RootsMagic is one of those applications that allow keeping track of someone’s genealogy. It has multiple features and, as a result, its interface is rather complex, with lots of different windows. Therefore, it’s easy to get lost when you aren’t familiar enough with the program.
The tool can store varied information about a person and, luckily, it’s flexible enough as to allow adding relationships beyond those found in a nuclear family. For each person, it’s possible to save information related to multiple types of events, such as birth, marriages, divorces, adoptions, death and burial. Moreover, you can also create custom fields. This data can be entered manually, but it can also be copied or merged from other databases. Luckily, the program supports other formats apart from its own, particularly standard genealogy file types. Not only that, it lets you create separate databases for different families.
The tool supports searching online databases, like Ancestry, FamilySearch and MyHeritage. Besides, it can also find information using major search engines. Furthermore, it can use the stored information to create websites or print charts.
All in all, RootsMagic supports building huge family databases. Unfortunately, some of its features cannot be tested without payment. Moreover, the program is difficult to use. Personally, I forgot to add birth data about the people in my family and I couldn’t find a way to add the information at a later time.
v6.0 [Nov 19, 2012]
-Publish your family information to RootsMagic website
-Dynamic sites with pedigree, family and individual views for each person
-Can include notes, sources, and media for each person
-Shows a full timeline of the current person's events and those of their parents, siblings, spouses, and children
-Shows a graphical timeline of the person's events
-Edit events, names, directly from the timeline view (without having to open the edit screen)
-Lets you look up counties and states (US, Canada, UK, Australia) to view information about them
-Access the FamilySearch Wiki page for counties and states
-Access an interactive state map showing historical county boundaries
-Attach links to websites to any person, source, citation, place, or research log item
-Instantly jump to a web page tagged to a record
-Print a list of WebTags you have added to your database
-Find every record containing text you enter
-Find people, families, events, notes, sources, places, to-do items, research logs, media items, and more
-Edit any found record directly from the results screen
-Search for people by the number of spouses, children, parents, or siblings that they have
-Select people based on genetic lines (Y-STR and Mitochondrial)
-Create a WebTag directly from your search results
-Optionally use an external browser for search results
-View place detail information directly from the place list
-Edit place detail notes, media, etc. directly from the place list
-Create unlimited research logs to document your work and aid your research
-Quickly search for any text in any research log
-Automatically checks every county you enter (US, Canada, UK, Australia) to verify that it actually existed at the time of the event
-Report gives you a list of all events in counties which didn't exist at the time
-Lets you access maps and county histories for the US, Canada, UK, and Australia
-Test the integrity of the database file
-Re-index the database
-Compress deleted records from the database
-Includes all family events on a date, as well as famous births and deaths and historical events for the day
-Shows who in your file was possibly in a given location on a given date
-Filter to show any group of people
-Allows easy tagging of images with the people, families, events, places, or sources
-Enter comments on any media tag
-See type, status, priority and description in a single list
-Sort by type, status, priority, or task description
-Filter by type, status, or priority
-Hover tips for notes and sources for every fact
-Easily view all to-do items for a person and their families
-Easily view all media items for a person, their events, and families
-New tabbed source edit screen streamlines source entry
-Direct descendant list shows the direct line from an ancestor to a descendant
-Henry, D'Aboville, and outline numbering
-Wordwrap option conserves space
-Print all events which occurred within a certain distance of any place
-Include markers for events of family members of the selected person
-Displays the primary image for the highlighted place
-Displays the place details for the highlighted place
-Select the font / size for the lists on the edit person, Explorer, and select person screens.
