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Q: I have a genealogy program on my desktop.  It is “Family Tree Maker”.  I use it a lot and have over 1000 people keyed into it.  I now have a Gateway laptop.  I am trying to transfer my “Family Tree Maker” from the desktop to the laptop.  I want to be able to use the program on both computers.  However, I just can’t seem to get it transfered over.  Could there be some little something that I am not aware of as to why it will not transfer?

– Kim F.
Fort Walton Beach, FL

A: Kim, I don’t use, or have access to a copy of Family Tree Maker, but I can tell you that the license most software companies give you when you buy a copy of software is intended for the software to run on only a single computer.  That said, many times there is often nothing other than your own integrity stopping you from installing the software on multiple machines, although some vendors (usually those like Microsoft who sell the more expensive software packages) are increasingly instituting programs to ensure copies are legitimate.

All that aside, you didn’t tell me much about how you’re trying to “transfer” the software.  If you mean you’re trying to simply copy the program’s directory from one computer to another, that’s almost guaranteed to fail, because when software installs, it does far more than merely copy itself onto your hard drive.  If you’re to have any chance of making this work, you’ll need to install it from your original discs onto the new computer, then copy over only the data files that you have created on the desktop machine.  It might require a little research on your part to determine which files are which.

Q: I am going to lose my internet provider and want to ensure that I don’t lose all of my bookmarked ‘favorite’ web sites.  Is there a way to save them to a file such as Word?

– Peggy S.
Valparaiso, FL

A: Your bookmarks are not stored by your ISP, Peggy.  They are stored locally on your computer as part of your Internet Explorer configuration, so you can go happily from ISP to ISP and your bookmarks will always be there.  There are, however, other reasons why you might want to make your favorites into a file, including sharing them with friends, moving them to another computer, etc.  To do this, simply run Internet Explorer, and click “File” then “Import and Export…”.  Step through the wizard and choose “Export Favorites” from the second page.  Be sure and choose the correct Source Folder – IE will export this folder, and all the folders underneath it.  On the next screen, give it a file name, being sure to remember name and location, then click “Finish” and you magically have a file full of your bookmarks.  It just so happens that this is an HTML file, which can be re-imported into another copy of IE, or you can simply double-click it to open your bookmarks as if they were a web page.