I purchased Family Tree Maker 16 from ancestry.com. I have entered my family information into the program.?

Question

How can I copy this information onto a CD to use on any computer? I've copied the shortcut and it does not work. I went back and copied the file and that still does not work. What else can be done?

Answer 1

FTM 16 is pretty good at reports.

If the other computer has any sort of decent genealogy software on it, it can take the entire data file and work with it as a Gedcom. To do this, select "Export entire file". The requestor will ask you to provide a name for the file. Below that will be a block for "File Type." Hit that, slide down, and select Gedcom. (Several options here, but different versions of FTM won't talk to each other. Gedcom is always standard.)

If the other computer has no genealogy software, select the reports icon, create the reports you want, including all the generations you want, and export the reports to PDF. The files will not be a database, but the information can be viewed by others easily.

If you wish to move the database to another computer, but don't wish to install FTM 16 on the other machine or pay for a program, download PAF on the other machine, and copy or email the Gedcom to it.

PAF is available from http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.... Look for the Free download section at the bottom right of the screen.

Answer 2

If you are saving it, it is saving it as a familytree file and can't be read unless you have the program on the other computer.

You can save it as a gedcom file but, again, there has to be software on the other computer to read it.

Best thing is to put limited information in a document.

You need to select Publish and create a report.  Once you chose the type of report, generate it, then you can save it as a .rtf (rich text file) to your computer.