Create "How to Use Family Search"
Comments
-
It has been said that "the Internet is like a library, where all the books are thrown in a big pile on the floor". Well, I'm afraid the same applies to FamilySearch Help articles and other user documentation. I do believe most of the documentation I need is already written; it's just incredibly hard to find.
A typical case: I find an error in a source record. I know that "Wrong in the Document" is one of the reasons I can state for editing the record, but I'm looking for some examples to make sure I'm filling out the appropriate fields correctly etc. Typing "error" in the Help popup search field leads me to an article "How do I correct transcription errors in historical records?" which sounds like what I want.
But reading that article merely tells me what I already know, that I should select "Wrong in the Document" when correcting such an error. At the end of this article, there is a list of "related articles", but judging from their titles they don't seem to constitute a comprehensive list of everything there is to know about correcting errors in source records, especially as they stray into partly different topics.
In order to easily determine when I should stop searching and instead turn to the Community for advice, I would find a systematic "Table of Contents" linking to the articles already available very helpful. Here is a sample ToC outline, partly based on your selection of web page menus:
- 1 Searching
- 1.1 Source records
- 1.2 Family Tree
- 2 Contributing to FamilySearch
- 2.1 Entering your data
- 2.1.1 Vitals
- 2.1.2 Events
- 2.2 Correcting errors
- 2.2.1 Errors in Family Tree
- 2.2.2 Errors in source records
I understand I can always turn to the Community to ask a question. But if I receive a link to an article in response, the Community is essentially spending human labour and time to cover up for the lack of a Table of Contents, which could be written once and then only amended as needed.
1 -
These Quick Start Learning Lessons are in the format you suggest: https://www.familysearch.org/en/fieldops/quick-start-learning-lessons-table-of-contents
1 -
Thanks! Pretty much what I was asking for, and now I'm glad I was prevented from sending my suggestion to some office lacking time or obligation to respond, and therefore decided to ask the Community instead. A few minor gripes, though:
- The fact that I hadn't seen this series of introductory lessons myself, but had to make someone point it out to me, kind of underscores my initial point that the documentation is hard to find. You effectively pulled it out of that big pile on the floor for me, because you knew where to look, while I didn't.
- The format of this page as a series of numbered lessons suggests they are best studied in that particular order, from beginning to end. Depending on how the lessons are arranged, they may also lend themselves to serve as a work of reference, allowing me to look up any single topic and understand the explanations given. As I haven't had time to study these lessons yet, I don't know how well they will serve that purpose, but I'll find out.
- In case a link to this page is indeed prominently displayed at the login page, but advertised as some "Quick Start Learning Lessons" only, I either didn't see it, or perhaps did but immediately dismissed it as something I wasn't looking for. A link "How to use this website" to the same page might have done a better job of attracting my attention.
- I don't immediately see where I should look for advice on editing and correcting records. Fair enough, I didn't even expect a Table of Contents to be written at all, let alone a complete one. It's a starting point, anyway.
- I find myself distracted and confused by the final link labelled "More" in each lesson, and I was first concerned I would find additional material behind those link, going deeper and beyond the topics listed for each lesson. Looking into the "More" links however reveals that they are identical to the corresponding headline link for the corresponding lesson.
But in a general sense, my wish has been granted.
1
