MacFamilyTree:

How Updates Work

»What Are Software Updates?«

Software has a number of great advantages over »hardware«. If e.g. your lawn mower or TV set need a major overhaul, things get dirty and heavy: you may even have to take them to a specialized service contractor. Instead, with MacFamilyTree, such maintenance is done by downloading a new version of the program over the Internet. You then install this update on your Mac, most likely with only a few clicks with your mouse, and that’s all.

Why Updates Are Important

When MacFamilyTree receives some exciting new features, we will make these enhancements available »online«. Mostly, such updates are free for registered customers of MacFamilyTree, and since you have already paid for MacFamilyTree, it makes sense to protect your investment by keeping it up-to-date.

Sometimes, we also may have to deliver important bug fixes which you surely don’t want to miss. However, most updates include some more or less important new features, performance improvements and also bug fixes.

Automatic Update Notification

To notify you of updates, MacFamilyTree checks for them regularly. Whenever you see a small window like the one below appearing, you should agree to download the update. A single click on the »Download« button will take you to our MacFamilyTree product page.

Note: the window title »Softwareaktualisierung« is German for »Software Update« and reflects the name of our tool which does the checking for available new versions of the software.

Manually Searching For Updates

If you want to check for the availability of software updates yourself, you may go to the Application Menu »MacFamilyTree« and choose »Check For Updates…«:

Either you receive above message, and you may then go to our Web page and download the latest version of MacFamilyTree. Or, you receive the following message, telling you that your current installation of MacFamilyTree is OK and does not need to be updated:

Downloading An Update

On our product page for MacFamilyTree, you will see at least one big »Download« button. The one you should be looking out for has a green arrow on it:

Clicking once on that button will immediately start the download. Your Web Browser may open a small window and show you the progress while MacFamilyTree 5’s installation package is being loaded over the Internet. Here is how this looks like in Apple’s Safari Web browser:

The downloaded file is the same for updates and full releases. It contains the latest version of MacFamilyTree. Once it has been successfully transferred to your Mac, please refer to our tutorial Downloading MacFamilyTree for further information on downloading.

»Do I Always Have To Download The Full Package?«

As of now — yes. On the Mac, software installations can be simple »Drag & Drop«, just like the one for MacFamilyTree. Of course, you do not need to copy the entire contents of the download package to your hard disk. But the main application still stays in one piece and will not allow you to selectively only update what has been changed or improved.

How To Install The Update

Once the download is complete, an installation window opens, with a text message prompting you to »copy MacFamilyTree to the Applications Folder« on your Mac. This is really easy — simply drag & drop the MacFamilyTree icon onto the »Applications« folder icon inside the installation window.

Now, another message should pop up telling you that there is an older version already installed on your Mac, and that you are about to replace that file. As you are indeed updating a previous installtion, you must replace the old file with the new one, so please click »Replace«.

You may then have to enter an administrator's name and password to authenticate. To illustrate this whole procedure, we have prepared a small video for you: