SUGGESTION: Instructions for adding other profiles to the image

Question

I was uploading an image of a Birth Certificate that I possess (which I could not locate on Ancestry or FamilySearch), and when I reached the spot to link to additional profiles in the image (her parents), I ran into a problem.

Below is the content from that screen (between the lines):

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Add a person or thing:   uncertain  certain

Additional profiles:   uncertain  certain

To identify someone or something in this photo enter a WikiTree ID above. You can enter additional WikiTree IDs by separating them with commas. You can also select from your Watchlist below. If the person, place, pet, event, or whatever else doesn't have a profile yet, create one.

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In reading the instructions, I was directed to add the WikiTree ID of the other people in the image. So I entered the two IDs for her parents, who are already in WT. The instructions are not specific to which of the two boxes you should use, so I entered them both in the top box. It failed to add them and told me it could not find a person with that link showing me the two profiles separated by a comma. 

I then noticed in the second box, it showed two IDs separated by a comma, so I entered both of them only in the second box and all was good.

SUGGESTION OPTION #1: I'm still unclear from these instructions why there are two separate boxes. How is a profile I might add in the first box different from the second box? If there is no difference, why not only have one box and make that one box able to accept multiple entries with commas?

OR

SUGGESTION OPTION #2: If number 1 above is not viable and there is a reason for there to be two boxes, add a little more to the instructions to tell the user why the two different boxes exist and to only enter multiple entries in the second box.

Answer 1

Note in the first box it says 'Add a person or thing'.  Not 'Add fourteen persons or things'. That should be one clue. So you put one person in the first box, and the second person in the second box.  If you had wanted to put in three persons overall, you would put
One person in the first box; and
Two people in the second box (Haywood-41, Smith-42)

Surely that doesn't need instructions?

Comments

But why are there two boxes in the first place? One box allowing comma separation would be sufficient. Having two boxes is unnecessarily complicated, and can be confusing as Kent indicated.

Maybe the first box is intended for free-space IDs containing commas, but if I remember correctly it doesn't work in that case anyway.

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An additional (top) box was added because you couldn't add a Free Space Page with a comma in the original box. We considered changing the separator to something other than a comma, such as a pipe, but figured that would be even more confusing.

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Thanks Jamie. What I was remembering is that the old box didn't work with a free-space ID containing a comma. It's good to have a new box which does work in that case.

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I have long struggled to understand this myself. My solution has been to simply ignore the first box altogether.

So this brings us to Kent's second suggestion. How about adjusting the wording slightly to make this clear to those members who don't have the "inside scoop" on why there are two boxes and how to properly use them. May I suggest something like the following:

"To attach this image to another profile, simply enter the profile ID in the top box. Additional profiles can also be listed in the bottom box using commas to separate them."

[Although, I'm still not clear on why I wouldn't just enter all of the profile IDs in the bottom box?]

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Jamie's reply, slightly above yours:

"An additional (top) box was added because you couldn't add a Free Space Page with a comma in the original box."

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Ok, I get that. So how about stating that in the instructions so people know not to put FreeSpace pages with commas in the bottom box.

Again, as Kent first proposed. A simple explanation would be helpful to those of us who don't see the distinction between the two boxes.

Answer 2

Thanks everyone for the great feedback. This is why I love G2G. You can always get fast answers from those who have years of experience navigating WT. In light of this additional information that was only available to me coming to G2G and asking this question, let me offer a new suggestion on behalf of us less experienced members to prevent future new WT members from this same misunderstanding.

Suggestion #3: Enhance the instructions below the boxes to something like the following:

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To identify someone or something in this photo enter a single WikiTree ID in the first box above. You can enter additional WikiTree IDs in the second box by separating them with commas. You can also select from your Watchlist below. Note that Free-Space Profiles should be entered one at a time in the top box. If you have multiple Free-Space Profiles to add, save the first one and return to this page to add more. If the person, place, pet, event, or whatever else doesn't have a profile yet, create one.

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This simple text change would have clarified what I was guessing incorrectly and reduced my frustration from those failed guesses.