Want to Tidy

[Miss Poohs]

up all my searches on Scotlands People, but don't know how to.

I have about 9 pages of searches on SP and it is becoming impossible to find anything.

I have actually mistakenly paid for the same searches about 2 or 3 times over just because it is so difficult to find what I'm looking for.

Is this common or is it bad management on my part?

I'd be very grateful of any tips to tidy up my online pages

[AnnieMack]

Hello

You can do two things - download and save them to your pc or what I do is go to previous searches and click on header ie name which is underlined at top of search list and sort into alphabetical order, then I look at the names I am concentrating on today to check that I don't already have the info.

Oh you can also put them into your timeline with a description in the free text box.

Hope this helps,

Annie

[Miss Poohs]

Thanks

Timeline? I've noticed that what does it do?

I really need to get ma'sel organised.

[emanday]

I started having the same problem and finally printed each page of searches and popped them into a ring binder. Every so often I print out the first page again when I see that the "old first search detail" is getting close to the bottom of the first page, then I pop that on the top of the others in the binder. When I want to do a search again I check the binder first to see if I've already got it.

I try to only use the Timline to keep track of the viewed images that I know are my people. If you do use it, please remember that you can delete images from timeline without losing the image, but if you delete it from the "Viewed Images" pages, it's gone forever and you'd have to pay for it again.

I have to admit, I do have stuff in timeline that really needs to be removed, but haven't got round to doing it yet.

[Russell]

I have 49 pages of 'previous searches' but can usually find the one I want because I tend to do look-ups for particular families in a group and can usually tell when I did the search. It is easier to look for a rough date than a particular name.

Must admit I never thought to arrange the list alphabetically

I must admit that it makes me feel better to know that confusion and disorganisation happens North of the Clyde as well as South.

I think that Mary's point about having to do an occasional 'spring-clean' is relevant to us all. The problem is when you get on a roll and every search is turning up a new find its hard to do the essential housekeeping. Its a case of never do today what you can put off till tomorrow

Russell

[StewL]

Someone must have been reading my mind on this very subject.

I have about 21 pages of previous searches, with a number of them proving to be none of my lot at all. Especially from when I started this game, as an example I have 10 Pages of names for Alec Stewart, only trouble is I did a date search that cut off a year before he and his twin brother Thomas were born . I keep thinking about deleting a lot of these fruitless searches, yes those one where I was so way off it isnae funny . Like searching for my grannie under Jessie when she was registered as Janet

Do you fine people think is is prudent to go in and delete these previous searches. (I have already downloaded all certs for my lot).

Like a miser I have in the back of my mind that they might be related through siblings of parents so reluctant to ditch them.

Help please!!

[Anne H]

Hi,

What a good question to ask when your not too bogged down with pages and pages to look through. Whatever you do, keep at it and don’t be like me. I have 48 pages in Viewed Images, 60 in Previous Searches and 46 in Timeline with a few pages still to go in and am constantly paying for the same searches over and over again simply because I’m not organized…I have also printed the search pages but that doesn’t seam to work for me.

I like the Timeline for easy reference to find a particular year (although you have to keep paging down to get to the right one). I also put them in alphabetical order in my Previous Searches and when that works it’s my preferred way. I also download the images to my hard drive,(thanks to Lesley’s help), and also put the images into Roots Magic, (thanks to someone else’s advise). I also print a copy for my files, but I’m still not organized…as Russell said, “when you’re on a roll” and therein lies my problem. I always seem to get sidetracked and go off searching again – then to top it all off, I have loads of data to enter into RootsMagic and loads more images to print and because I don't have my database up to date, I have often searched again only to find I already have an image (all those one credits wasted) .

So my advice is whatever you decide to do, at least enter your data into your database and make a "to do" list in the family section, or wherever, and do it right away because at least then you can see at a glance who you've already searched for and you'll have your "to do" list as a guide…but please don’t be like me!

Regards,
Anne H

[fmackay]

I won't embarass myself or shock you and tell you how many pages of images I have but although I do go through them from time to time and delete the obviously "way off the mark" ones I have found that others, through time have been connected with my extended family. It helps that my name is Mackay from a small community in Sutherland

Fiona

[emanday]

Wouldn't it be nice to have a wee search facility for our previous searches and viewed images?

[LesleyB]

Hi Mary
- I've thought that many a time. I think it has been mentioned on here before as being on quite a few folk's wish lists! It would be a wonderful addition.

Best wishes
Lesley