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you don't even need a subscription to use the hints.
Well, you do need a subscription to view most of Ancestry.com's records, and you can't review a hint without being able to view the record the hint is for. Even with the tree hints, you need a subscription to view other trees, even if they're public, unless you have an invite to that tree and guess what? You can't message someone to ask for an invite without a subscription (you can only respond to messages people send you). Without a subscription, the site's usefulness is very limited.
As many of us know the NEW Ancestry will be the only version available after December 15th.
I got used to it tonight but I'm not 100% in favor of it. I find that it's really simple now to add facts and sources. I can go really fast. What I strongly dislike is the way you can't really view the tree anymore. It's ugly, garish, a lot of green, small and narrow. I switched to the classic Ancestry just to be able to get a feeling for the tree. It looked so clean and readable. When I switched back to the new Ancestry there was the garish, hard to see view. But I clicked right along, adding ancestors very easily. Take the good with the bad I guess.
A youtube video about the new Ancestry. It's surprisingly interesting. At the end they give you an email address to send your suggestions. I told them I like being able to add facts and sources so easily but I need to be able to view more of my basic, simple, easy-to-read tree. I need to be able to go back to that general overview to get my bearings and to see if I've messed up and put Azariah where Abijah should have been.
Thank you in_newengland for a balanced opinion. Truly helpful. It's sounds like new ancestry has many benefits for those who manage their family histories on the site except for the viewable tree. I just use the site for research and I prefer simple and clean. Perhaps my requirements are oddball, but some of the enhancements are annoyances for me -- like the filmstrip thing at the bottom ... fortunately I think it's now dismissed by default (don't know how I did that, but glad I did) ... personally I have no use for it (others may).
Another part I found very useful in old ancestry is a list of potential links to other resources that I would see when looking at a record. Surely this must still be somewhere, but I don't know how to find it.
Sample of old ancestry - arrow points to what I use, but can't find in new ancestry:
Also, I believe the filmstrip at the bottom is hidden by default in records which are indexed. It is only popped up by default when there's no index, because they system is probably assuming that without a transcription, you might want to browse the files.
The thing I miss is when you are looking at a person's page, you used to be able to "view his tree." So for example, if I search other people's trees for records on my ancestor John Jones, When I have their John Jones open, I could view John's tree, according to what that other member entered, and see more siblings, or relatives I had not known about for John Jones.
I also don't like not being able to just open documents/records I've attached to my ancestor. When I click the record in the Sources column, it just draws lines to the life events, and if I want to view the document, I have to them click "view." It's just extra clicking that's unnecessary.
The thing I miss is when you are looking at a person's page, you used to be able to "view his tree." So for example, if I search other people's trees for records on my ancestor John Jones, When I have their John Jones open, I could view John's tree, according to what that other member entered, and see more siblings, or relatives I had not known about for John Jones.
This is still available, it's just under "tools". On your own tree, you can enable "Show Research Tools" and the option to "View in tree" will be available on the page, without having to click on Tools - but when viewing someone else's tree, that isn't an option and you still have to click "Tools" to get to it, but it is still available.
Quote:
I also don't like not being able to just open documents/records I've attached to my ancestor. When I click the record in the Sources column, it just draws lines to the life events, and if I want to view the document, I have to them click "view." It's just extra clicking that's unnecessary.
One click on the Source/edit will open a popup of the transcription. So if you just want to reference the transcription, it's actually much quicker and easier because it doesn't take you to a new page. To open the image, you then have to click "View Image" so yes, that requires two clicks - but IIRC, in the old site, you usually had to first open the transcription page, then click View Image, so I don't find this anymore "clicks" than before.
The only time I find opening a record requires more clicks is if I want to open the transcription page, not just view it in the popup window. Usually, this is because I need to click on another person in the same household in the census record and attach it to them - so I now have to open the popup window, click "View Record", and then it takes me to the transcription page where I can carry on. So that's two clicks instead of one. But considering how much quicker and easier most things are, I can't really complain about one extra click in this one situation.
The only thing that I find gets in the way of my workflow is not so much the clicking but the scrolling. I find it frustrating if I have scrolled down to view a fact at the bottom, but in order to see what sources are attached to it, I have to scroll back up. Granted, you can click on "Sources" at the bottom of the fact and that brings up the citations attached to that fact, but if it's an "other source", not an Ancestry.com record, it is not clickable, so I can't open the citation from there. I'm on a laptop so my screen is smaller and thus, requires more scrolling.
Yes, I am finding what I want on the new Ancestry but it's in different places and takes some looking to find it at first. "Tools" is good. So is "facts."
Here is something I am not good at: screen shots. But my problem with the new Ancestry is that you can barely view your tree. Look how much space is wasted at the bottom with some names (which I have blacked out) and heads--what for? Then more wasted space with Support Center to Careers. Under that "Visit other sites." On my screen that junk takes up over an inch of space that could have been used to display more of my tree.
There is wasted space at the top too where more of my tree could have been displayed.
Here's the classic/old Ancestry view. Maybe it's the dark gray background on the new one that makes it harder to see, plus the colors are intense and garish on the new. It's very distracting.
Also, I can SCROLL on the old Ancestry to view my tree but on the new, I can only drag--and with great difficulty. Does anyone else have to try to drag their tree around so they can see the rest of it?
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