New Features in the WikiTree Browser Extension (v.1.7)

Question

Hi everyone. The new update to the WikiTree Browser Extension (WBE) has many new features, so I thought I’d tell you about them:

• Family Lists: Sometimes, you don’t need all the things that the Auto Bio does – you just want a list of the person’s children, for example.  This feature adds three buttons to the ‘Biography’ menu for that: 'Birth and Parent Details', 'Sibling List', and 'Spouse and Child Details'. I think this should be very useful for many people.
   
• Image Zoom and Magnifier: Enhance your image viewing experience with our new Image Zoom and Magnifier feature.  This may be very useful in some situations.
   
• Enhanced Editor Style: Many people say that, even with the grey highlighting of the Enhanced Editor, they have trouble distinguishing inline citations from the actual bio text when editing a profile. We’ve added color highlighting options for the Enhanced Editor to help solve this problem.
   
• Locations Helper: Sometimes people are confused or frustrated by the US locations given in the locations dropdowns, because the counties don’t show the word ‘County’.  (This can also cause problems for the Auto Bio in identifying the correct location categories for a profile.)  I've added an option to add 'County' (or ‘Parish’ for Louisiana) to all US Locations. 
   
• Anniversaries Table: If you use the Anniversaries page, here’s a new way to use it.  The table is sortable and filterable, and it adds the distance and relationship data that you’ve been building in your browser’s database with the Distance and Relationship feature.
   
• Access Keys: We’ve increased the number of access keys available. Quickly trigger functionalities like Auto Bio (b), return to profile or delete draft (q), compare draft (c), add template (t), copy ID (i), copy link (l), and copy URL (u). See the WBE space page or the options page of the extension for more details.
   
• Hide My Contributions: Enable this for the extension to remember and respect your preference for displaying your contributions or not on Activity Feed pages. 
   
• Auto Bio: I’ve made improvements for Australian profiles.  An option has been added to fix the locations depending on the date (i.e. using colony names before 1901). Also, improvements have been made to add Australian ‘Born In’ stickers.
   
• Usability Tweaks: 1) An extra Edit/Save button can be added above the Scratch Pad. 2) An 'only active members' link can be added to the Search Person page to filter the search results to leave only active members.
   
• Save Buttons Style Options: You can give the Save section on the Edit page a new look. The ‘Compare Draft With Saved Information’ and ‘Return to Profile without Saving’ links can be turned into more visually distinctive buttons.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Comments

If using these features for profiles you do not manage, and where you have not previously been a contributor, please be aware of the rules regarding adding stickers, and the location standards as allowed by Projects.  Example: don't just rush in and set pre-1901 locations in Australia if they were already set by the profile's manager (unless you are that manager).

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something went wrong, I have an error message from my browser that the WikiTree Browser Extension is disabled suddenly.  Google Chrome.

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You need to accept new permissions that the WBE now requires. Click where it says Error then it should be fairly obvious what you do from there. (This happens from time to time with the Sourcer as well.)

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Hi Danielle. You just need to click something to accept new permissions. One of the new features copies things to your clipboard, and for some reason, you need to give the extension permission to do that.

Answer 1

I just downloaded the extension for Firefox  to try it out, and added it, but nothing has changed. There is the logo in the top right but that is the only change. There was no "features page" as mentioned in the instructions. How do I access the features of the Browser Extension ?

Comments

Thanks for letting me know, Leif.

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Thanks for commenting Lief. What do I have to do to get it running flawlessly?

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I just tried again and can confirm that the Extension 1.71 does not work on Firefox for MacOS.  Do we have a release date for the Safari version yet ?

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Joe, it works fine for me on both Big Sur and Monterey (Firefox v115.0.2, WBE v1.7.1).  Could you try and unpin the WBE icon from the toolbar (right-click it and uncheck the Pin to Toolbar option) and then pin it again (Click the Extensions icon and click the gear opposite the WBE and select Pin to toolbar). Maybe that might fix your black box issue?

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Hi Riel, I removed it from the toolbar as you suggested. Now there is no way to pin it again. There is no option "pin to toolbar" so that has made the situation worse as I can't even see the icon anymore. It just doesn't work with Firefox so I will keep my fingers crossed that one day we will get something for Safari instead.  It has been a long time in development ( nearly a year now is it ? ) so should be good.

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Joe.  I'm not sure what problems you're having, but as Riël has said, it does work in Firefox on a Mac.  I wish that I could take a look for myself, but I can't.

The Safari version will come.  I don't have a date for that, but I have no control over it.

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Whatever you say, or Riel says, or Lief says, it does not work, so is of no use to me. I'm not having problems, it just doesn't work, whereas WikiTree itself runs fine. It seems that this sort of functionality has to be built into the WikiTree core program if you want everyone to be able to use it. I don't understand why it hasn't been put there for everyone to use. It is very frustrating and makes WikiTree's technicians look bad. I don't think that only supporting a fraction of the users is a good idea.

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The reasoning is here: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1390337/would-you-collaborate-on-a-browser-extension?show=1390337#q1390337 .

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Joe, for me, there is an 'Extensions" icon (a little puzzle piece) in the toolbar. After I unpinned the WBE options popup (the latter is the only extension I have installed in Firefox), when I click on the puzzle piece I see the WBE listed in a drop-down and there is a gear icon next to it. When I click that gear icon, it gives me the option to pin the WBE (actually the WBE options) to the toolbar. It took me a bit to figure this out, but even without the WBE options being pinned, you can still set the WBE options in this way: In the top menu, click on Firefox, then Preferences. On the left, down at the bottom there is Extensions & Themes. Click on it and you will see a list of the extensions you have installed, as well as suggested extensions below them. You should see the WBE listed in the top part and presumably you will see that it is enabled (is it? - there is a little toggle next to it for this). Next to the toggle are 3 horizontal dots. Click on them and you see a dropdown with Preferences as on of the options. If you click that, you get the WBE options that you can configure.

If the pinning I described above still does not work, can you go to the WBE Preferences as I have described and tell me if you then still see a blank page rather than options you can set. If you see options, set a couple to your liking and then tell us if the WBE work as advertised on a WikiTree page.  I hope you have success.

If you are on Discord or any other interactive communication system, contact me (or tell me which one) and we can try and figure out what the issue is on you machine.

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Thanks for that Riel, and your offer of further help.  I did try all those things before stating that the extension was not working. I exchanged messages about it with Ian, as he was concerned about it earlier on Sunday.  I've spent too long on this already, so will just wait until a working version is released for Safari. But for information purposes: once un-pinned as per instructions - it could not be re-pinned. There were no WBE Preferences - that was the whole point to start with  - no features were available. The gear icon did not work, only the three dots which gave options such as "remove" etc - so it has been successfully un-installed.

Answer 2

Thanks, Ian! Can't wait to try out the Anniversary Table, especially!

Comments

It's a fun feature, and it will encourage you to visit some profiles to build up your database of degrees and relationship.

Answer 3

Thanks, Ian! Some of these new features will be very helpful and I can't wait to try them out!

Answer 4

I did a whole lot of edits today and worked till 10 mins ago perfect with autobio. And just about 10 mins ago the autobio button/link disappeared.

What can I do?

Comments

The problem is solved. I restarted WikiTree and got the message WBE was de-activated. Why is unclear but I activated again and its functioning perfect.

Sorry for the trouble

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No trouble at all. We're all glad that you got it resolved. Sometimes all it takes is to restart the browser.

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WBE gets deactivated if it is updated to a new version and it requires new permissions. Normally a notification about this is displayed with an option to accept the new permissions, but it is easy to miss the notification.

Answer 5

I'm probably in a tiny minority, but I would like an option to hide the "Biography" button above the Edit field. I'm generating my own biographies and don't need this button which sits on a row all by itself and takes up space.

Comments

==Biography== at the top of the page isn't really a ''button'', it's a header.  Part of the required items for a profile page.  Doesn't in the least stop you from writing a bio.

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Heh. I was thinking of this button that comes with the WBE package:

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Leif,

You can get rid of that Biography menu by disabling the Auto Bio feature, under Editing in the WBE Options page. 

That button is usually hosted by the WikiTree+ Edit Helper, which also hosts Templates and Categories menus, and Ian has just added the Family Lists feature with three menu items that is also hosted in the Biography menu.

And certainly, if you don't need or want a particular feature, then by all means, disable it.

See:

3.3.4.1 Auto Bio

3.3.4.5 Family Lists

3.3.11 WikiTree+ Edit Helper

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I didn't have the Auto Bio feature enabled. But for some reason I actually had the "Family Lists" selector in the same "Edit Profile" subsection enabled, and when I disabled that, the "Biography" button magically disappeared.

The logic isn't entirely clear to me, but thank you.

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Leif: Some features, especially ones that just add links or let you do something (rather than do the thing automatically), are enabled by default. I figured that more people would rather have those buttons there as they can be very useful.  Sorry you didn't want them.  Anything that I think most people won't want (but some people will love) are disabled by default.  It's a balancing act.

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Ian, thanks for your reply. Yes, I know that, due to the fact that I'm running my own custom software, I'm in a very small minority who don't want any help with writing biographies

But it might be feasible to lump all the autobio settings together with one master setting, and not enable individual subsettings if the master setting is disabled.

Answer 6

Thanks for the update, but it was a bit of a surprise as we were still busy with the thon and suddenly it wasn't working anymore.

Answer 7

Patiently (or impatiently) waiting for the Safari extension on the Mac. It's the only browser I use.

Comments

Feel free to try another browser occasionally. They say variety is the spice of life.

And, yes, I realize that people are waiting for the Safari extension, but, as I mentioned somewhere else on this page, I have no control over that.

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Carole, you can use WBE in the Safari browser... but you have to use the version that we are testing.

• For Safari, a Preview version (Mac and iPad) is currently being tested. Contact Jamie if you would like to test.

I use it every day. So does Greg Clarke. We love it.

Answer 8

I use this tool a gazillion times a day - it is soooo very helpful!

The Family Lists feature is extremely valuable as you build out the tree structure! Thanks for adding that. I also like to use the following research notes section as a template for my profiles which I copy manually:

==Research Notes==

===Name===

'''What do we know about the name of ?'''

===Birth/Baptism===

'''What do we know about the birth/baptism of ?'''

*'''Transcription of baptism record:'''

===Marriage===

'''What do we know about the marriage of ?'''

*'''Transcription of marriage record:'''

===Children===

'''What do we know about the children of ?'''

===Death/Burial===

'''What do we know about the death/burial of ?'''

*'''Transcription of death/burial record:'''

I guess that might be an idea to add a research notes section in a future version?

Best regards

Sven

Comments

Sven, your Research Notes template is the kind of thing that you might want to put in the WBE Clipboard. It would save you a lot of manual copy/paste. There is an Access Key to open the Clipboard now... Shift-Alt-V (Mac CTRL-Opt-V).

Answer 9

Thank You for these continued improvements! Awesome Sauce!

Answer 10

Thank you for these great QOL improvements! I am eager to try the anniversary table, but am also pleased to see the ability to highlight refs!

Answer 11

The Auto Bio is not generating spouses correctly if the person has more then one spouse for me , it omits the other spouses

Comments

Thanks. I'll look into this soon.

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This should be fixed now.

Answer 12

I have the "Distance and Relationships" enabled which is a truly great feature when you have to keep track of 28,000 profiles

Now, the circled "Distance" count has started to intermittently disappear from profile pages. Sometimes it will appear if I refresh the page, but not always. The Relationships box seems to be unaffected.

WBE 1.8.12 on Firefox 116.0.3 (64-bit) on Gentoo Linux with Plasma/KDE desktop.

Comments

It seems like the problem went away after a reboot. The system had been running for 12 days, but I had to restart Firefox on Saturday after an upgrade.

I'm running a bleeding edge Linux system and packages get updated all the time, so it may have been some component that needed a reboot to function properly.

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It seems like the distance/relationship feature has a real issue. I've sent Ian some details by email.

Answer 13

"you just want a list of the person’s children,"  Yes I would really like this.

Could you show exactly how you get this added to the Auto Bio options?  I have Child List toggled on in the Families section of the Auto Bio selections but still only get the full Bio option on the dropdown Biography choices in edit mode.  Using Firefox on Mac.

Comments

You need to enable the Family Lists feature to get extra buttons under 'Biography'. One of them is 'Spouse and Child Details'.  That will copy the list to your system's clipboard.  You can paste that where you want it.

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I have Change Family Lists enabled.  Is that what you mean?  I also have Spouse and Child Details checked in the Auto Bio Section.

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I already have Change Family Lists enabled.  Is that what you mean?  I also have Spouse and Child Details checked in the Auto Bio Section.

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Cindy, in the Auto Bio options, go down to Family Lists and select Child List and Sibling List.

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Ian is telling you that you don't have to use the full Auto Bio. You can use "Family Lists" feature...

3.3.6.6 Family Lists

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Cindy, just in case I have confused matters...

There is an Auto Bio feature that generates a child list as one of its options.

There is a Family Lists feature that adds a set of buttons to the Biography menu.

I think that you want to use the  Family Lists feature.

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Hi, Murray, I think so too.  I find the Family Lists choices nested in the Auto Bio options section.

I have had the child list option checked since the beginning but do not have that specific option show on my dropdown on the Biography tab while editing.  I only get the full Auto Bio option (along with the Automated Corrections option).

Is there a separate Family Lists Feature somewhere else?  I have a Change Family Lists in the Profile section but it doesn't have a child list option.

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The Family Lists feature is under Editing and Edit Profile is documented here:

3.3.6.6 Family Lists

When you enable this feature, you will get new buttons under Biography. 

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Cindy was running an older version of WBE.

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Yes, we finally figured out that the automatic update feature had last worked in Jun 23!  I've got it all updated now and will check regularly in the future.  Rather than using the default auto update, I specifically turned it to ON.  Hopefully that will work better.  Thanks again for the help, I can see the child list option in the dropdown for Biographies.  It will make my life a lot easier.