New Landscape View Replacing the Traditional View of Family Tree

New Traditional View in Family Tree

February 26, 2015 By Matt Wright

If you’ve logged in to Family Tree lately and thought “Wow. That looks different,” you’re right: The Traditional Pedigree view on FamilySearch has received a major upgrade that adds a new look and easier access to key information.

What’s New

In a nutshell, we’ve expanded the amount of information displayed for each ancestor in Family Tree, and we’ve added new ways to decide how you want to view that information. Read on for more detail on the changes and how they will guide you as you make connections with your ancestors.
View Changes
There are several visual enhancements to the traditional pedigree view of Family Tree.

• Portraits—The preferred portrait for each person is displayed on the couple card.
• Marriage Date—The earliest marriage date also appears on the couple card.
• Research Indicators—Colorful icons appear in the couple card to the right of each individual and also to the right of marriage information. These icons indicate what steps you can take to discover more about that person or relationship (more information).
• Invert Colors—You can now choose between a light gray and dark gray color scheme. You can switch by going to the Show menu and selecting Invert Colors (more information).

Navigation Changes
In addition to the new display items in the Landscape Pedigree View, some functional changes make it easier to use the Tree and even enhance the experience on a touch pad device (such as a tablet).

• Simplified View switcher—Instead of a drop-down menu to switch between the different Family Tree views, we’ve added a row of icons that appears below the main tree navigation.
• Show or Hide Panel—Clicking Show at the top right expands a drop-down menu with options for showing or hiding informational icons (more information).
• Scrolling—You can now use a mouse scroll wheel to move the view and see different parts of the tree. You can still click on the surrounding area around the tree and drag to change your view.
• No Hover Actions—The controls available on each couple box are always displayed, meaning that you no longer need to hover to see children or additional spouses.

This updated look is being slowly rolled out at random to some members of the FamilySearch community. Right now only about 5% of users can see the changes. Don’t fear if you have not seen these changes yet on your own Family Tree. They are coming!

This post is from the FS Blog by Matt Wright. See what James Tanner says about the new interface here.  It will answer some questions about what you may be seeing on various computers.  At least you will know you are not alone.

http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com/2015/04/what-happened-to-new-familysearch.html