Feature Set:  

Family Historian has many features and the most views. Unlike other programs, Family Historian requires you know accepted data formats. No automatic formatting of dates is available. If you enter your data incorrectly, the program will default to a date phrase or leave it as is. Consistency is important, particularly when you collaborate with other family members, and Family Historian leaves it all up to you.

You can easily add facts to each individual from the focus window. You may add more than one type of fact under one listing such as multiple occupations over the course of an individual’s life.

You will find more views than in any other program, but you will have to select and generate them.

Family Historian has broken new ground with its support of photographs, allowing you to link multiple people to one photo and show just the face from a photo—no cropping required. It is possible to make some of the most appealing charts available using these tools.

Ease of Use:  

The interface is easy to use, offering multiple views to which you can navigate simply by using the preset views on the left side of the unit frame. Any view you generate afterwords will be displayed on the left side of the screen until you choose to remove it.

Reporting & Publishing:  

Generate all of the standard reports with nonstandard options to create exactly what you want. Family Historian offers many types of reports that can be saved for printing or for publishing to the Web. The Web Page Wizard is the most useful tool for creating a web page of any of the programs reviewed. You can make a GEDCOM file available for download, link to other websites, and post numerous reports—all of which will be included on your Home Page Table of Contents. Use the CD Wizard to make a CD you can share with your family.

Help/Documentation:  

Family Historian comes with a user manual to aid you with the considerable learning curve involved with this program. Convenient help options, such as the “Help with Current View” functions, give you direct and specific help for that section of the program that you are working with. For additional technical support you can send an email or write to the manufacturers.

Persevere the building and upkeep of your family tree and you will have unprecedented printing and publishing options. There are higher ranked genealogy software products to make genealogical research a bit easier for beginners with automatic formatting and other options but with Family Historian, the great selection of charts and customizable reports make this product a solid investment.