I have worked with FTM Books for about 10 years, until about a year ago in FTM 16.
1. Pagination is woeful there is not control over it especially if a series of reports are used. Instead if one report flowing into another large blank sections of page are left at the end and the next report started on a new page. It looks very poor. I know this would not be easy to achieve but it just looks so bad I won’t use reports.
***** This is true, but if you consider each report a chapter in the book, it is no difference than any other book on any subject I have read. Many chapters in books end with large portions of the pages blank. (Some government reports actually put in blank pages at the end of the chapter.) In book properties you can change this property so that each module will not start on a new page.******
2. Page setup occurs in two places in reports and from the menu in the composition area and every single report has to be individually set up. One area for page setup would make it a lot easier for the user.
***** First thing about page set up. One never use the saved report setting. I personally like the ability to have different page widths etc in each module of the report, as different types of information needs different formats.*****
3. Printing is not always as viewed on screen, when previewing a book the page is a different width when viewing it in the book composition area. (see attached)
***** First thing about page set up. One never use the saved report setting. When you use the saved setting, the report defaults to the saved settings when printed even if you have changed them. It took many hours of frustration to learn this. Also always select the printer before opening or creating a book.*****
4. There is a fault with printing reports that I raised with Ancestry two years ago – not fixed yet. It is, if a page is set to “A4” behind the scenes it remains “Letter” size and the printing is offset to one side because of the difference in paper widths. For example, the tile in the header is centred on the page by default (there is also no user function to change its position) when printed on an “A4” page with the page setup set to “A4” and the left and right margins equal widths, the title in the header is not printed in the centre of the page.
***** In my experience the page must be set up first and then the book or report created. Also always select the printer before opening or creating a book. *******
5. The font style and size for headers and footers can be changed but where they appear, left, right or centre can’t be adjusted.
******Assuming from what you asked you are talking about Smart Stories (Text items)all of the formatting controls are available in the FTM word processor. I do not know if the parameters can be changed in the overall book. *******
6. The rulers are displayed in inches despite the unit of measurement being set to millimetres.
******* I have never worked in millimeters in typing so am unaware if this can be changed. It may be dependent on the primary country in FTM.*******
7. The undo function is very clunky – the step backward and forwards does appear to step on a single mouse click.
*******FTM is not a full fledged word processor and is not the best. You should have tried to use FTM 16's.*******
8. The “save document” function is only visible on limited content e.g. “Title Page”, “Smart Story” it is not visible when a report is open.
*******In FTM Books, the total book is saved on exit from the book function. So built in functions, like charts, reports, ect. are saved automatically when you leave the module. For those items you mentioned which are all based on the FTM word processor you have to save each item.*******
9. The page layout varies from the book composition area to the book preview, i.e. the text and media are not in the same position on the page. The page appears to be different widths and margins are noticeably different from one to the other.
******* These would have to be looked at individually. From the example it looks like if you would open the margins, it would resolve your problem.*******
10. The page doesn’t print within the designated margins as displayed in “Book Preview”. It appears as if the page is printed as a “Letter” size page despite the fact that it is set at “A4” in page setup in the book composition area.
*******First thing about page set up. One never use the saved report setting. *******
11. What is the relationship between paper size and margins when placing a report in a book? Does the book set default page size and margins? OR, Does the report override the book page size and margins? It doesn’t work well and is a mess when printing!
*******First thing about page set up. One never use the saved report setting. *******
12. If the page size is changed (report page setup) from “Letter” to “A4” in the Family Group Sheet a blank pages result. These cannot be removed. The only remedy is to return the page size to “Letter”. This may be the case in other reports I haven’t tested all.
******* The only way I see to resolve this is to change to a smaller font size. There is only so much space for charaters of a given size. *******
13. Book “header and footer” lacks flexibility, the choice is “on” or “off” and font style and size. What about control horizontal position, i.e. left, right or centred?
*******Never worry about this but there is a lack of flexibility*******
14. Information from smart stories does not appear in the “Index of Individuals”. This makes it an incomplete reference.
****** I use the Smart Stories for two purposes. One is a reference in its self, as it is my summary for coming to a specific conclusion. In the other it is an introduction to the family. In my experience introduction to books are not referenced in the index. Since some of the things I put into these introductions is pure fabrication base on a possible arrangement of random facts, I don't want it in the Book's index. ********
15. Best of all it is Soooooooooooo slow, even running on super speed PC.
******This one I strongly disagree. FTM in most of the functions is very Soooooooooooooooooooooooo. Navigating through the various functions is acceptable, however loading the program and generating books is impossibly slow. (and I realize it depends on the number of people contained.) I use FTM as my genealogical notebook. I like to pop it open check a fact and continue the research thread I was on. It is so slow I sometimes forget why I needed to open it.********
1. Pagination is woeful there is not control over it especially if a series of reports are used. Instead if one report flowing into another large blank sections of page are left at the end and the next report started on a new page. It looks very poor. I know this would not be easy to achieve but it just looks so bad I won’t use reports.
***** This is true, but if you consider each report a chapter in the book, it is no difference than any other book on any subject I have read. Many chapters in books end with large portions of the pages blank. (Some government reports actually put in blank pages at the end of the chapter.) In book properties you can change this property so that each module will not start on a new page.******
2. Page setup occurs in two places in reports and from the menu in the composition area and every single report has to be individually set up. One area for page setup would make it a lot easier for the user.
***** First thing about page set up. One never use the saved report setting. I personally like the ability to have different page widths etc in each module of the report, as different types of information needs different formats.*****
3. Printing is not always as viewed on screen, when previewing a book the page is a different width when viewing it in the book composition area. (see attached)
***** First thing about page set up. One never use the saved report setting. When you use the saved setting, the report defaults to the saved settings when printed even if you have changed them. It took many hours of frustration to learn this. Also always select the printer before opening or creating a book.*****
4. There is a fault with printing reports that I raised with Ancestry two years ago – not fixed yet. It is, if a page is set to “A4” behind the scenes it remains “Letter” size and the printing is offset to one side because of the difference in paper widths. For example, the tile in the header is centred on the page by default (there is also no user function to change its position) when printed on an “A4” page with the page setup set to “A4” and the left and right margins equal widths, the title in the header is not printed in the centre of the page.
***** In my experience the page must be set up first and then the book or report created. Also always select the printer before opening or creating a book. *******
5. The font style and size for headers and footers can be changed but where they appear, left, right or centre can’t be adjusted.
******Assuming from what you asked you are talking about Smart Stories (Text items)all of the formatting controls are available in the FTM word processor. I do not know if the parameters can be changed in the overall book. *******
6. The rulers are displayed in inches despite the unit of measurement being set to millimetres.
******* I have never worked in millimeters in typing so am unaware if this can be changed. It may be dependent on the primary country in FTM.*******
7. The undo function is very clunky – the step backward and forwards does appear to step on a single mouse click.
*******FTM is not a full fledged word processor and is not the best. You should have tried to use FTM 16's.*******
8. The “save document” function is only visible on limited content e.g. “Title Page”, “Smart Story” it is not visible when a report is open.
*******In FTM Books, the total book is saved on exit from the book function. So built in functions, like charts, reports, ect. are saved automatically when you leave the module. For those items you mentioned which are all based on the FTM word processor you have to save each item.*******
9. The page layout varies from the book composition area to the book preview, i.e. the text and media are not in the same position on the page. The page appears to be different widths and margins are noticeably different from one to the other.
******* These would have to be looked at individually. From the example it looks like if you would open the margins, it would resolve your problem.*******
10. The page doesn’t print within the designated margins as displayed in “Book Preview”. It appears as if the page is printed as a “Letter” size page despite the fact that it is set at “A4” in page setup in the book composition area.
*******First thing about page set up. One never use the saved report setting. *******
11. What is the relationship between paper size and margins when placing a report in a book? Does the book set default page size and margins? OR, Does the report override the book page size and margins? It doesn’t work well and is a mess when printing!
*******First thing about page set up. One never use the saved report setting. *******
12. If the page size is changed (report page setup) from “Letter” to “A4” in the Family Group Sheet a blank pages result. These cannot be removed. The only remedy is to return the page size to “Letter”. This may be the case in other reports I haven’t tested all.
******* The only way I see to resolve this is to change to a smaller font size. There is only so much space for charaters of a given size. *******
13. Book “header and footer” lacks flexibility, the choice is “on” or “off” and font style and size. What about control horizontal position, i.e. left, right or centred?
*******Never worry about this but there is a lack of flexibility*******
14. Information from smart stories does not appear in the “Index of Individuals”. This makes it an incomplete reference.
****** I use the Smart Stories for two purposes. One is a reference in its self, as it is my summary for coming to a specific conclusion. In the other it is an introduction to the family. In my experience introduction to books are not referenced in the index. Since some of the things I put into these introductions is pure fabrication base on a possible arrangement of random facts, I don't want it in the Book's index. ********
15. Best of all it is Soooooooooooo slow, even running on super speed PC.
******This one I strongly disagree. FTM in most of the functions is very Soooooooooooooooooooooooo. Navigating through the various functions is acceptable, however loading the program and generating books is impossibly slow. (and I realize it depends on the number of people contained.) I use FTM as my genealogical notebook. I like to pop it open check a fact and continue the research thread I was on. It is so slow I sometimes forget why I needed to open it.********