Personal Ancestral File and Android

I was recently asked whether PAF can run on Android devices. The answer of course is no, for at least two reasons.

1. hardware (Android tablets and phones do not use an x86-based CPU)
2. software (Android is a different operating system than Microsoft Windows)

But this does not mean you can't use PAF to take your genealogy with you on your Android tablet or smart phone.

You use PAF's Create webpage function to create an HTML version of your PAF database. It takes 10 minutes if you have done it before, but longer if it is a new experience.

Then use the USB cable to copy the website (folder of HTML files) from your Windows "Documents" folder to your Android device. My 7" Iconia tablet has a slot for an external microSD card, so I chose this as my destination. I expected that clicking the index.htm file on my Android would launch the website, like in Windows. Not so! I needed to install a free app named OpenHTML. Now I can click on index.htm and select OpenHTML to open my PAF website in my default Android browser. Or I can launch OpenHTML to open my PAF website. I should be able to add my index.htm file to the browser favorites to make life even simpler.

This is a read-only solution, but it is a handy one to know if you have PAF and an Android tablet or phone. And it is free.


Bill