The layout on the Family view on the People page is one of my favourites, however it is restricted to 3 generations with only one of those generations being ancestors of the selected person. I note on Bruce’s exemplar in Help that he already has a scroll bar there. On all the views I have seen on my database there is a significant amount of wasted white space. It would be good for me to have the option to select an increased number of generations to that view, from 3 to 4, similar to the choice given in the Pedigree view:-
(That’s the current Pedigree view dropdown, I’m not suggesting 5 generations!)
I’ll attach an example of my view at the present time. Reducing that white (or blue) space would allow for an extra generation on screen, although keeping the option to use the current layout for those who prefer it, or use a smaller monitor, shouldn’t be an issue I would have thought.
This is an interesting suggestion. My initial reaction was in the vein of “isn’t that what Descendant View is for?”. But a moments thought made me realize that’s not quite true. With Family View, you have 1 generation of ancestors of the parents and 1 generation of the descendants of the parents. It’s sort of a miniature hourglass view that only goes one generation in each direction. While Descendants VIew gives you multiple generations of descendants, there is no sense of hourglass view at all where you get multiple generations of ancestors and descendants at the same time. I can’t picture exactly what your newly enhanced Family view would look like, but it’s an interesting suggestion.
For many years - decades really - RM users have asked about a view that’s similar to what Ancestry and FamilySearch offer. It’s sort of a tree view, not strictly an hourglass view, where you can see generations up and down from many people at the same time. I’m not sure that’s what you are looking for exactly, or if it’s only a tweak to Family VIew.
I have to admit that I complain regularly about the RM11 version of Family View. As compared to the RM7 version of Family View, I find the RM8 through RM11 version to be completely inadequate. The new version shows too few children on the screen at the same time, and fails to show full birth dates and places and full death dates and places for all the people.
For that reason, I very seldom use the new Family View at all. Instead, I use Descendant View set to 2 generations and occasionally to 3 generations. In that light, I wonder what your enhanced Family View would look like in light of my concerns. Would it show more children on the screen at the same time? Would it show full birth and death information on the screen for all the people? Would it be a new view called Tree View or some such, or would it be an enhancement to the existing Family View?
Exactly my initial then I noticed you were replying and waiting to see what your thoughts were..
Maybe a hybrid view that allows Vertical / Horizontal would also be welcomed by most users
The New Life Summary view was a great step in right direction but lack Birth/Death (or at least life span) on other family members. So @Charlie_Allingham suggestion might be a great idea for enhancement (with the details to be worked out) — that said I would like want it as entirely new separate view
As you say, users have asked for an Ancestry style view for a while now and I expect that, given the time that has gone past, it’s not going to happen.
My request is, as it says, simply just to give the option to display either 3 or 4 generations on the Family view via a dropdown. The further generation would add 8 further individuals (G grandparents) and (possibly, wouldn’t that be good!) parents for children’s spouses. As I said earlier, there is already a scroll bar for individuals with more than 10 children (at my current resolution) so screen height shouldn’t be an issue (I’ll attach a screenshot showing the scroll bar below).
Personally it would make the view so much more usable for me as, unlike the Pedigree view, it shows all the children and their spouses as well as ancestors - much easier for me to navigate.
I think your suggestion about the parcity of information displayed @thejerrybryan is good and could be addressed with an individual box down arrow to expand the height of the children’s boxes to give the same information as that of the selected person. Would be good to get that done all together but, if not, could be a stage 2 request by you!!!
@kevync1985 thanks for your (as always) helpful suggestion too.
Many of you all probably have a bigger screen than me. Here is the RM11 Family View that I dislike so much. It’s not just the small number of children. It’s the lack of birth and death information.
And here is the RM7 Family View for the same family that I like so much better. And even with my “small screen”, this is the same physical screen on both RM7 and RM11. And even the family information in the sidebar has more information in RM7.
I have a 17” Laptop (now retired as of last summer at about 14 years old )
I have an older 15” laptop.
my Desktop had 27” & 24” monitor so that may not be typical
Personally, I love the RM 11 Family view, I use it almost exclusively. Definitely would be good to see more vital info on the screen but a quick click on a person and the info is displayed in the life summary. I really like that the children’s spouse is displayed, unlike in RM 7, as this helps me navigate children with similar names. I wouldn’t say no to grandparents though
I obviously don’t know for sure, but my sense is that 90% of RM users agree with you and that I am the outlier. So I don’t expect the old Family View to return as an option. Even it did, I certainly wouldn’t expect the new Family View to go away.
As far as the vital info, I can see it for all the children all at the same time with the RM7 view with no further clicking at all. The birth and death years are certainly there in the new view without any further clicking, but they are not in nice columns where you can look down the columns to compare and contrast. And the full birth and dates are not there anymore at all, nor are the birth places and death places. The only way now for that convenience of a full compare and contrast for all the children is Descendant View set to 2 generations. The quick click on the person is an extra click, and it only gives you the one person. It doesn’t give you the quick look at the data for all the children with the visual compare and contrast.
I’m a new user to RM and am finding the Family View frustrating as I am used to the Ancestry or My Heritage family view which I can scan looking for lines to research next. Currently I am using the My Heritage family view concurrently with RM11. This frustration is causing me to look at other desktop software with a better Family View. More long term users may not care about this but if RM wants to attract new users, it maybe worth considering what new people maybe want as they are probably coming from online sites such as Ancestry or My Heritage.
Whilst RM has far more tools and database functions than either Ancestry or My Heritage I agree that, since RM8, the views are not as good as they were in RM7 or on the online site views. Personally I do most of my work in Ancestry and use TreeShare to keep RM in sync. I can then look at Ancestry to see where I want to go but also use RM tools (on a separate screen) to search more detailed information. I think that works better for those of us who only use Family Search for record searches and don’t upload and sync our trees with their constantly changing global tree.
Not sure if this is what you are looking for – the Life Summary does help with some of that (Maybe for some users at least) but still needs to include life space on spouses/children.
I sort of agree and disagree. I think there are several issues under discussion here.
One of the issues under discussion is that RM does not have a view like Ancestry or MyHeritage or FamilySearch that combines a family view and an ancestor view and a descendants view all into one view. I don’t know if this view has an official name. It may be that it’s actually called a “family view”, even though it contains much more in the way of ancestors and descendants than does RM’s Family View. I have heard some RM users refer to this kind of view as an all-in-one view.
If all-in-one -view is what we call it for the moment, there if been requests for this kind of view in RM for decades. Instead, RM provides for a separate Family View and Pedigree View and Descendant View. My only comment would be that if ever RM were to add this kind of all-in-one view, I would be very unhappy if it meant the RM no longer supported the old Family and Pedigree and Descendant views. I would still use them more than the new all-in-one view.
The other issues under discussion have to do with the RM11 versions of Family View, Pedigree View, and Descendant View as compared to the old RM7 versions. The new RM11 versions actually began with RM8. The new versions include important new functionality. But in my opinion, they gained this new functionality at the cost of losing certain important old functionality. Not everybody agrees, but I prefer the RM7 versions. And it’s not just the RM7 views themselves that I prefer. I also prefer the RM7 way of maintaining the focus person as the person in the primary position as I change views. RM8 through RM11 have completely lost that important function.
(That’s the current Pedigree view dropdown, I’m not suggesting 5 generations!)
