OFFLINE family tree software

[jen]

Hello, I was wondering if there's any Offline family tree software you can recommend? I know there's a bunch of online software, but I'd like to create some offline charts and try to put the data of my zupu in a chart. I've tried excel (version 2011) but it keeps on crashing on the chinese characters . It would also be nice to be able to create some mirror trees for possible relations to DNA matches I have. Just research kind of stuff.

[Doug 周]

Many people recommend GRAMPS as an offline genealogy program which you can print a number of charts en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramps. If you have a GEDCOM already, there are specific programs which will print charts www.familyecho.com/ and boutique.cdip.com/produit/genealogie/geneatique . If you have generated your GEDCOM, consider uploading to GRAMPS and Family Tree Maker, among others, so you don't have to input your data manually.

Is there a reason to want an offline program? Again, I recommend webtrees as your basic genealogy program and then export to a GEDCOM to then import to whatever you want. You can use webtrees as a local program by installing onto a desktop/laptop using XAMPP www.apachefriends.org/index.html

Share your experience with these printing programs

[jen]

Hi Doug, thanks for the recommendations. I'll try Gramps. I'm just doing a bunch of research and it's like a paper notebook for me. Nothing worthy of getting it's own life on the www.

[Doug 周]

I really recommend webtrees. Use it locally. Private message me or email me using my address on my profile. I will help you set up your site on your desktop/laptop. You can see my public website on the URL listed.

I use my webtrees program to collate and curate my notes, media, ToDo list, keep track of the generation numbers. webtrees will stay true to GEDCOM more than any program (IMO). There are users who alleged to have up to 100,000 - 500,000 profiles. They strive to preserve the information and not allow loss of data.

Exporting an accurate GEDCOM allows you to upload to GRAMPS or any other program. If you later want to go online to allow collaboration with relatives, then moving the webtrees MySql database on to a server is easy.

Privacy restrictions are important when your site is viewed by relatives. As an administrator, you can decide what family secrets to hide until you can safely reveal to the next generation.

The magic number is 300. IMO you can hand input 300 profiles easily to any genealogy program. Save yourself some time and with a good GEDCOM you can upload to any other program to try using the webtrees generated 5.5.1 GEDCOM standard.

[jen]

Hi Doug, Thanks for the webtrees recommendation as well. I'll have a look into it. I downloaded Gramps yesterday, it works very well although it's not the most visually pleasing tool. I'll message you if I have any questions.

[jen]

2 minutes later lol...I've checked webtrees. It's an online tool. I think I'll stick to Gramps which is completely offline.
Wanting to work offline is not about needing to hide stuff. It's simply about not having internet readily available all the time like in a developed country.