Monday, July 18, 2011

FamilySearch Collection Navigation Hints

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In my post Tuesday's Tip - How to Find New/Updated Collections on FamilySearch.org two weeks ago, I complained about some of the FamilySearch navigation problems.

Reader Dana Frantz in Australia offered some very helpful tips on how to avoid the frustrations that I encountered.  Here are Dana's ideas:

My problem:  The problem I have is when I go back to the Historical Collections page after browsing or searching, it always reverts back to the alphabetical listing. After doing a keyword search like the above, you cannot return to that page of results for the keyword - you have to go to the main Historical Collections page and search again.

Dana's solution:  Try using a right mouse click on the collection you want to search or browse then choose either Open in a New Tab or Open in a New Window (I usually use the New Tab). Either way you keep your initial page in the Last Update Order and can move back and forth as you wish.

Also, when using the Search Collections box on the left, if you type slowly, the software will search as you type.  Don't actually click on the search button and when you are finished using the results of the search, delete the search terms from the search box and it will go back to the initial page in the same order you started with (Last Update Order).


Two great suggestions for my problems!  Right-click, and don't hit Search.  Those are very simple, very correct, and extremely useful!  Why didn't I know that?  I just have not worked that way.  I use the Windows right-click button occasionally, but it's not what I think of first!  The "don't hit Search button" idea works too. 

These ideas will save me lots of time!  Thank you, Dana! 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do the same thing by opening a new tab to keep the original page when searching, even when I am clicking on results of a Google search. To save one more step, instead of right clicking, just hold down "Ctrl" and click a link. It does the same thing!

MNFamilyHistorian said...

And to reduce the number of steps required by yet one more, click the link using the mouse wheel as a button. It will open the page in a new tab.

Mr.Carter said...

Thank you for sharing this information.
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los angeles web design said...

Perhaps you could narrow your search using Google. Type in site:(website.com) then add "specific name, name". That should do the trick.