Please put back arrow on "review source" page
Guest is attaching sources to a record.
It is upsetting to him that when you click on a source, it opens the source, but it now longer gives you an back or forward arrow. He would like the back arrow to be reinstated. He states this is very problematic for him. Can we get this reviewed? Thank you!
We all browse in different ways. In this case, he believes that a back arrow is more efficient than clicking on the previous tab to continue attaching another source. Please see Zendesk ticket #107228. Thank you!
Comments
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There's no back arrow because Source Linker opens in a new tab. When he's done attaching the source, he should be able to just close that tab to go back to where he started.
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Can you escalate this to the engineers? We would like them to see that people are having a difficult time navigating. It would be much better if the back arrow was replaced. Thank you!
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For those asking for the back arrow, please note that @Julia Szent-Györgyi is correct. You simply cannot have a back arrow if the Source Linker opens in a new tab.
I suppose that if you are asking for Source Linker to open in the current tab, then you would naturally have a back arrow -- that's simply the way that browsers work. Personally, I like the fact that Source Linker opens in a new tab and would prefer for this particular detail not to be changed. Once I get into the Source Linker, I may do a variety of navigational steps, and I would not want to have to do multiple back arrows to get back to wherever I started from. But with it opening in a new tab, I can always get back to where I started. Because my starting place is in a separate tab, I can even go there concurrently while I am working in the Source Linker, which I very often find to be quite useful. This proposed change would take that very helpful navigation option away, which would not be an improvement. (Yes, I know that I could right click and choose "Open in new tab" but I don't want to have to remember that up front each time I enter the Source Linker.)
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@tamelajoyashlock1, I'm just another user of FS, so no, I can't communicate with the engineers any better than you can, but I don't think it's necessary. Also, I'm sorry that I wasn't understandable to you. Let me try again.
The reason the "back" arrow isn't available is that it doesn't point anywhere. The Source Linker page is the only thing in that browser tab's history, and you can't go "back" to the page, since you're already there. The arrow cannot be simply "replaced" or "put back". That'd make about as much sense as expecting an "undo" option on an action you haven't taken.
Taking a step back, there is a decision point for the engineers: should Source Linker hijack the page you're on as the default behavior, and only open in a new tab if you explicitly tell it to? Or should it always open in a new tab, leaving your originating page unchanged? The engineers have chosen the second option. I am certain that this was a very deliberate decision, likely prompted by many user complaints about the consequences of losing access to that originating page while Source Linker was open.
As I pointed out, the default behavior of most browsers when you close a tab is to put you back on the tab you were on most recently before you went to that now-closed tab. So if you were, say, looking at an image, and clicked the "Attach" button next to an entry on the Image Index panel, you'd be taken to Source Linker in a new browser tab. If you closed that browser tab (usually by clicking an 'x' on the tab), you'd be back at your image, zoomed in to the same part of the page as when you left. If, on the other hand, that "Attach" button opened Source Linker in the same browser tab as where the image was, then not only would you not be able to refer back to the image while using Source Linker, you'd also lose your place on the image: clicking "back" would re-load the webpage, resetting the zoom and pan to the default full-page view.
I was always in the habit of opening Source Linker in a new tab, so the new default behavior doesn't change my workflow at all. In fact, it's only due to posts like this one in the Community that I'm even aware of the change. I really don't think there is a problem here. People just need to learn to look for the "x" rather than the arrow.
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I am a FamilySearch Missionary Trainer and the reason I am posting this here is because this is the process to escalate or bring an issue to the attention to the engineers. Not all people browse in the same way. Obviously, the engineers have thought this was the best way, because this is what they changed it to. I want to bring this to their attention so they know that some people browse is another way, and they might come up with a solution to meet the needs of both.
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Control-Tab and Control-Shift-Tab usually will toggle between tabs in browsers. Barring that, you can tell them they should have raised the issue in the https://community.familysearch.org/en/group/316-new-person-page group last year.
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Web page designers are constrained by the programming and functions of the web browser they are designing a page for.
I am neither a web page designer nor a browser programmer. However, googling various queries, while I find web page designers are allowed by turn off the back arrow when it is there, I cannot find any references that suggest a web page designer can turn on the back arrow when, as others have explained here, there is nothing to go back to. That means that unless the programmers for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge update their browsers, FamilySearch's webpage designers hands are tied. They cannot add a prohibited browser function.
The one exception is Safari which is what I use. Apple's programmers have been quite creative, as usual, and when a link is opened in a new tab the back arrow is still present. However, it's function has changed as can be seen by clicking and holding on the back arrow.
The original tab shows the usual list of previously visited pages like this:
However, if you have opened a new tab, the back arrow turns into a "close this tab and go back to the last tab" button like this:
To summarize, it seems highly unlikely that FamilySearch can do what your guest is requesting because the browser he is using probably forbids it. If it is really bothering him, he might look into switching to a Mac and using Safari which does function the way he wishes all browsers would. Or maybe one of these days the other browser programmers will find a way to mimic Apple's feature without violating any copyright laws.
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Since you don't seem to understand the other explanations, I thought some pictures may help. Let's go through this step-by-step.
I'll demonstrate using my ancestor Catherine Regenwether, simply because that's the first person I clicked.
Note that the person page opened in the same tab:
As you can also see, the back arrow is available. This is because the person page replaced the tree page.
But when we open the source linker, this is what we see:
The source linker opened here:
And the previous tab is still open, here:
That's why the back arrow is unavailable: as far as Google is concerned, there is nothing to go back to, because the tab is new. You can easily go back by either clicking on the person tab or clicking the x on the Source Linker tab.
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