Hi Peter, If you order your Christmas software during the holiday period, there is usually a good discount. To put software on your own laptop and desktop computers, you can use the same Rootsmagic without paying twice. About merging the two databases, you may want to think about what may and may not merge. You could have a problem with many items not merging. You might want to try drag and drop. Another issue is that the sources need to be exactly the same or they will not automatically merge. I once merged two of my own databases, and I had not always set my sources up the same way, not to mention places and entry of names and dates. I think you should NOT have trouble with RM3 updating fine with RM7. Many of the features will be the same. RM4 would have had more differences. Margaret Scheffler