–168)
Database migration and automatic backups
On certain occasions, MacFamilyTree needs to adapt the structure of
your family tree database to changes in the program itself.
We then display a »Database Migration« dialogue when you start the
program. Usually immediately after you've downloaded and installed
an update from our MacFamilyTree product page on the Internet.
During database migration, MacFamilyTree first creates an
unmodified copy of your current database. This copy will be place in
the Trash, but you can move it to any place you like if you want to
keep it as an extra backup. Then the database structure is changed
and a new database file is placed where your original file was
previously located.
It is a good idea to keep the automatically generated backups of your
database, just for the sake of that extra feeling of security. Please refer
to page EN–168 for some addtional information on data security and
backup strategies.
EN–113
5
Browsing And Editing In
MacFamilyTree
EN–115
5.1
Single-Click Or Double-Click
Like in all of Mac OS X, it can make a big difference whether you click
once or twice on buttons, icons or other elements in MacFamilyTree.
Usually, a single click with your left mouse button either selects an
item, e.g. a row with a person in from a list of persons or an event in a
list of events.
Two quick, sequential clicks usually perform an action, like moving
from one view to another. For example, you may enter »Edit Mode«
for any person or event simply by double-clicking the appropriate
item (row) in any list.
EN–117
5.2
Entry Lists
Many of the functions in MacFamilyTree's main toolbar are only
accessible via lists of persons or families. These lists serve as entry
points wherever MacFamilyTree requires you to first select the person
or family you e.g. want to edit, or for whom to generate a chart or
report.
Entry lists consist of as many rows as there are persons or families in
your database:
EN–118
Note: in the gray bar below any of these lists, there are buttons for a
varying number of tools. Which buttons are availble, depends on the
actual context. That's why we call this area of MacFamilyTree's main
window »Contextual Toolbar« (cf. EN–43).
EN–119
5.3
Buttons Or Shortcuts
With MacFamilyTree you have the choice of either using dedicated
buttons for certain actions or quickly bypassing them with either a
contextual menu or a click with your mouse. Without touching any of
the buttons in MacFamilyTree, you can move to Edit Mode for an item
by double-clicking its row in any of the subviews or lists.
double-clicking the row with your mouse, …
or you right-click on the same row and from the contextual menu
which then opens under your mouse pointer, you select »Edit
Person« (or »Edit Family«, »Edit Source«, »Edit Event, etc., for that
matter), …
EN–120
»Go-to-Editor« button (!):

either select the row for the desired person or family and then press
the tiny right-arrow (!) button in the lower right portion of the
contextual toolbar, with a single-click of your mouse, …
or you press the »Return« key on your keyboard (<return>).
… more buttons
The »Plus« or »Add New« button (+):
This button is available in many lists and views and serves to add a
new item to that particular instance. You will use the »Plus« button to
add a new person to the database, to add an event to an existing
person or family, and to add a new picture to the media available for
an event.
With a single click of your left mouse button, the new person will
either be created as a new and still »Unnamed« row, or an empty
event will be created. For media files, first a small pane opens,
presenting a choice of options from which you need to select the
appropriate one.
The »Minus« or »Remove« button (-):

This button is the counterpart for the »+«, and it does what you'd
expect: it removes the selected row from your »Persons« or »Families«
EN–121
list, or the picture or the event from their lists… However, it is

important to understand that clicking this button actually can
remove information from your database — depending on the context
you are in.
The »Choose« or »Add Existing« button (<q>)

Often overlooked, this is probably the most important button of all:
While entering information to your family tree, you will want to add a
person only once, to avoid extra work as well as not to create
duplicate entries in the MacFamilyTree database. The »Choose«
button opens a chooser for you to look up a person who is already in
your database.
Now, if one of your children recently got married, you surely want to
add this newly formed »family« to your database, If you haven't done
so already. As your kid's spouse is not blood-related, you may not
have him or her in your database yet. But your child certainly will have
an entry as a person.
To add this recently-wed couple as a new family to your database, you
will go to the »Families« list from the main toolbar, click on the »Plus«
button in the contextual toolbar below to create a still empty family.
Then, you click on the »Choose« button underneath either »Man« or
»Woman« pane and select your child from the list of persons in your
database as one partner of the couple. This ensures that all
relationship information for your child will automatically be applied
EN–122
correctly to the new family and all (grand-) children possibly

originating from it.
Next, you still need to add your child's partner. If he or she is not yet
available as a person within your database, you just click on the »Plus«
button underneath either »Man« or »Woman« pane in the current
family view and enter the basic information you have. This creates a
new person who you can later edit like any other person in your
family tree.
This same choice of options is available all over MacFamilyTree, and
there are other instances in which it makes sense to just play around
with mouse clicks and contextual menus to find out more.
EN–123
5.4
Text Fields
Text fields are probably one of the most important paradigms in
computer programs: text fields may hold whatever text you enter.
Whenever you need to enter information somewhere in
MacFamilyTree5.
You use text fields to enter text by either clicking and then typing
inside the (blank) box or by using the »Tab« key on you keyboard to
place the blinking mouse cursor inside the text field and then typing
along.
EN–124
5.5
Panes, Subviews & Tabs
The terms »Pane« and »Subview« are often used interchangingly and
describe sections of MacFamilytree's user interface which are
subordinate to the main window or view. E.g., when you are editing
information for a person, you most likely work in the »Person Editor«.
This editor window contains the »Name & Sex« subview which
contains the name, title, suffix and gender and is combined with the
»Additional Names« subview.
EN–125
Other subviews include »Person Events«, »Sources«, »Media« and

»Quick Navigation« plus various others depending on the context.
»Tabs« are at least two things at once: they help you switch between
different subviews (»panes«), as well as they serve as »handles« when
you want to customize MacFamilyTree's GUI to better suit your needs.
When you click on a tab, its pane will be activated and brought
forward. Also, the close button to close a specific tab is only shown for
a currently active (»selected«) tab, which is also the frontmost tab of
any set of combined subviews.
EN–126
5.6
List Views
What are »List Views«?

While referring to »List Views«, I am not talking about MacFamilyTree's
»Reports«, which generate lists too. Also, »Views« such as Charts or
the Virtual Tree in MacFamilyTree are separate and different features.
We'll see how to use and work with them in another chapter.
List views are standard elements of OS X, and they are useful for
obtaining an instant overview of all the items in e.g. a folder on your
Mac's hard disk, or of transactions in your personal finances tool. In
MacFamilyTree, list views help quickly access persons, families and
events, as well as sources or media files.
The term »List Views« describes those dynamic lists you find all over
MacFamilyTree and also in other places and application programs on
your Mac. All the list views in MacFamilyTree look and work practically
the same way as in OS X in general.
Different List Views in MacFamilyTree

Let's compare list views from the OS X Finder with those from
MacFamilyTree. You can see how similar both programs are when it
comes to list views. Yet, the lists still differ dinstictly:
EN–127
In the Mac OS X Finder, list views are about three or four ways to
display folders and the files they contain:
EN–128
Depending on how a Finder window is configured, you may see it

display either a set of icons, or one single list, or various columns
which in turn contain lists… or, everything is displayed using Apple's
»Coverflow«, the most visual way of presenting items in Mac OS X.
We will only talk about list views here. To make a Finder window
display a list view, just click on the second segment from the left on
this button in the window's title bar:
You can then open folders by either double-clicking them, or by

single-clicking the small triangle in front of them to »unfold« the
folders' contents:
Double-click on any file, and it should be opened by its default

application. E.g., double-clicking on a picture or PDF document may
open »Preview«, while double-clicking on a text file will most likely
open »Text Edit«.
In MacFamilyTree 5, list views are either »entry lists« for you to access
specific tools in the program, or they are part of »subviews« within
such tools. Either way, these lists look very similar, and their
functionality is also not that different:
EN–129
EN–130
Common Elements in List Views
Rows
Each item in a list view occupies a single row. All information about an
item is presented to you in the same row. Rows do not need to be
single lines, but they may even expand and text may break to form
multiple lines within the same row to accomodate all the information
available.
Rows usually have alternating background colors. This makes it easier
to distinguish items in huge lists. Also, you may select a row by single-
clicking it, which will mark the selected row in a hightlight color. This
is useful either for yet better readability, or to remember your current
position. Double-clicking a row usually triggers some more
sophisticated action, like opening the item in a different view or
application.
E.g. in our picture above, the person named »Agnes Margraf« is the
topmost »item«, and her row is selected, therefor »highlighted« in
blue.
Sometimes, you can grab a row with your mouse and drag it to a
different position within the same list. That's, however, a very special
feature.
EN–131
Columns
While a row collects the information for a given Person, e.g. »First
Name«, »Last Name« and »Date of Birth«, all First Names in that same
list appear in the same column: each column holds only information
of the exactly same type.
Cells
Columns and rows structure the list view: the intersection of rows and
columns is called a »Cell«. So, each »First Name« or »Date of Birth« in
the entire list is contained in a single cell. This allows you to use your
Mac's TAB-key to jump from one cell to another.
EN–132
Column Headers
Each column has a specific function: it is dedicated to a certain type of
information. You can see which type of information should be put
into the cells within a specific column by looking at the »Column
Header«. The column header acts as the »title« for a given column.
As you have seen above, column headers are the most important
feature of a list view when it comes to sorting: click once on a column
header to order the entire list according to the specific type of
information contained in that specific column.
The sort order can be ascending or descending. Note the tiny triangle
behind the name tag in a column header. If it points upwards, the sort
order is ascending, does it point downwards, the list items are
displayed in descending sort order.
Scrollbars
Lists can contain a practically unlimited amount of items (i.e.
Persons, Events, etc.) and associated information — so they
can grow rather long and wide.
Scrollbars appear on the right hand side of a list view and
possibly on the bottom below, if the height and width of the
list view's window cannot accomodate all the items (rows) or
information (columns, cells) available.
Above and/or below, respectively to either side of the
scrollbars may appear two tiny triangles. These are
»Up«/»Down« or »Left«/»Right« arrows which you can click
with your mouse to move the current view instead of grabbing
and dragging the scrollbars. If you need to navigate huge lists
of items, this feature can come in very handy.
Special Columns & Other Items

List views are very versatile tools, that's why they are frequently used
for special purposes too. And for structuring information in certain
ways, this may inlcude pop-up buttons for predefined selections,
EN–133
special, dedicated icons and other symbols. Buttons like »Choose« or

»Add New« or »Remove« are also frequently found right next to list
views:
(optional) Pop-up Buttons
Pop-up buttons in list views usually offer a certain standardized

choice for the information to be entered in a given cell. A good
example is the pop-up button to select the GEDCOM-compliant type
of an event you create for a person or family:
(optional) Special Columns

MacFamilyTree uses the special columns to the left of a list view to tell
you something about the state or characteristics of an entry. Usually,
we display certain icons for that purpose: a flag in a dedicated column
shows you how you have »labeled« an item, a blue »Globe« symbol
tells you that the specific event has been »geolocated« (i.e.,
geographic coordinates have been attached) and e.g. a picture
symbol indicates entries with media files attached to them:
Icons for special columns:

Label — »Flag«
Bookmark — »Sun«
Event — »Star« and custom icons
Geolocation — »Globe«
Note — »Sheet«
Media — »Picture«
EN–134
(optional) »Add New«, »Remove«, »Choose…« Buttons

These are interactive elements which basically take list
views one step further: no longer does the list view
serve for simply displaying items or persons, but you
can »interact«, creating new entries or removing them.
The »Magnifying Glass«, or »Choose« button is a very
handy feature. It allows you to select an already existing person or item
from your family tree. For instance, when marrying two individuals who
are already in your database, you can choose their existing entries instead
of creating them anew (which would result in duplicate entries anyway).
(optional) »Search« Field

The search field is a popular item which allows you to contextually
search for e.g. a person's name in the list view you are looking at. You
most likely are familiar with the search feature from using it in Safari
EN–135
or another web browser, or from the Mac OS X Finder, where you can
use it to search for files on your hard drive.
(optional) »Go-to-Editor« Button
In the bottom-right corner of most of MacFamilyTree's views and

subviews, we have placed a black right-arrow button (!). This is the
»Go-to-Editor« button which takes you directly into »Edit Mode« for a
given item. In list views, this corresponds to double-clicking on a row.
(optional) »View Options« Button

A small »Eye« symbol can be found in many places all over
MacFamilyTree: Reports, the Virtual Globe and even on the Family
Assistant. Click on this button to see varying options for the current
list view or tool: how it works and what information it displays, maybe
some color options and more. MacFamilyTree 5 will remember
changes to contextual preferences until the next time you change
them.
EN–136
5.7
Icons, Labels, Bookmarks
Icons
Throughout MacFamilyTree's user interface, we have used special
icons extensively, making certain contexts easier to grasp and also
presenting information in a more visual way altogether.
»Can I use my own icons for events?«

In MacFamilyTree we offer many ways for you to customize the user
interface. You can load icons for all kinds of events — and you can
also design and use your own pictures as icons.
To choose a custom picture for any of the event types, just click on the
button »Add Event Icon…« under »Event Icons« in MacFamilyTree's
Preferences. Then, select the event for which you want to use your
own picture, and choose the picture file from anyhwere on your Mac.
Labels
Depending on your personal workflow, labels
can be used variedly:
Maybe you want to »tag« persons or other
recently-imported information to remind you
that it has not yet been fully checked or referenced. Or, you may even
EN–137
want to give some detailed hints on what is missing from an entry.

This allows you to easily differentiate those instances where »past«,
historical facts need to be researched from other entries where it's
more the recent, and possibly easier to come-by information you still
want to gather.
Another way of using Labels is to mark all members of a certain
branch of the family tree, or to assign a »Dead End« label to those
persons or sources where you cannot find any further information at
all. There's a sheer infinite number of uses, and we made sure Labels
are well visible throughout MacFamilyTree:
Whether it is in any of the many list views and editors, in the »Family
Assistant« or the »Virtual Tree«, Labels will be shown next to the
entries they refer to. And as Labels are »globally« defined for all sorts
of items in the entire family tree database, there is no risk of mistaking
one label for the other:
Labels are created database-wide. This means you can attach the
same label to any person, family, source, event or media file in your
family tree. You may choose the label colors freely, and all labels can
be easily managed from within their own »Editor«. Just click on the
»Edit Labels« button in the topmost title bar of MacFamilyTree's
window, and a pane appears with all the necessary options.
Note: to change a label color, click with your mouse on the colored
patch right of the label you are editing and choose the color you like
from the Mac OS X color selector.
EN–138
EN–139
Bookmarks (»Quick Access«)

Bookmarks have been introduced recently to offer a quick and easy
way of accessing persons or families you are currently or frequently
working on.
Think of Bookmarks as of »special« Labels with quick access
functionality: you can bookmark a person or family with just a right-
click of your mouse, and you can immediately enter edit mode for this
person or family from anywhere — simply select the entry from the
»Quick Access« feature available in MacFamilyTree's window title bar.
To edit all the bookmarks you may have added over the course of
time, single-click on the »Show Bookmarks…« button the window
title bar and a list with all Bookmarks unfolds. Then select »Edit Person
Bookmarks…« and »Edit Family Bookmarks…« and use the following
window to selectively add/remove persons or families:
EN–140
EN–141
5.8
Navigation Bar — Keeping Track
MacFamilyTree 5 knows where you move along in the Main View and
displays a chain of »steps« in the Navigation Bar. Click on one of the
arrrow-shaped steps, and you will be taken back to where you were
before!
EN–142
5.9
Quick Navigation
Our »Quick Navigation« pane, by default grouped together with the
»Media« pane, helps you to visually find your way through your family
tree — starting at the currently edited person. The Quick Navigation is
based on the »Family Assistant« (cf. EN–78). Once you know using
one, you'll be able to use the other too:
While in edit mode for a given person, bring the Quick Navigation
pane to the front by clicking its tab. You will see any number of male
and female icons, representing the immediate parents (above) and
children (below, if there are some) for the person you're currently
focused on.
Now, what makes the Quick Navigation so handy is that you can jump
from one person of that context to another, without leaving edit
mode: simply double-click any of the person icons and your focus
immediately shifts to that person. This way, you can edit all children of
a family plus their parents and grandparents without ever having to
leave the person editor. You can easily identify the person in focus by
the animated »sun« symbol behind its icon.
EN–143
EN–144
5.10
Problem Solving:
»Where's that pane gone?«
How subviews disappear…

Mostly, you have just hidden one subview behind another. Locate the
appropriate tab for the »missing« subview, then, one click with your
mouse — and there it is again.
Sometimes however, it is slightly more complicated:
The frontmost subview's tab has a small »close« icon (<x>) to the right
of its name. Subviews in the background don't have this icon which
looks like a tiny »x«. A single click on this icon closes the pane and it
seems like it has gone forever. But, don't worry…
… and how you get them back!

… just click on the symbol in the lower right corner of
MacFamilyTree's main window to open the »Configure Subviews«
menu:
EN–145
A small menu opens with a list of all subviews for the current context.
The checkmark in front of an item tells you that this subview is active.
Its tab should be visible somewhere in the main view. If the subview
gone missing has no checkmark before it, just click once with your
mouse so that the checkmark reappears — and so does the subview:
it should now be available again in the current main view.
Read more about MacFamilyTree's flexible GUI

If you want to know more about how to leverage the highly flexible
and customizable user interface introduced with MacFamilyTree 5,
continue on page EN–151.
EN–146
5.11
One Database
Per Window —
Multiple Databases
Per Installation
It is important to understand that each of MacFamilyTree's main
document windows always holds one database with at least one
family tree. Likewise, starting with a new, empty family tree creates a
new »database file«.
Every database may consist of an unlimited number of persons and
families, including all associated information. Also, individual persons
in a database do not need to be related. Subsequently, multiple but
distinct »family trees« may be contained in a single MacFamilyTree 5
database file!
But, if you want to create multiple but distinct database files to work
with, this is easily possible, and we did not limit MacFamilyTree in any
way as to the number of separate databases you can work with.
However, as with very huge family trees, which require more system
resources for browsing and editing, working with multiple databases
at the same time may slow down your Mac too.
EN–147
5.12
Single vs. Multiple Database
Files?
You can keep all your genealogy research in a single database file. This
allows you to edit and view all persons, even of completely unrelated
families, in one MacFamilyTree window. And — who knows? — you
might later find the »missing link« between those families.
On the other hand, we have customers who prefer to keep different
families and branches separate and only join those portions of family
trees which actually are linked to one another through birth and/or
marriage. MacFamilyTree does not impose any rule here, although it
was designed to hold all information in one database to reduce the
file clutter on your hard disk.
EN–148
5.13
Working With Multiple Windows
And Views
Above, I explained that keeping your genealogy research and all the
family information you come across in one single database file could
be an advantage. And I personally think that for most of us, this will
be the ideal way to go: it avoids cluttering your Mac with various files
and you always know where to look for information.
Alternatively, you can of coursecreate separate files for every tree — if
you are into scientific reserach and work on historical, royal families
for instance, of if you are a (screen)writer creating fictional
relationships as »personal« background for the protagonists of books
and movies. Most of this kind of work does not relate to your real
family history. So, it makes sense not to mix them.
As different databases will open in separate windows, they also allow
for easy comparison. But what if you wanted to compare different
»views« of the same family tree? Would you have to create a copy of
the same database? … just to have a look at e.g. the Family Assistant
and the Virtual Tree of the same branch of your own family?
MacFamilyTree comes to the rescue here:
EN–149
The main view offers a rather tiny, special button in the upper-right
corner which symbolizes a light gray window within a dark gray circle:
One click on this button spawns a copy of whatever you currently see
in the main view in a separate window! You can thus work with
different views of the same database: (preserving all the previous
changes to its layout).
Even after you have opened a first separate window, you can still
open additional windows, either starting from within the Main View
again or from each extra window you have created so far. Just click
the small »Window« button again.
This is also very useful when your Mac is connected to more than one
display:
Macs have known multiple-monitor configurations for a very long
time. Many users have come accustomed to using a dual-display
solution, e.g. keeping track of incoming e-mail and Internet chat on a
small, second display while working with their office programs on the
bigger main screen.
Whatever your scenario is — MacFamilyTree supports as many
windows on as many screens as you wish.
EN–150
5.14
Customizing MacFamilyTree's
User Interface
(Re-) Positioning Subviews

You may freely position the various subviews by dragging them
around. You can reorder and recombine them, so that the ones you
need most are directly at your hand.
To move a subview to a different position in the Main View, just »click-
and-hold« with your mouse its tab. You will see the selected subview
hover over on top of the others, and MacFamilyTree automatically
generates »target areas« where you may drop the pane you are
dragging.
Detaching And Combining Subviews

The subview you drag with the mouse may be part of a »multi-tab«
subview, like »Name & Sex« and »Additional Names« in the screenshot
below. When you grab one of those panes, it will »detach« from the
subview it belonged to.
EN–151
Should you want to recombine a »detached« pane with any of the

subviews, just press and hold the »SHIFT« key while dragging. The
pane will then snap onto any other subview as a new tab.
Resizing Subviews — Before…

Subviews (»panes«) can accomodate various tools: list views, text
entry fields, media displays and our interactive Quick Navigation to
name a few. Because different uses require the separate panes to be
at different positions within the Main View, we discussed how you
may rearrange their layout on screen. However, sometimes, you will
want to also change the panes' sizes.
Some of the separators between the subviews show a line of five
small dots. These dots form the so-called »handles«. You can grab
such a handle with your mouse and drag the separator around to
increase or decrease the space available for other subviews.
In our example below, we will reduce the space available for »Name &
Sex« and »Additional Names« to gain more room in the single »Quick
Navigation« pane.
EN–152
Resizing Subviews — … And After!

You can see that Quick Navigtion now is much more spacious, thus
making navigation through families with many children a lot easier.
EN–153
EN–154
Less Is More — Closing Panes You Don't Need

No two people are the same, and also your personal taste or needs
may differ significantly from those of other users. So, we have given
MacFamilyTree another handy feature:
With just one or two clicks of your mouse, you can close panes you do
not frequently use. Simply activate the panes you wish to close and
click the small »x« buttons on their tabs. Who rather prefers to use a
dedicated menu will appreciate the »Pane Settings« menu in the
lower right corner of MacFamilyTree's main window.
EN–155
And Once You Reduced The Clutter…

After closing all unneccessary panes we resize and reposition the
remaining ones to show a really neat 3-pane layout in the Main View.
Should we need to reopen certain subviews, we can always just
checkmark the desired ones in the Pane Settings dialogue. It is there
that we can also quickly return to the default set of panes by clicking
»Reset Subviews«.
EN–156
5.15
»Tiger« vs. »Leopard«
The appearance of MacFamilyTree's user interface may vary slightly
between Mac OS X 10.4 »Tiger« and the more recent 10.5 »Leopard«.
However, MacFamilyTree works just fine under both versions of
Apple's Mac operating system, so it is really easy to use even on
multiple Macs with different installations. One of the more subtle
differences is the way the »Docks« under both versions of Mac OS X
indicate which application is currently running:
EN–157
6
Reference
EN–159
6.1
MacFamilytree 5
Virtual Tree (new with version 5.2) (cf. EN–83)

The 3-dimensional view »Virtual Tree« shows the entirety of your
database, every branch of your Family Tree and also every individual
person in the correct context and relation — at once. You can
navigate the database in »3D«, browse essential information for
everyone and visually analyze the Family Tree: everything can be
specifically colored according to various criteria, e.g. differentiating
birth year, age or generation. Distinct shapes help you to quickly tell
men and women apart.
Our 3D Virtual Tree allows you to freely view everything from every
angle, inside and out, close-up and zoomed far out. Navigation
controls are simple and you need only your mouse to travel from one
person and generation to another.
Ancestor Chart
Click on »Ancestor Chart«, and the ususal list with all families in your
database pops up on screen. Double-click on a family in the list and
MacFamilyTree immediately generates an Ancestor Chart.
Ancestor Charts show you where your roots are, as they display the
ancestry of a selected person and family. Depending on the number
EN–161
of ancestors and generations covered by a specific chart, you may

want to zoom in and out — a zoom slider right underneath the chart
helps you do just that. This slider is available in all the views we will
now describe.
Fan Chart (new with version 5.1)

To use the »Fan Chart« you will have to select a person from your
database. MacFamilyTree then draws a fan-like chart with the selected
person in the center. Click on the »Eye« symbol in the lower right
corner of the MacFamilyTree window to adjust the current view: you
can set »Fan Chart« to work with the reference person as the root and
display all of his or her descendants. Or, and that's the more
traditional way, you can view all the forefathers and -mothers, ending
with the selected person in the fan's core. Other view options include
the number of generations to consider, color or line-art for the fan,
defining the fan angle and padding between the single cells of
persons in the chart.
Descendant Chart
A click on »Descendant Chart« brings up the same list of families like
before. But once you double-click on any of the families, tells
MacFamilyTree to generate a chart of all the descendants of that
specific family, showing all the children and again the childrens'
children and so forth.
Timeline
»Timeline« requires dates for birth and death of the persons in your
Family Tree. Once such information is available, MacFamilyTree
generates a combined view of single timelines for all the individuals
in the database. Important events in the persons' lives will also be
EN–162
displayed. This is a valuable tool to identify historical and family

patterns regarding life expectancy. A single click on the »Eye« symbol
brings up the View Options where you can adjust the date range for
MacFamilyTree to consider. It is also possible to specifically define
which event types to include in the Timeline.
Virtual Globe
Our »Virtual Globe« is another interactive tool to vivdly display how
your ancestors have travelled Earth over the course of time, and
where your living relatives are located on the planet. You need to
define geographic coordinates (»Geolocations«) in the database for
the Virtual Globe to work, but MacFamilyTree has a handy feature to
help you look up coordinates for you — and we also directly support
Google Earth.
Family Chart
The »Family Chart« displays a complex yet comprehensive overview
of family relations. The Family Chart differs from Ancestor and
Descendant Charts in the way that it does not limit the perspective
and can show all relatives of a selected family.
Statistics
»Statistics« generates graphs of e.g. the age of living persons or the
number of children per family, relative to your Family Tree. It can also
help identify months or years with a significant proportion of birth or
death events to help spot (ir-) regularities.
EN–163
Genogram
Our »Genogram« uses standard symbols to designate family relations.
Genograms are used to quickly identify and analyze certain patterns
and constellations relevant for scientific or medical research
(hereditary diseases). The Genogram is meant as an additional view
on the Family Tree database to gain a distinctly different perspective,
useful for psychological and therapeutical needs.
Saved Views
You can edit all static views and change e.g. their line styles, font sizes
and colors. You can actually freely add, change and remove elements.
Whenever you save a view, either after configuring specific view
options or after editing a chart, it will be stored as a separate »Saved
View« in this section.
(Reports) Reports
The next big section in the main Toolbar is »Reports«. Reports are
text-based and aim at providing you with less graphic and more
pragmatic listings of information in your database. Our Reports allow
for quick retrieval and publication of specific sets of data from your
Family Tree. Reports can be customized and printed or output as PDF
files.
Person Report
The »Person Report« focuses on the single individual: after clicking its
item in the main Toolbar, you will see another Person List, and a
double-click on any of the persons in the list generates a report about
that person. Again, all the options for what should appear in each
EN–164
person's report can be found behind the »Eye« symbol in the lower
right corner.
Kinship Report (cf. EN–91)

One very popular feature of MacFamilyTree is the »Kinship Report«.
The Kinship Report first brings up the same list of persons in your
database. Choose one person, and MacFamilyTree generates a list of
all of this person's direct and in-law relatives. You can configure this
report in the »View Options« too.
Places
This is a handy feature to create a list of all of the geographic places in
your database and to show you which events took place where and
when. You can easily identify regional and local focal points of your
family history and use a Places Report during field research.
Events (cf. EN–58, EN–59, EN–65)

Events are probably the most central entity in MacFamilyTree — apart
from persons and families: much of the additional information on
persons and families will be entered into MacFamilyTree as events.
This report now gives you the opportunity to search for clusters and
patterns of events in your Family Tree and allows for more historical
view on the information in your database.
Distinctive Persons
Instead of looking for patterns and common traces among your
ancestors, the »Distinctive Persons« report finds those persons with
less common, thus »distinctive« characteristics to their lives: quickly
EN–165
know who married while still being considered under age or who
among your ancestry lived a very long life. And, again, you may
configure these filters using our View Options.
Birthdays
This report lists all the birthdays for the persons in your Family Tree. A
single click in the View Options switches between »all« and only
»living persons«.
List of Persons
In the »List of Persons«, MacFamilyTree creates a report in the form of
a list of all the individual persons from your database. With a click on
the »Eye« symbol in the bottom right corner open the »View
Options«: here you can select the information this report should
contain. You can also define the sort order for the persons in the
report.
Saved Reports
Just like with charts, you can save your reports after configuring and
editing them. They can then be quickly retrieved from the »Saved
reports section«, either for printout or for further editing.
Publish Web Pages (cf. EN-101)

In the Toolbar you can choose to publish your MacFamilyTree
database in four different ways. The Web page will be saved, either to
your Mac's »Hard Disk«, to a »CD/DVD«, to Apple's
»Mobile.me« (formerly known as ».Mac«) or to »MacFamilyTree.com«.
EN–166
Creation and publishing of the Web page itself is an identical task for
any of the four publication channels. Enter a name for your Web page
under »General Information« and then select any of the various
options available. This allows you to include or exclude diagrams from
the »Saved Views« section we described above. You can also choose
to upload pictures to your Family Trees on the Web.
Another option is a dedicated switch to exclude information of living
persons as this may be required for reasons of confidentiality.
While talking about protecting your privacy: please make sure that
you set secure passwords or logins: These may differ, depending on
each publishing channel. You will need to keep a record of these
logins so that you can later access your published family trees.
EN–167
6.2
Keep It Safe — Backing Up Your
Research
Core Data to the rescue

With MacFamilyTree 5, the family tree data, complete with all pictures,
movies and other media, is stored in a single, dedicated database file.
This is made possible by Apple's new Core Data technology.
There is virtually no limitation as to the size of the database itself. But
you will certainly notice some speed decrease when working with a
huge multi-Gigabyte family tree file.
Most importantly though, since MacFamilyTree 5, there is no risk of
losing track of all the pictures and other files belonging to your family
research, after adding them to your database.
This is what a MacFamilyTree 5 database file looks like in a Finder
window on your Mac:
EN–168
Spotlight — track your database files

You can search for this file and every other MacFamilyTree 5 database
on your Mac with Apple's Mac OS X »Spotlight« search:
Click the »Spotlight« icon in the upper right corner of your Mac's
screen and enter ».mft« into the search field. Spotlight will
immediately start looking for everything on your Mac containing this
string. Please make sure that you enter the search string without
quotation marks but include the leading dot.
Search results are shown in real-time underneath the search string.
Clicking on »Show All« will open all the search results in a separate
window. This is very helpful if there are many results matching your
search.
Clicking on the column header »Kind« sorts all the results according
to their file type. This immediately groups all your MacFamilyTree files
together — usefuly for the rare occasion that some other files
matched the ».mft« search string.
When you select one of the files with your mouse, a »file path«
appears at the bottom of the search results window. This path tells
you where the selected file is actually stored on your Mac.
But even more handy is the contextual menu of Mac OS X: right-click
(CTRL-click) on a search result with your mouse and select »Open
Enclosing Folder« to directly show the file in a Finder window. From
there you can then easily move or copy the database file e.g. to a
different folder or onto a backup disk.
Please read on to learn about backup stragegies:
EN–169
Backup strategies
While working in MacFamilyTree, whenever you feel like it, go to the
»File« menu and select the »Save« option to save the current famliy
tree database (keeping its name, not creating an additional file). Per
se, this does not provide any additional safety. None at all!
There are various ways for creating a safety net for your valuable data.
Two considerations should be taken very seriously though:
Storage location
A safe location is never on the same hard disk but in a separate
location, probably on another hard disk or even on an optical
medium. Ideally, you will not keep backups in the same room, house
or region as the original files to avoid total data loss in case of your
home being struck by disaster!
Using an »Online« or »Remote« backup service like the one inlcuded
with Apple's »Mobile Me« is also an interesting alternative: you don't
have to travel anywhere to retrieve the data should you need it.
Instead you just connect to your backup on the Internet. Obviously,
this approach depends on availability and accessibility of the Internet,
and it is up to you to decide whether you want to rely on it or not.
Manual vs. automatic backups

While with manually created backups at deliberately chosen
moments or intervals you can create a pretty reliable workflow, you
still need to be very well organized to stick to the self-imposed
schedule, and to ensure the integrity of the backup itself.
Backup programs like Apple's Time Machine or other software on the
other hand may be able to perform backup and archiving tasks
automatically in the background, possibly creating a little slowdown
in system performance while they are running, but backing up
changes almost immediately. Some such programs even wake your
computer at night, to then create the scheduled backup while you are
asleep.
EN–170
Altogether, such an automated backup strategy offers the decisive

advantage that it theoretically eliminates human error completely —
at least at your side. You cannot forget to do, what you no longer
need to do yourself.
Let's now describe some basic backup strategies. Understanding their
principles and following one of them as good as you can is highly
recommended: with the abundancy of genealogy information which
you can easily import into MacFamilyTree, you should definitely
concern yourself with keeping at least one working and secure extra
copy of your database — always.
#1 — »3 Steps« (requires discipline, reliable)

This approach is a more traditional one, but it is fairly safe because
you preserve various instances of your research:
Step 1 — whenever you are about to edit your familly tree, create a
»work« copy of it, and then store your current, »stable« database
somewhere safe. Mostly, an additional, external FireWire or USB hard
disk should be the ideal backup storage solution.
Step 2 — next, input all the new, still unverified information into the
work copy just created.
Step 3 — once everything is correctly transferred, referenced and
double-checked, you may want to promote the work copy to your
new »default« family data base and archive the previous stable
version.
Tipp #1: please do not store archives and backups on the same
storage medium: if it fails, you'll lose everything but the current
database at once. It is a good idea to burn archives to CDs or DVDs
and to store these in a dark, cool and dry place.
Tipp #2: please regularly check with your archived data files that you
don't waste too much hard drive space: most likely, it is not
necesssary to keep all versions of your family tree, but rather only a
few each year. But, of course, this is up to you.
EN–171
#2 — »Random Archive« (simple, but not very reliable)

From the »File« menu choose »Save as…« and save the current state
of the family tree database as a new file with a new name, probably
carrying a readable »date stamp« of the date you saved the file.
This is useful if you want to keep previous versions of the family tree
for archiving purposes, while not strictly following the same scheme
as in »3 Steps«. The more previous versions you keep the safer your
data is, as long as you honor the principle of never storing backups
and work files on the same physical storage medium.
#3 — »Time Machine« (simple, reliable)

First, make sure that you've set up Apple's »Time Machine«: Time
Machine is available since Mac OS X 10.5 »Leopard« and continuously
creates automatic backups of your Mac onto an external volume —
either an extra hard drive attached via FireWire or USB, or even a
storage device on your network.
Time Machine can be configured from within the Mac OS X »System
Preferences«. We recommend that the storage device used for Time
Machine is at least 50 percent larger than your Mac's hard disk (the
one you have MacFamilyTree installed on, and where you also keep
your family tree database).
If everything works as it should, you can now use MacFamilyTree to
create and edit family trees without worrying too much about data
integrity: Time Machine keeps tracks of all the changes and saves
them for a certain time before it finally eliminates the oldest versions
from the backup. This way you make sure that you can »go back in
time« at least a little to retrieve valuable information which you may
have accidentally deleted or modified.
Note: the bigger the storage space you assign to Time Machine, the
longer the history this smart backup tool keeps of your data.
However, you may still want to make an additional copy of your work
on CD or DVD once in a while, just for the sake of added safety.
EN–172
#4 — »MobileMe« in combination with »Time Machine« (very reliable)

Apple's online service »MobileMe« (formerly known as .Mac) includes
at least 10 Gigabytes of storage space on the Web. As Internet-based
storage space is usually rather failure-proof and can be readily
accessed from all over the world, as long as you have Internet access,
it can generally be recommended as a reliable backup medium.
However, you should only use it with a fast and reliable upload
connection, such as a T1 or high-speed DSL line. Especially if your
family tree database contains many pictures or other media files, it
may rapidly grow beyond just a few megabytes in size. And you
definitely do not want to upload one Gigabyte at a time over a dial-up
modem connection.
So, a good idea would probably be to copy your database file to a
folder on your iDisk from time to time. Maybe once a month, or after
you've finished some important editing. Combine this with
automatized Time Machine backups, and your valuable data is pretty
safe, without you cluttering your desk with CDs or DVDs.
As long as you have configured MobileMe on your Mac, you can
access your iDisk directly from the Finder: look for the pink »iDisk«
icon in your Finder window, click it, wait until your Mac has connected
and you can see the folders inside your iDisk. Then just drag your
MacFamilyTree database file to e.g. the iDisk's »Documents« folder
and that's all
EN–173
History lesson: how files were stored in MacFamilyTree 4

Previously, with MacFamlilyTree 4, we relied on saving natively in the
GEDCOM format. Your genealogy data was stored in a GEDCOM text
file. Pictures and other media files were either stored in a »Media«
folder, residing either in your »Pictures« or your »Documents« folder,
or they were referenced and left at the places you imported them
from.
This frequently caused annoyances, for example whenever you were
to migrate your MacFamilyTree installation to another Mac — or
when creating a full backup: pictures went missing, and you had to
add them again, all over your family tree. And, even more annoyingly,
sometimes pictures would accidentally be removed from e.g. iPhoto,
and were no longer available at all…
Just to make sure: this was neither a fault of MacFamilyTree 4 or
GEDCOM. There was simply no better and viable solution available at
the time. Luckily, things have changed, now that we are using Apple's
Core Data technology.
More information on GEDCOM can be found starting at page EN–106.
EN–174
6.3
MobileFamilyTree
Take your family tree with you, at all times. Quickly review, add and
edit genealogy data. Simply sync MacFamilyTree on your Mac with
MobileFamilyTree on your iPhone or iPod touch to keep your research
up-to-date. — MobileFamilyTree is a client application for
MacFamilyTree 5.2.3 and later on your Mac.
EN–175
Provide Feedback
Should you have suggestions and ideas as well as questions and also
complaints, please do not hesitate and send them via e-mail to:
macfamilytree@synium.de <mailto:macfamilytree@synium.de>
Any kind of information from you, our users, helps to further improve
MacFamilyTree: we thank all our customers who did provide feedback
over the more than 10 years of MacFamilyTree product history.
EN–176
Software & Copyright

Copyright © 2007-2009 Synium Software GmbH
Mac and the Mac logo are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the
U.S. and other countries.
EN–177
Documentation
Nils Heeren, Frank Heckert, Stefan Josef Schmitz
This Manual: Nils Heeren
EN–178
Software Translation/Localization
Dansk: Mogens Thyregod
Deutsch: Mendel Kucharzeck, Frank Heckert, Nils Heeren
English: Nils Heeren, Mario Lange
Español: Dagobert de Santo Lacour
Finnish: Heikki Halleen
Français: Philippe Bonnaure
Italiano: Claudio Santucci, Stefano Tommasini
MacFamilyTree 5 Manual Version 1.0.0.1
EN–179

Mac Family Tree User Guide

Transféré par

Informations du document

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Mac Family Tree User Guide

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

MacFamilyTree 5

Backup before proceeding! 29

Your First Look At MacFamilyTree 37

Step 2 — Name your Family Tree: »Save as…« 55

Creating Graphic Charts For Online And Print 95

About This Manual

From An Internet Download

The installation package will be downloaded as a so-called »Disk

The »Sample Tree«

Locating your product key

Boxed retail version (CD)

The registration dialogue

»Standard« vs. »upgrade« keys

Standard MacFamilyTree product key (Version 4):

Standard MacFamilyTree product key (Version 5):

MacFamilyTree »Upgrade« product key:

Is my installation properly registered?

Troubleshooting registration issues

When do I need the product key?

… but I absolutely cannot find it — what now?!?

Don't post registration issues online!

Why Updates Are Important

more or less important new features, performance improvements and

Automatic update notification

Checking for updates manually

Backup before proceeding!

The installation window

No additional registration necessary…

If both are black and can be accessed, then, please register

Tutorial & FAQ

Sometimes it is nice to get a first impression of how something works

Support forum & e-mail

Although we try to keep response time low, please be patient. Due to

Select »Create New Tree« and read on…

Window Title Bar

Main Toolbar (consisting of 5 different sets of tools)

»Publish Web Pages« (Publishing Tools)

immediately allow to add and edit some basic information, right

The procedure you follow while importing your MacFamilyTree 4

Step 1 — Create a new database: »New…«

This is how you will be greeted whenever MacFamilyTree starts up.

Step 2 — Name your Family Tree: »Save as…«

Step 3 — The first family: »Add Family«

Step 4 — Defining the »Man«

We recommend entering dated information, like date of birth,

Step 5 — Defining the »Woman«

Step 6 — Adding »Children« to a family

death), we need to change from the family context to the individual

Step 7 — Editing a person: »Person Editor«

Step 8 — Date of birth: »Person Events« & »Event Editor«

Step 9 — Know where you are: the »Navigation Bar«

Step 10 — Marrying a couple: »Family Events«

Step 11 — Growing the Tree: Adding more Generations

Step 11.1 — Using the »Family Assistant«

Moreover, the Family Assistant is a handy navigation tool to browse

Step 11.2 — Use the »Persons« tool

Step 11.3 — Use the »Families« tool

Step 11.4 — Use the »Add Person« button

Via »Families« in the main Toolbar, go to the family of Tobias Hansen

from the choice of standard events under either »Person Events« or

»Add Picture«, »Add Picture from iPhoto«

»Add Sound«, »Add Video«

Working with »Date Formats«

When defining a date format, be sure to use the correct combination