Hello Todd, I have been asked several times the same question you have asked, and that is "Can you tell me a little about what software you are using with your Web site?" I have decided to make the information in this e-mail message to you into a template so that I will be able to more easily respond to others with the same question. Perhaps I will even place it as a separate page on my Web site, but I'm not sure of that yet. I would appreciate your comments on any of this information. My primary software is Microsoft's FrontPage 98. There are many Web site creation software packages (I will abbreviate to WSCS for brevity) on the market, but any computer magazine review you read will conclude, at least for now, that FrontPage is the grandiose of all such software. After having examined a few others, I agree. The main purpose of WSCS programs is to shield the user from having to know HTML, which is the language of the World Wide Web. Most WSCS programs do this reasonably well. However, FrontPage stands out from the others because of its ability to "administrate" your Web site. As your genealogy Web site becomes larger, as mine now is, you may find that you have thousands (no exaggeration) of hyperlinks. Checking for broken or erroneous links would be so time consuming, and you might never catch them all. Also, such tasks as changing a hyperlink is automatically done by FrontPage where ever it is used (on all the pages) once you make the first change. In addition, FrontPage is easy to use (at least I think so). FrontPage is not cheap. Your first copy will run about $149, with upgrades costing around $50. However, I think you will not regret your purchase. Please keep in mind that you will want to learn some HTML anyway. Some special effects on a Web page are, as of now, not available in any WSCS program. But, HTML is absolutely the easiest computer language I have ever learned. I am self-taught. The first HTML book I purchased was a simple and inexpensive book ($17.95) titled "HTML For The World Wide Web" by Elizabeth Castro. This 256 page book (the 2nd edition was) is not something you must read from cover to cover. It's more of a reference type work. When you want to do something in particular with HTML, just look up the task in the index and read the one or two pages on it. It's really not hard. I would recommend starting with this book. Between HTML and WSCS programs, you will then be set to create marvelous pages for your site. Now on to the genealogy software you will need. First of all, any genealogy database software program that is capable of reading and writing GEDCOM files is sufficient for the purpose of collecting and computerizing your family data. From your e-mail messages to me you seem very computer literate, so I presume you no doubt already use something for this purpose. I personally use Family Tree Maker for Windows, but any of the genealogy software will do as long as it supports GEDCOM. The last two pieces of software you need are (1) a GEDCOM "cleaning" program that removes information from your file for persons yet living, and (2) GEDCOM to HTML converter software. In both cases you must first start with a GEDCOM file of your data. At the risk of sounding a bit "preachy" on the issue of GEDCOM cleaning, I will say that most responsible on-line genealogists protect the privacy of living people by not putting on the WWW any birth or marriage information for living people. For a better understanding of this issue, please read my Privacy Policy at ... <http://www.dnutt.com/database.htm#privacy> The software I recommend for GEDCOM cleaning is Tom Raynor's shareware program titled GEDClean. You may obtain a copy at ... <http://members.aol.com/tomraynor2/gedclean.htm> Finally, you will need converter software that will automatically create for you your HTML pages from your data. It is absolutely wonderful not having to retype all of our family data into Web pages! Here are two shareware suggestions for GEDCOM to HTML converter software. I am registered to use both of them, and you can view my Web site to see examples at <http://www.dnutt.com>. [PLEASE NOTE: Only my McPherson database is currently using Gedpage. The other databases are using GED2WWW, but as time permits I will be switching them over to Gedpage). Gedpage, written by Ron Jacob. Registration is only $10. <http://www.frontiernet.net/~rjacob/gedpage.htm> Current Windows version is 2.02. Great, easy to use shareware. The output is formatted as Family Group Sheets which are very familiar to genealogists. The only downside is that each family group sheet is a separate HTML file, usually with a file size of 2K to 3K. That means that if your computer's cluster size (sometimes called allocation units) is 16KB, 32KB, or 64KB you will be wasting TONS of hard disk space to store each of these little 2K files. I recommend this software highly for users whose computer is capable of using a FAT32 file system (such as Windows 98, or the latest version of Windows 95 which is version 4.00.950B). With a FAT32 file system you can setup your computer's cluster size to be only 4K, which is perfect for these small files without all of the hard disk wastage. If you computer can handle it, I think this is the best converter software anywhere! GED2WWW, written by Leslie Howard. Registration is $0 (Free!). <http://pw2.netcom.com/~lhoward/ged2www.html> Current version is 0.22. Produces very little HTML code, which is great for Web sites without much storage space. It does not have a fancy user interface (what do you expect for free), but this is not a problem. The software is customizable and easy to use. Hope this helps you with your decisions on software usage. Don Nutt Adrian, MI.