nFS scrollbar does not work

Take person # KNWX-MVV, Obadiah Holmes, as an example.
Pedigree w/details
Summary screen

Name, birth date, etc. have lots of possibilities. A down arrow on the right reveals a dropbox with a few of the options available. To see the rest, one must scroll. When I move into the scrollbar area, the scrollbar vanishes. I cannot see the other options.

(FYI: I have been using computers regularly for the last 20 years. I rely on them and a variety of software daily in my profession. NO other software or website has this problem.)

I have posted this to nFS feedback, but have not received any feedback from IT as to how to resolve this. I have, however, received various unrelated suppositions and cheerleader and be patient responses. The case is "closed" after each of these useless replies.

So, I have two issues:
1) This problem needs to be resolved by software developers.
2) Since feedback goes to missionaries who close the case, how does one actually provide feedback to the software developers?

I can't try to duplicate your symptoms, because it will be another 48-72 hours before I can register at nFS.

What browser and OS are you using? If you're using IE, it might help to try Firefox.

Is there a way on the feedback form to designate your message as a bug report? When the missionaries who closed your feedback reports, did they say it was a known issue the developers were already working on?

It's a long shot, but there's a chance it might help to click in the frame that you want to scroll, then perhaps use the up and down arrow and/or page keys to scroll.

scion wrote:Take person # KNWX-MVV, Obadiah Holmes, as an example.
Pedigree w/details
Summary screen

Name, birth date, etc. have lots of possibilities. A down arrow on the right reveals a dropbox with a few of the options available. To see the rest, one must scroll. When I move into the scrollbar area, the scrollbar vanishes. I cannot see the other options.

I was unable to reproduce the error you describe. I went to the person you specify, in the summary view the drop down shows a scroll bar and when I move to the scroll bar it works for me. I am using IE7 running in Vista. When you report the problem be sure to include the browser and operating system you are using because the error does not appear to show up on all systems.

What I have found helps for feedback is to post right in the feedback message that this is an error you have identified in the program and that you are not looking for a work around but for them to please pass this on to the product manager. I have done this on several errors that I had received feedback from a missionary trying to help me and after telling them to pass this on to the product manager they responded and told me it had been passed on.

I use Netscape & my adult child uses Firefox. My computer is only 1 year old & hers is 2 years old, and we both chose XP for an operating system.

This problem is totally unique to this website for both of us.

I tried clicking in the box (as suggested above), but that set a new birth date for him. Fortunately, I noted the contributor & she was one of the few who actually has contact info displayed (apparently that doesn't work, either). So, I contacted her to undo the change in birthdate. So, why is there no undo?

scion wrote:I use Netscape & my adult child uses Firefox. My computer is only 1 year old & hers is 2 years old, and we both chose XP for an operating system.

This problem is totally unique to this website for both of us.

I tried clicking in the box (as suggested above), but that set a new birth date for him. Fortunately, I noted the contributor & she was one of the few who actually has contact info displayed (apparently that doesn't work, either). So, I contacted her to undo the change in birthdate. So, why is there no undo?

I just tried to duplicate the problem on a Windows XP machine running Internet Exporer 7 but it worked fine on that machine to. I also noticed that if I used the mouse wheel it would scroll with the mouse wheel as well. I do not have firefox or Netscape on either of these computers to try to duplicate the problem with those browsers. Maybe someone else can try with one of those browsers.

The contact info only shows contact information for current users of newFamilySearch. There is a process to claim old legacy contributions but there seems to be a problem with the contact information working for claimed contributions. I have sent feedback about this problem and I know several other have as well. I am sure it will be fixed soon.

I haven't owned a mouse or a desktop in awhile. I just use the touchpad.

Just to test it, I tried using arrows. That just moves the whole screen, not the drop boxes.

scion wrote:I use Netscape & my adult child uses Firefox.

GarysTurn wrote:I just tried to duplicate the problem on a Windows XP machine running Internet Exporer 7 but it worked fine on that machine too.

I have no access to nFS, but this sure sounds like a browser-related problem to me. So scion reported the problem with Netscape and Firefox, but the only responses have been that IE works. Someone with access to nFS should try this with Firefox.

I'm not too worried about Netscape -- it is an unsupported browser (see this post on a different topic) that the Church is wise not to waste its limited testing and development resources on. People who choose to stick with Netscape have to expect compatibility problems that will only increase with time. But Firefox is one of the most standards-compliant browsers out there, and it is a significant problem if nFS has problems with Firefox.

Netscape itself was officially abandoned by the developers as of February of this year after its run from being the first browser for the web, to being the top browser, to being overshadowed by MSIE.

I'm using Firefox and have no problems with nFS at all. I can go from screen to screen and scroll easily with that.

JamesAnderson wrote:Netscape itself was officially abandoned by the developers as of February of this year after its run from being the first browser for the web, to being the top browser, to being overshadowed by MSIE.

I'm using Firefox and have no problems with nFS at all. I can go from screen to screen and scroll easily with that.

I just installed Firefox on a XP machine and went to the suggested person and everything worked fine. I think the problem is not related to the operating system or the browser. I think the problem being experienced is related to using the touch pad instead of a mouse. I noticed while playing with the scroll bar that as soon as I move the mouse away from the drop down area the drop down disapears almost instantly.

The feedback to the Product Managers at nFS needs to let them know that this is a problem using a touch pad in place of a mouse. To test that theory we would need to experiment with a laptop and a touch pad. I would recommend that Scion try using a mouse and see if that solves the problem. If it does then we need to get feedback to nFS about this problem, because a lot of people use laptops without a mouse. There may be a way to prevent the drop down scroll area to stay by keeping a finger on the touchpad, try experimenting with that as well, but the dropdowns should not be disapearing so quickly and that delay time should be adjusted.

I am using Firefox 3.0.1 with a Windows XP operating system. All of the scroll-bars on the summary screen for Obadiah Holmes (KNWX-MVV) worked fine except for the one for the burial event. The bottom of this one disappeared behind the footer of the summary screen. I was able to work the scroll-bar but could not see it. This is the kind of thing that will be very disconcerting to nFS users who are not very tech-savvy. I used Camtasia to capture a video of the scroll bar acting up, but had problems attaching the swf file to this post so those who would like to can view it at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mecchina/flash/holmestest.html
PS: I was using a mouse, not a touch pad.

Alan Wambold wrote:I am using Firefox 3.0.1 with a Windows XP operating system. All of the scroll-bars on the summary screen for Obadiah Holmes (KNWX-MVV) worked fine except for the one for the burial event. The bottom of this one disappeared behind the footer of the summary screen. I was able to work the scroll-bar but could not see it. This is the kind of thing that will be very disconcerting to nFS users who are not very tech-savvy. I used Camtasia to capture a video of the scroll bar acting up, but had problems attaching the swf file to this post so those who would like to can view it at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mecchina/flash/holmestest.html
PS: I was using a mouse, not a touch pad.

Excellent sleuthing! The captured video shows exactly what is happening, and should be very helpful in tracking down the problem.

If this is indeed what scion reported (could you please confirm this, scion? It would be quite helpful), then it may not be related to a particular browser as I initially suspected, but rather the essential issue would be with an entry showing up at a particular place in the browser window.

I have noted some other problems with FireFox. Some of the Icons are displayed behind the box that they should be in front of and there is a missing Icon.

See Example below.

I've used laptops with touchpads for most of the last decade at home. For the last five years at work I've used a laptop exclusively with the touchpad. Some work laptops had that little blue thing sticking up in the keyboard (I can't recall the name of it.). I haven't owned a mouse in quite awhile.

The video link is good, but is different from my experience. As I use the touchpad to move to the scrollbar area, the scrollbar & dropbox vanishes. Therefore, I cannot scroll at all.

Also, the temple icons are where they belong and the dropbox is visible (I just cannot scroll).

scion wrote:As I use the touchpad to move to the scrollbar area, the scrollbar & dropbox vanishes. Therefore, I cannot scroll at all.

"Clicks" on touchpads can be very sensitive; is it possible that there is a click going on as you are using the touchpad to move the mouse into the scroll bar area?

Maybe someone with a mouse can try doing some weird clicking to try and duplicate what a touchpad might do?

I have a touch pad and I have no issues under IE7. There are a few things I've observed.

When I move my cursor into the box, the little down arrow icon disappears, the icon in the tab for FamilySearch changes to a "circle" showing that it's thinking, and when it stops I see a larger down arrow icon in the box. Moving in or out of the box causes the computer to "think" and the down arrow changes.

It doesn't seem to make much difference if I click on the larger down arrow, or in the box, the action is the same: a blue scroll area opens up under the box complete with scroll bar.

No amount of clicking IN the box or on the arrow causes anything to change in any of the fields.

I have no problems in navigating the scroll area.

This problem with the Mozilla Firefox / Netscape browsers has been submitted to the nFS Support Team, and they are working on a fix (if it hasn't been fixed already.)

GarysTurn wrote:I have noted some other problems with FireFox. Some of the Icons are displayed behind the box that they should be in front of and there is a missing Icon.

I don't have a touch pad to check those issues, but the problem with the missing icon is still occuring when using FireFox3. IE6 doesn't have this icon issue.