Family Tree Maker. Should I buy this software?

It's been years since I used Family Tree Maker but that's how I started my tree.

To upload the data you need to download the tree as a GEDcom file and then you can upload that to Ancestry.

Have you tried using Familysearch or Tribalpages? Both are free so you've nothing to lose.

I've only ever used FTM - probably decades. I think it's wonderful.

You can now synchronise your tree with Ancestry without the gedcom step once you've loaded and linked your tree. FTM is ok- as it's web based it can be a bit slow to load but it's still good value and has features I value.

Thanks everyone. I will ponder and look at the various ones. I'm sure with the personal ancestral file on familysearch (The LDS church) it was very easy to add people and notes and all that. I guess they are all much the same except some cost money and some are free. A no brainer?

I also used Personal Ancestral File (PAF) for years and loved it because it was so simple. But after downloading my tree to Ancestry I am finding their tree so much better. You can link each event to the relevant document or reference so the sources are visible on the tree. And you can write notes about each event which are clearly visible and which tell the person's story (see picture). Not many people do that but I make full use of this feature. It's not slow or awkward to use at all. Maybe you need more practice.
The tree which is most like PAF is Ancestral Quest if you want something similar.

Thanks Chestnut. I haven't taken the plunge yet. Old dog, new tricks and all that.
I know what Ancestry is like but I need to have a personal file. I keep making mistakes on Ancestry. I have people married twice with step children when they aren't and can't undo it without deleting whole sections. Maybe I need a lesson.

Having used Ancestry for years I'm comfortable with the service it provides. I create Word documents detailing the lives of people related to me, to include images of relevant places and references to information I've found on the internet and elsewhere. There are probably more teccie ways of doing this but now that I'm familiar with working in this way it suits me well. But I'm always open to progress so sometimes dabble in innovations presented, like the helpful hints above.

Grammaretto

Thanks Chestnut. I haven't taken the plunge yet. Old dog, new tricks and all that.
I know what Ancestry is like but I need to have a personal file. I keep making mistakes on Ancestry. I have people married twice with step children when they aren't and can't undo it without deleting whole sections. Maybe I need a lesson.

It is very easy to enter marriages twice and get the children wrong on Ancestry, but you can rectify this if you get the way it works. Yes, it's a learning curve but they say that keeps dementia away! You can delete the second duplicate marriage and it doesn't delete the spouse for instance. You can usually change the parents of a child if they are wrong. It doesn't mean deleting whole sections or anything drastic, it just requires very careful checking that everything is correct.

I've been using Family Tree Maker for years, I like its intuitive, easy interface. I haven't uploaded my research to Ancestry.com yet, not sure if I want to. Eventually I plan to publish it all in both digital and book/paper form to pass on to our kids. That's if I ever demolish the 'brick walls' I'm stuck on!

While we are on the subject of family history, if anyone has some spare time have you thought about transcribing headstone photos on <billiongraves.com> ? I have NO affiliation, other than I have been transcribing for the last 6 months or so.

I just checked and there are 'United Kingdom (102330)' photos needing to be transcribed or if you are familiar with other languages then choose that country. For instance, as soon as I log in I've been getting the same Russian photos ever since I started transcribing and while I would love to help, unfortunately I don't speak or read Russian.

Of course, other volunteers have been taking these photos, you could do that too if you want to get out and walk around a cemetery, but I've found transcribing during lockdown was my way of helping when I couldn't get out to walk around a cemetery.

The USA has almost 2 million photos to be transcribed so that's another option, but you have the option of choosing any country or cemetery, nothing is allocated.

You could be helping another family who is tracing their family history. I have requested photos of family graves, some were snapped up by volunteers and they posted the photos, while others remain on my list of requests. Covid restrictions would have affected this too.

Findagrave.com is another site, but apparently they are moving to a new site shortly and at the moment volunteering seems to have ground to a halt, but I guess will start again soon.

As above, just a thought.......

That's actually really beneficial for a website, and I think a lot of entrepreneurs should think about implementing a decent tool to connect with their site visitors. When I was working with a machine learning web development company, I discovered that such a tool actually improves the performance of the website.