1) The New Ancestry: July 15th Feature Update
* View and add notes – Notes are now available as a slide-out on the right side of the screen, so you can quickly review and add notes. It is turned on in the tools menu on the top right. [yes, I like it]
* View and add comments – Comments are now available as a slide-out on the right side of the screen, so you can quickly review and add comments. It is turned on in the tools menu on the top right. [yes, I like it]
* Media Gallery / Viewer – We have added a number of features to the new Media Gallery/viewer:
** Save photos to your family trees from the new media viewer
** Edit the description and details on a photo or story
** Create and upload a new story in the media Gallery
** View and listen to audio and video files
* Story formatting in the Gallery – We have fixed the layout and formatting to make it more readable.
* Web links – We have implemented web link functionality on the new Ancestry site. Web links are found on the Facts View at the bottom of the Sources column.
* Age on Facts View events – The age at a specific event has been available on the LifeStory page in the new Ancestry. We have now also added it to the Facts View to make it easier to review facts. [yes, I like it]
* Adjusted profile page photo to better fit – Some pictures were not fit correctly. This has been adjusted to show the whole picture on the profile page.
* Quick edit – The quick edit option is now available on the person card in the tree viewer under the Tools menu. It is also available under the Edit menu in the person profile.
* Guidance on LifeStory and Facts view – We have added some in-line help screens that appear when you first come to either page.
* Source and media counts on Facts view – Sources and media associated with events on the Facts view are now represented with a number count in addition to the fact/source link lines. Counts are also links and will direct to the appropriate section in the edit modal when clicked. [yes, I like it]
* Media Comments – Comments from the classic site will be available in the media viewer with the ability to also comment on them in the new Ancestry site. [yes, I like it]
2) The New Ancestry: July 22nd Feature Update
* Person Media Gallery – Show & Sort. SHOW allows you to show only the media types you want to see – Photos, Stories, etc. SORT allows you to view the data in the order you choose – New to Old, Alphabetical, etc. [yes, I like it]
* Family Card in Hints – Allows you to see the family of the person you are evaluating Ancestry Hints for – this mirrors the Family Card in the Facts View. [yes, I like it]
* Research tools – A shortcut that provides you nifty tools such as View in tree, View Notes, View Comments, and Merge with Duplicate. You can access these tools with just one click from the Tools button.
3) The New Ancestry: July 31st Feature Update
None listed as new.
4) The latter article identifies features that they are working on:
* We are investing a lot of resources updating our backend infrastructure so the new Ancestry will work much better than the old site.
* Printing in Facts View –We have had a busy week bringing Print feature to the new Ancestry. You will notice that the coming soon print image is formatted to fit the page while still reflecting the layout and benefits of the Facts View as well as removing the dark backgrounds to reduce unnecessary use of ink for printing. We are also working on printing for LifeStory and MyCanvas publishing options. [good, I'm looking forward to this]
* FamilySearch integration – LDS Account holders will be able to share information between their Ancestry tree on the new Ancestry site and their Family Tree on FamilySearch. [doesn't affect me. Why aren't I, as a non-LDS member, able to do this? It's a universal FamilySearch Family Tree]
* Profile picture cropping – Edit/crop a profile photo to fit in the circular photo space
5) The top reported issues from customer feedback include:
* Relationship Calculator – We have addressed the a number of the reported issues, this should be available now on the Person Page. [Note that the sentence doesn't make sense. I can't find it on the Person page] [looking forward to seeing this]
* Inaccurate narrations in LifeStory and Facts view – We are looking at the language in the narrations and how to better generate narratives.
* Photos added to events to appear as thumbnails in Facts view – Thank you for your feedback on this. We are evaluating whether to include this functionality in the new Ancestry site. [great idea!]
* LifeStory map pins appearing in wrong locations – This has been an issue due to how the locations are evaluated. We implemented a fix last week that will prevent mapping pins for any location that doesn’t have a standardized place. We are also looking at improving the standardized place engine to ensure correct pin placement. [looks pretty good to me]
Ancestry says:
We appreciate your feedback and encourage you to keep submitting it. What do you love about the new website? Did you find a bug? Something doesn’t quite work like you think it should? Please submit it via this form.
6) I complained in What Facts Show Up in an Ancestry.com LifeStory? (2 July 2015) that some of my Facts and media did not appear in a LifeStory.
a) I found these Facts in profiles of several of my ancestors that did not show up in the LifeStory:
* Census Fact
* Occupation Fact
* Education Fact
* Military Service Fact
* Baptism or Christening Fact
* Land Deed Fact
* Cause of Death
* Burial Fact
* Obituary Fact
* Probate Fact
* I'm sure there are many more!
For me, I would like to have these other Facts, with the accompanying uploaded media item, included in the LifeStory. How is the LifeStory complete without the events that are included in the Facts list?
b) While the Residence Fact is included in the LifeStory, the attached or uploaded images for these Facts are not included. I think they should be.
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/many-features-added-to-new-ancestrycom.html
Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver
Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.
2 comments:
Now if they would just put back in the quick access to "List of All People" w/o having to leave the current profile I would be happy.
Comments still can not be deleted (not the ones added to media, which never could be deleted).
Place names still need to be fixed for completeness in LifeStory and in narratives in Facts page.
Already-uploaded image thumbnails still need to appear in the Facts items to which they were uploaded. It is very tedious and aggravating to have to go to a different page to see whether a media item is present, and still not know whether it was attached to the right Facts item.
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