If you like creating detailed bios for your characters or just have a difficult time figuring who the heck is the 2nd cousin of your character’s great aunt, one solution might be genealogy software. One of the bunch, called MacFamilyTree, is on sale today here: mupromo.com/
Publisher’s site: syniumsoftware.com/macfamilytree/
An alternative might be the more expensive Reunion: leisterpro.com
I found a website with a collection of genealogy software links (Mac and Windows): cyndislist.com/software.htm
Check out the Mac links.
As for myself, if I need to visualize genealogy, I sketch the basics on a legal pad. Recently I installed Curio, and I’m trying out its mind map feature (the style titled Org Chart) as a genealogy chart replacement. Cute but not exactly “it”. Might be enough for my needs though.
I have used MacFamilyTree in the past, as one of my relatives got the genealogy bug a while back and has been putting our (huge!) family tree into it. My impression was that it was pretty good at the time, and it seems to have some very powerful tools for tracking complex relationships.
Not sure I have a use for it right now, but I can see it as being a pretty useful tool to have in the back pocket when the need arises! One very useful feature in it is the automatic ‘what was going on in the world’ feature it provides for each individual you input. It does have various links to the wibbly wobbly web which means it can pull contextual information in automatically for any given date, should you be interested to see it.
I do rather like it, to be honest. That said, I cannot claim to have used it in anger yet, but at half price I definitely considered it worthwhile buying.
I know what you mean about buying Mac software. The total value of bought 'n paid for software on my Mac Pro exceeds the value of the hardware (I’m also a musician, so I have lots of virtual synths and plugins etc. for Logic Pro) which is pretty scary!
Okay then. I installed MacFamilyTree, played with it a little. Updated a character’s entire family tree. I probably should have given it more play time, but for now I decided not to purchase. Can’t believe it myself, I was so absolutely sure I was going to buy! But I kinda didn’t like the 3D tree display, which is a silly reason really, plus entering a subject’s data didn’t feel intuitive enough to me. As I said, I probably should have tested it longer, but NaNo is getting the best (or worst?) of me. The software got mostly good reviews at MacUpdate and at this cool site I found: Genealogy Software Reviews
Damn, it was such a good price…
LOL about software value exceeding the hardware value. Reminds me of the kindle cover issue: I purchased the cheaper Kindle model (139$), and ALMOST ended up buying a 139.99$ kindle cover. However, I realized the folly of my ways before confirming purchase.
But I kinda didn’t like the 3D tree display, which is a silly reason really, plus entering a subject’s data didn’t feel intuitive enough to me. As I said, I probably should have tested it longer, but NaNo is getting the best (or worst?) of me. The software got mostly good reviews at MacUpdate and at this cool site I found: 