The Ancestry.com store is listing Family Tree Maker for Mac. The store listing states the product is expected in early November. Family Tree Maker for is even pricier than Family Tree Maker for Windows, so if you are considering buying the new Family Tree Maker for Mac, you may want to take advantage of the 20% pre-sale discount currently being offered.
When Ancestry.com announced the new Family Tree Maker for Mac in April, it
wasn't strange that they stated that it will be built on the functionality of Family Tree Maker 2010 [for Windows]
, but now that Family Tree Maker 2011 for Windows is out,
that statement is odd. Yet the Family Tree Maker site still says exactly
that and the product description in the Ancestry.com store states that it is
based on Family Tree Maker 2010
.
Ancestry.com expects genealogists to be so excited about the more than 100 enhancements
that Family Tree Maker 2011 offers with respect to Family Tree Maker 2010 that
they will pay for the upgrade, yet at the same expect genealogists using MacOS
to do without these features?
The announcement of Family Tree Maker for Mac on the Ancestry.com blog makes
two statements that may seem to contradict each other. On the hand it states
that Family Tree Maker for Mac will be built on the functionality of Family Tree Maker 2010
, but on the other hand it immediately goes to state that Family Tree Maker for Mac will be constructed from the bottom up to take full advantage of the Mac platform in terms of technology and user experience.
.
So what is it, based on Family Tree Maker 2010 or built from the ground up?
Well, Family Tree Maker 2010 is a Microsoft .NET application, and a .NET application can be ported to MacOS X, but Family Tree Maker 2010 uses many third party libraries that are only available on Windows. Besides, Mac users aren't eager for a straight port of a Windows application, they want a real Mac application. What they blog seems to be saying and what the screenshots of Family Tree Maker for Mac confirm is that Family Tree Maker 2010 for Windows was used a model, and that the MacOS version is similar in design, with practically the same features, menus and layout.
Now, you would expect Family Tree Maker for Mac and Family Tree Maker for Windows to be highly compatible, but the Ancestry.com web store description for Family Tree Maker for Mac includes the following section:
Transfer files to and from the Windows version. You can bring files into Family Tree Maker 2010 for Mac directly from Family Tree Maker version 4 through Family Tree Maker 2006. To import files from Family Tree Maker 2008 or a newer version, simply use the Windows-based conversion tool included on the Family Tree Maker for Mac disk.
Ancestry.com claims that Family Tree Maker for Mac is based on Family Tree Maker 2010 for Windows, sot it presumably has practically the same functionality, yet it does not use the same file format. Even more surprising than the fact that Family Tree Maker for Mac uses a different database format is that it cannot even import Family Tree Maker 2010 for Windows databases.
The description of Family Tree Maker 2011 for Windows says nothing about its
ability to read and write Family Tree Maker for Mac databases.
I received my copy of Family Tree Maker 2011 a few days ago. Its import and
export dialogs do not support Family Tree Maker for Mac yet, but Ancestry.com could
fix that with a service pack. It seems likely that Ancestry.com will
provide the mentioned conversion utility to all Family Tree Maker 2010 and 2011
users, perhaps even provide it as a free download for all.
The description claims that users of Family Tree Maker can simply use the
Windows-based conversion tool included on the Family Tree Maker for Mac disk
.
That is ridiculous. Not only should Family Tree Maker for Mac be able to read
Family Tree Maker for Windows databases directly, a conversion tool provided to
Mac users should be a MacOS application, not a Windows application.
It is also worth nothing that the description only says something about reading Family Tree Maker 2010 files. It says nothing about Family Tree Maker for Mac's ability to write databases in the Family Tree Maker 2010 for Windows database format. It does not state that the Windows utility can convert from the Mac to Windows database format either…
Family Tree Maker 2008, the first version of New Family Tree Maker, was released shortly after an ill-received public beta, apparently without fixing anything. It was released before it was finished, and the response to the product was predictably negative. The product improved with subsequent versions, but to this day, many users prefer Family Tree Maker 2006 over any edition of New Family Tree Maker.
If Family Tree Maker for Mac cannot read and write the Family Tree
Maker for Windows databases format. then the product is simply not finished yet. It seems that Ancestry.com
management does not learn from its mistakes, but has once again decided to push
a brand new Family Tree Maker out before the holiday season, whether it's
finished or not.
I advice Ancestry.com management to reconsider. The new product has only once
chance to make a first impression. Let the Family Tree Maker for Mac development
team finish its job.
Copyright © Tamura Jones. All Rights reserved.