The book function from a user perspective is an eclectic mishmash of functions that appears to be cobbled together as an afterthought and a not very considered one at that.
Has anyone actually created a book in FTM 2012? I would like to hear people’s views on the how they found:
• Its functionality,
• Its ability to allow creative input
• The look of the finished product
• The amount of time spent doing and redoing things to remove repetition of information.
Here are some issues I have found:
1. Pagination is woeful there is not control over it especially if a series of reports are used. Instead if one report flowing into another large blank sections of page are left at the end and the next report started on a new page. It looks very poor. I know this would not be easy to achieve but it just looks so bad I won’t use reports.
2. Page setup occurs in two places in reports and from the menu in the composition area and every single report has to be individually set up. One area for page setup would make it a lot easier for the user.
3. Printing is not always as viewed on screen, when previewing a book the page is a different width when viewing it in the book composition area. (see attached)
4. There is a fault with printing reports that I raised with Ancestry two years ago – not fixed yet. It is, if a page is set to “A4” behind the scenes it remains “Letter” size and the printing is offset to one side because of the difference in paper widths. For example, the tile in the header is centred on the page by default (there is also no user function to change its position) when printed on an “A4” page with the page setup set to “A4” and the left and right margins equal widths, the title in the header is not printed in the centre of the page.
5. The font style and size for headers and footers can be changed but where they appear, left, right or centre can’t be adjusted.
6. The rulers are displayed in inches despite the unit of measurement being set to millimetres.
7. The undo function is very clunky – the step backward and forwards does appear to step on a single mouse click.
8. The “save document” function is only visible on limited content e.g. “Title Page”, “Smart Story” it is not visible when a report is open.
9. The page layout varies from the book composition area to the book preview, i.e. the text and media are not in the same position on the page. The page appears to be different widths and margins are noticeably different from one to the other.
10. The page doesn’t print within the designated margins as displayed in “Book Preview”. It appears as if the page is printed as a “Letter” size page despite the fact that it is set at “A4” in page setup in the book composition area.
11. What is the relationship between paper size and margins when placing a report in a book? Does the book set default page size and margins? OR, Does the report override the book page size and margins? It doesn’t work well and is a mess when printing!
12. If the page size is changed (report page setup) from “Letter” to “A4” in the Family Group Sheet a blank pages result. These cannot be removed. The only remedy is to return the page size to “Letter”. This may be the case in other reports I haven’t tested all.
13. Book “header and footer” lacks flexibility, the choice is “on” or “off” and font style and size. What about control horizontal position, i.e. left, right or centred?
14. Information from smart stories does not appear in the “Index of Individuals”. This makes it an incomplete reference.
15. Best of all it is Soooooooooooo slow, even running on super speed PC.
I appreciate the book function references the family tree data base for information and it is difficult to integrate the data into a book and at the same as providing flexible user control over its content and look. But if it’s not user friendly, inflexible in its ability to customise the look of a book and has inconsistent control over functionality, don’t have it just to keep up with the other family tree programs.
As silverfox3280 stated in one of his posts “I give the book function an F”, I think he was being generous.
Please provide comment, the more the merrier. If you haven’t experienced “Books”, have a try at creating a one and then provide feedback. Add more issues to the list if you find them.
If this message board item receives enough responses it could be used in the hope of having Ancestry improve the Book function. I will provide feedback to Ancestry based on the response to responses to this post.
Has anyone actually created a book in FTM 2012? I would like to hear people’s views on the how they found:
• Its functionality,
• Its ability to allow creative input
• The look of the finished product
• The amount of time spent doing and redoing things to remove repetition of information.
Here are some issues I have found:
1. Pagination is woeful there is not control over it especially if a series of reports are used. Instead if one report flowing into another large blank sections of page are left at the end and the next report started on a new page. It looks very poor. I know this would not be easy to achieve but it just looks so bad I won’t use reports.
2. Page setup occurs in two places in reports and from the menu in the composition area and every single report has to be individually set up. One area for page setup would make it a lot easier for the user.
3. Printing is not always as viewed on screen, when previewing a book the page is a different width when viewing it in the book composition area. (see attached)
4. There is a fault with printing reports that I raised with Ancestry two years ago – not fixed yet. It is, if a page is set to “A4” behind the scenes it remains “Letter” size and the printing is offset to one side because of the difference in paper widths. For example, the tile in the header is centred on the page by default (there is also no user function to change its position) when printed on an “A4” page with the page setup set to “A4” and the left and right margins equal widths, the title in the header is not printed in the centre of the page.
5. The font style and size for headers and footers can be changed but where they appear, left, right or centre can’t be adjusted.
6. The rulers are displayed in inches despite the unit of measurement being set to millimetres.
7. The undo function is very clunky – the step backward and forwards does appear to step on a single mouse click.
8. The “save document” function is only visible on limited content e.g. “Title Page”, “Smart Story” it is not visible when a report is open.
9. The page layout varies from the book composition area to the book preview, i.e. the text and media are not in the same position on the page. The page appears to be different widths and margins are noticeably different from one to the other.
10. The page doesn’t print within the designated margins as displayed in “Book Preview”. It appears as if the page is printed as a “Letter” size page despite the fact that it is set at “A4” in page setup in the book composition area.
11. What is the relationship between paper size and margins when placing a report in a book? Does the book set default page size and margins? OR, Does the report override the book page size and margins? It doesn’t work well and is a mess when printing!
12. If the page size is changed (report page setup) from “Letter” to “A4” in the Family Group Sheet a blank pages result. These cannot be removed. The only remedy is to return the page size to “Letter”. This may be the case in other reports I haven’t tested all.
13. Book “header and footer” lacks flexibility, the choice is “on” or “off” and font style and size. What about control horizontal position, i.e. left, right or centred?
14. Information from smart stories does not appear in the “Index of Individuals”. This makes it an incomplete reference.
15. Best of all it is Soooooooooooo slow, even running on super speed PC.
I appreciate the book function references the family tree data base for information and it is difficult to integrate the data into a book and at the same as providing flexible user control over its content and look. But if it’s not user friendly, inflexible in its ability to customise the look of a book and has inconsistent control over functionality, don’t have it just to keep up with the other family tree programs.
As silverfox3280 stated in one of his posts “I give the book function an F”, I think he was being generous.
Please provide comment, the more the merrier. If you haven’t experienced “Books”, have a try at creating a one and then provide feedback. Add more issues to the list if you find them.
If this message board item receives enough responses it could be used in the hope of having Ancestry improve the Book function. I will provide feedback to Ancestry based on the response to responses to this post.