A new release of Personal Ancestral File for Macintosh computers has been announced by the Church Family History Department.
Personal Ancestral File is the software that facilitates management of family history records and interfaces with the Ancestral File - the Church's lineage-linked genealogical database - and the TempleReady program for rapid clearance of names for temple work.The new release - called Personal Ancestral File 2.3.1 for Macintosh - includes the following new functions:
Match/Merge - finds possible duplicate records and allows you to merge them into one.
Focus - lets you create a group of individuals with something in common and view, edit or print lists from this group.
Backup and Restore - allows you to copy very large files onto two or more diskettes.
Preview on Screen - lets you preview any form or list on screen before printing it.
Font Selection - gives you the ability to select any system font for screens or printouts. In addition, several new charts and lists have been added, including an Ancestry Chart, Wall Chart, Ahnentafel Chart, Locality Sorted List and End-of-Line Individuals List. And if the new lists do not suit your needs you can now design your own custom list.
Several extra features have been added that will enable you to do the following:
Count ancestors and descendants.
Find relationships.
Calculate dates.
Create a birth date graph.
Put Ahnentafel numbers in the ID number field.
Print a list of LDS temples.
The Family Records Convert program will now convert older two-letter temple codes to the newer five-letter codes and also convert all uppercase names to uppercase and lowercase. And a Family Records Check program has been added to check and fix data files with some common structure problems.
Several other enhancements have been made and are detailed in a "What's New" file available when you install the program.
Personal Ancestral File 2.3.1 Release for Macintosh requires 2Mb of memory, a hard drive, and one double-sided 800K disk drive. It is available through the Salt Lake Distribution Center for $35.
