Legacy 4.0

Millennia Software has released a new version of their very popular genealogy software, Legacy. This Windows program is available in two versions: a Standard Edition that is free and a Deluxe Edition with extra functionality that sells for $19.95. I've always been had a high opinion of both versions of Legacy, so I decided to see what is new in version 4.0.

I downloaded the free version directly from Millennia's Web site. It is a big download of several megabytes. Anyone with a cable or DSL modem won't mind, but the file sizes will be significant for anyone using a dial-up modem. You can also purchase the program on a CD-ROM for only $1.00 plus shipping charges if you do not want to download huge files. There are two methods of downloading Legacy 4.0:

1. A faster Web download of a small setup program. That program will then check your computer and will download only those files that are needed.
2. A full setup of a single compressed file that contains all files used by Legacy. This file is about 13.4 MB and will take longer to download. Some users may like the full setup even though it's larger. It can be copied to a CD-ROM or ZipDrive and be used to install Legacy on computers that do not have Internet access.

I downloaded the full setup on a Windows XP system and the double-clicked on the newly stored file. The installation proces that followed was a typical Windows installation, very easy an intuitive. The entire installation required less than a minute t accomplish. I was soon looking at Legacy's intuitive main screen.

At first glance, nothing seemed to have changed on version 4.0' main screen. That's a good thing in my opinion; I have alway admired Legacy's user interface. It is one of the more intuitiv editing screens I have seen. Legacy crowds a lot of icons ont this screen, each leading to other features. However, even thoug a bit crowded, everything is placed in a logical manner. I believ the newcomer can become familiar and comfortable with Legacy' basic features after only a few minutes' use. Learning to use al of the program's extended features will require a bit more time however.

I am not going to describe the operation of the program no comment on all the screens available. Millennia Software ha already created an excellent "on-line tour" that does all of that The on-line tour even shows typical screen shots. The screen shots are normally shown as thumbnail sized images; you can click on an of these to see a much larger image of the screen. If you have a interest in evaluating Legacy 4.0, I'd suggest that you take th on-line tour at: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Tour.asp

It appears that the changes from version 3.0 to 4.0 in th Standard Edition are minimal. However, there are many, man improvements to Legacy 4.0 Deluxe Edition. Here is a partial lis of the changes in the Deluxe Edition, as listed in Legacy 4.0' Help file:

New quick way to switch to next spouse, sibling, or parents with a click of the mouse.
User-selectable information on the Family View and Pedigree View. Choose the fields you want to see for the Husband and Wife.

Automatically set Living to Yes or No for large groups of people. Mark entire ancestral lines that you know are no longer alive and mark them as dead. This catches all your ancient relatives with no birth or death dates.

Navigate to consecutive RIN or MRIN numbers right from the Family or Pedigree View.

The Location List can now be sorted by any field while you analyze it to combine duplicates. There is even an amazing right-to-left sort that shows you duplicate locations you would have never seen otherwise.

Three new Quick Bookmarks make it faster than ever to return to key people in your file.

You can now add addresses to the Birth, Christening, Death, and Burial fields as well as to Marriages. All individual and marriage events can also have an address. Even the Master Locations can include an attached address.

New Master Repository List lets you enter the mailing address, e-mail and web addresses of libraries, archives, and agencies and use them over and over again.

You can add Latitude and Longitude information to addresses and locations.

Faster Than Ever:

Tagging operations and searching are now faster than ever.
Relationship calculation is much faster.

Pictures:

Scan pictures from within Legacy. It's easier than ever to connect your special pictures to individuals and marriages in your family file.
Pictures, sounds and video can now be linked to any type of event. You can also attach pictures to master sources and source citation details.

Pictures can now be cropped to focus in on just the people you want to show.

Create a Sliding Picture show screen saver made up of your favorite family photos. Click on a photo and go directly to that individual. Family reunions will never be the same.

Enhanced Photo Album. Print a family photo album from all individuals or just those who are tagged. Add pictures and scanned document images to Places, Events, and Sources.

Web page creation is now many times faster. You can break large web sites into multiple folders and specify their location. You can also have a common picture folder so that different web styles can share pictures.

Marriage Enhancements:

You can now add unlimited Events to marriages.
User definable Husband and Wife labels for each couple.

These are shown on the Family View and used on reports.

Customizable report narrative sentences for special situations (common law marriages, children out of wedlock, etc.).

Note Fields:

All Notes fields now hold up to 1 million characters.
That's hundreds of pages each!

Add notes to Births, Christenings, Deaths, Burials and Marriages.

Reports and Lists:

Print custom address labels and name tags. Dozens and dozens of standard and A4 size Avery labels and nametags are included. Nametags can include pictures and three- generation pedigree charts. Great for genealogy conferences and family reunions.
Count and print the separate Trees within your family file.

Improved List Reports with line wrapping options.

Customize the reports by choosing any field for any column. Save the reports for future use.

Enhanced Print Preview engine lets you quickly view and scroll through your reports. You can view the entire report as thumbnails (32 per page), facing pages, or single pages from screen size up to 400 percent. Print the current page, any range of pages, odd or even pages, collated or uncollated.

New Character Map gives you support for European alphabets. Entering names like Bjørn is easier than ever. There is even a new Special Character ribbon on all input screens that lets you quickly choose from eight user- selected characters by just clicking on them.

New Descendant Narrative Report. Combines the easy-of- reading of a Descendant Chart with the narrative style and contents of a Modified Register report. This could quickly become your new favorite.

New summary style Potential Problems report skips redundant information. This saves paper when printing the report and speeds collection.

Events can be marked as Private. Report and Web page options allow you to include or exclude these events.

Relationship report can be filtered to tagged individuals.

Internet Support:

Internet button. Just click and connect to the Internet to find your favorite genealogy Web site.
Search the Internet for information about your ancestor.

Simply select Search /Search the Internet to automatically query Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org for the current individual. That's nearly one billion names!

Internet and e-mail enabled -- Just click to send an e- mail message or connect to an organization's Web page right from Legacy.

Sources:

New Source Detail Comments, File ID Number and Recorded Date fields.
You can now add sources for LDS ordinance information.

Despite its length, the above is still an abbreviated list o changes. You can find a more complete list at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/WhatsNew4.asp. You can also find a list of Legacy's features, including those that were in previous versions, at: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Features.asp.

In short, Legacy 4.0 is an evolution of an already excellent program. Anyone who has used version 3.0 will immediately feel at home with the new version. Anyone who has not used an earlier version will require only a few minutes to become comfortable with the program. Legacy 4.0 is an excellent tool for any genealogist, whether neophyte or experienced researcher. I'd suggest that you download the Standard Edition and try it for a while. I suspect you will like it. I also suspect that many of Legacy's users will pay the $19.95 (U.S. finds) to upgrade to the Deluxe Edition. However, there is no requirement to upgrade. If the Standard Edition meets your needs, you may continue to use it forever at no charge.

Legacy 4.0 (both editions) requires Window 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows ME, or Windows XP. Legacy requires a Pentium class computer, a VGA or higher display, at least 35 megabytes of available space and a floppy disk drive or CD-ROM drive. The program will operate (slowly) in 16 megabytes of RAM memory although 32 megabytes is highly recommended for proper performance. I tested Legacy 4.0 Standard Edition on a 533-MHz Celeron system running Windows XP in 256 megabytes of memory. The performance was excellent on my system.

Millennia Software says that Legacy cannot run on a Mac unless you have installed a Windows emulator like Real PC, SoftWindows or Virtual PC. The company doesn't mention Linux. Obviously, a Windows program will not operate in Linux unless a Windows emulator is used. I happen to have a Linux system available with the Win4Lin Windows emulator installed, so I decided to try Legacy 4.0 on that system. In short, Legacy 4.0 worked flawlessly under Linux by using the Win4Lin emulator. Performance was quite reasonable on my Linux system with a 900-MHz Celeron processor and 512 megabytes of RAM memory.

To learn more about Legacy 4.0, to take the tour of the program's features, to download the free Standard Edition, or to purchase the Deluxe Edition, go to: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com