In the 6 June 2001 edition of this newsletter, I wrote about PAF
Companion, a Windows program designed to add extra functionality to the popular,
free Personal Ancestral File genealogy program. In that article, I wrote the
following:
Personal Ancestral File for Windows is one of the most popular
genealogy programs in the world. There are two good reasons for this: (1.)
it does all the basic functions of a genealogy program and (2.) it is free.
You can’t beat free! Personal Ancestral File for Windows is available at www.FamilySearch.org
As good as PAF is, one must realize that it still is a rather
basic program. It doesn’t have all the "bells and whistles" of the
higher-priced and more powerful programs. As a result, The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints (known to many as the Mormons) released PAF Companion
in 1997. This commercial program adds numerous new reports to the basic PAF
program. Each new version of Personal Ancestral File for Windows has soon
been followed by a matching release of PAF Companion. This week I had the
chance to use the new PAF Companion version 5.0. It is designed for PAF version
5.0 and 5.1 but also works well with PAF versions 3 and 4.
PAF Companion adds the following reports that are not in the
basic PAF program:
- Family Group Record – A printed version of family group view in LDS format.
- Standard Family Group - A variable format that will print all user-defined
events. This is a new feature added to PAF Companion 5.0.
- Kinship - Print all relatives of an individual with their relationship(s).
- Hourglass Chart - A box chart that prints both ancestors and descendants
for an individual. This is a new feature added to PAF Companion 5.0.
- Pedigree Chart - Traditional LDS pedigree chart of an individual's ancestors.
- Ancestor Chart - A box chart of an individual's ancestors.
- Fan Chart - A unique "fan" presentation of an individual's ancestors.
You can also print a full circle or quarter circle chart.
- Ahnentafel - An individual's ancestors prepared in a book format together
with an index. Different from the other charts and reports, the Ahnentafel
is output directly to your word processor for further editing and printing.
- Descendant Chart - A box chart of an individual's descendants.
- Outline Descendant - An outline report of an individual's descendants
indented by generation. This is a useful summary report because only one
line per person is printed.
- Register - An individual's descendants prepared in a book format together
with an index. Like the Ahnentafel, the Register report is output directly
to your word processor for further editing and printing.
I then went on to describe many of the features in detail. You
can read
my entire review of PAF Companion.
PAF Companion sells for $13.50 (U.S. funds). However, The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has now released a free "trial version"
that you can download and try out before paying for the complete version. The
downloadable limited evaluation version of PAF Companion 5.1 will print enough
of the various reports to allow users to evaluate the features of the program.
It may limit the number of generations in a report or other functions of the
program. If you decide you want to purchase the complete version, you can return
to the same Web site and safely order it online.
Learn
more about PAF Companion or to download the free evaluation version.
For those who already have PAF Companion, there is a new patch
available that you will want. The patch is an upgrade that adds the new Bow
Tie chart, an alternative ancestor chart with paternal ancestors on the left
and maternal ancestors on the right. If you have Personal Ancestral File Companion
5.0 (either licensed or evaluation copy) installed on your computer, you can
download this 5.1 upgrade free
of charge.
Dick Eastman Online
