The following is an announcement from Findmypast:
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- Findmypast announce a variety of new tools and features designed to enhance user discoveries
- Major update improves accessibility to detail rich genealogical resources
- Users can now locate and decipher the hidden details within images of original documents
Leading family history website, Findmypast, have today announced a major new update to their record image viewer.
Now available to all users, the upgraded viewer introduces a raft of new tools and features all designed to enhance user discoveries.
For both beginner and expert family historians, digitised images of original documents are an essential resource that often provide significantly richer levels of detail than transcripts alone.
With many millions of images available to explore and with millions more being added to the site each month, Findmypast have launched this upgrade to help users make the most of this vast genealogical goldmine by making the contents of historical documents easier to access and understand.
These new features and tools include;
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- Brightness and contrast adjustors – to help improve the legibility of difficult to read documents. Also included is the option to ‘invert colours’ for those who prefer to read light text on dark backgrounds
- Previews of previous subsequent pages – Thumbnails of the images either side of an individual record have now been added. This helps users understand what might lie beyond the page they’re initially looking at – whether a volume cover, new volume or record. For the 1911 Census, Findmypast have also created thumbnails for additional information about each volume
- Page numbers – where available, page numbers have also been made visible. To help navigate volumes in their entirety, users can now see exactly where they are within the document, the total number of pages available, and can jump to any one of them immediately
- Easier access to transcripts – Where an image has transcripts available, Findmypast now enables users to access any transcript for a person featured in that image from within the viewer itself. This enhances users’ ability to ability to see what names are included in any given image, particularly helpful in cases where old handwriting may be difficult to read. This is available on many record sets such as the 1939 register, Crime and Punishment record set, Passenger Lists etc.
- View transcript on the page within the 1939 Register – Findmypast have used data coordinates to show users transcripts in situ when viewing on desktop, making it much easier to identify individuals and households at a glance
- Enhanced viewing on mobile or tablet devices – including an improved interface and the ability to flip documents for improved viewing of landscape images
- Simplified access to important tools – Findmypast have grouped the most popular user actions such as printing, downloading and adding to tree at the top of each image and have added explanations for new users
As well as making it easier for users to quickly and accurately access the information they need, today’s announcement also lays solid foundations for future updates.
Following significant and continued investment in the development of new tools and features, Findmypast will continue to work hand in hand with their passionate online community to further enhance their unique offerings and deliver the best possible experience for all.