As we've reported, more than 98% of those who complete their 48-hour test drive decide to continue using FTM 2017. More than 25,000 and counting so far. We've collected some of their comments below.
“I really enjoy being connected to Family Search automatically. I enjoy the ease of syncing my trees from Ancestry. I have always used Family Tree Maker and now it is even better.”
“I like the look of the program and ease to use. Being able to sync to Family Search and Ancestry.com is fantastic.”
“Accessibility is awesome I am very happy with the performance and the overall experience with the new program. Photos are a delight to work on.”
“I loved this version. I especially liked the color-coding. This was a nice feature that I will certainly use again. I also liked the photo software. It did a great job of cleaning up photos that I had even tried to work on previously. Love the whole thing.”
“I was very impressed with how well it went with the synch process between Ancestry and FTM. Good job.”
“For this test drive, I felt as though I was driving a Tesla! Everything that I tried worked perfectly. I'm thrilled!! THANK YOU!!”
“Photo Darkroom. Relationship calculator and chart. Media story. Ease of Entry of data. Global spell check. Manual to read more about program. So many functions that are great.”
“The sync with ancestry worked beautifully. I love the color coding, also. Some of the great features are the connections with family search and ancestry. I also like the number of file formats for printing out my family history. This is a great upgrade from the original program.”
“It has done every thing I have thrown at it from my PC and from my Mac!!!”
“Love this. It runs so much smoother and faster than the previous edition. Sync runs beautifully.”
“The syncing was flawless. I like the color coding - great idea. All actions have been increased in speed, sweet.”
“Very happy with the results. Having lost my 2012 update in a computer replacement, all I had was the 2008 version. Being worried that things would not hook up and download properly with Ancestry.com, everything went flawlessly. Good job!”
“The sync seemed to be faster & less error prone. I have a pretty large tree with lots of media. UI was similar to before, but operation just seemed better - and I liked the inclusion of leafs in the desktop version.”
“Really like the color coding. I have six male lines in my tree and color coding is great for this.”
“Things I tried:
-Sync: Worked great. Tried after making changes only on FTM, then only on Ancestry, and finally changes on both.
-Color coding: Looks very useful; did not get a chance to figure out exactly how I will use it.
-Tree conversion: I tried to verify a lot of aspects of my tree after the conversion and could not find any unexpected changes or issues.
Overall very pleased with FTM 2017! Thanks for taking the time to get this first release solid; you made the right call even though the pressure to release it both from outside and inside MacKiev must have been huge.”
“Very consistent and smooth testing. I was very impressed and pleased with my test drive. I'm excited to know that there's a product that is dependable and stable! I find myself wanting to use the new version of FTM more than any other software programs. Thank you so much!”
“Overall, the new program worked beautifully. Sync worked perfectly, no problems whatsoever. I sync'd both ways, adding new material from Ancestry and sync'ing to my FTM2017 Beta program and vise versa. I didn't know how I would like the color coding but I must admit, I do. I see things in my tree that I didn't realize were "wrong" per se or rather didn't quite match up. I enjoy the hints and being able to pick from different websites which hints I want to see and/or use. Great Job MacKiev!! Two thumbs up.”
“I liked the colour coding and the speed of the program during Merge from both Ancestry and FamilySearch was excellent. I'm really happy with how it worked and had no trouble adding people or editing individuals. Thanks for the opportunity to test it.”
“Worked very well. No snags. I like the new sidebar where you can choose Ancestry, FamilySearch or RootsWeb to search and everything is prefilled for you. Responses were very quick.”
“I absolutely love Color Coding. This makes following family lines so much easier and efficient. The Sync Weather Report seems to be a valuable tool. The information provided makes a tree more secure. FamilySearch through Latter Day Saints is more convenient to utilize through logon in the FTM program. I do not use multiple computers at this time but will in the future, so I cannot comment at this time with regard to Family Sync. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for choosing professional, knowledgeable, patient people to staff the Live Chat line. No matter the issue or question, they can and do help without making you feel foolish for asking — or uneducated for not knowing how to perform a task. When you sign off a chat you are more confident in your own knowledge. I am thrilled with the updates to FTM. Before these changes I loved the program. Now I'm over the moon about it. Thank you for the opportunity to Test Drive the program and I would love to keep using FTM 2017.”
“Seriously ‐ I had no problems. Syncing went great — all files transferred as expected. Speed was better than the old FTM. None of my trees are huge, but I have a lot of trees. Could not be more pleased.”
“Loved being able to create a list of relatives that served in the Military and color code them. What a great feature!”
“Upgraded without any issues. Converted data file without a hitch. Is clearly faster than the previous version.”
“I liked the way it brought all my records together. Color coding ‐ Dark photo was awesome ‐ bought an old photo to almost new ‐ very pleased.”
“I like the color coding but I wish there were more colors & generations. Everything worked better than it did in 2014.1 ‐ which had some problems with the database & with syncing. I am glad to have a desktop.”
“I had a great experience with this new version. I love the color coding ‐ I find that very useful. Once I could sync ‐ I got some work done. All and all ‐ I think it is great. It will take a while to learn all the in and outs ‐ which will be fun. Thanks for this new version...”
“I found it easier to Sync. Somehow it seemed more user friendly.”
“Really enjoyed this. Easy to use. Love being able to color code and have immediate access for information that is available on each person. Thank you for allowing me the chance to test this program!! My trees worked great with this program.”
“I enjoyed it. Very responsive. Synch went really well. I made a few changes on Ancestry.com and synched correctly.”
“Syncing was much faster and more accurate ‐ color coding is incredible! I would like the family search site to search its collection of historical records rather than just trees ‐ but it is such a great addition to searching!”
“I couldn't believe how easy it was to download my tree from ancestry to FTM. I haven't been able to do it for over a year!! I loved the color coding as well. I was able to show my kids their family tree much easier. I would love to see the search engine a bit easier to use other than that this is awesome ‐ can't wait for my husband to build his tree with it!”
“I really like the addition of FamilySearch hints and the color coding. Everything else went just great. I'm impressed!”
“I was able to access all my media and docs just as I'd hoped. I created a test family and was able to find way more by using both Ancestry & FamilySearch. I like that feature.”
“Sync worked fine. Link to FamilySearch is great. Colour coding is a nice feature ‐ especially with a big and complex tree.”
“Resynced my 7 trees successfully, including a tree with 6000 people and many thousands of media objects. Thank you. I saw some faster syncing, and not glitches!”
“Everything is working very good, no problems, photos moved easily, found several new features I like. My trees synced well no problems there. I believe this version will be better to work with and is faster than previous version.”
“It as great, sinked back and forth through out all the linked access programs. Extremely happy with how it all went.”
