A simple basic software?

[Balliol]

I am new to this and I would like to build a slde show for my children showing what I have found so far with aview to updating it as I go along.
I would like to be able to build a family tree and attach small photographs to each name.
I am sure that such software must exist but wonder if anyone would care to make a sugestion.

[Geoffers]

There are so many different programmes, each of which will record a family history - not too sure about the slideshow though. I suggest a couple of things:

1. Buy one of the monthy family history magazines, they often have comparisons between different software - or check the magazine's web-site to see if a comparison is there.

2. Use a search engine, and enter 'Genealogy Software' have a look at some of the hits you get. It is possible to get shareware programmes where you can enter a few details and see how you like them - it's a good way of testing things out.

3. I would not take anyone's recommendation of a particular particular for a beginner - people are biased towards what they like, and what someone else likes may not suit you. I've see reference to a couple of programmes recently on these forums which others like and I think are awful, but just because I don't like them doesn't make them perfectly useful and useable and just what someone else wants.

[arthurk]

If your search produces an unwieldy list, you could also try the software listings at Cyndi's List (which is a massive site with links to all kinds of family history sites). I'm not sure if I can give the URL here, but a search engine would find it. As far as I could tell when I looked a few days ago, it included all the better-known programs, as well as some lesser-known ones.

Arthur

[suedent]

If you just wish to provide a slideshow of photos & text then something like MS Powerpoint might be the way to go.

A free alternative can be found in the OpenOffice Suite

www.OpenOffice.org

[Mutley]

Try Google
'Tribal Pages'
A very easy way to stick pics and info on a site for your kids to look. Password protect for living or open to web for those long gone.
Free or a £10.00 per year if you wish to save a gedcom and have no adverts.
Can put on bells and whistles and fancy stuff or plain and simple.

Worth a look.

[malcolm]

I am sure that such software must exist but wonder if anyone would care to make a sugestion.

As has been said, everyone has their favourite. I would not suggest my favourite as being good for starting out with.

Various software comes with various price tags. My suggestion is always to start with PAF which comes as a free download from the LDS:

http://www.familysearch.org/

Then "Order/Download Products"; then "Software Downloads"

You'll find the free PAF 5.2 download at the top of the list.

Try PAF, decide what you want that it doesn't have and then you'll be in a better position to judge the merits of software you have to pay for.

PAF will allow you to export your data as a GEDCOM file and import it into your new software so you won't have to reenter all the people and relationships.

There is also a free 'lite' version of Legacy available but the missing bits are probably the ones you want!

= Malcolm.

[Neil Wilson]

Lets start at the beginning, what software do you use to store your family tree?
From there, I am sure that the members will be able to advise on how to produce the slide show you require.
One thing to remember is that if you do find the software you are looking for, the slide show file will possibly be just like a 'report file' produced by the software, that's doesn't change when a item is added to it.
Good luck.

[Balliol]

Firstly thank you everybody who offered so much advice. Secondly, the question, "what software do you use to store your family tree?" is an easy one to answer. At the moment all I have is a sheet of paper although I am rather more ambitious when it comes to building a slide show.
Currently I use Pinnacle Studio 10.8 which is a reasonable simple and effective piece of software. I have used it to build slide shows from family photographs which can start with a full page of text as an introduction followed by photographs to which I apply a title and a transition that allows one photograph to fade out and another photograph to fade in. It’s also simple to apply a musical sound track. I then burn the whole thing to a DVD and one can bung it on the TV when ever one wants to view it.
However, I have just sorted through a box of family photographs belonging to my late Father-in-Law and Mother-in-Law going back two further generations and this lead me into an interest in genealogy. I am lucky enough to have a friend who took the family tree back to 1645 although for the purpose of a slide show I will be constrained in what I can apply to each slide determined by how readable it will be on a TV.
I have the draft family tree on paper and I have photographs of my late Father-in-Law, my late Mother-in-Law, their parents and assorted relations.
Using the appropriate software I would like to create a family tree and using my existing software I would then like to be able to create a slide show starting with that family tree applying small photographs of those who have been identified to the family tree following up with up to 100 of the old photographs.
I keyed 'Genealogy Software' into the Forum search facility and there was an enormous amount of information but ‘Tribal Pages' appears to be the sort of thing I am looking for unless that is, this post attracts an alternative sugestion.

[Ed Bradford]

In the business world, slide shows are used quite often to convey information to others. I have sat through many presentations. Some were quite good and provided a concise overview of the topic and some were long, detailed and bored me to sleep.

A slide presentation should never be long and never be very detailed. You'll lose your audience otherwise. Keep it high level and concise, otherwise, you may be accused of punishment or death by PowerPoint.

................Ed

[Neil Wilson]

What sort of sound track will you be adidng? Some music of the period of the photos would work. I don't think that genealogy software would do justice to your idea of a slide show. Keep us all informed of whatever you decide on and how it works.

[Balliol]

I suspect that when I die all the photographs that I have accumulated over the years will be looked at once and then consigned to the attic of one of my children or dumped which will be a pity because they tell a story. I'm aware that there is a school of thought that says, "so what" but I disagree with it and I hope that as the slide shows will be on DVDs they will be more accessible than a pile of photograph albums gathering dust in the attic.
You are very right about the boredom threshold and I hope that I will deal with that by careful editing and using chapters of an optimum length, say about 20 minutes. The slide show software that I use has the facility to create chapters which are identified by a title and a picture so one can bung the DVD in and does not have to watch every photograph but can pick which chapter one wants but it takes discipline.

The music is a problem because I like traditional jazz so I will have to rely upon my wife's advice to keep me on the straight and narrow. I note that you say that you don't think that genealogy software would do justice to my idea of a slide show but I have to have a go and see how it turns out. Yet again many thanks.