Tuesday, March 17, 2015

FamilySearch Updates Their Family Tree Views

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was (finally?) able to see the new interface on the FamilySearch Family Tree (also see James Tanner's post First Look at the FamilySearch Family Tree Interface, posted 16 March 2015).

Here are the five different views available when a user has access to the FamilySearch Family Tree (a free registration) and the new interface, and clicks on the icon in the second menu ribbon on the screen:

1)  Landscape View (dark background) - note the other icons on the menu ribbon:


Over on the right side, a user can click on the dropdown "Show" menu and select "Invert Colors" to see the "light background" "Landscape" View:

2)  Here is the "Landscape" View (light background):


A user can click on a person's name to see their Profile.  A user can also click on the "Children" dropdown arrow to see the list of children and click on their name if desired.

Note the colored icons on some of the profiles - for non-LDS members, there are icons for:

*  Brown -- Record Hints
*  Blue -- Research Suggestions
*  Red -- Data Problems.

3)  The "Portrait" View looks like this:


There is no "Invert Color" option on the Portrait View.  It does not have the colored icons for each person.

4)  The "Fan Chart" View:


5)  The "Descendancy" View:


A user can Expand the list of Descendants by clicking the "Expand" link and/or by selecting the number of generations on the menu ribbon.  The colored icons appear on the right margin for each person on the list.

All of these changes are supposed to make navigation within the tree easier to perform and to make the charts more presentable.  However, one feature that was discontinued in the Landscape View was the ability to run your mouse over a person;'s name and then click on "Person" to see their profile.  Now, the user has to click twice - once on the name, then on "Person" to see the profile.

I don't know how extensive this rollout of the new interface is.  It is probable that not every user has access to it yet.  Be patient - you will get it at some point in time.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/03/familysearch-updates-their-family-tree.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


2 comments:

Geolover said...

It's not a new interface, just tarted up a little. The addition of optional icons for certain functions will be useful for those who work from the box charts, which are an easier view for some to use from small hand-held devices, particularly when not adding source-citations.

I still wish FS would convert to standard box-chart format: one box for each person, not for a *couple*. Their present format conceals display of multiple marriages and blended families.

............................................................Genedocs said...

Cool Randy - thanks for sharing with us from James' update on it!