- Profile
- Images
Location: [unknown]
Note to self: add project links.
This page is intended mainly for the US Black Heritage's team/project leaders to learn to create WikiTree+ reports and searches that they can then use on their various project pages and events. That being said, it will also be useful for any project member who wants to learn more about using WikiTree+.
Contents |
The Basics
Search types
- When you go to WikiTree+, there are several different types of search sections on the left. The ones we use most often are "Suggestions" at the top, which is opened by default when you load the page, and "Search".
- "Suggestions" allows you to search for Data Doctor suggestions. For more information on working with suggestions, see the USBH Data Doctor Team page.
- "Search", or a profile search, has several options, but "Text Search" is what we use most often and will allow you to find a list of profiles based on your search terms.
- Make sure you use the right type of search - it's not uncommon for your profile text search to not produce the list of profiles you expect, only to realize you were actually using the "Suggestions" search!
- You can see the difference between the kinds of results you get from each search type by looking at searches for the our project's {{African-American Sticker}} in a suggestions search and a profile text search - hit the blue Get Suggestions or Get Profiles button on the left to bring up the search results.
Help pages
- Each search box has a green circle with a question mark that will take you to its section on the WikiTree+ help page. This page has lots of helpful information and lists of "Magic Words" that you can use in your searches. This free space page will highlight information that we use most for the USBH project, but there are many other search terms and search options listed on the help pages that you may want to explore at some point.
Max Suggestions/Max Profiles
- When searching for suggestions and doing a profile text search, you can limit the number of results you get by entering a number in the Max Suggestions or Max Profiles box. So if you put 1000 in this box, you'll only get 1,000 results, even if there are 10,000. Some searches can have hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of results. Limiting the number of results makes the search go much quicker in these cases and reduces the load on the WikiTree+ servers. So if you're just looking for a few profiles to work on, leaving it at the default is a good idea - you'll still get plenty of results to work on, your search will be processed more quickly, and it lightens the load on the servers. If you are a team leader running stats a few times a year, you may need to use a much larger number to get all of the results. When doing a profile text search (but not for suggestions searches), if there are more results than the "max profiles" number you've chosen, there will be a link above your search results that says something like "You can extend the search to 1000 profiles." Clicking on that will increase the number of results you get. For an example, see this search for profiles with the {{African-American Sticker and the Max Profiles set to 500, then click on the blue "Get Profiles" button on the left.
- The rest of the example searches on this page will have Max Profiles set to 50 so they load quickly but you can see how the search is set up. On all of them, you will need to click on the blue "Get Profiles" button on the left for the search results to load.
Show result in new tab
- In the search section on the left, there's a check box at the top you can check to "Show result in new tab". This will open a new tab for your search results. Doing this creates at least three important differences from just keeping the results in the same tab:
- The search boxes are not on the page. This makes it is slightly more difficult to adjust your search if you're not happy with the result. So you may not want to use the new tab option if you're trying to work out a search. On the other hand, if you want to see the differences between two slightly different searches, it is helpful to do each search with the results in a new tab, so you have each set of results in its own tab that you can switch between to view the differences. Otherwise, if your results are in the same tab, you'll lose the first set of search results when you run the second search.
- When you show the results in the new tab and then go to the next page of results, the URL will end with pageIdx=3. This can be useful for when you are running an event - each person can claim a different page of results and easily navigate to their page by changing this number at the end of the URL. See this page as an example, then change the page ID number at the end of the URL to 5 to bring up the 5th page of results.
- If you provide a link to this 'results in a new tab' page, people who use it don't have to hit the "Get Suggestions/Profiles" button for the search results to load - the results will immediately load when they follow the link. Because of this, it is generally best to use a link for 'results in a new tab' when you are sharing a link with others or posting a link on a project page. You can see the difference between a search where the results are NOT in a new tab and when they are in a new tab.
Combining search terms
- By default, adding more than one search term will assume an "and" operator - that is, it will find results that match all of the things you put in the search box. So a profile text search for TemplateFull=African-American_Sticker Orphan Region=Virginia gives you a list of profiles that meet ALL three criteria: (1) have the {{African-American Sticker}}, (2) are orphaned profiles (no profile manager), and (3) have the state of Virginia in either their Birth, Marriage, or Death Location data field. (You'll learn more about each of these specific search terms below.) If they only meet two of these criteria, but not the third, they will not be included in these results. So orphaned Virginia profiles that do not have the {{African-American Sticker}} would not be included and neither would orphaned profiles that do have the {{African-American Sticker}}, but have Indiana as their birth, marriage and death place.
- You can optionally use the operators 'or' and 'not' instead. Detailed explanation of how to use these may be added to this page in the future.
"Suggestions" search
Note: for all the links to WikiTree+ suggestions searches in this section, you'll need to click the blue "Find Suggestions" box on the left to pull up the list of suggestions once you go to the page.
Although we have a report with all our project's suggestions, you may want to narrow down and find suggestions for a specific location, profiles that you manage, etc. Some of the most used options are described below.
Finding USBH suggestions
- The first search term you'll need to use to find USBH project suggestions is either African-American Sticker, which will find suggestions for all of our profiles with the {{African-American Sticker}}, or WikiTree-112, which will find suggestions for all profiles managed by the project (mostly these are Notables).
Specific suggestions
- When searching for suggestions, there is a dropdown box on the top left where you can choose a specific suggestion to search for. Here is an example of a search for Error 965 on profiles the USBH project manages. You can also just use a suggestion number as a search term like this.
Add a location
- You can add a location to your search - use Location=Kentucky, replacing Kentucky with the location you are searching for. If the Location is more than one word, use quotation marks like Location="North Carolina". This will search the data fields for birth, marriage, and death. You can narrow your search down to just one of these location fields using DeathLocation=Kentucky, BirthLocation=Kentucky, or MarriageLocation=Kentucky.
- Note that this searches for anywhere the name is used in a location field. So a search for Location=Washington will return results for the State of Washington, Washington D.C. and any Washington County/Washington Township/etc. So its usefulness will be limited based on how common the name is. To do a better search for suggestions for a state, do a text search by Region ADD LINK after creating section and then above the search results, click on the link where it says "Search for Suggestions on results."
Your own managed profiles
- You can search for suggestions for your own managed profiles with the {{African-American Sticker}} using the search African-American Sticker Manager=Trtnik-2, but replace Trtnik=2 with your own WikiTree ID.
Some other helpful "Magic Words"
- You can add any of these to a search for USBH suggestions:
- Orphan: orphaned profiles (example)
- 5stars: the most viewed profiles on WikiTree - probably most helpful when working on Notables (example). You can also search by 4stars, 3stars, 2stars, and 1star, with 1star being the least viewed profiles.
Suggestions from results of a text search
- Any time you do a profile text search, above the search results, there is link where it says "Search for Suggestions on results." This will pull up suggestions for all the profiles that were in the results of your profile text search. The profile text search has more "magic words" than the suggestions search, so if you're looking for suggestions for a more specific group of profiles, this is often the best way to get them.
- Login to request to the join the Trusted List so that you can edit and add images.
- Private Messages: Send a private message to the Profile Manager. (Best when privacy is an issue.)
- Public Comments: Login to post. (Best for messages specifically directed to those editing this profile. Limit 20 per day.)
- Public Q&A: These will appear above and in the Genealogist-to-Genealogist (G2G) Forum. (Best for anything directed to the wider genealogy community.)