Family Historian is one of the most popular, if not THE most popular, genealogy program in the United Kingdom. It is also popular in Australia and New Zealand but has never gained as much acceptance in North America. I am not sure why, as it is a great program.
Family Historian produced by Calico Pie has always been known as a full-featured genealogy program for use on Windows. Now a brand-new update has been released.
Simon Orde, Managing Director of Calico Pie, described the new release this way:
Many of the new features in version 3 are to do with diagrams. Other genealogy programs call them 'charts' because they only use them for printing as wall charts. Family Historian diagrams are tightly integrated into the main program and are used interactively for browsing, exploring, navigating, data- entry, editing - and, of course, for creating wonderful wall charts. It's easy to learn to use diagrams in this way, and it makes working with your data not only easier, but also much more interesting and fun. You can explore your family tree visually by clicking on buttons to expand and close branches, click- and-drag on boxes to add relatives, re-order spouses and siblings, and so on. And we've done it all with no compromises on the requirements of serious genealogists - such as the need to maintain full source citations for your data.
In version 3 we've made our diagrams both more powerful and more interactive. Previous limits on branch exploring have now gone. Diagrams now automatically adjust themselves both horizontally and vertically when you expand or close branches, and are better laid out. You can click-and-drag to move branches or resize boxes, and the trees (we call them 'smart trees') automatically adjust their layout to accommodate the changes. Thanks to smart trees and other innovations such as 'fixed-point dragging' you can now manipulate chart layouts interactively to achieve results easily that would otherwise be impossibly difficult.
We have made all our diagrams much easier to use, and have added a wealth of new features. You now have much more control over the content, style and layout of text within boxes, and the look and style of boxes and lines. We are especially proud of our All Relatives diagram - still unique to Family Historian - which has been re-worked and greatly improved.
But it's not just about diagrams. Version 3 is a very big release, and includes a cornucopia of other important features too - such as web site creation, Family Tree CDs, Internet search, Installable Fact Sets, a new Navigation Bar, usability features, and much more."
Here is a list of the major features that separate Family Historian 3 from its competitors:
- Web site creation - very easy to use, but also powerful and highly configurable
- 'Smart Trees' which automatically adjust themselves horizontally and vertically to accommodate moved branches and resized boxes
- Innovative methods for moving branches and manipulating chart output, including
- 'fixed point' dragging
- Multi-tree diagrams
- A re-worked and much improved All Relatives diagram (unique to Family Historian)
- A new Everyone diagram
- A wholly new approach to the detection and linking of 'duplicates' in diagrams (duplicates occur when a person is related to the diagram root in more than one way)
- Numerous other diagram enhancements, including much improved support for producing chart output. For example, diagrams can now have any orientation (top- down, left-right, right-left, etc) and can be saved in files.
- A wizard for creating Family Tree CDs
- Improved usability throughout and a new Navigation Pane
- A new Internet Search tool
- Two new narrative report and enhancements to existing reports
- Installable Fact Sets
- … and much more.
To find out more about these features, please see http://www.family-historian.co.uk/whats_new_in_3.htm
For more details about Family Historian generally, look at http://www.family-historian.co.uk.
You may also be interested in a feature comparison table to the Family Historian that compares Family Historian's features with those of other well-known genealogy products. To view the table, visit http://www.family-historian.co.uk/compare.
Family Historian 3 (boxed) comes with a voucher entitling the purchaser to 50 free units for research at 1837online.com (see www.1837online.com). It also includes a promotion code entitling the purchaser to 30% extra on purchased units at 1837online.com - a saving of up to £100.
Family Historian has a suggested retail price of £49.95. It is available online or by mail order everywhere in the world from specialist genealogy suppliers (see the list at www.family-historian.co.uk/suppliers) as well as from Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk) and WH Smith.
Version 2 users can buy a CD upgrade to version 3. The CD upgrade has a suggested retail price of £23.95, and is only available from the specialist genealogy suppliers listed at www.family-historian.co.uk/suppliers.
Comment by Dick Eastman: I haven't had a chance to see version 3 yet but hope to do so later this week when I am in London. I already have an appointment to meet with Simon Orde, Managing Director of Calico Pie. I hope to write about my impressions soon after.
