* Go Back/Go Forward arrows in Property Box

[LornaCraig]

For some time I have been a bit puzzled by the behaviour of the forward/back navigation arrows at the top of the Property box.

Firstly, is there a limit to the number of records that can be ‘remembered’ when using these arrows? Sometimes the trail seems to stop after going back only one record (of any type) but sometimes it is possible to go further back. I think I have navigated back through half a dozen records sometimes.

The other puzzle is even more unpredictable. I sometimes find that the navigation seems to go off on a tangent of its own. After viewing several records or tabs in the Property box and using the forward/back arrows successfully, if I switch to a new record and then use the back arrow it takes me through successive records of the same type in reverse alphabetical order. For example if I am viewing a Source record in the property box, instead of taking me back to the Individual record I was previously viewing, the back arrow will take me to the Source record immediately before the currently viewed Source record alphabetically, and then continues to work through the Source records in reverse alphabetical order. Similarly it sometimes starts to work through Individual records in reverse alphabetical order instead of returning to whatever record I was previously viewing. (The records are normally sorted alphabetically in the Records window so it may in fact be following whatever happens to be the sort order in the Records window).

It only happens occasionally and I have not been able to reproduce the problem reliably.

Can anyone else reproduce this problem and work out when, or why, it happens?

[tatewise]

Problems with those keys have existed as far back as V3.

I don't think there is a limit to how long the Back/Forward chain can be, but it is easy to disrupt the chain.
These often seem to upset the chain:

• Selecting a Record that is already in the chain.
• Following a Parent or Spouse link from an Individual.
• Selecting a Record from say the Record Window instead of a link in the chain.

However, the behaviour is somewhat unpredictable.

I have not been able to reproduce the scenario of chaining alphabetically backwards through similar Record types.

Which Windows version are you using, I am on Windows 7 SP1.

[LornaCraig]

I'm using Windows 7 Professional SP1.

This evening I have seen both extremes of the problem: at one point only being able to go back one record, but later on finding that it was chaining back endlessly alphabetically. In this case the alphabetical chaining didn't start until after I had already navigated back through three records (individual, source, individual) correctly. Very confusing!

[SimonOrde]

We have tried to replicate the problems you both mention without success. I tried as an experiment clicking on a long series of people, to create a chain. In doing so I selected them by clicking on a record in the Records window and by clicking on 'Go To Spouse' links and 'Go To Parent' links in the Property Box itself, and I included people who had already been 'visited' so to speak. I made a list of all the people I expected to be able to 'Go Back' to, and it all worked perfectly, including repeat visits to the same record, where appropriate. The problem Lorna mentions of the Go Back chain listing all sources in reverse alphabetical order is particularly strange.

Here are some thoughts which might explain some of the things Lorna mentions:

The first is - why does the Property Box sometimes only go back a few steps? Is it possible that it has been closed and re-opened? Whenever the Property Box closes, it's Go Back chain is cleared. If you switch from one window to another (e.g. open the Records Window), the Property Box may be automatically closed. You may immediately re-open it, but the 'Go Back' chain will have been cleared.

If that is part of the problem, the moral is perhaps that the Go Back chain should not be cleared, even if the Property Box is closed...

Another thought is this: suppose you have 5 people in the 'Go Back' chain (a, b, c, d, e). Imagine you click 'Go Back' several times to go back to 'a'. Then you click on 'f'. At this point, the Go Back chain will contain only 2 people (a, f). In other words, if you go back, and then click on a new person, 'mid-chain' so to speak, the 'forward' part of the chain will be cleared, and the new person will be added at that point. This is by design. The chain can't 'fork'. But it might explain why sometimes you can't go back to people you had previously visited.

Finally - the problem of the Go Back chain listing all sources in reverse alphabetical order. The only explanation for that, that I can come up with is this: Is it possible Lorna that you have been viewing Source records in the Records Window, listed in alphabetical order, when the Property Box was open? If so, is it possible that you used the arrow key to move down through the list of source records? Because if you do that, you will see what you have described. This is because you are selecting each source record (albeit briefly) in turn, and the Property Box is (briefly) being updated to show their details. Which is why when you click the 'Go Back' button, you will go back through all of them in reverse alphabetical order.

If you can replicate any of the problems you mention and tell us how we can replicate them too, preferably using the sample project, that would be ideal.

[LornaCraig]

Simon,
Thank you for taking the time to look at this. I will do some more experiments this evening trying to replicate the problem consistently, and will report back. Meanwhile I can answer some of your points:

The first is - why does the Property Box sometimes only go back a few steps? Is it possible that it has been closed and re-opened? Whenever the Property Box closes, it's Go Back chain is cleared. If you switch from one window to another (e.g. open the Records Window), the Property Box may be automatically closed. You may immediately re-open it, but the 'Go Back' chain will have been cleared.

In Tools>Preferences I have the Property box docked for all three types of window (Focus, Record and Other), and the Action when Window is Opened or Activated is set to Open it for all three. So as far as I am aware the Property box never closes when I switch between windows.

Another thought is this: suppose you have 5 people in the 'Go Back' chain (a, b, c, d, e). Imagine you click 'Go Back' several times to go back to 'a'. Then you click on 'f'. At this point, the Go Back chain will contain only 2 people (a, f). In other words, if you go back, and then click on a new person, 'mid-chain' so to speak, the 'forward' part of the chain will be cleared, and the new person will be added at that point. This is by design. The chain can't 'fork'. But it might explain why sometimes you can't go back to people you had previously visited.

It is possible that this explains the truncating of the chain sometimes. I will try to note carefully if I can produce this problem in any other circumstances.

Finally - the problem of the Go Back chain listing all sources in reverse alphabetical order. The only explanation for that, that I can come up with is this: Is it possible Lorna that you have been viewing Source records in the Records Window, listed in alphabetical order, when the Property Box was open? If so, is it possible that you used the arrow key to move down through the list of source records? Because if you do that, you will see what you have described. This is because you are selecting each source record (albeit briefly) in turn, and the Property Box is (briefly) being updated to show their details. Which is why when you click the 'Go Back' button, you will go back through all of them in reverse alphabetical order.

No, that is definitely not the cause of the problem I'm afraid. It occurs 'out of the blue' sometimes when I have switched to a Source record from an Individual record, usually by using the Go to Source Record icon in the Source pane of the Individual's property box. Instead of returning me to the Individual's Property box the back arrow then chains through other Source records. On one occasion after successfully returning me to the Individual, it started chaining back alphabetically through Individual records. I had definitely not been viewing those records previously.

I have been baffled by this for a long time, but because the problem only occurs occasionally I have never been able to pin-point the cause. I will keep trying!

[LornaCraig]

I am still having no success in replicating the alphabetical chaining problem reliably. I have tried repeating some of the sequences where it has occurred and am 90% certain that I have repeated the same steps but everything works perfectly. Because the problem is infrequent and unpredictable I am beginning to wonder whether the disruption to the chain is caused by something beyond the user’s control: for example by something else (autosave?) occurring at the instant when the back button is clicked. I know I am clutching at straws here....

One other query: are the forward/back arrows intended to take you from one record to another, going straight to each record’s main tab, or should the chain include all the tabs which have been visited?

There seems to be a bit of inconsistency here which I can replicate. For example, using the Sample Project:

Select Anthony Munro in the Records Window.
From his Main tab navigate to his wife Julia.
Now switch to Julia’s Facts tab.
The back arrow will now take you straight back from her Facts tab to Anthony’s Main tab, omitting Julia’s Main tab from the chain. The forward arrow will then take you forward you to her Main tab, but not on to her Facts tab. So the arrows appear to navigate between records rather than tabs.

Now close the Property box to clear the chain and start again. Repeat the above but before using the back arrow, when on Julia’s Facts tab go to the Source record for her divorce, using the Go to Source Record icon in the Source pane. The back arrow will now take you back to Julia’s Facts tab and then her Main tab, before going back to Anthony. In the first scenario Julia’s Main tab is omitted from the chain between her Facts tab and Anthony’s Main tab. In the second it is included.

Now start again with Anthony Munro.
In his Property box, switch to and fro several times between the Main tab and the Facts tab. The back arrow remains disabled – it is not possible to use it to switch between tabs. Again, this makes sense if the arrows are designed only for switching between records.
Now from Anthony’s Facts tab switch to the Source record for his baptism, using the Go to Source Record icon in the Source pane. The back arrow now takes you back to the Facts tab for Anthony and remains enabled so that it can take you back to the Main tab. It is now possible to use the forward/back arrows to navigate to and fro between the Main tab and Facts tab for Anthony Munro although this was not previously possible.

This is trivial but I mention it just in case it has any bearing on the alphabetical chaining problem.

[tatewise]

Please also see Whish List 461 Go Back should restore its parent Record context.
Not only should Go Back return to the correct Tab but it should also restore the original cursor position.
In Lorna's examples above, when returning to the Facts tab, it does NOT return to the original Divorce or Baptism Fact, instead it always returns to the first Fact.

[SimonOrde]

Lorna - the intention of the design of the Go Back/Go Forward buttons was that it remembered up to 2 tabs per record - the 'entry' tab and the 'exit' tab. The 'entry' tab is the first tab that is displayed when a given record is displayed in the Property Box (i.e. following a switch from another record) - which for Individuals, will usually but not always or necessarily, be the 'Main' tab. And the 'exit' tab is the last tab displayed for that same record before switching to another record. i.e. the current system is neither 'per-record' nor 'per-tab', but something in between. We opted for this because we were concerned that walking back through every tab switch might feel like too much. But just remembering one tab only also felt wrong (not similar enough to the original experience of navigating from one record to another). Your examples show that the implementation of this hasn't been working 100% as intended. But in any case, we're now inclined to feel that Mike is probably right and that despite our earlier concerns, it may be better just to remember every tab. It should be easier for users to make sense of what is going on for one thing.

We also appreciate the desirability of remembering more context information within each tab (see Mike's reference to the Wish List item for this) so that, for example, if you go back to the Fact tab, the last fact you were looking at will be re-selected. This is on our ToDo list.

One other moral we take from your earlier posts, is that we should not be clearing the Go Back chain, even if you close and re-open the Propery Box.

[LornaCraig]

Thank you for your comments Simon.
I had wondered whether the intention was to include only what you call the 'entry' and 'exit' tabs, but that clearly wasn't quite what was happening.

I agree that remembering every tab will make it easier to understand what is going on, and that the context within every tab should be remembered. Although I normally keep the Property Box open all the time I also agree that it would be best not to clear the chain if it is closed.

Meanwhile if I find any more occurrences of the alphabetical chaining problem I will try to record exactly what led to it, even if I cannot re-create the error.

[LornaCraig]

Update: I think I have solved the mystery of the ‘alphabetical chaining’ problem!
In the last few weeks I have seen a few more instances of this, and realised that the chaining does not go on indefinitely but either completely stops at some point or returns, after several records, to the record I had expected to return to immediately.

It happens when a record, of any type, is selected in the Records window by using the ‘Find’ box at the top. When the first letter of the record name is typed into this box the screen immediately jumps to the first record (alphabetically) starting with that letter, and that record is highlighted faintly in pale grey. As more letters of the required record are entered, the focus jumps each time to the first record starting with the group of letters so far entered. Once enough letters have been entered for the required record to be found, clicking on that record highlights it boldly in blue. However, I had not noticed that if you work with the Property Box open all the time it switches to each of the records temporarily highlighted in pale grey, instead of waiting until a record is positively selected and highlighted in blue. If you type a name in quickly you don’t notice the Property Box changing with every letter you type!

The explanation now seems quite obvious, of course. I would like to suggest that the record displayed in the Property Box should not change until a new record is positively selected. Would there be any drawbacks to this?