First a disclaimer - I have no pecuniary interest in Family Tree Maker. BUT - I found a free utility which allows, among other things, opening more than one FTW file at a time. The only requirements are that you must be running Win 95, 98, or NT with a screen resolution of 800x 600 or greater. The location of the utility is at http://surf.to/FTWConfig. It's a beta release but seems to be working adequately. The purpose of the program is make changing settings in the FTW.INI file easier. However, in addition, it also allows the ability to open up to four different family files simultaneously. To those of use who are dealing with the comparison of data, this looks like an answer to a long-discussed problem. Carolyn Mussina Seaman Kinderhook, NY <gregseaman@berk.com>