Osk: Genealogy Software for Macintosh and Windows

I have not yet seen this software but the announcement sounds interesting. For one thing, I am not used to seeing much genealogy software produced in Iceland. For another, the word "Osk" means wish in Icelandic. Here is an excerpt from the announcement of Osk version 4.0:

Studlar Software has updated Osk, a genealogy application for Mac OS X and Windows XP, to version 4.0. It’s a Universal Binary update, so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.

Osk enables you to enter detailed information about family, friends and celebrities, with birthday, connected media, places of residence, sources for your information and other data. You can plot family trees and track ancestors and descendants. It’s available in English, Icelandic, German, Russian, Portuguese, Norwegian and Swedish.

Version 4.0 offers better overall performance, enhanced text reports, better Gedcom 5.5 import, and improved tracing of relatives. Osk allows you to keep track of your friends and family, celebrities or any family information. You can create family trees, export them as JPEG or PNG pictures, and then export your information as a web site.

Osk 4.0 runs on Mac OS X 10.3 and greater, and on Windows XP. It’s available as a fully functional 30-day time limited demo; registration is US$39.

For more information, look at: http://www.studlar.net/en/software/

Comments

[LarryH]

Out of curiosity, I checked out Osk. It will not import a GEDCOM except to create a new database. I tried to import several valid GEDCOM files of various sizes, that work in other programs, and it errored out. It created a database with just a few name, but not linked together. It does not appear to have the ability to export a GEDCOM.

I then tried entering a few people from scratch. There are only two names field, first and last. It is easy enough to put first name and middle name together, but once again, the computer age ignores those of us that are Jr. Jr. is part of my legal name, it is on my birth certificate and all legal documents, but it is obviously not my surname. The GEDCOM standard is not perfect, but it at least recognizes that names have many parts. Of the few persons that imported from one of my GEDCOMs, a Sr. had first, middle, and lastname in the first name field and Sr. in the lastname field.

It is also awkward to enter new persons. The layout of the entry screen is different from most other genealogy programs.

The website said that this software has been in development for two years. Either the demo version is a very old version, or this software is not worth $39.00. PAF, Legacy, GRAMPS, and other free genealogy programs have much more flexibility than Osk.

It does have some nice looking reports that can be saved as images, such as jpeg, but if it is hard to get the data in, pretty reports do not make up for it.

[Trausti Thor Johannsson]

If you have problems with Gedcom files, you really should contact Studlar the maker of Osk (me). Osk has a pretty solid gedcom import, and in version 4.1 (just out) it fixes some bugs.

But if you import a gedcom file, it will show you all information needed when importing, number of persons, families, lines in gedcom file and such. If you get those numbers then the import is under way.

There is a preference that states Load data when database opens, it is off by default, so after you import the file the people list is empty. This is done by design since you might have a database containing hundreds of thousands of persons which Osk handles easily, but you might not want to list them. But listing them is easy. Just find all.

Or contact us at Studlar AT studlar dot net, it would also help if you sent the gedcom file with the e-mail, and I will personally import it for you and send you the database file.

So, if you have any problems, please contact us at studlar.

Best regards,

Trausti Thor Johannsson

Studlar Software

p.s. Mr Eastman. Osk is the only Icelandic genealogy software made today as far as I know, which is strange since we Icelandic people are extremely interested in genealogy.