Help talk:Surname categories grouped by initial letters

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Added a slight improvement in layout, using tables. Could be improved perhaps by making it into a two column table.Bill 23:24, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

More than a slight improvement - very good. But I was using tables too - a 3-column table, suffering from improper spacing, I suspect. With your horizontal layout of the 2-letter options, a single click in the scroll bar should take anyone to where they want to go, so I see no need for putting it in columns now. We could maybe move it to the top (and make consequent adjustments to the wording of the rest of the page). There's also the problem of inaccurate page name: that method gets all categories, not just surname categories. Ho-hum! Robin Patterson 01:42, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

I think the main thing is that we are moving forward with making it easier for people to use the wiki---your addition here now lets people easily find out whether their ancestor is already covered. That, I think, is a key step in getting more people involved. Residual problems include a) subsets have to be created manually, b) they do not include a range. On the later point, unless you are lucky enough to have someone with a "preset" (such as "Au"), you have to look at the main list for that particular letter (ie, all the A's). You could do "Aa, Ab, Ac...Az" but that would get pretty cumbersome. OK for now since there are relatively few articles, but eventually.... Bill 01:51, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

It is a method people can use to find an ancestor IF their ancestor is already covered and has been properly categorised as well as being mentioned on a page. But people can't rely on it to tell them whether their ancestor is already covered. If every contributor used the standard "people template" or your less ultra-simple ones, there probably would be such a guarantee; but you and I know and agree that not every contributor does or should. A Search for the surname is the more reliable method of finding "whether their ancestor is already covered". I've not checked all the search options; we should probably try to have a Soundex option if we haven't already. Robin Patterson 03:39, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Adding subsets is fairly easy (at under 10 seconds each if doing several at once): just copy a nearby line and change its defining letters (in two places near the end) to what you want; so anyone wanting one can add it. I removed Aa because it's currently at the top of "A", and removed Ab and Ac because they too appear without any scrolling. On my current display, even the first "Ar" categories appear, and only a handful of current surnames can't be found within three clicks/scrolls: even "Mylecharane Surname" is just "M", "down", "down". As the number grows, the creation of a program would be increasingly welcome, so I'll keep my eyes open. Robin Patterson 03:39, 28 September 2006 (UTC)