Welcome to the Chronoplex Software Blog

All the latest news and information from Chronoplex Software.

2017

My Family Tree 7.4 now available

Today we are excited to announce the release of My Family Tree 7.4 available now from the latest updates page.

This release contains several new features and improvements in the following areas:

• Assistive technologies
• High contrast themes
• Translations
• Charts
• UI improvements
• Date entry
• Relationships

Assistive technologies

In this release keyboard navigation has been significantly improved so the application can be used without the need for a mouse.  The application supports a standard set of keyboard navigation key combinations.  These are summarised in our accessibility section of our online help.  Controls which have keyboard focus are also more clearly indicated.

Screen readers which use the Microsoft UI Automation framework such as Windows Narrator are also now supported.

Overall, these are significant changes which will further improve the experience for those using assistive technologies and make the application ready to support new assistive technologies coming in future Windows builds.

High contrast themes

We have also added support for system wide high contrast settings.  If you are using Windows with a high contrast theme, this choice, and any custom colours, will reflected within My Family Tree.  If you are not using a system wide high contrast theme, you can still use a high contrast theme within My Family Tree in the usual way.

Translations

My Family Tree has partial translations for 24 non-English user interface languages, all of which have been contributed by users of the software.  This release introduces updated translations for Danish, French, Galician, and Polish.  Many translations only require a small amount of time and effort for a fluent language speaker to make them complete.  If you can help, please read our translation guide and download the translation toolkit to contribute.

Charts

Persons who are linked via a non biological relationship (such as adoptive parents) are now shown in a separate colour when they are displayed in the family chart.  We have also improved the colour scheme used when printing charts.
Contact details, (phone and email address) and notes can now be displayed in the family chart.  You can select one note from notes on a person to display.  Display of notes and contact details can be enabled in the family chart options.

UI improvements

We have made many small improvements to the user interface of the application.  Popups for entering addresses, places, dates, citations, and notes can now be dragged and moved around the screen by their title bars.  The sources view has been redesigned to make editing sources and repositories easier.  All lists of items now support the same set of common keyboard and right-click actions for adding, removing, and editing items.

Date entry

We added a commonly requested feature enabling you to select the default date input calendar and the default date type for all new dates, making date entry more efficient for some.  The default behaviour remains unchanged and can be configured in Tools⯈Options⯈Localisation.

On the date input popup itself, the day, month, and year fields now support up / down key and mouse wheel scrolling to change the selected value.  The month name field also supports typing a month number or partial month name to match the month making month entry using the keyboard much more straightforward.  Tab navigation has been improved focusing on the day field initially and cycling between the most commonly used fields.  Altogether, date entry can now be very efficient and we hope you enjoy using these refinements.

Relationships

We have added shortcuts for creating sibling relationships and improved the filtering options available when creating relationships between existing people.

Upgrading from earlier versions

My Family Tree 7.4 is a highly compatible upgrade from earlier versions of the application and is supported on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista (SP1 or later), and Windows XP (SP3 only).
Users of the Windows Store version of My Family Tree will automatically receive the update.  For all other users the new version is available now.

Published 24 Aug 2017 17:00 GMT

My Family Tree 7.3 now available

Today we are excited to announce the release of My Family Tree 7.3 available now from the latest updates page.

This release contains several new features and improvements in the following areas:

• Accessibility
• Sex
• Relationship calculator
• General improvements

Accessibility

In this release, high contrast themes have been improved.  We made a number of improvements to less frequently accessed elements of the user interface and fixed a number of issues with themes on legacy operating systems.  We have also embedded the OpenDyslexic font in the application so you no longer need to install that separately to use the feature.

Sex

We have expanded the range of sexes from 'Male', 'Female', and 'Unknown' to include 'Other', and 'Not yet known'.  This allows for distinction between a sex being unknown (i.e. it cannot be known from available records) and not yet known (i.e. available records have not yet been checked).  We also took the opportunity to include the 'Other' category to allow recording of sexes other than male or female.  This is inline with several cases now where records useful to genealogy can record something other than male or female for the sex of the person.

Relationship calculator

The relationship calculator has been updated to support sex neutral relationship descriptions (e.g. parent rather than mother/father) where the sex of individuals isn't known or isn't male or female.  We also added support for the reporting of multiple relationships within a tree, for example, when cousins marry.

General improvements

We have made many 'under the hood' improvements to the application for improved stability, and ease of use.

Upgrading from earlier versions

My Family Tree 7.3 is a highly compatible upgrade from earlier versions of the application and is supported on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista (SP1 or later), and Windows XP (SP3 only).

The new version is available now.

Published 03 Aug 2017 18:00 GMT

My Family Tree 7.2 now available

Today we are excited to announce the release of My Family Tree 7.2 available now from the latest updates page.

This release contains several new features and improvements in the following areas:

• Accessibility
• Windows Store availability

Accessibility

In this release, colour filters have been added to the application.  Colour filters are designed to make it easier for people with colour vision deficiency to differentiate between colours such as red and green, or make it easier for people with light sensitivity to use the application.  Colour filters can be configured in Tools⯈Options⯈Themes.

Colour tones

Colour tones allow users to emulate placing a coloured overlay on the screen.  This may be useful for dyslexic users or those who experience visual stress.

Colour vision deficiency filters

Colour filters can help users with colour vision deficiency to differentiate between colours.  In the following sequence of images, the first panel shows an original unfiltered image which contains red and green colors.  A user with protanopia (red-green color vision deficiency) might struggle to differentiate between the red and green parts of the image.  The second panel shows a simulation of how this image would look to someone one with protanopia.  The third panel shows the original image with the protanopia filter applied.  The red colours in the image have been shifted to a region of the spectrum which a user with protanopia will perceive as different from green.  The fourth shows a simulation of how the filtered image would look to someone with protanopia.  Note that it is now possible to distinguish between the red leaves and the green grass in the image.

Windows Store availability

My Family Tree is now available on Windows 10 in the Windows Store.  The Windows Store app simplifies the installation and update process.

Upgrading from earlier versions

My Family Tree 7.2 is a highly compatible upgrade from earlier versions of the application and is supported on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista (SP1 or later), and Windows XP (SP3 only).

The new version is available now.

Published 08 Jul 2017 18:00 GMT

My Family Tree 7.1 now available

Today we are excited to announce the release of My Family Tree 7.1 available now from the latest updates page.

This release contains several new features and improvements in the following areas:

• Translations
• Direct import for FHS, and FTW TEXT files
• Calendar support
• Performance improvements and bug fixes

Translations

My Family Tree has partial translations for 24 non-English user interface languages, all of which have been contributed by users of the software.  This release introduces Greek language support and full translations for French, Galician, and Polish.  Many translations only require a very small amount of work to make them complete.  If you can help, please read our translation guide and download the translation toolkit to contribute.

Direct import for FHS, and FTW TEXT files

You can now import files created by Family History System, and FTW TEXT files created by Family Tree Maker for Windows.

Calendars

The Coptic, Egyptian, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Old Icelandic calendars are now supported.

Upgrading from earlier versions

My Family Tree 7.1 is a highly compatible upgrade from earlier versions of the application and is supported on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista (SP1 or later), and Windows XP (SP3 only).

The new version is available now.

Published 30 May 2017 18:00 GMT

My Family Tree 7 now available

Today we are excited to announce the release of My Family Tree 7 available now from the latest updates page.

This release contains several new features and improvements in the following areas:

• Direct import for Personal Ancestral File files
• Importing older GEDCOM files
• Reporting
• Name formatting
• Windows 10 Creators Update and .NET 4.7
• Performance improvements and bug fixes

Direct import for Personal Ancestral File files

You can now import files created by Personal Ancestral File.  Whilst many users will never need this function, it's surprising just how many requests we receive from people asking for help with importing files stored on floppy disks using older software which no longer runs on modern operating systems.

Importing older GEDCOM files

My Family Tree can import GEDCOM 1.0 files produced by Family History System and GEDCOM files produced by any version of Personal Ancestral File.  Support for importing multivolume GEDCOM files has also been included.  This significantly extends the range of GEDCOM files which can be imported.

Reporting

The reporting screen has been redesigned to make finding and generating reports more straightforward.  Reports are now organised in to clearer categories which can be searched.  Available options are clearly accessible, along with tools to save, batch save, and print reports.

Name formatting

Names in lists are now displayed surname first to improve usability.  Improvements have also been made to the way lists of names are sorted.  With the name formatting options introduced in version 6, and the newer ones introduced with version 7, you can now fully customise the display and sorting of names in the application should you wish to change the new defaults.

Windows 10 Creators Update and .NET 4.7

My Family Tree 7 brings full support for the Windows 10 Creators Update and .NET 4.7.  My Family Tree makes full use of recent improvements to Windows 10 which mean that the entire application is now fully DPI aware on the Windows 10 Creators Update.

Upgrading from earlier versions

My Family Tree 7 is a highly compatible upgrade from earlier versions of the application and is supported on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista (SP1 or later), and Windows XP (SP3 only).

The new version is available now.

Published 15 Apr 2017 18:00 GMT

GEDCOM Validator 6 now available

The latest version of GEDCOM Validator is now available.

Here's a summary of main new features and enhancements:

• Added support for .NET 4.7 and Windows 10 Creators Update.
• Improved detection of older GEDCOM files.
• Improvements to high DPI support.

Published 15 Apr 2017 18:00 GMT