Family Tree Maker 2011 Locking Up

When you do the kind of genealogy research I do, you have to have a reliable family tree database. For years I have used Family Tree Maker (FTM). About a year ago I bought a new laptop computer which came with Windows Vista. So my old FTM software didn't fully work in Vista, such as converting reports to PDF format. That's a big problem.

So a few months back I broke down and upgraded my FTM to the 2011 version, which is compatible with Vista. Reports? Check. PDF format? Check. Cool new features? Check.

Basic tabbing from one field to another? LOCKS UP. Bummer.

I did some basic googling to find some answers. I downloaded a couple patches and installed them. No difference. This has gone on for months now. I don't even want to update anything anymore because it takes so long. And that's bad as I really need to update a bunch of records.

I've checked for settings that allow this version of FTM 2011 to always be "Offline". In other words, not connected to the Internet automatically. There is no such setting that I can find.

But just the other day, I did find a setting under the "File" menu that says "Go Offline". Once I select that, then (after a couple minutes, anyway) it seems to improve the functionality. What a pain. When I shut the program down and restart, I have to go offline again. But, at least for now, it seems to have resolved the issue.

Perhaps you've had the same problem and are looking for a solution. Perhaps you have a better solution than what I've just described. If so, please let me know by posting a comment here. Thanks.

And happy FTM'ing!

WP