The Family Tree Project updates

Its now official, for the one of the first times in print The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has made a definite statement about the Family Tree Project and its relationship to the New FamilySearch program. Here is the complete announcement:

The Family Tree project is redesigning the look of the new FamilySearch Web site to make it easier to use. You are invited to preview and give feedback on this new look while it is still being developed. When it is finished, this look will be used on the new FamilySearch Web site. To see the Family Tree project, go to http://labs.familysearch.org/, and click the Family Tree link.

Use your sign-in name and password for the new FamilySearch to sign in.
You see the same family information in the new FamilySearch Web site and the Family Tree project. Also, changes that you make in either program are immediately visible in the other.

Tasks That Can Be Done Only in the Family Tree Project
In the Family Tree project, you can perform several tasks that you cannot do in the new FamilySearch Web
site.
• When you open an individual’s folder, you can see the contact name of the user who has the ordinances reserved.
• You can easily resize your tree to show many more generations on the screen.
• When you hover the mouse cursor over someone in the tree, the path back to you is highlighted. This lets you more easily see how you connect to any person in your tree.
• When you display the list of your reserved ordinances, you can see whether the cards have been printed and which ordinances are done.
• You can view the individuals in your pedigree as a list. When you first switch from the pedigree to the list, the list contains the individuals in the pedigree view. Once the list is displayed, you can sort the individuals by last name, first name, gender, birth date, birthplace, or person ID.
• You can type an individual’s ordinance information in when you cannot find the official ordinance record.

New Features as of March and May 2009
The Family Tree project added several new features in March and May 2009.
March 2009.

In the March 2009 release, you could start doing the following:
• Add missing ordinance dates if you cannot find the official temple record.
• Find and resolve duplicate ordinance records.
• Reserve ordinances and print Family Ordinance Requests.
Note: In the Family Tree, the Family Ordinance Request is created as a PDF file. If you receive a message that you need to update your Adobe Reader software, please update it. This allows your computer to display and print the request correctly, especially if it contains names in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters.

The new FamilySearch Web site does not create Family Ordinance Requests as PDF files, so it does not require you to update your Adobe Reader software.
• Assign ordinances to the temple if you want the temple to allow someone else to perform the ordinances.

May 2009
In the May 2009 release, you can do the following:
• Register directly from the Family Tree project instead of the new FamilySearch Web site.
• Obtain news and updates in the sign-in page.

I will be discussing these changes in subsequent posts.