AncestralFire · Get your file out
How to export a GEDCOM file from Family Tree Maker.
In Family Tree Maker, choose Export from the File menu, pick the whole file or selected people, choose a GEDCOM option as the output format, choose what to include, and save. Leave the password box off, because a password-protected zip file can't be opened here.
The steps, from MacKiev's help for Family Tree Maker 2017 for Windows
- Choose Export from the File menu. The Export window opens.
- To export the entire tree, click Entire file. To choose people, click Selected individuals and add each person you want.
- Choose a GEDCOM option from the Output format list.
- Choose the information to include: whether to privatize living people, include private facts, include private notes, and include links to media files.
- Click OK. In the Export to GEDCOM dialog, change the Destination and Character set if you need to, and click OK.
- Enter a name for your GEDCOM file, choose where to save it, and click Save. A message tells you when the file has been exported.
Good to know.
- MacKiev's help lets you protect the export with a password (Export as password protected ZIP file). Leave that off for a file you bring here: a password-protected zip can't be opened.
- Family Tree Maker's help says that privatizing living people leaves out their first and middle names, facts and shared facts, and keeps surnames and relationships.
- A GEDCOM file holds links to your media, not the pictures. Family Tree Maker's help has a section on gathering your media into the tree's Media folder before you export, and on moving that folder with the file.
- This is MacKiev's help for Family Tree Maker 2017 for Windows, last updated in 2017; its Mac page has the same steps with a pop-up menu and an Export button. A newer version may look different.
Then bring it in.
Choose the .ged file you saved. Open it on the free GEDCOM page: your file is read in your browser, so you can look it over first. Then press Bring it into AncestralFire, and the file goes with you to make your account.