Website vs. FTM Program
The main difference between Ancestry and Family Tree Maker is that the former is a website, while the latter is software. The Internet has a site, such as Ancestry, and you use an Internet browser, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, to access the site. The other websites you can utilize are google.com or yahoo.com.
Software such as Family Tree Maker is installed in the hard drive of your computer. A program is typically on a disc which you insert into your computer and then install, or more often today, you go online and download and then install. Your other examples of programs are things like Microsoft Office or Norton Security.
Subscribe vs. Purchase
Ancestry is one site that you can subscribe to. Your Ancestry account is a recurring charge similar to a magazine subscription or cable subscription that occurs on a typically scheduled basis until a subscription is cancelled. The features of your subscription are the availability of the records on the site and the ability to contact other members.
Family Tree Maker is one of the programs purchased like you would a television or a DVD. You need not continue to pay for Family Tree Maker. There is, however, the option of getting a Family Tree Maker, which you can use with your Ancestry subscription and achieve maximum utilization of the program.
Online vs. Offline
Ancestry, being a website, means that you have to be online or have an internet connection to access the website. When there is no connection on the internet, visiting Ancestry or any other page is impossible. Those photos and trees that you, the user, upload to the Ancestry site are stored on our website.
One of the good things about Family Tree Maker is that it is saved on your computer, and you will, therefore, make use of the program even when you have no access to the internet. Some of the features that will not be available due to the lack of the internet will include syncing, hints or Web Search. You can, however, add persons and other details to Family Tree Maker even when you are not connected to the internet.
Books and Charts – MyCanvas vs. Publish
Ancestry also has fewer printer capabilities to print family trees. A home printer can print 4 generational charts (the one you are viewing), a profile page, or a family group sheet. Ancestry also provides the possibility to print most records. Ancestry also lets you order a record or professional print of your tree. With MyCanvas, the data in your tree will be used to create a book or poster following whichever layout you prefer and then customized. If you want to look more, go to MyCanvas here.
Family Tree Maker provides a multitude of publishing options with 37 charts and reports that provide extensive customization options. These charts and reports may be put in a book. The family tree maker books do not automatically appear and thus can be customized to a great extent. After you have designed the book, chart or report that you desire, you then know that you can print your project out on your home printer, or have it exported in numerous ways, in which you can take your project and print it out professionally at a print shop. Here is some assistance to create a book in Family Tree Maker.
Sync Differences for Ancestry and Family Tree Maker
There are some differences between your tree in Family Tree Maker and your tree on Ancestry when you have a synced tree. All these differences have been explained in another of our articles.
1. Backing up trees
Your family tree means a lot; not just in terms of housing the history of your family, the are hours of effort that go into the process. And among the things you can do only in Family Tree Maker is the regular backup to save the results of your efforts. Here you may learn more about how to create a backup in Family Tree Maker. Next, in case your original tree becomes corrupted, you can quickly restore it by using the backup file. If you want to know how to restore a tree to a given backup, click here. To feel even more at ease, you may decide that Family Tree Maker should automatically back up your tree every time you close the program.
2. Map creation and places management
Whereas Ancestry allows you to see empty maps you have prepared in other programs, with Family Tree Maker, you can type up your own maps within the program, in which all the events which occurred in a particular place and the individuals involved in the event are shown. Besides, you can generate maps based on the migration patterns of your ancestors that take you through the route that your family has taken through the generations and over land and water.
To dig deeper into how to make Migration Maps, go to this link. And only in Family Tree Maker can you print maps right out of the program, be it an aerial photo of your ancestor family farm, or the route followed by your great-grandfather across the nation.
The final unique feature in Family Tree Maker is the fact that on the Places workspace, it is possible to display towns and cities in alphabetical order or clustered by country, county, city, etc. With hundreds of destinations on your tree, groups make it a lot easier even to scour and locate the one you want with haste. The advantage of this is that you can view anyone who belongs to a certain country or city just by clicking once. Lastly, enjoy fantastic 3-D views based on Bing Maps when you have the most up-to-date Windows version of the perennial Windows-based Family Tree Maker.
This breathes life into your ancestral homelands, as this can enable you to visit virtually all the areas in your tree. To give but one example, you may view satellite pictures of the town in Denmark where your grandfather was born or of the apartment in Chicago where your great-grandparents lived, or even where you used to go swimming with your cousins every summer.
3. Organization of source citations
There is a difference in how Family Tree Maker and Ancestry treat source citations. Although the online tree system has one citation for one individual, the Family Tree Maker system has one citation attached to the facts of multiple individuals. Besides this, you are only able to see a source citation in Ancestry when that source is in a fact that was open at the time, so you have to have the fact open to view the source linked to it; the Sources tab in Family Tree Maker means that you can manage all the source citations in the whole tree in one place.
4. Tools for cleaning up duplicate facts and sources
You can find and delete duplicate people on Ancestry and in Family Tree Maker, using special tools, but only in FTM can you find and merge duplicate facts, sources and source citations.
5. Notes creation
With ancestry, it is possible to make notes about persons. Family Tree Maker allows one to create notes of different types, person, research, fact, relationship, media, and source citation. Upload a tree to Ancestry: again, the only notes transferred will be personal, and only your invited viewers on Ancestry can view them.
6. More export options
When you desire to print your family tree to share with a person or to open it using other software, you can get the chance to export the entire tree in the one form of GEDCOM that is offered by Ancestry.com. Using Family Tree Maker, you are instead able to export the entire or a subset of your tree in either of two formats, FTM and GEDCOM. This implies that you are able to export what you are sharing more to the satisfaction of the individual you are sharing with.
It is a simple matter to export a particular branch of your family tree: simply navigate to the People workspace, double-click on the person whose family tree you would like to export, right-click (Control-click on Mac), and choose Export Branch.
7. Merging of trees and branches
Among the peculiarities of Family Tree Maker is that it allows one tree or another branch of the tree to be merged with another.
8. More printing options
Family Tree Maker currently prints the largest format charts that are professional in look and instil direct association with Family ChartMasters. Get to know more about it here. Family Tree Maker for Windows also comes with the Charting Companion and Family BookCreator plug-in, and you get some extra access to high-quality printing of various charts, reports and books.
9. Unique set of tools
Family Tree Maker also has an assortment of convenient, useful tools that will make maintaining your tree all the more simple to do, such as three types of calculators (Date, Relationship, and Soundex), choices to compact files, convert names, by birthdate, sort the children, and so forth.
10. Organization of work
Using the Plan workspace, you will be able to plan your work and create and control tasks, making family tree building even easier and convenient.
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