Getting Started with Personal Historian
Not sure how to get started with Personal Historian? This short video gives a brief overview of how to get started using RootsMagic’s Personal Historian software to write a personal or family history. Reply if you have questions or tips to share.
Mine has installed but will not launch - using MacOS
Darran
Me too. Impossible to get started if you can’t even get the program to launch. 
What operating system are you trying to run Personal Historian on?
Currently, Personal Historian runs on macOS Mountain Lion (10.8) through macOS Mojave (10.14) and Windows 7 SP1, 8, 10, or 11.
Are there plans to update so does run on later MacOS machines as well just like RootsMagic 8 ??
Yes, but I couldn’t speak to if that would an update or upgrade.
Sorry to bring up an old topic, but I have tried for about a week to get this software to work for me. Even after watching the video, I am stuck at the “timeline/stories” screen. In the video it says to choose (check) all the stories I would like to include in the person’s story I want to write. After I do this I am unclear as what EXACTLY I do after this. Also After almost an hour of decieding which stories to check, I accidentally, clicked on one without first holding down the control key and lost all my choices and had to start all over again. Is there any way to save my choices as I go along choosing stories?
Once you go to Publish, Books and setup a new book and the stories to include it will save the settings. It won’t look at what is currently checked in the main view after that. If you wanted other categories you would have to adjust or create a new book.
Just to be clear, as I click on stories I want to include about the person I am going to write about, I should go to Publis, Books and setup a new book to save the settings as I go along, then I can continue to click on more of the stories on this page that I want to include?
Yes, you could do that so they are saved.
Well, this is what happened when I did what you suggested. I chose 6 or 7 stories, just to see what would happen, assuming I could return to the same screen and add the rest of the stories I would want to include. I ended up a text document that included ALL the stories, plus text from a story I had started to write on a composer page, when I had no Idea how to get the suggestions to prompt me to write. Well, At least I have what I need. I guess I can just delete the lines that are not necessary, and cut and paste some stuff.
So whilst we’re active on users trying to get use from Personal Historian 3, are there any updates on getting it working on current (or even recent) versions on MacOS ?? I’m so wanting to use this program to document my families history.
What type of filter are you using to select the stories?
Development has given any updates.
The filters I am using are: Catholic, Epidemics, Family History, Food, Industrial Revolution, Inventions, Memory Triggers, Movies, Music, Radio Shows, U.S. History, U.S. Holidays, Unfiled Stories.
I had expected to end up in the editor page, in the composer. Instead I ended up with a text document. Here is a small section of the top of the document…
Publish a Book isn’t what you want if you want to add to the stories. Double click on the story in the main view to open it.
But I want to choose several stories in the main view, like the man in the instructional video did. So How do I choose multiple stories and have them appear on the editor screen?
Can you give me the video link and the time frame it shows that?
Hi,
I wish I could locate the video again. I’ve done a search on Google, but I can’t find it. Of course it doesn’t help that I get called away frequently…
The only thing I can say to narrow it down is that the man who narrated the video was the same one who narrated the other one’s I’ve watched. He was demonstrating how to either remove stories from the timeline list or chose multiple ones by holding down the ctl key as you clicked on them.
Sue
The playlist for all the Personal Historian videos is here.
