I know this is off topic, but you and others have ignored this question on at least 3 other occasions. As the product manager for search, I believe this one is yours.

When ancestry “improved” the 1900 US census, you removed all of the ED descriptions for major cities., e.g., New York and Chicago. This has basically made the census useless for those who want to browse or to find individuals by address.

Since you have the information, and it was there for many years, can you put it back?

If you feel this is not yours, can we get a response from someone who is responsible for “user experience” or content, or whoever is responsible for degradation of service at ancestry?

Anne, Since the UPGRADE I am unable to print using IE 8. I am told by Jay Fichialos that according to you this is a known issue. You do not deal with that in the blog. So how about it. Why is this foisted on us knowing census cannot be printed using IE 8. Also, why were we encouraged several weeks ago to upgrade to IE 8 because it was better. Better for whom??? Certainly not subscribers. I can print using Firefox. I would like an answer to this, the sooner the better.

Here we go again. I do wish you people would just stop with the new improved versions. They are definitely not improved. I am totally disgusted with the new enhanced census images. There is nothing about it that I like. I have to waste extra time, that I don’t have to waste, navigating around all the junk. If there are those who just love it, fine, but give us the option of using the old method. Everytime you do something like this I wonder why I am spending so much money for such a mess and start to reconsider my options. It would seem there are a lot of us out there.

1]Print outs lettering to small
2]Too light in colour
3]No pictures in print out
4]Don’t like the new print out of FAMILY VIEW.
Enough for to day Sharon

What a lot of whingers!
Yes, sometimes things happen that we may not totally be happy with (e.g. IE8) but overall the new enhanced census images are just as easy to use and certainly do not slow me down, or waste any of my time.

I have no trouble finding most of what I need, however find that on custom printing, records are difficult to read, as the printing is quite light. There is a great comparison on WW I records Ive printed out possibly last year and now. I like the old Wisconsin land records as the then US President was named. I’m not hot under the collar about this, just some suggestions. I did go into the website for ND State government, but everything seems to be handled by private providers who want fees for any records. Is it possible that ND will let Ancestry.com into their land records,etc.?

Hopefully I will not be ignored by Gary a second time. Here is my post to his blog on July 2nd with 2 “Content” issues:

Yes, it does say that “1810 United States Federal Census” is among new records at ancestry.com; however, this data set has been there for a long time. Was it not complete and new records were added? Were the transcriptions changed? Did the search algorithm change? We don’t know, and as Diane said, without that information, do we have to re-search databases we have been through before.

The one that really gets me was the “update” of the 1900 census. In doing this update, ancestry has managed to lose all of the ED descriptions for major cities. Updated for searchers — now totally useless for browsers. Just one example of how ancestry “improves” the utility of their site.

I agree with Dave Williams. I always appreciate it when we get new features. As a former software developer, I know that new releases always come with unanticipated problems. I feel that Ancestry has been exceptional about addressing the problems and keeping users up to date with known problems. Keep up the good work.

For those with problems. Just realize that there are thousands of users out there, each with their computers configured a different way. It is almost impossible to anticipate how your computer will work. If you have a problem, be very specific in reporting it, and it will get fixed.

What is the roll-out schedule for the new viewer? As of today, 30 July, I’ve only seen it in the US Federal 1860 and 1870 censuses.

Ann,

First I have a simple question and I don’t think it was answered yet though perhaps I missed it.

IS THERE AN OPTION TO USE THE OLD BASIC VIEWER?

Second, what is the difference in image types between what the basic viewer renders and the new enhanced one renders? Is it TIFF vs. JPEG?

Perhaps my knowledge of image formats is not great, but I seem to remember that TIFF is generally better because it allows for lossless compression, while JPEG does not.

Also a difference that should be obvious to those of us who routinely used a right click and copy image previously to copy a census image to a program like MS Doc Imaging, is that now one cannot do that since that program is based (I think) on TIFFs.

So apparently one can now only save images as individual JPEG files instead of to a multi-image TIFF file, which is a huge disadvantage if one wishes to save in one file all the census docs for all years for a person. Perhaps though I don’t understand how to do that with JPEGS (and I mean saving multiple images in same file and not viewing multiple images in a flimstrip image viewer).

I also want to note that once again Ancestry displays its arrogance and disdain for long time knowledgeable customers by not discussing this “enhancement” in the concept phase, but instead predictably only letting us know about it in the “lipstick on a pig” phase, even though this enhancement may actually prove to be one.

Re the basic viewer again, if your repeated promises re other enhancements is true, i.e. one size does NOT fit all, then Ancestry will allow us some way to opt out in the future via using the old basic viewer.

MikeF

While I agree with Rita’s comments, I have another bigger issue, which deals with printing an image from the viewer. Before the recent changes and when looking at census records, historical newspapers, etc. I could adjust the size of the document I was looking at to show on screen just the part or article I was interested in. I could then print just what was on screen, not the whole document, which appears to be the case now. I hope this was an oversight when you made your changes and not intentional. Keep in mind that printing the whole image usually results in a printed page that is usually too small to read, especially for newspapers images. Since I used this print function for so much of my research, the change significantly changes the functionability of your site for me.

I downloaded and installed your Enhansed Image Viewer yesterday and now the print window does not open. Your EIV just hangs there and does not open. I thought of reinstalling your viewer but can’t find the download. I am running XP. Any suggestions?

After last night’s tirade, I was lectured by my husband, who is an impartial observer when I do research. He said that I needed to give it a rest and not be so judgemental the first day…. Then he showed me how to click the little blue boxes to have the peripheral stuff go away. If I want to read it, I can. Kind of like “close-captioning.”

I also panicked about not being able to print, but my IE8 did just fine. Also, I have actually liked the upgrades with that (once I got used to them).

Just now I made a correction to a name, which I do often. I like that you don’t have to put in an explanation and click so many times. THANKS for that.

I will keep on trying to maneuver through this “progress.” Still don’t have to be content with it!!

Thank you for what you DO provide, which is a way to do deep-digging genealogical research at home. Please don’t ever lose sight of the majority of us old-timers who basically like it the way it is and have learned our way around the on-site “problems.”

Sincerely,

—kay

In the past, I could print current view of my family information without using custom print; however, with the enhanced image page, I am nor longer able to print current view. Whenever I try to print current view, I get a blank sheet of paper. Please return the ability to print in current view information from images.

The enhanced image page for the 1871 Canadian census only scrolls the top half of their two page format. The people on the lower half of the page can be viewed on the microfilmed page, but the scrolled index cannot be viewed.

I agree with Rita, this enhanced page is a major pain in the ass. I have a headache after 1 hour and am ready to scream because I can’t search townships of census records to find my relatives. This is sometimes necessary because of the lousy ways names have been indices have been read.

Make it go away.

This new addition to the searches of census records and other reports are giving me a headache. I tried running a copy of a census and all it does is just sit there. I am using FTM 2008 and Webbrowser Internet Explorer and I haved Windows XP on my system. I was never having any problem printing the information that I needed until you changed to this new format. I wish that we were given a heads up with the changes. Why make changes to something that was working just fine. With all these changes I am wondering if when my membership comes do to renew it. When you finelly get used to something that is working and then you change it to something that does not work it is very flustrating to say the least. Please get these problems ironed out so that we don’t have to spend so much time trying figure how to get it to run on our printer and computers.

hello, I’m trying to find my father.
I can’t pull anything up on him. His name is Arnold (or Arnoldi) Wenner.
I’ve never known him. In the past I didn’t really care about having family. I just didn’t. I have two l’il ones of my own now, and they’re very inquisitive, and special. In hopes that your idealism concerning family may be of a special sort, could you help one that really need’s to know? Thanks for your time if you’ve read this. And by the way my real name is Gary William Wenner.
thanks again…

I’m very happy with the new look, and particularly the corrected, easy to read info on census’. That’s amazing!
I’m a straight shooter and if there’s something I don’t like I speak right up, but I’m having no problems, even after working through a huge thunder storm on a Wednesday when you do your maintenance.
Very pleased here, but getting way too addicted – what’s the cure?
Thanks,
ML Rowe

Count me as another subscriber who cannot print. I am using XP and IE8. I had no problem until the enhancement. First, when I attempted to print, the image went blank when the print choices screen came up and the page printed blank. Now when I select print, nothing happens… no choice screen, no printing, nada. After trying to tweak my own settings per your suggestions, still nothing.
I also agree with those subscribers who have suggested that you offer the basic viewer. I don’t need all those bells and whistles on my image screen and resent the time I must spend to get rid of them. How about making the page with those sections closed into the default? Then we could easily open them when we want them.

I am having trouble getting the image after I increase the image from 50% to 100% it does not come up. I have to go to the next page and then go back.

I really don’t like the extra steps to just read a census.

The ‘new and improved’ census format is ridiculous and I refuse to use it. Please stop changing what obviously ‘works’ as you are certianly not improving the utility. I suggest that you leave well enough alone. If it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it!

I am really pleased with the new viewer for census pages. I particularly like the fact that the source citation information is available on the same screen, as well as the ability to make suggested corrections to the indexing. This is so much better than clicking back and forth between the “record” and “image” pages. Thanks!

I prefer to have the “Source” tab showing in the right-hand panel, rather than the “Connect” tab, but I’m sure that someday, seeing who else is interested in the same pages is going to lead me to a valuable connection with a fellow researcher.

The fact that the two extra panels can be opened or closed at will means any user can have the look they prefer. Sometimes it just takes a bit of effort and actually reading what’s on the screen in front of you to figure new things out — for example I mildly panicked for a bit before I spotted the forward and back arrows over on the right, when I expected to see them on the left.

These seem to be thoughtful improvements, which may need a bit of tweaking, but I’m happy with them. I use Firefox 3.5 under Windows XP and have no trouble with printing images or saving them to my computer or tree.

Thanks Ancestry — from a happy subscriber.

Now that I’ve had a day looking at this I’d like to provide a comment on how the Ancestry Index behaves.

I personally would prefer that rolling the cursor over an entry in the index would NOT automatically highlight the data field unless that ‘line’ had already been highlighted/selected. Same holds true for the ‘Add Update’ and ‘View Update’ buttons which presently flash on/off as you scroll thru the Index… The actions would be highlight the line you want, then pick the item desired. That’s how my feeble brain works anyway…

btw…

How would you like ‘bugs’ reported?

Anne,

Based on all the upset users, the obvious move on the next update is to make a Beta version available. When the techies have most of the bugs ironed out, make it available as the standard version, while keeping the old version available. You can stop supporting the old version eventually, but it sounds like some people would avoid progress forever.

I like what I see and I know the bugs will be fixed soon.

I don’t like the new way!! The old way worked fine for me. Why have the whole list of people who are recorded on the census page listed at the bottom unless the immage is too light or illegible? It takes up too much space on the screen. Make it a choice, be able to click it off if it isn’t needed.
I can only print the whole immage. Ink is expensive and I am a retired lady with limited income.
I want the old way back!

This new format for viewing the census forms is proving to be unsuccesful for me. The older format was much easier to use and the new one is frustrating to use.

The new stuff is a horror!!!

Please give us a choice of using the old version.

Can’t read so wouldn’t know if I would want to print.

I see your programmers are about to screw up the census view of a census page. I just got a new view with side bars amd a lower side bar with the census record as a main image. I JUST WANT THE CENSUS IMAGE, I know where I’m at, Not confused, until you change things that work. Then I tried to print the page as a CURRENT VIEW it will not work.

Don’t change something that works. Now the census page view has non image information attached. Who cares as I got to this image because its the one I want. Now the print function stopped working totally. If this is the future enhanced web page view for a Census image, its useless. It disabled the CURRENT VIEW print that I use when I need a blown up copy of a small hard to read area. PLease pass this on to the people making this change as its really useless and provides no improved output, just a new formated method to display the Census records.
PLEASE LORD STOP THESE PEOPE and theirprogrammers from changing life for us older people who are generally against change. I would bet we are the majority here, at least paying customers.

Re: #15 Kay

Sorry to disagree but, imho, *any* correction should have a correct source or explination attached to it, otherwise, it is just more genealogical junk taking up space.

Today, Thursday, your program is impossible.
Now, I cannot eliminate the One World Tree from my searches. You have my father married to my aunt and one of my ancestors in 1700s parents born in 1900s. What a waste of money.
Also, so far, I have not had any successful searches in over 5 hours.
Sorry, I want the old system only.

It seems like just as I get used to the site, you make major changes. In just the last 2 months I’ve found the pages getting way too cluttered and taking longer to bring up. I have newer programs and a great computer, so I’m sure it’s your site. I wish upgrades didn’t always get so messy.

Ok a second look and it still is clutering the image of a Census. The view has a Ancestry Index. Not needed as I just used a index to get to this page. Member connect not needed for a Image of a census. Most of the additional sidebar items are on the previous page. I guess that page is on the way out and your combining the page as a all in one.
Printing is totally trash. Zoom will not work for me. Zoom in to an enlarged area then print IMAGE ONLY, select current View, it will not work. Tried Customozed Print, open My canvas tried to enlarge and print. Failed. Tried to just print from My Canvas the whole page, clicked print 4 times to get to the printer window. The only nice touch is the items added to the printout, but not needed as I file paper by names, 12000 folders. This also makes the image reduced and hard to read because it add the personal information. The original view method allows to click the Icon on the census record for what purpose. To see the Census record. Then maybe save it (That is still Allowed) or blow it up, or print it as a whole page or a enlarged view of a selected area of that page. It worked simple. As a person that has heavy usage of these feature, its frustrating. I’m too logical and thats the problem with this change. I see no logical reason to add the Ancestry index, Member Connect, Source information, Message Boards, Comments, Research Interest which showed 2 but filed to find the 2 just to see and do something with a Image. Basically them are jamming the census image into the page before this that listed the family and all the items just mentioned.

Its interesting so many people are searching this topic out to say its so great as this area is of little interest to a researcher, and frankly hard to find. I’ll watch this progress move foward. I hope not.
I also turned off the Enhanced viewer from the options and that just failed.

That’s my review of this key feature, viewing a image and using it by saving or printing and that was simple and easy.
Not bragging but I bet I use, Save , and print more images then most users and I think I know what I’m talking about. Well cutePDF helps for saving a page which gets around all but zooming.
This must be Beta as its not ready for prime time.

Sorry Anne

I don’t know why I am getting the enhanced images on my Ancestry.com, but I don’t like it and I don’t want it. Please tell me how to get rid of it and go back to regular Ancestry.com.
Thanks

I have encountered basically none of the problems that have been reported by other users. I think the primary reason must be that I use Firefox instead of IE to access ancestry.com. Hopefully, the fixes for the IE8 environment will be placed into production soon, and will help IE8 users.

But as Anne has pointed out, the forward arrow and backward arrow to get to the next page and the previous page are still there and still work fine. When I switch from 50% to 100% or whatever, the images come up just fine. Functionally, everything works fine for me. So some of the problems must be simply that the Enhanced Image page was not tested adequately in a variety of environments. By the way, I’m running a really old machine with Windows/SP3 and all current patches. I need a new machine, but I refuse to get one with Vista. Fortunately, Windows 7 will be available soon.

But I want to say yet again that HAVING THE SCREEN COME UP BY DEFAULT WITH THE CENSUS IMAGE MINIMIZED IS A TERRIBLE DESIGN. ANNE, YOU GUYS ARE REALLY SHOOTING YOURSELVES IN THE FOOT ON THIS ONE. (capital letters to indicate screaming fully intended – grin!).

Despite all the documentation in this blog about how to change the census image to maximized, I don’t think it’s at all obvious to new users of the enhanced image page why they are getting such pitifully small images and what to do about it. It really just looks like ancestry has “done it again”, changing things in a dysfunctional way No wonder people just want the old way back. Why wouldn’t ancestry want to put a better foot forward than that? The new minimized image mode with the side panel and bottom panel is really neat. About 5% of the time. Don’t make it default. In my humble opinion.

Re: #27 Lyle

It has become obvious that Ancestry doesn’t do enough beta testing. The cause for this is unknown to me but I suspect a lack of adequate staff to carry out a *real* beta testing program.

What they should do is set up an entire beta site as others do and ask for volunteers. If only 1 out of every 1000 of their subscribed members volunteered they would have over 800 testers- and most would have real genealogical experience.

Then they should *listen* to those beta testers and not release *anything* until at least 65% of the beta testers agree it is ready for release.

The marketing department would, of course, scream to high heaven; let them!

Ancestry would be far better off with more beta testers and less marketing dept staff!
*grin*

The new image viewer makes it far more difficult to read and print census pages than with the previous viewer. The new viewer is NOT an improvement for me. I’m on a Mac using Safari 4.0.3.

i put my family and a lot of my familys in the old ancestry.com i can’t find them know. i did not add them in my family tree,i just filled in the names ,dates,places, years and with this new way its set up i can’t find them, please go back to the old way.im very hurt that i pay for some time i can find.ruth force

I totally agree with comment #3 from Rita. I like the old way of looking at the images better or at least give the option to go back to the old way.

I finally found something that I have been hunting for…for a long, long time. And unfortunately it is on an 1860 census. I am not interested in having the census fancied up. I would like to see the original census. Not have it there for a moment in pretty colors, and then covered by a bunch of colored listings. And then be unable to get back to the census. I am able to understand what I read on the census, and it is what I can see on the census itself that lets me know if I have who and what I want. I really do not need to told what I am looking at. I have seen too many of the transcriber’s mistakes due to not understanding the old scripts. Having been a caligrapher for many years and raised by Victorians who wrote with the Spencerian script, I can usually figure out what is written. So, pleeeeeese let me see the census, and not cover it with a bunch of “helps.” That might be a plus for some of the younger generation who are in this as an amusing “IN” thing to do. But it is a “pain in the neck” to put it politely. I have already wasted over half an hour with your new idea, and my resulting writing of this complaint. And I do not like writing complaints! I like the challenge of finding what I am looking for!

Anne,

I AM SO ANGRY!! I can’t view the actual census document in anything greater than 50%, which is USELESS to me. Anything larger just gives me the ancestry index, and the Maximize Image button does nothing. I want to see and use the actual document in any size I want.

I am not an older person against change; I AM a 41 year old against flawed, unnecessary improvements. I really would have appreciated a better way to search, as I still get 1930 census information on my search when I’ve entered death information 1910 or prior (and no I didn’t elect to have a 20 year range).

Ancestry is wasting my TIME and money. This subscription was a Christmas gift from my mother. I will definitely be telling her not to renew it, and I am considering asking for a prorated refund.

In line with various complaints about the new viewer for whatever reasons, I want to repeat again that I feel it hugely necessary to retain the basic image viewer and with what I presume are its associated census TIFF image files.

I would urge subscribers here to save a census page from a non-enhanced census year by right clicking copy and then paste into Microsoft Doc image program that comes with Office. And then change the magnification up and down. Then go do that with a saved JPEG file of an enhanced census page and see the difference.

Perhaps someone more familiar with image file formats can tell me if I just don’t understand something though.

As a long-time and experienced subscriber, I am so so frustrated
with the enhanced viewer. Ancestry has brought such joy to my life in assisting me in finding my ancestors. I will cancel my subscription if I can no longer use Ancestry with the ease I once experienced. PLEASE FIX IT !!
Joan B

You seem to always be changing things and in my opinion it has not been for the better. I personally have been using this site for about 10 years and all the time work and funds involved seemed to have disappeared. Turn it back to what it was. I can not longer access all the work I’ve done. I’m very frustrated and angry over this and ready to quit you. Perhaps others feel the same way if they too have had the same experience.

I am searching for the death date of a relative who died in England. This was previously simple. The revised Search facility now requires me having to sroll through all the persons of a similar identification Worldwide. Why not keep individual records relative to the Country of Residence as it used to be.

I entirely agree with the comments from Carol (comment 13) It is most frustrating that the latest advanced viewer update no longer lets you print part of a page of a newspaper, even though it says that you can still print the current view. Printing the whole page is no use at all. Please fix this problem as soon as possible. One does get fed up with these continual so called immprovements. There was nothing wrong with the newspaper site before, why could you not just leave it alone?

Looking at an 1860 census on a 2.53 Ghz MacBook Pro, Mac OS X 10.5.7, in Firefox 3.0.12.

Here’s what I see when I find my image:

http://wrenkin.com/3/image1.jpg

Here’s what I see when I attempt to view the image in 150% resolution:
http://wrenkin.com/3/image2.jpg

Please note that this image disappears in 50, 100, and 150% resolutions. This is what I see when trying to bring it back at 200% resolution:
http://wrenkin.com/3/image3.jpg

The only way to bring the image back (at any resolution) is to reload the page, which I doubt very much was the intent of the designers.

Is there any way to bring back the old census viewing experience, just as you allowed us to use the “old search experience”?

Email services like Yahoo and Gmail provide their users with the options of continuing to use the “old” viewer, or to switch to the “new” viewer.

FamilySearch.org does this, too, with their “pilot” website. Ancestry should be able to afford to do something similar.

Thank you for listening.

I cannot print the census, I have tried and tried. This is very frustrating!!!!!!!
While I appreciate progress, I think you move to fast for users of the program. also there are people who have a hard time learning by reading I am visual and you are making it very difficult for me to stay up with your advances. This is a big concern for me and people my age. Our group had a big discussion about this.

Will I have to use the Enhanced Image Viewer to see user-provided comments on a particular census record? Previously you could view them from the record. I’m sorry if you already answered this. Seems like you said you’re reviewing that…

In the Ancestry Index I note that some elements are in a bold/italics font. Is that to highlight comments or corrections I have provided? I don’t see that with other user inputs.

And… although I can view inputs I make to a record via the viewer immediately following entry, I take it that others cannot see these nor will the search engine ‘recognize’ my inputs until they are ‘processed’ [I think you said this can take a while]

Last quick note wrt image print/capture from the viewer… I know folks would rather see the site ‘fix’ the issues involved, but I suggest that users will do better with a specific software/utility for screen capture rather than relying on a viewer built-in feature/capability. A utility which allows you to capture/save/print a specific portion of the screen at the current resolution/size is very powerful for lots of things [there are several, many are free]…. Just a thought

This counter productive to information gathering. I do not want to alter the Census or dress it up. Please put it back this takes way to much time and energy.

You fixed something that was not broke.

I think your new upgrade stinks, and you should go back to the old one, This one is really harder to get to work, and I will not renew my subscription if it does not get better.
I do wish you people would leave things alone, but of course it is a mater of MONEY, this is how you make more, and so do not think that you will do a thing to help the ones who like the old way of doing things. I do not like your new ancestry at all. And from talking with others I am not alone on these feeling.

The New Web Access to census is Bad, You cannot print a Current Image or adjust it to better fit a Print Page, I am Using IE8 and Vista. we need the old Page Bad as a option, I hate the new one and we may Cancel if it don’t improve, I make it User friemdly not Programmer Friendly,

I cannot load the enhanced view..Can we still get the original view?? So far this new enhancement has left me with no viewing/printing capability.

Please put the old saerch back on and the old way of viewing and printing. I can’t get the new images to print. I can’t find them to print some of them. Why mess with something that was good to begin with? I have been a member for over 10 years and never had as much of a problem as this new and improved upgrades you have foisted on us.Please Please go back to the old search, view , and print way.

Taking the comments that have been made about the new viewer.

1 Using IE8 with XP I have no problem printing an A4 sized (I’m in the UK) image in landscape. The same goes for printing via Firefox 3.5.

2 Using the basic Alt & Prt Scr to screen grab and then paste into a graphics program or indeed a word processor such as Word where the image can be cropped and printed.

Having recently retired from 35 years in IT I know only too well that you can only usually please some of the people some of the time when it comes to delivering software systems.

Also some comments appear to be made in a very negative manner. Think yourselves fortunate that Ancestry do try to enhance the product.

I have not been happy with most of the new changes on Ancestry, but I must admit I like some of the features of the new enhanced image page. Once you use the Maximize Image and get rid of the junk on the bottom and the side it’s pretty user friendly and compact. I mostly like the placement of the Prev and Next page arrows on the side of the page near the scroll bar. This minimizes mouse movement and because the arrows are not on the page of the record you don’t have to scroll back up and find the arrow in the middle of the page to get to the next page.
The Ancestry Index at the bottom looks like it could be helpful especially if the original record is very difficult to read but the jury is still out on this because I haven’t used it enough yet. One problem with it is that it is too wide and does not shrink to fit the page and it took me a while to realize there was a scroll bar for it. Is this a problem with my monitor which is large but is an older model or is it a programming problem?
I can’t address the problems some are having with printing because I never use the print feature except to save the image. I always save images to my harddrive and only print them out if I need to using my own software. I have often found printing from online printing programs is very limited and often causes problems causing the computer to crash.

Taking the comments that have been made about the new viewer.

1 Using IE8 with XP I have no problem printing an A4 sized (I’m in the UK) image in landscape. The same goes for printing via Firefox 3.5.

2 Using the basic Alt & Prt Scr to screen grab and then paste into a graphics program or indeed a word processor such as Word where the image can be cropped and printed.

3 The best way to print an image is to save it first and then use your favourite software to print.

Having recently retired from 35 years in IT I know only too well that you can only usually please some of the people some of the time when it comes to delivering software systems.

Also some comments appear to be made in a very negative manner. Think yourselves fortunate that Ancestry do try to enhance the product.

Anne wrote:
“Our marketing department does not decided (sic) when a product is ready for launch. Our Eng, Product and QA people do. Always.”

Who decided that this POS should even have been developed in the first place?

WHAT A NIGHTMARE! PLEASE return to the old way of printing!!!!! You have made printing one document take 10 times longer than the way before and I still can’t print it the way I want to (nor does it even show up!) Why are you changing what wasn’t broken????? I’ve had a subscription with you for well over 8 years and have never had the problems I’m having now. What a waste of time!!

Back Again after talking to Tech support on this. The solution is have everything working before you put it online, like the current view print. But most don’t want the change with the side bars and lower bars eating the Census image to a postage stamp size. Not everyone has a big screen.

THE SOLUTION is have the default view without the additional info and the enhanced view as the viewer selected choice. That would solve all the problems people are talking about in the topic.

Change is bad if it doesn’t help. View image means I WANT TO VIEW THE IMAGE .jepg file, then copy, pint it, or shoebox it. PERIOD

This change is a waste of my research time just complaining.

Anne Mitchell if you have anything to do with this consider the default Image view as the old style.

Thanks

When trying to print out a blown-up version of the portion of the census page I want, the page does not print, it’s just blank. I’ve been trying for over 40 minutes now – what a waste of time with your “new and improved” way of doing things!

I am unable to print from the new census format.
http://search.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=7163&iid=INM593_341-0220&fn=John&ln=Hufford&st=r&ssrc=gr_t12226145_p-308554603_g32796&pid=19436368

I am using Mirco soft work and my browser is Intenet explorer.

Any suggestions are more than welcome.

How do I save the census page image to my computer? I used to do that everytime I attached one to someone in my tree. It’s much easier to have the page open on my computer as I was gleaning info from it, so I saved them all. Now, when I click the SAVE button on the upper right, the usual options show up for a second but then they disappear and I can’t use them. Help??

I have been a member for about 6 years; and I have really enjoyed using your site for my research. I have found a great deal of information about my ancestors thanks to your site. You have kept your site very easy to navigate so my time could be focused on research.

From looking at the recent changes to your site and reading the comments about the changes by subscribers, I find I agree with a lot of them. The changes add a lot of unnecessary clutter to the census screen. The removal of the E D has taken away an important research tool. The new version of the census image size selections and printing options don’t seem to be user friendly.

I would also like the option of not using your newer version. I do not have the computer skills to correct the problems at your site nor do I want to pay someone to do it for me.
PLEASE GIVE US THE OPTION OF USING THE OLDER VERSION. THANK YOU.

OK, I took notes this time as I was trying to save a census image to my computer. I have IE 8.0 and Windows XP Home v5.1 with SP3.
When I do a search, then click on the name of the record, on that first screen, I see no option to save the image to my computer on the left side, nor in the list when I click SAVE from that first screen.
When I view the image (with the enhanced viewer), I click on SAVE on the upper right side, and the regular options appear for a second or two, then go away before I have any chance to use them. When I click on SAVE again, those options don’t even show up (and the pane where the image is seems to briefly add another scroll bar or something on the right side of it???).
Any fixes for the SAVE to computer option coming? I’m eager for the printing fixes too.

Thanks.

I have enjoyed my Ancestry membership and have gleaned a fair amount of records, by the way. I’m certainly eager for these fixes to be made before I can really use and explore the new enhanced viewer option.

This page that pops into my work is driving me mad. HOW am I supposed to get any work done with this thing in front of my face all of the time?

I have read some comments/blog. I don’t think I want to use this web site ANCESTRY!!!

I’m with Rita (7/30 10:41 a.m.)

I have to assume you are scanning these census, birth, and other images. There is no other way that you would show a person’s birthplace as “Cow 4 B”!!!

Make that concession 4, lot B, Biddulph township, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada.

NOWHERE in your ‘new and improved’ version have you given dedicated and thorough researchers the option of adding such important details as an accurate birthplace, since the scanners obviously can’t pick it up. I used to be able to make those sort of corrections in the old version; now there’s nowhere to do it. Are you planning further ‘improvements’? I certainly hope so.

Mazii (#70)

I would encourage you not to base your opinion of Ancestry on the comments/blog. With any change, there are a lot of things to deal with, and this blog lets us make our opinions known. I can tell you from personal experience with the various changes this summer that many issues have been dealt with quickly to make the changes that users are requesting.

Ancestry is a great site, with many, many wonderful features. Give it a try.

There was nothing wrong with image pages before the change and I hate, hate, hate the change. If this is the best you can do I want out of ancestry.com.

I have tried to use the save button button the choices do not pop up.

I guess I’m just one of the lucky people:

The viewer works fine, print works, I can remove the side and bottom panels if I want to and I can save the image.

I’m running Windows XP Professional SP3 and IE 8.0.

Maybe those who are having problems could document their PC environment so that the issues that are fixable can be fixed.

Just my 2 cents – TonyC

I wish you people would leave things alone….now I can not see the whole page of a census. I pay for this very thing with Ancestry. Please go back to the “OLD way of doing things and if it ain’t broke DONT FIX IT….!!

How do I get rid of my ancestry.com cookies

Your enhanced census viewer doesn’t work on any of my pcs (laptop, netbook or desktop). Every time I try to view a census I get the page asking me to install the enhanced viewer. I do that and it says it installs successfully. However, it won’t open the census page. I then have to go back and use the old viewer. Next time I want to see a census page, the same thing happens again. Please give us an easy way to bypass the enhanced viewer and continue to use the old one. Thank you.

The information on this page was extremely helpful. I use these tidbits often.

This change is the worst!!!! Tried not to use it, but it forced me to download the new. Now I get nothing but Blinking. Great Job…… If I can use this I should go to some other site but you bought most of them…. I am like the others FIX IT or —-REFUND….

I don’t like the enhanced image page.
Too much other information. It is distracting. Please put it back the way it was

I posted my opinion of the new enhanced version before reading the other 70-odd comments. After doing so it appears that I am not alone in my disdain.

After some time I finally got it to work. Your help page was very useful, but we shouldn’t have to dig for info.
Not everyone uses Explore/Microsoft. A little warning or allow those to stay with the old. It did work manually through the instructions you gave..Tks
Hope this all is worth it. Ray

I find myself looking on the other censuses for the index and the ability to quickly edit the info which has errors. I’m looking forward to the next batch. Thanks for this new tool.

Please bring back the old search style…it’s much easier to use. Or at least give users the option to switch between the old and the new search styles.

I absolutely detest the new ‘enhanced image’ page. It’s confusing and time consuming and you have to minimise to get back to print. Just give me the image as it was. If not give us a simple option to go back to the old view automatically for all future use.

Same problem with disappearing images as #49, Bonnie, as reported on the earlier blog. OSX 10.5.7, Firefox 3.0.10 and Safari 4.0.2.

Also with regard to my comments on the earlier blog about the Save option for Mac users. We still can’t save to disk without having to load the image in a new window, right-click and do a “Save As.” (Yes, I know where the “Save” button is, thank you.)

Wouldn’t mind being able to use a “pan” option, either, although I realise that was not one of the changes made this time. However, that, Ancestry, is an accessibility issue, because the only way Mac users can navigate the image is by using the scroll bars. Forgive me for being old, but quite frankly, precise mouse movements such as that are difficult when one’s hand shakes.

I can see how some of the new enhancements can be useful; however, ignoring the fields for states, counties and other information we type in, is not good. Also, sometimes, I like to go to a particular census year, state, county and city and search the complete records. I have found many people related to my research using this method. Being unable to travel and do hands on research anymore, I depend on Ancestry a lot to guide me in the right direction. I agree, progress is good, but sometimes people try to fix things that are not broken.

CCG

This may be nice, but my screen is NOT big enough to use the viewer well!

While I appreciate your companies desire to improve, some things are better left alone. The new inhanced viewer for the census records has some nice features, being able to see the transcribed data and our ability to edit details is very nice. My problem comes in the printing phase. The old version allowed me to get the info I needed on my screen and print that selected data in the format of my choosing. This left space on the print out for my notes. Now I have to either print out the whole sheet (original page) or print the selected view but with added source data. I can no longer ONLY print the part of the page I am interested in without saving it to my computer and editing it in another program and then printing it out. WHAT A WASTE OF TIME. Please give us the option to use the original method. It seems much simpler and sometimes LESS is MORE .

The new census image pages leave a lot to be desired. For one thing, navigation is more difficult (time-consuming) and the target “buttons” for moving from page to page are both too small and poorly located. I’d be happy to volunteer to be a beta user to critique the “user-friendly” aspects of any new designs, something I’ve done professionally in the past. Whoever is doing this currently, is doing an inadequate job.

PLEASE – PLEASE – RETURN ME TO THE OLD METHOD OF PRINTING!!!

Well, I found out that the new version is simply no longer fully compatible with the web browser I use, Seamonkey. When I go to Explorer, I can see the buttons to move forward or back a page in the census. (It’s now the only website I’ve encountered in the past several years which does not work well with the Seamonkey browser.)

So, how about a fix for that? Everything has been compatible up to now…

A suggestion, more a concurrence with the requests of many others: how about making the family tree search so that, when you check out a tree and then go back to the search page, most of your search terms do NOT disappear?

Larry Van Wormer

Back again with another problem. Using the enhanced image view, select save, the save selection box pops open and darkens the image. Select “Save this Image” brings up “Save As”. The problem is the file name I save this image was derived from looking at the image, ie “John Myers 1900 PA, York, Washington, Dist 23, P.2A”. Keeping this image in the dark stops me cold. It should be visable to copy somthing from the image as a reference for the file name to be saved. I was told the darking was to make the choice of save more boldly visable and it locks you down to selection a choice. A simple drop down window like all windows programs do would work. It would disappear and a Save As window opens but leaves the image visable and usable to read.

These changes seem to show the programmers know how to program. Just like how they Killed my usage of Family Tree Maker, major interface changes for no benifical reason. So this slows me down again. Not userfriendly or standard windows menue usage.

What happened, gone on vacation for a week and start working on my genealogy and find that Ancestry has done it again. I detest, hate, and any other word that how much I hate your enhanced image of the Census. PLEASE GIVE US THE OPTION TO HAVE THE “ORIGINAL” VERSION OF THE CENSUS. I have been using Ancestry for almost from your beginning and have searched the Census well before any computer program scanned them. I don’t want to scan all the tips on how to use your enhanced version or learn new computer techniques, I just want to SEE the Census.

I do not like the new changes that are being made. I find it impossible to print just the image I want. Please return to the old familiar format.

Pat White

Until the recent “upgrade” of the census viewer, I had no problems printing the image — all or part. Now I can only print the whole page. Sometimes I just want to print the “current view” which no longer works. The printer prints a blank page. I use Windows XP and IE7. Now what do I do to print only a section of the page? Do I have to print the whole page and then photocopy and enlarge a section on the copier? Please STOP messing up things that work fine. I use Ancestry almost daily and don’t have time to deal with this problem. Please contact me at pmpgenie@aol.com. — Phyllis

As a suggestion, maybe you could put a “Bulletin Board” on your Ancestry.com Blog to announce things like: “Maintainance is in progress so search/etc. is not possible”, or other public announcements of importance to the member. Just a few minutes ago I found that the search feature was temporarily slowed down for some reason. Also, I agree that the new look for the census page, surrounded by options/info is a real headache. I waste a lot of time trying to enlarge the window, so I can see more of the page without having to scroll so much.

I HATE WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO ANCESTRY AND I WILL NOT BE RENEWING FOR ANOTHER YEAR IF IT REMAINS AS IT IS. I CANNOT FIND ANYTHING AND CANNOT GET TO THE CENSUS WITH THIS NEW SYSTEM. I’VE BEEN A MEMBER OF ANCESTRY FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS BUT THIS IS THE LAST STRAW.

Okay, the buttons on the enhanced page image don’t work. The Save, Option, Share, and Print buttons do nothing except show another “scroll” bar on the right side of the image for just a split second – then it’s gone. The Order button works sometimes, but, usually half of the box that pops up is actually BEHIND the census image! So, how can this be fixed??? At this point, I can’t even Save a copy of a census image in this new “enhanced” version. Help!!!

Firefox has a new version and it closes every single time I try to use the new viewer…Is there a fix I missed?

I’ve been a subscriber for over 8 years and have always found the program easy to use up until now! It seems I have no control over the search function. I would think anyone should realize as we are going into this new age that we need to have some control and change is not always good! I will probably just drop my subscription (I think I still have that much control).

Since I updated to XP IE8 recently and with the advent of the new enhanced version for viewing census records (1860 US in this case), I have totally lost my ability to print the census page I am interested in. I have followed several of the suggestions on the blog relating to printing but to no avail. What am I to do? Dave

It doesn’t work! It says error on page, so I can’t print anything out or use any of the options or even report a problem. Help!

I’ve noticed there are a lot of printing problems listed here. Just reciently I had problems printing with a Hp printer. If your printer is 3 years or older, make shure you have updated your printer driver. The older drivers won’t allow certain web information. Especually if you have drivers that are part of a photo program or something of that nature.
Ok now to may problem. What is with this new surch engine. I have much info on people in my tree, birth, death,residence etc, but when I do a surch for marrage or emmigration it comes up with 5000 or more possibilities. That’s rediculas seeing the info I have listed is correct. How much more narrowing can be done? And yes printing the sensus is usless,print too small to read,and canvis dosn’t work worth you know what.

I just tried the new enhanced format and don’t care for it. There are too many items on the page that I don’t use. The screen should open in maximize not the smallest size so I have to take extra time to enlarge the page. When I try to look at print preview on the site I get a blank page and when I try to view it on Windows which I was always able to do before it came up with half of the page showing and the bottom half blank. Later it all came up blank. The pages are also not loading and I’ve had to click on refresh to get them to load. Before, I could go from one page to another without any problem. Now they just don’t want to reload if I want to go back. I couldn’t even get the immigration site to open at all. What kind of enhancement is that! I thought we were going to be able to narrow the searching fields so that thousands of people didn’t come up instead it seems there are less ways to narrow the fields and more people come up when searching. I want the old way back too. It was easy and simple to do. Now it just seems like a pain to do any of the searches and time consuming.

I cannot save the record to my ancestry website. It will send the record to my shoe box and my hardrive.

THANK YOU for your hard work…and mucho thanks for finally making it available to Foxfire customers!

I like that you can print either with the sources or without.

As a former support/contact person for a development team, I fully appreciate your patience in working out all the issues with customers. I’ve been on both ends so appreciate both the frustration level in our end (customer) and your points of view.

I like that you can print either with the sources or without.

As a former support/contact person for a development team, I fully appreciate your patience in working out all the issues with customers. I’ve been on both ends so appreciate both the frustration level in our end (customer) and your points of view.

A suggestion: On this “comment on this article” site, have the developers add fields for OS and browser being used so you’ll always have that information.

While I’m here..I can barely see the ’submit’ button for this particular comment block. It goes just under the status bar with just a minute part sticking up that thankfully I can click on. Using Vista/Foxfire. Thanks

I have been trying to post comments on the new enhanced census pages, but they do not save. How do I get it to accept comments (on top right of page)?

I cannot print !!! I see others with the same problem.
FIX IT!!!

Enhanced image page? The word “enhanced” would lead one to expect improvements. However, a number of features [i.e., drag, magnification for checking individual words or letters] are gone. For long-time Ancestry subscribers, this is not an improvement or update, but a step back in time. Either stop “fixing what isn’t broke” or give paying customers a choice. If you make too many more enhancements, I’m gonna be gone too.

Enhanced Image — I do not like it!

I do not like the inability to use the vertical zoom bar!

Also – how can we go to specific databases now? Only if you guess correctly as to what name might pull up a interesting database, are you able to get there. We used to be able to go from the “Title” Search page, directly to the databases. Can’t find that anymore. Way too much time is spent each month trying to negotiate through your latest (unwelcome) updates.

William, your #14, finding the database listings:

First after you log in, click on the main Search link, on that page scroll way over to the right and click on “Old Search”.

The New Search mode makes it very hard to find a specific relevant database to search (you can easily get into a wormhole going round in circles).

Then go to the main Card Catalog page:

http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/alldblist.aspx

Bookmark it in your browser so you don’t have to rely on finding in your Faves list on Homepage, since the Homepages can get very wonky with all these dehancements and improvidences (not to mention no waiting for ads to load).

The “Title” search box can be wonky if you don’t put in an exact title, but you can search by keyword if you are looking for a particular place, and the alphabetical browsing is handy too: not just alphabetized by title but also by keywords, so you can find all the items with, say, “Lancaster in the title” in one place. Helps when you can only remember one or two words in the actual title.

I cannot view the 1820 Orange Co. Va census. I used it millions of times before you changed everything. Now it comes up like a bunch of faded names that is totally unreadable. I need the actual names, because some of the names were transcribed wrong.Where is it? I’m right in the middle of something and I need it!

I am trying to work with 1861 Census England and am totally frustrated. When the image comes up I want the whole page, the whole family which used to give at first glance, relationships, occupations, and address. Please give it back.

Joan Shaw

I was trying to save and when I pushed the save button the screen came up then went away. I then used the enchanced version and it brought up the picture of the document and I followed the instructions to save it and the file type was blocked and wouldn’t allow me to save it.

I’m sorry but I’m just like every one else I like to be able to print both census pages for my album here at home,with this new version I am only able to print one side I can’t print the actual page. I’ve done what you said to do & the darn thing still DON’T WORK. I guess i’m just like all of the other ancestry why FIX SOMETHING THAT’S NOT BROKE!!!!! Merry

Dave Williams – re: #58 & # 60 I recently retired after 30 some years of working with (& sometime against) IT. I have generally found IT persons to be VERY good at providing the enhancements THEY understand to be required. Unfortunately, they often start from a mistaken ASSumption of what is required. I have seen many cases where they have no clue as to what the end-user needs after repeated submission of detailed requirements & then start the project after a 3 martini lunch where a peripherally involved VP gives HIS impression of what is needed.
Yes, saving the file to your own PC and editing with Irfanview works very nicely for people familiar with that sort of thing, but strangely enough, MOST of the people on here would rather be doing genealogy than learning graphics editing.
Memo to the Ancestry.com IT department:
The use of any of the terms, “Enhanced”, “Upgraded”, “Updated”, “Improved”, etc etc, is a blatant falsehood when the CUSTOMER sees only problems.
I have a serious problem understanding WHY most of your effort seems to be going into changing things that WERE working well while ignoring problems that are known and acknowledged (for instance, a USELESS search engine that ranks Ignacio Martinez before a Murdoch when I search for a Murdock).

I have to agree with others. You are messing up a simple way of getting and printing census records. Why so many steps? I don’t have the time to spend learning how to navigate all the garbage you are adding. Just filling up the screen with stuff I don’t need. Please simplfy!

I am having problems on the pages with the new version. When I want to save a census page, for example, and I hit save, nothing happens, no inset window, nada. Any suggestions?
Jack

Is there any way to get rid of Recent member Activity from the home page? I could care less. It only lowers the search area further down the screen. I took out the family trees because of this. Might be nice if you could put those items on another tab so the search home page is more user friendly.

I simply cannot figure out how to just print those parts of the 1860 census page I want. You may call this census image improved if you want but for someone like me that just wants to find my census record and then print only that small piece you have made a nightmare out of the 1860 census. So, how does one go back to using the old “unimproved” 1860 image printer?

I would like to the OLD ANCESTRY. I am using to much Ink in coping. Difficult and to much time wasted!!! in trying to search. This new program stinks.

Jerry Murdock re: #120. Jerry appears to have had bad experiences of IT departments. I can only say that if I had performed as badly I wouldn’t have lasted long in my job. As for the three Martini lunch; over here in the UK that would have been a sacking offense (even though I worked for a large brewery).

Unfortunately the comments made here will be made by a minority of users who make the effort to comment (favorably or not) so the true feelings on any enhancement/improvements to the system will never be known.

I totally agree with the comments written here, I had such fun building my tree,we are not all Computer genius,as a Silver Surfer, now the joy and fun have dissapeared.
I feel that my money has been wasted

I am having a problem with the new and improved Enhanced Image Viewer….I can’t view ANY images. None of the records in their original form are pulling up on my pc. Any suggestions? Also, the REPORT A PROBLEM with this Image route- doesn’t work either. Click click click….nothing.

Thanks.

I am having trouble saving from my shoebox to my tree. I have 2 trees and cannot toggle between the trees when I need to save something – Help.

Not sure I like the changes yet.

I am very disappointed in the quality of the work on these changes. I cannot print images that are the equivalent of the old “print current view” Printing Image and Print Image with info results in Image that is too small to read. When I try to do Custom Print, My Canvas comes up then I get Error, Unable to load project. EVERY TIME! i am using IE V8 with Vista.
The guidance at the beginning of this page implies I ought to Delete Cookies and try again. If the programers at Ancestry are saying that I ought to delete All Cookies built up over about 2 years to allow speedy log-on to hundreds of sites just to make Ancestry Print work, that is incompetence! You need to give us a “plug-in” that will delete just Ancestry Cookies.

I postsed a Msg just above earlier and have then been scan reading all the previous posts, then went back and spent 10 minutes messing with printing the enhanced viewer. I am VERY clear what you need to do. Simply give us back the features of Printing, especially the “Print Current View” options. Do it ASAP!
Please do not continue to screw up Ancestry totally as the project manager(s) did for FTM 2008 and FTM 2009 by continuing to claim improvements when all they did was to announce wonderful improvements and made FTM a totally unusuable program for real Genealogists doing real Genealogy! If we cannot search for records and print them the way we want to then Ancestry becomes Useless!

I hate it! I cannot understand what you want me to do. Please go back to the old way and leave it alone.

Once again Ancestry has issued an edict and an insane one just because Ancestry is the only player on the block. As of this morning 130 unhappy people have complained to you about the “new enhanced viewing.” I have done enough surveys to know that if you get back 10% response that is about normal. So I say that at least 1300 people are unhappy with this “new” feature. Make that more like 130,000 or even 1,300,000. Ancestry does not get it.
Do you have to make up idiot invenitons to keep your jobs? Isn’t there anything in Provo Utah that you can “improve” i.e. mess up besides the great product THAT YOU USE TO HAVE?

I am not having any luck with the new view of the census images. I’ve tried with both Safari and Camino (Mac OS X) and very little works, no magnify, zoom, previous page, order, share, report a problem, etc. The image is too small to just read — I’m not really interested in printing it. I’m not interested in convoluted steps to copy into a document that I can then manipulate. I’m sure this will get straightened out eventually.

I am unable to get any other page than the one I am on. I was on page 13 and wanted to see page 12. I tried typing in the number and GO. That did not work so I arrowed it and that did nothing either. I have not been able to do much research since the changes. Is this just kinks in the new system and will it get better.

FireFox success!

I was able to solve my issues of viewing full page in FireFox with this new enhanced ancestry simply by upgrading Adobe Flash player!
I hope this may help someone else resolve frustrations. Still not able to view in IE8, so I’ll use FireFox.

I think it will be helpful to have some of the new features, we all have to get used to using them. I’ve been subscribing to Ancestry for years now, and I am so glad they are available! I remember doing searches for days and days reading rolls of microfilm, searching tediously one page at a time. Happy hunting to all!

Hate all the side boxes of advertising. Very distracting while trying to input data. I have cancelled my subscription effective at renewal time.

I downloaded/installed the new viewer. I was able to see your example, no problem. But when I looked up an ancestor in the 1860 census, and clicked on the image from the record page, it blinked back and forth for about 1 minute, waiting for search.ancestry, etc. and now says Done in the lower left, but it is completely blank.

I’m using Firefox 3.5.1 on a Vista 32 bit system.

Okay, now it says Check Back Soon; Ancestry is temporarily unavailable. I’m hoping I just had bad timing…

I have the same problem as number 138, Connie, blank pages. It says error on page so what can I do to fix this. I use XP. Helen

With the bad old system, when I was looking at a (UK) census image it took 2 clicks to bring up the header sheet that showed the description of the ennumerators route.

One click on the Parish name in the Breadcrumb trail and then a click on the Link to the description.

Now I click on the Parish name and am asked which Parish I want?
Guess what guys, I want the parish I just clicked on!

THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!

133 Written by:
James Turner Harris

James, you are wrong, there have not been 130 complaints, you didn’t see the previous 250 before they closed that thread and started this one because it was taking too long to load.

The problem I reported in 138 above seems to be specific to Firefox. It is working fine for me in IE, but still blinking with nothing coming up when I use Firefox.

And I certainly prefer Firefox…come on guys, Firefox is a standard browser, in fact the preferred browser for many, many people.

Please thoroughly test out these enhancements before switching, or if there is some secret to successfully using this viewer with Firefox, give us clear, written instructions with the download.

Hate it get rid of the new inhanced viewer. You just got rid of a great thing to something you cannot use if you do a lot of researching and researching in different ways. Evidently you people don’t use it.

Using Firefox 3.0.12, I am not able to view any of the census info.
My browser goes into a continuous ‘loop’, switching between ancestry.com and another web site.
I eventually get tired of waiting, and open the same pages in an older version of IE – which works.
Not sure why you do not support Firefox – or what I am doing wrong.
I guess you can mark me down as a ‘not impressed’ with the ‘new’ viewer.
Thanks – James

What happened to the Comments that we used to be able to see when someone corrected a census record?
Now it only tells us the category of the change, not why the person was making the change or how they knew they were right and Ancestry’s indexers were wrong. Hopefully, that potentially valuable information hasn’t been completely deleted…if it hasn’t been lost to the ages, puh-lease bring it back.

I’m trying to be patient as you work out the kinks. The “Maximize Image” button is my favorite because it gets rid of that transcription thingy at the bottom EXCEPT that today it isn’t working, or perhaps I’ve just hit webpages that don’t work. I’ve also found some that don’t print at all. When I try to Maximize or print, or change I get an “Error or page” at the bottom of IE8 and nothing happens. I save the images as jpg to my hard drive so I can view them in full and print them out. But why do I have to do this work around????

What a crock!!!!! New and improved, hell no. All it does is make me swear and I HATE IT!! It is just something designed by computer hot shots with no thought given to the average genealogist who is already struggling to use an already complicated service. I am close to cancelling my subscription to Ancestry and use just Family Search. The saddest part is you cannot even get back to the old search although they have left the button there to drive you crazier!!!!

it doesn’t work. i’m unable to view it any larger than 50%. zoom doesn’t work. other buttons don’t work. i’m using latest version of firefox and at the suggestion of 136, i upgraded Adobe Flash and it still doesn’t work. i’m on ancestry every day. please go back to the old way till you get the bugs out.

As I said in my previous post. I DO NOT LIKE THE NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION. I have one question. What age group do you think is using your website? Most serious genealogists are in the 45 plus age group. As such we were not born with a cumputer in our crib and coming to use them is not easy. To me they are a tool to acomplish a job and when some computer hot shot makes a site or service harder to use it is a large diservice. I am still thinking about discontinuing my subscription.