Thanks for all of your responses to my post about Rootsmagic. Yes I’m staying with Legacy even though I own the current version of most programs. I went to Smartcomputing to see why they were so favorable to Rootsmagic  and enclose the pertinent part of their analysis.  What are your thoughts? How does your program compare in these areas Organizing Your Research Genealogy research often creates a mess of leads and unrecorded sources. RootsMagic provides more organizational help than any program I've seen. Attach ToDo items to individuals and family units. RootsMagic prompts for what research you must do and where it should be done. Add research deadlines and your research results. RootsMagic's Source Wizard writes proper source citations. I entered a new fact and was prompted to select a Source Type. I chose Obituary, and RootsMagic asked me to enter the person's name, newspaper title, newspaper location, publication date, and page and column numbers. I could also add the reliability of the source, a transcript, and my own comments. The only other program I've seen with such extensive source citation is the excellent but difficult-to-master Master Genealogist. RootsMagic can create a plethora of reports and charts, including the printable Wall Chart, which can be as wide as 57 feet. RootsMagic's Narrative Report converts raw genealogical data into complete sentences. The software can also assemble a family history book. You can even add free-form text pages to the publication. The Web Site Wizard can help you publish a genealogy Web site, complete with family trees, photos, and an optional link for visitors to download your GEDCOM file. The Root Of The Matter RootsMagic is easy to navigate and has unique features. Open more than one file at a time and drag individuals' records among files. Open two copies of the same file side by side. I frequently used this feature to simultaneously view my data in the detail-oriented Family view and the lineage-oriented Pedigree view. I've only touched on RootsMagic's features, which include problem-checking, photo editing, and a Correspondence Log. I've used several genealogy programs, but RootsMagic has the best balance of advanced organizational features and simplicity. by Kylee Dickey Most of us have at least one relative we wish we had known better. Although many details of our relatives’ lives may be lost, we can do our part to ensure that future generations know who we are and where we came from. I recently used two programs that can help you record your history. The first is RootsMagic 3, which helps you research, document, and present your family history. The second is Personal Historian, which helps you write your own personal history. Time Traveling RootsMagic has been one of my favorite genealogy programs because of its excellent features that help you maintain organized genealogical records. Version 3 provides even more features to help you record a family story that spans many generations. You can import GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data COMmunications) files, the standard file format for genealogy software, into RootsMagic. The new version also supports files from PAF (Personal Ancestral File) 2.x and later and Family Origins 4 and later. It also supports backup files from Family Origins 5 or later. RootsMagic 3’s most intriguing addition is shareable-CD creation. These CDs include a view-only copy of RootsMagic, as well as your family file so that you can easily share your genealogical research with others. RootsMagic 3 also has a new feature which can omit events and notes of your choosing from printed reports and exported files. You can use this feature to record your own thoughts, even if they have no place in a published family history. I also used this option to record facts about family skeletons while respecting relatives’ wishes that I not make these stories public. Get Personal RootsMagic provides a way for you to record your ancestral history. However, you may also wish to document your own personal story either for your own benefit or the good of future generations. Personal Historian can help you write your life story, even if you have no writing experience and don’t have large blocks of free time to pursue such an endeavor. Personal Historian is a very convenient writing aid because it prompts you to write about individual events so that you can use a few spare minutes to write just one anecdote at a time. The program organizes all of the events you write about in a timeline format. Some people know they have important stories to tell. However, some of us have writer’s block when it comes to our own lives. It is difficult to think of stories to write about our own experiences. Personal Historian includes LifeCapsules to help jog your memory. LifeCapsules is a library of historical events, cultural fads, and other events to help you remember events in your own life. By placing your experiences in a historical context, you can add considerable depth to your personal history. Although I’ve focused on using Personal Historian to write your own history, there is no reason you couldn’t use this software to guide your biography of a favorite relative. In fact, you can import a genealogy file into Personal Historian. The events in your genealogy file will automatically appear in Personal Historian’s Timeline. Preserve History There are other genealogy programs you can use to assemble your family history. I focused on RootsMagic because it’s one of the most advanced programs that is still easy to use. Also, RootsMagic recently acquired Personal Historian from Blue Scroll Software. At press time you could save $10 if you ordered both programs together. I’m not an especially organized person, and I find it difficult to set aside time for large projects, such as recording my family and personal history. Both RootsMagic and Personal Historian helped me start recording this information for myself and for future generations. Send your comments to kylee@smartcomputing.com   I am Jim Rader  jim@rader.org my web site is at www.rader.org

And now you know WHY I LOVE ROOTSMAGIC! (Hey, can't have a software tug-0-ware without me!) Someone HAD to stick up for this incredible software..... -----Original Message----- From: James L. Rader [mailto:jim@rader.org] Sent: Sunday, February 05, 2006 12:57 PM To: CA-SACRAMENTO-EVENTS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: FW: Legacy the best ? Thanks for all of your responses to my post about Rootsmagic. Yes I’m staying with Legacy even though I own the current version of most programs. I went to Smartcomputing to see why they were so favorable to Rootsmagic  and enclose the pertinent part of their analysis.  What are your thoughts? How does your program compare in these areas Organizing Your Research Genealogy research often creates a mess of leads and unrecorded sources. RootsMagic provides more organizational help than any program I've seen. Attach ToDo items to individuals and family units. RootsMagic prompts for what research you must do and where it should be done. Add research deadlines and your research results. RootsMagic's Source Wizard writes proper source citations. I entered a new fact and was prompted to select a Source Type. I chose Obituary, and RootsMagic asked me to enter the person's name, newspaper title, newspaper location, publication date, and page and column numbers. I could also add the reliability of the source, a transcript, and my own comments. The only other program I've seen with such extensive source citation is the excellent but difficult-to-master Master Genealogist. RootsMagic can create a plethora of reports and charts, including the printable Wall Chart, which can be as wide as 57 feet. RootsMagic's Narrative Report converts raw genealogical data into complete sentences. The software can also assemble a family history book. You can even add free-form text pages to the publication. The Web Site Wizard can help you publish a genealogy Web site, complete with family trees, photos, and an optional link for visitors to download your GEDCOM file. The Root Of The Matter RootsMagic is easy to navigate and has unique features. Open more than one file at a time and drag individuals' records among files. Open two copies of the same file side by side. I frequently used this feature to simultaneously view my data in the detail-oriented Family view and the lineage-oriented Pedigree view. I've only touched on RootsMagic's features, which include problem-checking, photo editing, and a Correspondence Log. I've used several genealogy programs, but RootsMagic has the best balance of advanced organizational features and simplicity. by Kylee Dickey Most of us have at least one relative we wish we had known better. Although many details of our relatives’ lives may be lost, we can do our part to ensure that future generations know who we are and where we came from. I recently used two programs that can help you record your history. The first is RootsMagic 3, which helps you research, document, and present your family history. The second is Personal Historian, which helps you write your own personal history. Time Traveling RootsMagic has been one of my favorite genealogy programs because of its excellent features that help you maintain organized genealogical records. Version 3 provides even more features to help you record a family story that spans many generations. You can import GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data COMmunications) files, the standard file format for genealogy software, into RootsMagic. The new version also supports files from PAF (Personal Ancestral File) 2.x and later and Family Origins 4 and later. It also supports backup files from Family Origins 5 or later. RootsMagic 3’s most intriguing addition is shareable-CD creation. These CDs include a view-only copy of RootsMagic, as well as your family file so that you can easily share your genealogical research with others. RootsMagic 3 also has a new feature which can omit events and notes of your choosing from printed reports and exported files. You can use this feature to record your own thoughts, even if they have no place in a published family history. I also used this option to record facts about family skeletons while respecting relatives’ wishes that I not make these stories public. Get Personal RootsMagic provides a way for you to record your ancestral history. However, you may also wish to document your own personal story either for your own benefit or the good of future generations. Personal Historian can help you write your life story, even if you have no writing experience and don’t have large blocks of free time to pursue such an endeavor. Personal Historian is a very convenient writing aid because it prompts you to write about individual events so that you can use a few spare minutes to write just one anecdote at a time. The program organizes all of the events you write about in a timeline format. Some people know they have important stories to tell. However, some of us have writer’s block when it comes to our own lives. It is difficult to think of stories to write about our own experiences. Personal Historian includes LifeCapsules to help jog your memory. LifeCapsules is a library of historical events, cultural fads, and other events to help you remember events in your own life. By placing your experiences in a historical context, you can add considerable depth to your personal history. Although I’ve focused on using Personal Historian to write your own history, there is no reason you couldn’t use this software to guide your biography of a favorite relative. In fact, you can import a genealogy file into Personal Historian. The events in your genealogy file will automatically appear in Personal Historian’s Timeline. Preserve History There are other genealogy programs you can use to assemble your family history. I focused on RootsMagic because it’s one of the most advanced programs that is still easy to use. Also, RootsMagic recently acquired Personal Historian from Blue Scroll Software. At press time you could save $10 if you ordered both programs together. I’m not an especially organized person, and I find it difficult to set aside time for large projects, such as recording my family and personal history. Both RootsMagic and Personal Historian helped me start recording this information for myself and for future generations. Send your comments to kylee@smartcomputing.com   I am Jim Rader  jim@rader.org my web site is at www.rader.org ==== CA-SACRAMENTO-EVENTS Mailing List ==== How to unsubscribe. 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