Version 4 of the UK's Leading Genealogy Software, Family Historian: Release Details & Upgrade Offer

London, United Kingdom, November 28, 2008 --(PR.com)-- “The new release is designed to make Family Historian as easy to pick up and learn, and as easy and fun to use, as we could make it”, says Simon Orde, managing director of Calico Pie. “We’ve got a completely new component window called the Focus Window which is the new hub of the program. It’s a big step forward in user interface terms. At the same time we’ve completely re-written the Property Box – the main data entry window – to make it much easier and nicer to use too. There are also a lot of new features relating to pictures and multimedia which is another big focus of the new version. And there are loads of other great new features. Family Historian has always been a very innovative program, and there’s a lot of innovation in version 4”.

New features in version 4 include:

• A new hub component window called the “Focus Window”, with views for spouses & children, parents & siblings, ancestors and descendants. It is designed to make adding relatives and moving around a family tree, completely intuitive and easy.
• The main ‘Property Box’ (for data entry) has been reworked so that it too is now easier than ever to use. Users can configure its appearance, customize it, move it, resize it, or ‘dock’ it to the side of the application window.
• Project management capability has been added. The program automatically looks after all your project files for you (including picture files and other multimedia, saved charts and more) in a dedicated folder on your hard disk.
• Multi-level undo/redo lets you make changes in confidence, knowing that if you make a mistake you can easily undo it (this is the most voted-for feature on users’ wish lists).
• Full support for same sex relationships has been added.
• Support for multimedia, and especially pictures, has been significantly enhanced. Thumbnail views have been added to make browsing pictures easy. You can now link pictures to events and attributes. Adding pictures and multimedia is easier than ever, as is browsing all the pictures in your project - thanks to extensive filtering options, including keyword filtering, in the Multimedia Window. Support for pictures has been improved in reports, and there is an all-new multimedia report.
• Charts, reports and queries can all now be saved in PDF format. With charts, you also have the option of saving the entire chart as a one-page PDF file.
• Extensive power-user features have been added, giving power-users much greater scope to extend and customize the program than ever before. Ordinary users can also benefit through the ability to download program extensions written by power users, from Family Historian user websites (e.g. www.fhug.org.uk).
• Enhancements to charts and diagrams.
• Improved support for website generation and for family tree CD creation.

… and much more.

Christmas Offer

While stocks last, customers who buy Family Historian 3 now (full version) from participating stockists, will be sent a free CD upgrade to version 4 when it becomes available. The CD upgrade is expected to have a recommended retail price of £23.95.

The participating stockists are:

• My History (UK) tel. +44 (0)1709 586758 www.my-history.co.uk
• S&N Genealogy Supplies (UK) tel. +44 (0)1722 716121 www.genealogysupplies.com
• TWR Computing (UK) tel. +44 (0)1709 580066 www.twrcomputing.co.uk
• Gould Genealogy (Australia) tel. (08) 8396 1110 www.gould.com.au
• Beehive Books (New Zealand) tel. 64 9 521 1518

Anyone who buys the download version of Family Historian 3 now (full version) will get a free downloadable upgrade to version 4 when available (see www.family-historian.co.uk/products).

Awards for Version 3

Your Family Tree magazine gave Family Historian 3.1 its Family History Software of the Year award for 2008 (Dec 2008).

Which? Computing gave Family Historian 3.1 their Best Buy award and their highest overall score in a group test of eight top genealogy programs (July 2008).

Windows XP: The Official Magazine gave Family Historian 3.1 their Editor’s Choice award and highest score in a group test of four top genealogy programs (Dec 2007).

Computeractive magazine gave Family Historian 3 their Buy It! award – the second time it has won this award (July 2006)

Personal Computer World magazine gave Family Historian 3 their Personal Computer World Recommended award (May 2006).

Other reviewers said of version 3: “The best genealogy package just got better” (Family Tree magazine), “The best just got better” (Norfolk Roots), “Brilliant and dead easy to use” (Univadis), “The diagrams are superb” (National Genealogical Society News magazine), “One of the best, if not the very best, in its class” (Australian Family Tree Connnections), “Superb picture handling and the best set of charts around” (Your Family Tree), “Without the slightest hesitation, I am happy to label this the best piece of genealogical software I have ever used” (The Banyan Tree).

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