* 'Apps' category under Services & Utilities

[ColeValleyGirl]

laz_gen has pointed out (thanks!) that the category Apps under Services & Utilities sounds more like Apps for phones rather than PC programs, although it ought to encompass both.

Any suggestions for a better category name? And maybe some of the items under Other should be moved when we rename it?

[Valkrider]

We could split it with a sub menu under apps between Windows, Mac, Android & iOS or just make use of categories in the page to differentiate between the various os's.

[Woodg]

I always assume "Apps" to be for iOS or Android (phones or tablets). But maybe I'm just old fashioned.

[ColeValleyGirl]

We could split it with a sub menu under apps between Windows, Mac, Android & iOS or just make use of categories in the page to differentiate between the various os's.

It's already at the lowest level possible in the categorising hierarchy for Services & Utilities; and the page is automatically generated so it would be a lot of development work to split the page.

We could add increase the categories at that lowest level, e.g. Android/iOS Apps, Windows Applications, Mac/Linux Applications ?

Although we don't have any Android/iOS Apps... or rather we do, but they're all under Gedcom tools, so some extra 'tagging' needed.

[davidf]

Is it a case that the sub topics showing on the Services & Utilities Topic need a bit of consideration? At the moment some areas looks like a bit f a miss-mash and the Titles - which are probably historic - do not adequately (in the few characters available) describe what is to be found in the Sub Topic - and how it helps the user?

Might we have a revised sub-topic hierarchy? (I have tried to suggest some form of criteria for each sub-topic) in the following part-list:

• Companion Applications - "an application (c.f. "utilities") which can stand along side FH providing extended functionality in terms of what you can put in and get out of FH compatible GEDCOM files"? just Ancestral Sources at the moment, but do the GEDCOM fancy diagram programs count as "Companion Applications". Does the Complete Genealogy Reporter also count?
• Genealogy Assistance - an application that assists with "doing" genealogy without actually altering with the GEDCOM file - Family Tree Analyzer, GenSmarts, Custodian, etc,
• Research Process Assistance - Stand-alone Research Planners etc.
• GEDCOM utilities - Utilities that directly interact with GEDCOMs at a low level? The Current GEDCOM Tools category seems to go beyond the current scope implied by the title?
• GEDCOM Viewers - Programs for viewing genealogy data outside of FH - Heredis mobile app for iOS and Android etc.
  ...
• PDF Utilities - this looks like a sub-topic that is working; clear scope and everything relevant
• (Windows) System Utilities - Windows utilities of general use but which can help genealogists: Autokey, CLCL etc.
• (Enabling) FH on Other Systems - Applications required to run FH on Operating Systems other than Windows - Virtual Box; Wine; Cross-over;
• etc.

In terms of splitting between Operating Systems - is that a significant enough division? I would classify by function and possibly put (Android) (iOS) (Linux) etc at the end of the title for items that are not Windows? The vast majority will be Windows?

It would be nice if the sub-topics could sort in terms of "Applicability" FH > GEDCOM > Genealogy > General - but I think it is an alphabetic sort that could only be over come by prefixing the sub-topics with numbers. Alternatively do we benefit by splitting the links between FH links, GEDCOM links, Genealogy links, and General links?

[ColeValleyGirl]

I would much prefer that we keep Services & Utilities as the single top level grouping for these -- splitting it is a lot of work that I really don't need right now. I'm amenable to renaming it as long as somebody else volunteers to update the documentation.

And I'm very happy for somebody else to re-categorise everything in the bucket -- I'll create new categories if required, once they're agreed. I think the category names need to be self-explanatory, and there oughtn't to be too many of them or it becomes overwhelming -- 15 seems the maximum that's sensible. Don't forget a single item can sit in more than one category, so we can for example put GedExplorer in both 'Android/iOS Apps' and 'Gedcom Tools'. If the content was tweaked slightly to mention Android early on, that would be obvious on the page that lists items under the link type.

P.S. Somehow Spreadsheets, which should have been migrated to Downloads, has been migrated here, so that needs sorting as well.

[AdrianBruce]

I always assume "Apps" to be for iOS or Android (phones or tablets). ...

Me too. In fact, didn't Apple once try to trademark the word "App"?

Why not do a minimum change and alter the "Apps" heading to "Apps & Utilities"? I think people would automatically read it as "Utilities not mentioned in headings below..."

[tatewise]

It would be nice if the sub-topics could sort in terms of "Applicability" FH > GEDCOM > Genealogy > General - but I think it is an alphabetic sort that could only be over come by prefixing the sub-topics with numbers.

Apart from the Knowledge Base home page, all Topic Headings and Article Lists are alphabetical rather than in some applicability/relevance grouping that might be more user-friendly. However, I have no idea how it could be easily improved.

[ColeValleyGirl]

We built in the ability to customise the sort for the main KB (Articles) on the Home page because we wanted the most used stuff first (FAQS, Navigating, Entering Data), then viewing the data (Diagrams, reports, Queries) and then the 'other stuff'.

I don't believe that there's any sensible ordering we can do for the other content types, including some arbitrary assessment of relevance. At least people understand alphabetical ordering at first sight, whereas some apparently random scattering or categories across the page based on 'relevance' criteria that they haven't seen and which may or may not apply to them at the point in time that they're looking...? Very frustrating.

I've had a quick look this morning and could -- if presented with a list of new or renamed categories and sub-categories -- implement them so that a reorganisation would take place. It would be a couple of hours work for me; and would need to be co-ordinated so that the reorganisation took place immediately afterwards, otherwise the page will become very confusing for users as the new categories will appear without anything underneath it.

[tatewise]

A new user will probably notice that the KB Home page has its topic headings in a customised order.
Perhaps it would help to put a note somewhere saying that all other lists are alphabetical so their order is not relevant, and repeat that note on every KB page.

[ColeValleyGirl]

While waiting for a new structure to be thrashed out, and for somebody to volunteer to do the content edits, I've implemented Adrian's suggestion.