Family Trees: New Tree Viewer Tips and FAQs

AUTHORED BY JEN HODNETT (FROM ANCESTRY.COM)

As I mentioned in a blog post earlier this month, we’ve launched a new way to view your tree.   A few of you have been asking me about features that were available on the previous version of the tree viewer.  I thought other members might have some of the same questions, so I put together a list of the commonly asked questions and answers about the tree viewer changes.

When I close my browser and return to my tree, why is my view the new “family view” and not the “pedigree view”?   We felt that some users prefer pedigree view to the family view and vice versa.  The tree now remembers which view you were in last.  If you prefer one view over the other, just select that view prior to leaving your browser and it will open your tree in that preferred view the next time you view it. 

Why doesn’t my root person in my tree change when I select “return to tree” from a person’s overview page? We made it possible to return to your tree the way you left it.  We also made it possible to view the tree with a different person at the root from the person’s overview page.  If you want to go back to your tree the way you left it, select “return to tree”.  If you are on a person’s overview page and want to see the tree for that particular person, click “view his family tree” and you will go to the tree viewer with a new person in the root position.

Where did all my navigation links go like “tree settings” and “family group sheet”?  We made the navigation on all tree pages consistent.  Prior to the change, not all options were available everywhere in trees.  We consolidated the links in the header under two dropdown lists.  If you mouse over the link next to the tree name in the header that says “Tree pages”, a dropdown list will appear with “Tree settings”, “Family group sheet”, “Tree overview”, “Media gallery” and “Share your tree” as selectable options. 

Where did the “Last person viewed” link go? If you mouse over the “Find a person in my tree” area on the right, the options of “Home person”, “Last viewed Person” and “List of all people” will appear.

Why did all the links on my person overview page change? They only changed names and position, but all the features that were there before are still available.  Here’s a list of the new link names along with what the links used to be called:

•  Search records (formerly Search historical records) – We moved this link from the middle to the first position on the left and it works exactly the same as it did before the changes.
• View his family tree (new link) – This link will take you to the tree viewer with the selected person in the root position. 
• View relationship to me (same name) – This link is the same, we just took away the “new” label, gave it an icon and moved it over
• View family members (formerly View Immediate Family) – It works the same as before; we just moved it over to the right.
• Print (formerly Print & Publish) – does the same things, we just made the link title shorter.
• More options (same name and location) – No change

How do I print more than 5 generations with the pedigree view? We increased the number of generations that can be printed in the pedigree view.  You can print more than 5 generations by expanding a selected family branch and hit print.  It should print as many pages as necessary to fit all of the expanded branches.  Based on feedback from Mac users, there may be an issue with printing using a Mac that we’re looking into.  We also realize that printing from the site is an area that could be improved.

What is the “See what’s new” blue bar at the top of my view? We added a new feature to help users understand the changes we made called “What’s new”.  If you mouse over the feature boxes in the blue area at the top of the tree viewer, little feature boxes appear that tell a little bit more about what changes have been made.  Once you’ve reviewed the changes, you can click the little “X” at the right of the blue area to close it.

I’d like to thank all of you who have given us feedback on what changes they’d like to see.  I know that some of you have mentioned issues or bugs that you’d like to see addressed or fixed as soon as possible.  If you are seeing a bug or have a suggestion, please email me at newtreeviewer@ancestry.com with the specific issues you’re seeing so we can address them as soon as possible.