You can opt in and out of these hints by going into your preferences. As you add family members, you'll see a lightbulb icon on some of the tree branches, which are Webhints, culled from and MyHeritage. First, I added an entry for myself and then worked my way through my extended family. I opted to create a new tree, and, at the start, it was rather simple. You can also export your RootsMagic data as a GEDCOM file, should you choose to leave the service. A few clicks later, it was all done.īuilding Family Trees As soon as you launch the software for the first time, you can start building trees, either from scratch or by importing a GEDCOM file (the standard genealogy file) or files from RootsMagic and other competing services. All it entailed was clicking the download button and adding contact and payment details.
Installation was a breeze, compared with the hassles I experienced with Family Tree Maker 14 ( at Amazon). You can see a full comparison on the RootsMagic website. The main differences are that you don't get free technical support or integrated backup. There's no free trial, per se, but there is a free version, RootsMagic Essentials, that offers the basics.
The company says a full Mac version is in the works.
If you have a Mac, you can purchase the MacBridge for the $14.95 RootsMagic 7 add-on, which adds compatibility with Mac OS X (Windows not required). You can order a CD version, but you'll have to pay shipping, which varies depending on where you live. Set-up and Interface RootsMagic is compatible with Windows 2000 through Windows 8.