Change History for Family Book Creator on macOS

This page lists the latest changes and enhancements of the macOS version of Family Book Creator. There is also a Windows version.

Family Book Creator is continuously being enhanced with new features and improvements to existing features. You may find information about how to use those changes here as well.

Build 2446 (Available soon...)

Fixed: 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_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: 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: 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.
Enhancement: Family Book Creator 2019 is now compatible with FTM 2019 and FTM 2024.
Please also check: "Is Family Book Creator compatible with Family Tree Maker 2024?"

Build 830 (October 2023)

Fixed: While the plugin is running on macOS 14 (Sonoma), the 'Family Book Creator' main window did not stay in front of the 'Family Tree Maker' window. Also closing the main window of the application did not properly quit the application. These compatibility issues are now fixed.
Fixed: Inserting text before fact notes or using document and text formatting tags in label fields for Name fact types did not work as expected. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: In some very rare cases, sorting media items in photo albums by date did not always work as expected when only month and year were specified. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: In some very rare cases, while creating a document about relatives of the starting individual, a crash occurred ("Index was outside the bounds of the array."). This issue has now been fixed.

Build 815 (September 2023)

Fixed: When location information was found in a shared fact with an "unknown spouse", a crash occurred ("Object reference not set to an instance of an object"). This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: The 'Number Of Columns' combo box in the index of places area was always disabled after creating a document. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: The status bar showed "Creating Document: …" for a very long time and the application seemed to hang. The problem of slowing down when creating a document containing a large number of chapters has now been fixed.
Fixed: In books about relatives, the content was sometimes different for chapters that should be the same when using different degrees of relationship. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: A problem with missing border lines for paragraphs in embedded documents has now been fixed.
Fixed (Spanish): Some grammar and wording issues have been fixed in foreword and introduction.

Build 813 (August 2023)

Fixed: Images in Portable Network Graphics (PNG) file format with transparency were not displayed as expected. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: A typo in the name of the style sheet "Child Section (Research note)" has now been fixed.
Enhancement: The font selection drop-down lists on the 'Fonts & Styles' tab page now previews fonts. This allows you to visually see the differences while selecting a font.
Fixed: The layout of multiple consecutive spaces was not handled as expected. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: The after paragraph spacing of the last child paragraph displayed in the list of children could be incorrect if family headers were omitted and spouse or partner information was included for the last child of the list. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: If the 'Use single sections per relationship' option was not selected, ancestry reports using the Sosa-Stradonitz system would not include a family chart for the starting individual's family. This issue has now been fixed.

Build 810 (June 2023)

Fixed: Some minor user interface issues have been fixed and the overall stability of the application has been improved.
Fixed: When the 'Use single sections per relationship' option was not selected, descendant reports would include only the primary individual's preferred relationship. This issue has now been fixed.
Changed: Creating page numbers with hyperlinks to index entries is now optional for page numbers in the Index of Places and Index of Individuals. By default, the 'Create page numbers with hyperlinks' options (located on the 'Book Items', 'Indexes' tab) are unchecked because creating these hyperlinks when outputting to PDF or EPUB file formats drastically increases the time required for the "Updating all fields..." steps in some scenarios.

Build 806 (May 2023)

Fixed: The file format selection line was shifted and split into two lines when saving a document. This user interface issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: Loading a particular Word document in the built-in text editor did not work. Unfortunately, as a result the 'spinning wheel of death' was shown and the application would hang. This issue has now been fixed.
Enhancement: Family Book Creator now remembers the last used folder for FBC setting files. This allows you to use separate folders for documents and configurations without the need to always reselect the folder needed.
Fixed: If the Marriage fact type was not selected for inclusion, it could result in broken links ("Error! Bookmark not defined") because the record with the marriage details was always missing. This problem is now fixed.
Fixed: In some very rare cases, only blank footnotes or endnotes were included. While the reference numbers were displayed, the actual reference note text was missing. This problem is now fixed.
Fixed: A problem related to em-dash characters in notes has now been fixed.
Fixed: There was an issue related to unwanted family sections for individuals with spouses but no children. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: In some rare cases "Updating all fields" was very slow while processing large documents. This performance issue has now been fixed.
Enhancement: Family Book Creator now shows the progress in percent while the "Updating all fields" step is running.
Fixed: If you selected to display only used fact types, the 'Person ID' and 'Relationship ID' fact types were not displayed in the list of facts on the Items to Include tabs, even though these numbers are automatically assigned by Family Tree Maker. This problem has been fixed.
Fixed: Some foreign characters were not always displayed as expected in the table of contents. This problem has been fixed.
Enhancement: Previous versions of Family Book Creator assumed that surnames were entered into FTM with proper case. Some FTM users prefer uppercase surnames for various reasons, but would like to see mixed case results. Family Book Creator will now convert upper case surnames to mixed case if needed.
Fixed: In books about descendants, duplicated families (due to common ancestors) were not always shown as expected. Sometimes the phrase "This family is duplicated because of common ancestors. See person reference number A on page B." was missing, or the details (such as the list of children) were not shown in the first appearance of the duplicated family, but appeared later in the document. This problem is now fixed.

Build 794 (February 2023)

Fixed: In some cases, Microsoft Word displayed the message "This document contains fields that may refer to other files. Do you want to update the fields in this document?" when a document created by FBC was opened. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed (English): A spelling issue in the user interface ("Number of columns:") has now been fixed.
Fixed: If unexpected characters are used in improbable names for individuals and places, the Index of Places and Index of Individuals in documents created in PDF and EPUB file format were truncated. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: In some rare cases the "Updating all fields..." steps crashed. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: In some rare cases "Updating all fields" did not complete and seemed to "hang". This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: In some rare cases it was not possible to enter all 30 characters for the Serial Number. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: In some rare cases the Table of Contents showed "Error! No bookmark name given." messages. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: In some rare cases we may see invalid links in spouse or partner sections ("Error! Bookmark not defined." messages in the document). This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: Family Book Creator crashed in cases of invalid Name records being used in FTM (for example Name facts with date or place information). This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: In cases where "Ancestral Loops" were present in your FTM tree, FBC/FTM crashed while creating "Relatives of" books. This issue has now been fixed.
NOTE: It is still a good idea to remove "Ancestral Loops". The term "Ancestral Loop" is used for loops caused by incorrect relationships recorded in your tree. For example, a child is his/her own parent. Or even more complex, a grandchild is identical with one of the grandparents. Unfortunately, FTM does not provide a check for "Ancestral Loops", but the data error report may help you find these kind of issues.
Fixed (Spanish): Some grammar issues had been fixed in the introduction chapter.
Fixed: Assigning a starting number to be used for the starting individual did not work as expected if 'Sequential Number' was selected as the numbering format for books about ancestors. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: In some rare cases details like child section and photo album section for a family were not shown. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: Family Book Creator 2019 is now compatible with the upcoming maintenance release of Family Tree Maker 2019 (Version 24.2).

Build 775 (October 2022)

Fixed: Geometric symbols and chess symbols did not appear in PDF files as expected. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: In books about ancestors, the family chart for the family of the starting individual was missing, if the option 'Include only preferred partner' on the 'Individuals to include' tab page is selected. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: After using the 'Restore text' button from the toolbar of the Introduction tab page the button was always disabled. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: In some rare cases the error message 'Load from Stream failed' was shown. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: In some rare cases updating all fields did not work as expected and an error message (Exception during update fields) was shown. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed (Spanish): A spelling issue in the statistics section ("1 hombre promedió") has now been fixed.
Fixed: In some rare cases images are shown in squished columns inside photo album sections. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: If multiple profile pictures are used from one source image Family Book Creator always used an identical profile picture for all individuals. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: If the global system preferences file could not be found on your Mac, Family Book Creator could not be launched. You would just get an error message ("Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)"). This issue has now been fixed.
Improved (FBC 2019): The PDF rendering engine that is used to create documents in fixed page formats (like PDF and images) has been improved. Now, tables and table cell borders are rendered more accurately.
Fixed (FBC 2019): If EPUB file format was used, Color Coding symbols were not included in the 'Index of Places' and 'Index of Individuals'. This issue has now been fixed.
Enhancement (FBC 2019): All page numbers inside the 'Index of Places' and 'Index of Individuals' are now hyperlinks in documents in PDF or EPUB file format. You may just click on the page number to navigate to the index entry on that page.

Build 748 (July 2022)

Fixed: Page breaks from documents inserted by utilizing the media category FBC_HandleStoryAsText were not retained. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: If the formatting option 'Include in narrative (FTM style)' was used, an unwanted comma might be shown at the end of the sentence. This issue has now been fixed.
Changed: If the formatting option 'Include in narrative (FTM style)' was used together with {dateOnly} the date value inserted for {dateOnly} may have started with a prefix. This has now been changed so that just the date is used to construct the sentence, based on the FTM sentence template.
Fixed: Location/Place details (specified during Resolving Place fields in FTM) did not show up in sentences created for Occupation and Employment fact types. This issue has now been fixed.
Note: This requires that the option 'Use place details always as place segments' (found on the 'Main part', 'Options' tab page) is cleared. (See also "Standardizing locations in Family Tree Maker")
Fixed: In some rare cases "Updating all fields... (Pass 3 of 6)" did not complete and seemed to "hang". This issue was caused by an endless loop in the page layout engine if a huge number of footnotes and cross-references to footnotes were used. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: The plugin could crash if a user tried to incorporate content from a word processing document with invalid document structure (for example a floating shape inside a textbox). This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: When exporting every page of your book document in image file format (JPG or PNG) the thickness of some lines were not as designed. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: Selecting a name format from the 'Repeated mention of the name' drop-down list on the 'Preferences', 'Name Formats', 'Partner' tab page had no effect, because the default name format was always used. This issue has now been fixed.

Build 744 (June 2022)

Fixed: In some rare cases, if individuals share an ancestor, a null pointer exception occurred. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: An issue (Unexpected part type exception) while updating all fields has now been fixed.
Enhancement: The integrated help system and the User Guide in PDF file format are now up to date and cover the latest product changes and enhancements up to Build 744 of Family Book Creator 2019 on macOS.
Enhancement: Family Book Creator now supports media files with special characters (like / ? < > \ * | " ) in filenames.
Fixed: Individuals with unknown given names are not always properly shown in the index of individuals. This issue has now been fixed.
Fixed: If the option 'Include details about children' is cleared, the related controls are not always disabled as expected. This issue has now been fixed.

Build 739 (May 2022)

Prerelease of the macOS Edition of Family Book Creator