RootsMagic 9

On By mcphilbrickIn RootsMagic 9

Have you missed the pre-release hype? I sure did. Today’s announcement of Facebook caught me by surprise!

The Facebook post contains a link to the RootsMagic Blog. The blog contains a list of the new features and a video: What’s New in RootsMagic 9?

Thru MONDAY, MARCH 6th, 2023, one can purchase RootsMagic 9 for $20.

Not only has RootsMagic published these intro videos, but they have also published videos detailing many of these new features:

Be sure to check out the RootsMagic YouTube channel for additional videos.

While I haven’t had time to check out all of these new features, the $20 price tag and the lure of being able to spell check the notes prompted me to purchase RootsMagic 9.

Once I completed the purchase, I had an email containing the download link an my registration key. As per my normal practice, I saved that registration key!

After downloading and installing RootsMagic 9, I opened the program. I was asked whether I wanted to CONVERT my file.

Not knowing whether it would create a new file by renaming my RootsMagic 8 file, I copied my RootsMagic 8 file just in case. Then I clicked on the CONVERT button.

The conversion was quick and my file opened. Since the file name did NOT change during the conversion, I’m glad that I made a copy. However, the new features are compelling! Thus, I will stick with version 9 and learn to use these features!

One feature that I have investigated is spell check.

With the note open, I clicked on the 3 vertical dots to open the menu.

At the bottom of that menu, is SPELL CHECK. Clicking on ‘that menu item ‘Spell check’ causes the program to use the built in spell checking feature (Windows in my case) to check the spelling of the note. If no errors are found, nothing happens.

If an ‘error’ is found, a window pops up showing the word that is ‘Not in Dictionary’ and suggestions. I can Ignore Once, Ignore all, or Add to dictionary. Many surnames will show up as misspelled the first time this tool is used. However, adding the surname to the dictionary will prevent surnames from being identified as misspelled.

Playing around with this feature, I discovered that abbreviations such as Mr. and Mrs. will also come up as misspelled. I elected to ‘Ignore all’ for these abbreviations.

While I plan to use many of the other new features, I will have to do some thinking and planning for how I will use them.

  • Associates Feature — How can I use this feature to connect all of the people in my Garrard County, Kentucky research?
  • Color Coding — Can I create a Color code group for all of my Crawford research, using different colors for the various lines — especially the yDNA lines?

It will be interesting to see how others use some of these new features!

5 thoughts on “RootsMagic 9”

  1. Hi Marcia,

    This was a complete surprise to those of us who were not beta testers. I found the RootsTech videos on Saturday and checked with Bruce Buzbee.

    There are some small problems with RM9. My biggest problem is that the fields in an Event (e.g., Birth, Death, Burial, etc.) will not allow highlighting text to delete (Ctrl-X or Ctrl-C), or text to be copied (Ctrl-V) into a field. I do this routinely in sources and it’s a pain to type or edit text into the fields when needed.

    There are several other issues – I check the RootsMagic User Group on Facebook to see what other users are finding.

  2. Kinda bummed I bought RootsMagic just a few months ago LOL could’ve saved a lot of money to wait! Esp since same price now for new or upgraded. Oh well…. Looks exciting. I’ll prob do it tonight

    1. mcphilbrick

      If you made your purchase after the first of the year, you might inquire about whether you already have a registration number for RM 9. I’ve heard that is true — but don’t have a source to cite.

  3. I was surprised, too. I purchased it and downloaded it. I played around with it a bit the other night but not extensively. I may buy the manual.

  4. I still haven’t taken the plunge, other than downloading Essentials, as I now use Family Historian primarily. Will wait for a couple of more updates to fix some of the issues, especially the one Randy mentioned re Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V. I imagine they will offer it on special again at some point, and for me, in Canada, it was actually almost $30, not $20 (after the exchange rate).

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