Why bother to register & pay for software??

General discussion of iFamily for Leopard and Genealogy
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Keith Wilson
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Why bother to register & pay for software??

Post by Keith Wilson » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:57 pm

Originally posted by JackHenry

I'll tell you why!!

The only other piece of software that I've ever seen with this sort of user/developer relationship, is a PC program called GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife at www.gsak.net but sadly no Mac version). This is a database used for the sport of Geocaching (GPS Treasure hunting). Clyde, the developer of GSAK, is in Australia too I think. He, like Keith, is constantly tweaking/fixing/improving the software to users needs. And like iFamily, GSAK has a new release every few days.

It's one of the reasons I have absolutely no problem paying, registering and supporting this type of developer as the response to user issues is fantastic. (I'm still waiting for a reply from Microsoft to a question I had in 1996)

It's funny that most people would happily pay several hundred dollars for the 'Big Name' brands of software but baulk at the smaller developer.

I actually bought iFamily without giving it a thorough 'free' workout because of the fact that Keith actually bothered to answer some questions for me while I was still just looking at the forums.

Keep up the excellent work Keith, we appreciate it.

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Keith Wilson
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Why bother to register & pay for software??

Post by Keith Wilson » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:57 pm

Originally posted by kchez

Just by reading the forums, I too bought and registered iFamily based solely on Keith's commitment to ongoing development of this piece of software as well as the immediate response time he provides his customers. In fact, this is my first posting on the forum. I was having problems getting my account to allow me to post messages, but who fixed it in a jiffy? You guessed it. Keith! Kudos again!

This program is so feature rich already, that alone should convince users to happily pay for it. It has gone beyond my expectations and I'm just getting started.

It's intuitive interface makes it the easiest program to learn. And as advertised, you're only one click away from what you want to do next. I'm completely satisfied with my purchase!
:) /me

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Keith Wilson
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Why bother to register & pay for software??

Post by Keith Wilson » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:57 pm

Originally posted by cwayne

Hands down the best piece of software I've ever purchased. I know I haven't even used 20% of the features but I find this app the best I've used. I'm constantly amazed with the ease I am able to input data. My biggest hangup with previous applications was importing/inputting source information. It was so tiresome, I just kept paper copies of my sources so I could avoid the tedium of moving through menus and lists to find the source for one fact. Keith has made it a breeze so and I can move back and forth between sources faster than I can type the data.

The biggest learning curve I experienced was disposing of the nonintuitive methodologies reinforced by other applications that I had used for years. This program is designed to work just like I think. Moreover, if I don't know how to do something (or can't figure it out), the support is fantastic... both by the users and most especially by Keith.

There are many reasons to switch from a PC to Mac, but if the only thing you use a PC for is genealogy research then this app makes an excellent case for a switch.

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Keith Wilson
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Why bother to register & pay for software??

Post by Keith Wilson » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:57 pm

Originally posted by Hazza

I am new to the Mac and I was looking for a good genealogy program. I set out to evaluate a few programs and in the process came across iFamily.
It is one of the most intuitive and customisable programs I have used and in my view a bargain at the price. The support provided by Keith has been absolutely amazing and the regular updates shows that he is responsive to his customers needs.
There is always some thought with shareware that the developer will stop supporting and developing the product but I believe that iFamily is already a quite mature product that continues to be fine tuned. I have no problem at all paying for and supporting good software whether it be iFamily in particular or other good software in general. One has, in most cases, the opportunity to try software before purchasing. I knew on the day that I tried iFamily that it was the program I would purchase.

Keep up the good work Keith.

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Keith Wilson
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Why bother to register & pay for software??

Post by Keith Wilson » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:57 pm

Originally posted by krystalbird

:) Thank heaven for Keith's genius. iFamilyforLeopard is the best. It's saving me loads & loads of time & effort. Worth every dollar.

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Vera
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Uncovering historical background.

Post by Vera » Tue Oct 21, 2008 9:48 pm

Does anyone know of a site, or book, or other resource (other than the average high school history book) that would give an overview of what was happening in the world at a particular time? Perhaps by decade, or five year period?

So, for example, my grandfather was born in 1857, died in 1932, so I think the large event of his generation would've been WWI. But there may have been other significant occurrences which could have had an impact on his life.

In the past I've seen general time lines in fold-out charts, but don't have one myself. I do, however, have a time line of classical composers so I can see that one composer (of many) who was born around the same time my grandfather was, was Bedrich Smetana of Moravia.

Sorry to be long-winded....hope you all get my drift.
Thanks much. :)

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Post by Keith Wilson » Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:56 am

I have a large timeline wall chart of composers - would that help? Sorry to be flippant - other genealogy applications do include various types of timelines that can be displayed together with timelines for each person in the database. Some time ago I created one for wars but there have been so many wars - some very short (a few days) and others very long (100 years) and it did not seem to work very well. It was interesting, but sometimes not so interesting. Different people in different countries will need very different timelines and, of course, some family trees involve people from different countries in different eras.

There is not much point in creating a function that is pretty but is actually useless most of the time for most people. Maybe I should just let each user create their own reference timeline and populate it with whatever is interesting to them.

Keith

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Post by mtpaper » Wed Oct 22, 2008 1:07 pm

Vera -
As I worked on my family history, and the presentation of that info, I also thought it would be interesting to include Noteworthy Events.....

I've since realized:
- I have my hands full just getting the basic family data in order without trying to incorporate external noteworthy events
- critical external events are inherently included in the story because of subject matter (ie, "joe was home on leave", "Jim was injured in Italy during WW II", "Prohibition had begun and clubs were closing up all over" etc)
- my readers had their hands full absorbing the family data; they didn't want a history lesson at the same time
- it became a logistical nightmare for me to plan out my pages, identifying World Events vs Family Events
- I decided to stay with KISS principle

That being said, there are many many books and websites. For starters:
- google: on this day in history
- go to amazon books or bn.com, and search for: on this day
- there are numerous calendars you can download into ical or whatever calendar software you use
Marion in NY

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Post by Young Math » Fri Oct 24, 2008 6:59 pm

Keith - Personally I think it would be excellent if it were possible to build timelines and maybe integrate them into the “events in the life of “ on the story tab for instance.
I am not a fan of the graphic style of timeline, but I do like the events based timeline I get from my last surviving connection to MS Windows. The events listed in the timelines can be toggled on or off in any combination and viewed in perspective to the persons life.

For my own file, I have included a historical timeline of St Helens, a town in the North West of England where half of my family is based. Believe me, this adds interest if your ancestors there were all coal miners named Smith who stayed in the same spot for over two hundred years.

An additional benefit of this would be that I could bin Windows altogether :D

mousecook
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Re: Uncovering historical background.

Post by mousecook » Wed May 20, 2009 12:29 am

Vera wrote:Does anyone know of a site, or book, or other resource (other than the average high school history book) that would give an overview of what was happening in the world at a particular time? Perhaps by decade, or five year period?
Go to this web site and it will give you specific happenings on a given day in history http://www.dmarie.com/timecap/
Looking for Williams, Thomas, Jacobs and Cook surnames. Participating in both Williams and Cook DNA projects.

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Warwick Wilson
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Post by Warwick Wilson » Wed May 20, 2009 3:40 pm

mousecook wrote:
Vera wrote:Does anyone know of a site, or book, or other resource (other than the average high school history book) that would give an overview of what was happening in the world at a particular time? Perhaps by decade, or five year period?

Go to this web site and it will give you specific happenings on a given day in history http://www.dmarie.com/timecap/
You can also try appending the year name to the wikipedia url.

eg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977

Decade summaries have also been fairly well filled out back through the centuries.

eg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s

kwheaton
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So we all might enjoy the continuing advancement Ifamily

Post by kwheaton » Thu Jul 16, 2009 4:03 am

Although this is an old topic I can&#39t help but weigh in on the value of Ifamily and the wonderful support now provided by Warwick. I can think of no better tribute to Keith than his wonderful program and its continued success.

I am happy to pay for this program that is not only user friendly but supportive of its users. Thank you Ifamily!

Jolly Dollie
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Why didn't I find iFamily before?

Post by Jolly Dollie » Wed Feb 16, 2011 3:45 pm

I see this is an oldish topic, last post about 18 months ago, but I feel I want to add to the praise.

I swapped to a Mac about 4 years ago but kept my old PC laptop just for doing the genealogy on as I couldn't find a Mac program that I liked. Recently the PC blew a gasket and I lost the lot, but luckily I had a hard copy plus all my research notes. So I started looking again at Mac family history programs and don't they seem to flourish with fancy charts; forget about making the input simple it seems to be all about 3D(?) charts.

Then yesterday buried deep in some obscure corner of a genealogy site I came across a reference to iFamily (nothing glowing, more about how cheap it was) so, getting desperate by this time, I downloaded a copy and started to evaluate it without much thought of success. No sooner had I started than I received an email asking if I needed any help!! Well, I had hit a couple of brick walls so I asked the questions and was rewarded with a reply which contained screenshots as well as narrative. I couldn't believe either the ease-of-use of the program or the very prompt help and then I realised that I had found the program of my dreams.

I paid for the registered version last evening and today have been inputting some of my data just to start getting used to the program, and isn't it easy to use? Why didn't I find it before? Why isn't it more widely known?

Just to let you know which programs lost out - Heredis (whacky and quaint), Mac Family Tree (awkward) and Reunion (all flashy charts) - and yet they are raved about on the various genealogy sites. Mac Family Tree, Reunion and Family Tree Maker for Mac all cost between £50 and £70 and aren't worth the boxes they come in.

It's been a while since I enthused over a program, but iFamily deserves my enthusiasm.
:o

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Jolly I agree

Post by kwheaton » Wed Feb 16, 2011 4:10 pm

I was tempted to go back to FTM when the version came out for MACs but then I read some less than stellar reviews and since it didn't have the interface to search within the program on Ancestry I saw nothing to be gained except to empty my pockets.

I have been using this program for quite some time---really don't know what all it is capable of but I love the simplicity, power and elegance of the program and it is very well supported.

I was on a Genealogy DNA forum and they were conducted a poll of favorite software and iFamily wasn't even listed---well I remedied that!

I love my MAC and I love iFamily!

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