Family Book Creator Build 2247 for Windows has been released, and it makes me think that Family Tree Maker 2024 is closer than ever, given its support for FTM 2024. Family Book Creator is a plugin for Family Tree Maker (2019 and 2024) that does what it says – it helps you create expansive family history books from your FTM genealogy data, and exports them in the following formats: DOCX, DOC, PDF and EPUB.
The last update of Family Book Creator was in October of 2023, but this build is mainly concerned with fixes/adjustments and FTM 2024 compatibility.
Note: Family Tree Maker 2010, 2012, 2014, 2014.1, 2017 or 2019 for Windows is required to be installed before Family Book Creator can be used, as well as FTM 2024 when it is released.
As I’ve mentioned before, the mobile companion app by MacKiev, Family Tree Maker Connect 2.0, was recently released with full support for FTM 2024, and earlier this year, Progeny Software’s Charting Companion 9 was released with FTM 2024 support.
I’m listing the Mac and Windows versions in their own posts, as they have different changes (and the notes are long). The Windows version requires Windows 7 or later, including Windows 11. A word-processing program is recommended if you’d like to make changes to the document after export.
There is a 30-day trial/demo versions you can download (link). The trial/demonstration version has these restrictions:
- Limited to seventy families.
- Occasionally, “Free – Trial” is shown in family charts in an individuals lifespan field
- Occasionally, the month of an event is replaced with “trial month” in narrative sections
- A watermark on every page.
- “Save Settings” is not enabled
There is an article on compatibility with Family Tree Maker 2024 here.
Link: https://www.familybookcreator.com/
| Family Book Creator Build 2247, Windows, December 2024 |
| Fixed (FBC 2019): In some very rare cases, while saving the document structure in DOCX format, the following exception was thrown: Compressed or uncompressed size or offset exceeds the maximum value. This issue has now been fixed. Now there is no limit to the size of files that can be included in a DOCX file, the total number of files in a DOCX file, or the total size of the DOCX file. If necessary, Family Book Creator will now use a file format extension when the 4GB or the file count limitations of the previous file format are exceeded. This fix theoretically allows you to create files that are 2^64 bytes (16 exabytes) in size, but you will not find a version of Microsoft Word that can handle such large files. |
| Fixed (FBC 2019): FBC_PhotoAlbum_HighFidelityImageResolution now allows the inclusion of full resolution images for images which had been scaled to a specific width by using the media categories FBC_PhotoAlbum_FullWidth or FBC_PhotoAlbum_P%OfFullWidth. |
| Fixed: There may be an unwanted blank paragraph before a section break. In some rare cases this would result in empty pages with headers and footers. This issue has now been fixed. |
| Fixed (FBC 2019): Including content from certain word processing documents, which use linked images that are linked to Web sites that are no longer available, could slow down or corrupt the end result so that Microsoft Word could not process the document correctly. Images from inserted documents were missing, and it was very slow to navigate in the document. After changes are made, Microsoft Word could not save the document, or it appears that Microsoft Word has frozen. This issue has now been fixed. |
| Fixed (FBC 2019): In some cases, after creating a document, the Index of Places pane on the Indexes tab would be disabled. This issue has now been fixed. |
| Fixed (FBC 2019): Chapter names were missing in the headers or footers of documents about descendants when the “Organized by families” sorting option was used. This issue has now been fixed. |
| Fixed (FBC 2019): Family Book Creator now correctly prevents the system from going to sleep while a book document is being created. Note: It is still allowed to automatically turn off the display. |
| Enhancement (FBC 2019): Family Book Creator 2019 is now compatible with FTM 2017, FTM 2019, and FTM 2024. Note: You will need to uninstall and reinstall your current version of Family Book Creator 2019 (using the latest FBC 2019 installer package) to be able to launch Family Book Creator 2019 from within Family Tree Maker 2024. |