 |
EDITOR NOTES
A Classic Mac OS version is available, see 'Related Links' below on this page.
DESCRIPTION
Personal Ancestry Writer II (PAWriter II) combines most of the features of the LDS Personal Ancestral File program (PAF) for the Macintosh, for which all development stopped a few years ago after release 2.3.1, with additional features that generate web pages in HTML, word processing files in RTF for example, AppleWorks, and desktop publishing files in MML for FrameMaker. The generated report files include genealogical dictionaries, registers, ahnentafels and lineages—such as appear on this site—as well as some interesting text files and pedigree charts.
PAWriter also provides flexible selection of subsets of people in a file by "tagging" them (marking them as members of the subset) using a host of selection criteria. Selections include inclusion (+), exclusion (-) and intersection (*) of the set of people meeting the criteria with those already tagged.
Consider PAWriter to be a possible next step in the development of Macintosh PAF had its develpment not been discontinued after release 2.3.1, i.e., "what might have been." PAWriter is not meant to have the bells and whistles that are in the current crop of genealogical programs. The emphasis is on maintaining a genealogical database from which the user can write books and/or post web pages about a family.
Importantly, the use of PAWriter differs from other programs in that each statement given in a person's vital statistics should be based on the evidence given or referenced in the notes for that person and/or for his or her relatives, and should represent the researcher's best current conclusions as to the true facts. For this purpose, the notes should contain all of the evidence, substantiation, documentation, background information, clarification, interpretation and/or other relevant commentary. It is in these notes that source citations are referenced through footnotes inserted at the appropriate points in the notes' text, as is normally done in books. (The footnotes will be included at the end of the printed notes in the generated reports.)
WHAT'S NEW
Version 88:
This is the first version of PAWriter that is a universal binary compilation, and its file name is changed to PAW2U. It reads and writes the same data files used by PAW2 and PAW2X. Much internal re-coding was necessarily accomplished in this move to the universal binary version. Universal binaries run on both PowerPC Macs and Intel Macs without Rosetta.
This universal binary version should run well on G3s, G4s, G5s and Intel Macs under MacOS 10.3.x (Panther), 10.4.x (Tiger), 10.5.x (Leopard), 10.6.x (Snow Leopard without Rosetta) and future versions of the MacOS. (I’ve alpha tested it on Intel iMacs running Leopard and on a G4 eMac running Panther.) I believe this version of PAWriter runs significantly faster than previous versions on any of the above-named platforms.
Remove or archive any version of PAW2X and its Reference folder. PAW2 (the OS 9 version) and PAW2X the (previous OS X version) are deprecated, and will no longer be updated.
In this disk image, please read the Read Me First file in your browser. Then drag the PAW2U file over the Applications folder alias to install it in the Applications folder. Eject the disk image. Then you may also drag PAW2U from the Applications folder to the Dock to install it in the dock.
Changes from the previous version:
- The About PAWriter Help and the PAWriter Reference Guide menu items were moved to a new Help menu.
- The Reference Guide is now part of the PAW2U file (it’s "bundled"). You can click on the Reference button in the main window or choose PAWriter Reference Guide from the Help menu or press command-' in major windows to launch the Reference Guide in Safari. The Reference Guide now displays with two panes in the browser window: a table of contents in the left pane and the selected entry in the right pane. The contents of the guide has been reviewed and revised as necessary with all new images included.
- The creator for HTML files was changed to "udog" in order to launch Safari. Of course, you can change the default brower in Safari preferences or in an HTML file's Get Info window.
- Many subordinate windows such as alerts and various dialogs were made into "sheet" windows, which drop down within the containing window.
- You can now control-click (right-click with most mice) anywhere in notes and the Edit menu will pop up, with all of its relevant menu items available for selection.
- Possible problems in notes and any linkage problems are now completely listed in new scrolling windows.
- Notes in family group sheets for parents are not duplicated in multiple marriages.
- "Faster open and save dialogs" and their preference item were removed.
- A few obscure errors that had gone undetected prior to this version were corrected.
- Since there have been numerous complaints about the previous default background color of turquoise, the default has been changed to the more neutral crayon color named Silver (a light gray). A suggested compatible highlight color option in the system preference Appearance panel is Graphite. But feel free to change the background color in PAWriter preferences and/or the highlight color in system preferences to whatever is pleasing to you.
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.3 or later.
| SCREENSHOT
OTHER PEOPLE SUGGEST No similar products suggested yetSuggest something else: |
|
 |
|  |
 | |  |
| PAWriter II User Reviews (6 posts) | Write A Review |
 | Nov 6 2009 |
TIANISSIMO This sounds great. I'll try it.
(Version 88) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| May 1 2009 |
NEALNT This program is designed with the Christian faiths in mind. The references to baptism for instance is nor relevant to many religions and I wish could be removed. How about making some of these fields user selectable? Maybe I want to include Bar Mitzvah date instead of baptism date?
(Version 85) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Feb 11 2009 |
HURTIG MacWorld posted a four-mice review of PAWriter in July 2007 at http://www.macworld.com/article/57840/2007/05/paw69.html
(Version 84) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Feb 9 2009 |
NIKONMD Any genealogist who ever used PAF knows it is an efficient way to save and document your genealogy research. PAWriter II continues the tradition. It may look a little old school, but the familiar layout is very easy to navigate and moving around your family tree is very straight forward. PAWriter has added some impressive tools to the old Mac version of PAF and for me PAWriter was a godsend and an inspiration to continue documenting my research. PAWriter II 84 is an example of how good the author is at keeping the program functional and stable. If you need more features then you can always export a GEDCOM file for use in another program, but for me PAWriter II does it all.
(Version 84) | |
| [ 2 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Mar 18 2009 |
HURTIG PAWriter has an "old school" look to ensure 100% compatibility with OS 10.5.x (Leopard), 10.4.x (Tiger), 10.3.x (Panther), 10.2.x (Jaguar), 10.1.x (Puma), 10.0.x (Cheetah) and 9.x.x. Users who, for whatever reason, are unable to upgrade to a later version of the Mac OS should have full access to all of the capabilities of PAWriter, and no other Mac genealogical program is known to offer this compatibility in a single version (although the OS 9 version of PAWriter is executes somewhate better under OS 9).
(Version 84) | |
| Mar 18 2009 |
HURTIG PAWriter has an "old school" look to ensure 100% compatibility with OS 10.5.x (Leopard), 10.4.x (Tiger), 10.3.x (Panther), 10.2.x (Jaguar), 10.1.x (Puma), 10.0.x (Cheetah) and 9.x.x. Users who, for whatever reason, are unable to upgrade to a later version of the Mac OS should have full access to all of the capabilities of PAWriter, and no other Mac genealogical program is known to offer this compatibility in a single version (although the OS 9 version of PAWriter is executes somewhate better under OS 9).
(Version 84) | |
 | Feb 7 2009 |
APPLEDOGX It is good to find a free geneology program. I do see some shortcomings, though. It does not provide for entry of same-sex partners in families, requiring partners to be a man and a woman. In this day and age, it would be more useful to allow different mixes in partners. It was also impossible to cancel entry of a partner, from what I could see. The user interface seems very OS-9, and the default color for the background is horrible. Fortunately, you can change it.
(Version 84) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Feb 1 2009 |
SJHA I am very impressed with this application. Having tried a number of genealogy applications this was the only freeware one that imported properly from a GEDCOM file (one that several non-free applications could not cope with). Highly recommended.
(Version 83) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
|
| |
|
