Access WDYTYA? Magazine digitally

Nick Peers reveals how to make the most of the WDYTYA? Magazine app for Android and iOS

Combing through back issues of your favourite genealogy magazine is a lot easier when you equip yourself with the free WDYTYA? Magazine mobile app. Whether you’re a digital or paper-based subscriber, the app brings every single article within easy reach. Thanks to its powerful search tool, you can track down a specific article or find information on different topics, then either reach for the relevant issue on your bookshelf or purchase a digital copy to read directly on your smartphone or tablet.

We last featured the app back in March 2020, when we covered its powerful search tool in detail, so this time we’ve chosen a more general overview for our step-by-step guide, revealing how to use the app to access and view the hundreds of news stories and other articles published since 2012. If you’ve not looked at the app recently, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much more user-friendly it’s become. In particular, look out for the new accessibility features that make reading more pleasurable.

It’s also now available for Android users, whereas previously our mobilefriendly format was only available to iOS users.

1

Log Into The App After installing the free app through the Google Play Store (Android) or the App Store (iOS), open it and you’ll be prompted to Sign in if you already have an account. If you don’t have one, just tap ‘Register’ to create a free account using your email address – you can also log in using your Facebook, Google or Apple account. You will be able to restore purchases if necessary or link your account to a digital subscription.

2

Browse Current Issue Once logged in, you’ll be shown the current issue’s contents – tap an article to either read it (if you’ve purchased that issue digitally or have a digital subscription) or access a preview. Note that three articles every issue are labelled ‘Free’ and can be read in their entirety by anyone who’s logged in. Otherwise, use the buttons provided to purchase individual issues or a full subscription.

3

Access Previous Issues To go back through previous issues – including those that you’ve bought – switch to the ‘Library’ tab. All available issues going back to April 2012 can be accessed here, or tap ‘My Issues’ to show only those that you’ve purchased. Tap a cover to preview an issue, or the price underneath it to buy it. Once purchased, tap ‘Read’ to unlock the full issue.

4

Read Newer Articles From the Summer 2018 issue onwards issues are presented in a mobilefriendly format the same way as the current issue – just tap an article to view it. You can scroll up and down using your finger, or swipe right and left to read the previous and next articles respectively. You can also use hyperlinks in articles by tapping them to view the page in your web browser.

5

Navigate More Quickly You can also navigate within an issue without having to go back to the main contents page. Simply tap the index button at the top of the page to display a fly-out table of contents, which lists all of the articles in page order. Simply scroll through the list until you find the article that you’re looking for, then tap it to go straight there.

6

Access Older Articles Prior to Summer 2018, issues are presented in the same way they appeared in print. Browse through issues by swiping between pages, then pinch with your finger to zoom in and out of the page. Navigation can be done by a pop-out window that displays pages as thumbnails, or by visiting the issue’s contents pages and tapping the title of the article to jump to it.

7

Bookmark Favourite Articles Want to revisit an article later? Tap the bookmark icon at the top of the article page (also available next to its entry on the contents screen) to turn it a solid colour. To view your bookmarks, tap the button in the top-left-hand corner of the screen and choose ‘Bookmarks’ – you’ll see that they’re organised by issue and can be removed (tap the icon again) or completely cleared (tap ‘Delete all bookmarks’).

8

Improve Readability From the May 2022 issue onwards, you’ll notice three new buttons at the top of the screen when viewing content. These make articles easier to read – you can toggle between a light and dark background (tap the button resembling a crescent moon), make the text larger or smaller using the magnification slider, and even have the article read to you if you tap the headphones button.

9

Search For Content Tap the magnifyingglass icon at the top of the main screen to search all available issues using one or more keywords. By default, all searches match any keyword; precede words with a + symbol (such as +1921 +census) to only show the articles where all of the keywords are present. Browse to the March 2020 issue where you’ll find a ‘Tech Tips’ article covering the app’s search tool in more depth.