I think the first poster gave an opinion of a professional who uses the software for his professional genealogy business. Since it sounds like you are an experience person working for himself and his family I think you will be quite satisfied with FTM.
While you may find a report module lacking in some feature you want, all of the deficiencies can be made up in an FTM Book. In an FTM Book you can put charts, person reports, genealogical reports, outline reports, and most importantly you can use the word processor in the Smart Story (Text Item) to put any thing you like into the FTM Book. (I use them to explain my big conclusion, include some speculation on the pre history of the family, etc.)
As for working with the data, there is a slight learning curve, but it is no steeper than any other new software such as a wordprocessor, spreadsheet, or internet browser.
The biggest down side to FTM is it is SLOW. It takes over a minute to load, so it makes it difficult to pop it open to check a fact. While they have improved it some of the reports take a while to execute. (this depends somewhat on the size of your database.)
Once you have FTM open it response quickly as you navigate through the program to do you various genealogical task.
I had no problem in going from FTM 16 to FTM 2012, every thing imported with a couple of glitches in my FTM Books.
I use FTM Books to transfer information to Cousins and to family as it gives everything about the family with sorces, table of contents, and index. Occasionally I will use and outline report.
While you may find a report module lacking in some feature you want, all of the deficiencies can be made up in an FTM Book. In an FTM Book you can put charts, person reports, genealogical reports, outline reports, and most importantly you can use the word processor in the Smart Story (Text Item) to put any thing you like into the FTM Book. (I use them to explain my big conclusion, include some speculation on the pre history of the family, etc.)
As for working with the data, there is a slight learning curve, but it is no steeper than any other new software such as a wordprocessor, spreadsheet, or internet browser.
The biggest down side to FTM is it is SLOW. It takes over a minute to load, so it makes it difficult to pop it open to check a fact. While they have improved it some of the reports take a while to execute. (this depends somewhat on the size of your database.)
Once you have FTM open it response quickly as you navigate through the program to do you various genealogical task.
I had no problem in going from FTM 16 to FTM 2012, every thing imported with a couple of glitches in my FTM Books.
I use FTM Books to transfer information to Cousins and to family as it gives everything about the family with sorces, table of contents, and index. Occasionally I will use and outline report.