MyHeritage News: Family Tree Builder 5.1 released

This week we’re pleased to announce an updated version of the most popular free genealogy software program, Family Tree Builder.

Family Tree Builder 5.1 includes all the great new features introduced in version 5.0: enhanced, better-looking family tree charts; built-in poster printing for charts, tree consistency checks, and much more. For more details about the features of Family Tree Builder 5.0, click here.

If you’re one of our many loyal users who are already enjoying Family Tree Builder (version 3.0, 4.0 or 5.0), download the new version 5.1 and install it on top of your existing version. Updating to version 5.1 will not affect your family tree data and is safe, recommended and free. The new version also incorporates many bug fixes so it is a recommended update for all users.If you’ve never used Family Tree Builder before, now is your opportunity to get started and enjoy the popular and free software that millions of people around the world rely on for building their family trees. If you are using another product, we believe you will love this new version. You can easily move over any existing family tree using the GEDCOM import or the new support for importing genealogy files of other programs. The new Family Tree Builder 5.1 runs on Windows and is free. Apologies for Mac users – the software does not support the Mac yet but we plan to address this in the future.

What’s new in version 5.1?

Version 5.1 adds a technology licensed from Wholly Genes , Inc. that makes it possible for Family Tree Builder to directly import existing family tree files from other genealogy programs you may have used before, such as Family Tree Maker (FTM, FTW, FTMB), Personal Ancestral File (PAF), Legacy (FDB), The Master Genealogist (TMG) and Family Tree Legends (FTL). Good old GEDCOM files are supported and can be imported too.

After installing Family Tree Builder 5.1, import your existing genealogy files using “Import GEDCOM or genealogy file” in the File menu. Then select “Browse” and the following window will appear, allowing you to select a file to import.

Import files list window

To make this even easier, we’ve added a new scanning tool – ideal for people who do not remember where they previously saved their genealogy files. This useful tool will search your computer for genealogy files, and present them in a convenient list, from which you can select which file to import into Family Tree Builder.

To find your family tree files, go to  “Import GEDCOM or genealogy file” and select “Scan”. The following window will appear and the tool will start running automatically, and show you the files as it finds them:

Scan tool

With the addition of these new features, Family Tree Builder 5.1 supports importing family tree files directly from other commonly used genealogy software programs. Until now, you could only transfer a family tree by first exporting it as a GEDCOM file, and importing the GEDCOM file into Family Tree Builder. But now, you can also transfer files directly, which is useful if you no longer have access to the software that produced those files, or if you wish to transfer photos referenced in a family tree file, and you found that a GEDCOM export did not preserve them.

You can download Family Tree Builder 5.1 for free from the download page.

Enjoy!