New "sorting" tool for source box

LegacyUser

Genevieve Ficquet said: Hello
It would be useful to have a tool to sort the sources in the folders of the source box (by alphabetical order for example). I have a lot of sources references in each folders and each time I add an new source inside a folder it is added on the top of the list so when I want to look for a specific one I have to manually search them going through one by one. Sorting would greatly help my work because it would be faster than searching one by one. It would greatly disminish errors (duplicate for example). Thank you. GF

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Welcome to the community support forum for FamilySearch. FamilySearch personnel read every discussion thread and may or may not respond as their time permits. We all share an active interest in using the resources of this site and as users, we have various levels of knowledge and experience and do our best to help each other with concerns, issues, and/or questions.

The initial idea behind your "Source Box" was to create a temporary place to put a source and when it had been used in all the places, it could be deleted, thus cleaning out the source box.

However, a lot of users have started using it as a more permanent storage place for their sources and so this request comes up from time to time.

I do not know if FamilySearch will develop the source box more fully, or if it has been, is now, or will be considered for further development. The developers really do not give us any list of future projects, and we've been told a number of times that there are limited resources and so, one can only hope for the best, make periodic requests, and see what happens.

Hopefully, someone from FamilySearch will respond and let us know what the status for this and other source box requests are.

LegacyUser

ATP said: Under the Source Box, there is an options heading, which gives you the option of customizing your sources if you haven't seen it. It allows you to place your sources in whatever order you care to.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: Where is this options heading? Can you post a screen shot? I don't see it anywhere. How long have you been able to use it? Sometimes brand new features are just released to a small percentage of users for final real world testing.

LegacyUser

ATP said: Gordon Collett,

Screenshots are something I use mostly for my own reference and Windows 10 made it more complicated than before, and, sorry, but, I don't know the new rules of how to send! : )

However, in the headings on person page click on Sources and adjacent to where it says Add Source, it gives Options, which when you click appears Customized option.

Hope this is understandable....

ATP

LegacyUser

ATP said: I've only been on familysearch since summer of 2019 and it was available at that time. I did not like viewing sources as they were added one on top of the other and discovered the options box where I could change the order by the date of the source----like from birth until death! So, don't know when that changed.

The Details view will open up all the sources, where you can go down the line and view all the information without going back to Sources and clicking on a particular one, if you have not used that, yet.

ATP

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: That is on the Sources tab of a Family Tree Person’s detail page. The post is making a request for features in user’s Source Box.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: Oh, well. Maybe someday something will be developed for the source box.

LegacyUser

Genevieve Ficquet said: Brett,

First of all thank you soooo much for your sense of humor. :-)

I am happy to know that I am no more alone. :-)

I appreciate you taking the time to answer my post in a such detailed manner. I understand through your message that you might feel frustrated by the changes awaited for so long! I probably would be feeling the same way if I was waiting on useful tools that never come.... After reading the most recent posts I understand that no sorting tool on source names exist yet.

Why not suggest youth/young adults/anybody interested by computer science to develop for free such a tool for familysearch? It could be a good way to serve in the church. Just a thought.

Thanks a lot again. :-)
Genevieve

LegacyUser

Genevieve Ficquet said: The only options available that I can see are 'move' or 'delete'. But the 'move' works only from a folder to another, and not inside itself (like to reorder the lines).

Genevieve

LegacyUser

Genevieve Ficquet said: The only options available that I can see are 'move' or 'delete'. But the 'move' works only from a folder to another, and not inside itself (like to reorder the lines).

Genevieve

LegacyUser

Brett said: Genevieve

Sense of humour, maybe ...

But ...
That said ...

My patience is waning ...

Despite REPEATED requests there has been NO improvements to the "Sources Box" for a very long time.

Obviously, "FamilySearch" still considers the ORIGINAL premise/concept of the "Source Box"; as a, TEMPORARY "Storage" Facility, the way to go; and, as such, any suggested enhancements for the "Source Box" to be very low a priority ('on the totem pole') in the scheme of things, due to the very many competing priorities in, "Family Tree" of "FamilySearch"; plus, the many other "Parts" of "FamilySearch"; and, especially, the very limited resources available in/to "Family Search".

My "Source Box" is just 'shy' of 22,000 "Sources", I would desperately love just some of the MANY suggested enhancements for the "Source Box".

In relation to your thought ...

"Why not suggest youth/young adults/anybody interested by computer science to develop for free such a tool for familysearch? It could be a good way to serve in the church. Just a thought."

The "Students" in the "Family History Technology Laboratory" of the "Computer Science" Department at "Brigham Young University" (BYU) ALREADY develop companion "Programmes" that, are "Certified" by; and, to work with, "Family Tree" of "FamilySearch" - "RelativeFinder" ( https://www.relativefinder.org/#/main ) being just one such programme.

You would think that it certainly would be advantageous for "FamilySearch" to enlist the help of the "Family History Technology Laboratory" of the "Computer Science" Department at "BYU", if they do not already do so; but, I think that they may already do so.

As for "outsourcing" to the "Public" in general, I think that to do so would be more problematic and resource 'hungry', than what happens now.

Although, I am not aware, it is possible that those of the general public with such necessary "Skills" may already be submitting suggestions (and, even 'Coding') to "FamilySearch" for consideration and evaluation - lets hope they are.

Here's hoping that just some of the MANY suggested enhancements for the "Source Box" do filter in over time, eventually ...

Brett

.

LegacyUser

Genevieve Ficquet said: Brett,

You know much more than me on the subject. I never had training on familysearch. I learn by using it.

I thought it was mandatory to add a source to each name to prove its legal existence, which seems wise to me. But if it was created to be temporary then I am not using it for the purpose for which it was created :-( (and it takes me a lot of time to add a source to each name of my ancestors).

This leads to another question: if the source is temporary then how to add proof of the existence of the person?

22,000 sources! It is huge. I understand your feelings. I only have 1,121 and it already takes me a lot of time to find the one I need to reuse. I can only imagine how frustrating it is to find the right one among 22,000!

I have another question. Do you know how often data is backed up on familysearch?

Thank you
Genevieve

LegacyUser

Paul said: (Deleted my post here and placed onhttps://getsatisfaction.com/familysea...)

LegacyUser

Juli said: Skimming through the comments, I see that ATP and Genevieve are using the same words to mean different things, and I think Genevieve has misunderstood some of the structure of FamilySearch's Family Tree.

Both a profile's Sources tab/pane and a user's Source Box contain a list of source citations, and both use the word "Source" prominently. The similarity ends there, however: they are intended for different purposes, and the available tools are different.

A profile's Sources tab is meant to contain a citation for every document or other piece of supporting evidence that's relevant to that profile. This is where the "options heading" mentioned by ATP is found; the default is for the list to be sorted by date, but you can change it to Custom and rearrange things to your heart's content.

A Source Box, on the other hand, belongs to a _user_, not a profile. It is meant to contain those citations that the user hasn't finished adding (commonly called "attaching") to every profile that it's relevant to. Once the user is finished with the task of finding/creating profiles for everyone mentioned and putting the citation in each of those Sources lists, there is no point to keeping the citation in a Source Box, so the organization tools are limited to user-created folders.

As an analogy, consider a non-computerized methodology: you have a binder full of Family Group Sheets, and a shoebox full of index cards with source citations. When you're at an archive or library doing your research, you write a citation on an index card for everything you find that's relevant to someone in the family you're researching. When you get home, you dump the index cards in the shoebox, pick one, and find the relevant pages in the binder. You copy the citation onto the Family Group Sheets for everyone mentioned (creating new sheets as needed), and then you discard the index card and pick the next one out of the shoebox. If you get interrupted or run out of time for the day, you put the half-used index card back in the shoebox, to be dealt with next time.

The binder is analogous to Family Tree, with the citations list on each Family Group Sheet analogous to a profile's Sources tab. The shoebox is your Source Box, and the various "Add to my Source Box" checkboxes and buttons are how you write stuff on an index card and put it in the shoebox.

LegacyUser

ATP said: Thanks, Juli,

I did indeed misunderstand and did conflate Sources and Source Box. Thank you for the very clear explanation and the analogy of the difference. Wish every explanation in all the parts of the familysearch.org core product was as equally clear.

When I find a source, I try to attach it to all relevant persons at that time limiting my need to use Source Box, so, I was thinking Sources, not Source Box.

Thanks, again, for not only this explanation, but, for others you have posted that I have also found quite beneficial.

ATP

LegacyUser

ATP said: Genevieve,

I misread your post and was thinking Sources, not Source Box. Sorry for the confusion.

ATP