Frequently Asked Questions

It's absolutely FREE to register and  build your Lifeline!

This free membership allows you access to all of the site's functionality, as well as 100mb of storage space!

Following your feedback, we have chosen to keep the site free from instrusive advertisements, and will keep it free for users for as long as we possibly can.

Remember, you can make lifelines and store media for EVERY member of your family, for FREE - that's great value!

If you get busy and need extra storage space, we will automatically provide it for you, and you can pay by visiting the 'My Account' area of the site. Extra space is charged for as a small annual fee. See the matrix below, or the 'My Account' area of the site for our pricing structure.

 

*payable as an annual fee, on the anniversary of purchase

The Lifeline is powered by Microsoft Silverlight software, which enables us to make it more visually 'sexy' for you. Simply accept the download, if prompted, and you will then be able to see the Lifeline to its full potential. This is a perfectly safe Microsoft product (like Flash) which only takes a few seconds to download, and should be compatible with most modern computers.

If you are not prompted, your computer probably already has Silverlight installed. Check out www.silverlight.net to see it in action.

Your media is compressed when you upload it, so the stored versions of your photographs will use up much less space than the original images. This way we are ensuring that you can maximise use of the space you purchase. You should be able to store around 500 pictures and make several rich Lifelines with the initial 100mb space available. Remember, you will be able to purchase additional space at a generous discount - just go to 'My Account'. Extra space will be charged as a small annual fee.

All Lifelines created within your account will use the same single storage allowance.

You can upload normal photo file types such as JPEGs, GIFs and PNGs. Try to keep each file below 5mb for speedy and successful uploading.

We hope to bring you Video upload capability very soon!

Everyone needs to register to use the site. This is so that people you may wish to connect with can recognise you.

Anyone who registers will have full access to all of the site and its functions FOR FREE

An account gives you 100MB of storage space, a private Vault and a Lifeline for as many family members and pets as you like.

Your Lifeline is the only area other people can see, whilst your LifeVault is entirely private (see ‘parental controls’ for further information about younger children).

It is recommended that you select an appropriate privacy level from the options below for any Events or individual media items within them which you intend to add to your Lifeline, to ensure that only the intended people can see it.

There are 3 levels of privacy which can be applied to every individual media item,  as well as at Event level:-

• Private – items marked private are visible only to the account user. They will appear on your lifeline when you view it, but not when anyone else views it.
• Public – items marked Public will be visible to any registered members browsing the site.
• Connections only – items marked in this way will only be visible on your lifeline to the registered friends and family you are connected with through the site. All friends and family you are connected with can see them automatically, they do not need to be named.

If you do not select a privacy level, or forget, the site will automatically default the privacy level of the item to that of its parent (e.g. a photo in a Private album will be given a Private access level if none is selected).

You can mix and match the privacy levels of items within the same Event.

Yes – there is a link on the Home page to view an example of our Founder, Helen Spencer's public lifeline. 

You only need to pay if you want extra storage. This will be charged for annually, as a small fee.

There are a number of payment types accepted. You will be sent a reminder near the time your next payment is due.

Use the 'My Account' area of the site to make a payment.

As the registered account owner, your own Lifeline will be automatically created for you when you enter your registration details. You can then create events, and change your 'avatar' thumbnail photos to your heart's content!

Once you have mastered what to do and want to start creating new family member Lifelines, just go to the 'MyFamily' area of the site and select 'Create Lifeline'.

You need to decide who will be in control of the new lifeline and that person's data. By selecting the 'Create Lifeline with a User' tickbox you will give them their own Username and Password - this, in turn gives them access to a private Vault area of their own. It also means that they can, in turn, create their own set of Lifelines for other people. Check out the'How it Works' link at the foot of the page for more information.

By selecting 'Create Lifeline without a User', you are effectively opting to take control of this person's Lifeline, and their data/media will automatically be stored in your own Vault area (this is ideal for children or deceased/elderly relatives).

You can add an Event to your Lifeline in 3 ways -

1. directly from the Lifeline page;
2. by clicking on the ‘Create Event’ button on the top navigation bar;
3. from within the Vault where there is also a 'Create Event' button.

Choose to make either a simple text and date entry, or add some photos or other documents to make it a more interesting full page multimedia Event.

Check out the'How it Works' link at the foot of the page for more information.

Yes – you can choose which items or full events you wish to be visible to others on your Lifeline, and can select whether everyone or only your connections can see it. By marking an item as Private, it will be completely invisible to anyone but yourself. (see information about Co-Owner Controls for exceptions under 'How it Works').

You can also select Events from other people's Lifelines and add them to your own.

If someone tries to add media or comments to your Lifeline, you will receive a notification and you will then need to approve or reject the items added.

You can make as many Lifelines as you wish, from the MyFamily page. You can create and build them for anyone you wish to, or they can build their own if you assign them their own Username and Password. If they are children, you can take Co-Ownership control over the account if appropriate.

When you create a Lifeline for a family member, you will need to decide whether to make them a 'User' (i.e. allocate them their own Username and Password). If so, this will enable the following:-

1. access to their own private Vault area
2. the ability for their Lifeline to be 'found' via the public 'search' function
3. the ability, in turn, to create more Lifelines for other people

Any 'User' within an account can create Lifelines, but the editing rights will be limited to the creator of the Lifeline.

If you do not elect to allocate a Username and Password to the Lifeline, you are effectively taking control of that person's Lifeline; this means that their media will be stored in your Vault, and you will 'own' all editing and viewing aspects of the Lifeline in the same way as your own.

No – the only limits are in terms of storage space, which we will increase for you as and when you need it, for a small annual fee.

It is a great idea to lay down the stories of your previous generations for those yet to come. You may wish to make a lifeline for a deceased relative posthumously – in this case, you can simply choose who retains control of this person’s Lifeline by making them a 'co-owner' when setting up the new family member. If you retain control, the data related to this Lifeline will be stored in your own Vault.

Yes, that’s the idea! 

We now also have a great partnership to help you out too!  Get a 10% discount on all your photo and document scanning services!  Use this link to take you to our partner's website for great scanning and other photo services.

Simply enter the special voucher code "Save3v3ryStep" at the checkout to claim your discount.
 

Choose from any of the 'bundles' on offer, or select the special 'SaveEveryStep' package by following this link instead

Your Vault is absolutely private to you under your own log-in and password. This is true for any family member assigned as a 'User' under the account (with their own log-in and password).

No one can see your media albums unless you have added them to an Event and set them with a privacy setting other than 'private'.

Where Co-ownership controls have been set up for younger children, the child’s Vault is still private to the child and not visible to the creator/parent. Their Lifeline (including private items) content, however, is visible to the creator/parent. This is to ensure that you are able to keep a watchful eye over anything which your child is placing in the public domain, whilst still allowing them a degree of privacy.

Your data is stored on a secure, private server which has frequent back-up processes.

We do not pass your information on to any other parties, and there is no advertising on the site, so your data is entirely private.

It is strongly recommended that, as with all internet use, you take great care to ensure that any data which you place in the public domain is free from any personal information which might compromise your own security or the theft of your identity.

An Event is anything which you add to your Lifeline.

It needs to be assigned a date in order to attach it to the Lifeline. If you can't remember the accurate date of an Event, you can estimate one in order to attach it to the Lifeline, or alternatively use the MyStories function - it's entirely up to you. In either case it can be a full page, interactive record of any occasion, in which you can embed media, comments and documents (e.g. 'Word' docs)  to make it a richer experience; or it can be a simple comment, single picture or just a date and title.

Your connected friends can also add their own media from the event if they attended it, and their comments too. The contributions combine to build a rich, multimedia record of the event, to be treasured forever.

There are 3 ways to do this.

1. On your Lifeline page, select 'Create Event'
2. Select the 'Create Event' ikon on the top navigation bar
3. In MyVault, select the 'Create Event' button.

See the 'How it Works' section at the foot of the page for more information.

MyStories is the space dedicated to recording the narrative of your life. A place to capture the feelings and descriptions which lie behind the pictures, names and dates.

Like an Event, a story can be multimedia and can also be interactive, so you can invite your friends and relatives to add colour to your own recollections.

Unlike an Event, however, a story may not be date or time-bound – you can write a story about the whole of your childhood, for example, or recollect a particular person in prose.

You can add stories to your Lifeline if you want to select a specific date, or alternatively keep them private. It may be that a story cannot be tied to a specific point in time – you can still give it a 'public' or 'connections only' access level, so that you can share it with friends and family.

This is the area where new family members' Lifelines are created and stored.

Every family member added to the site will be listed in this area, with their Avatar visible, for easy reference.

You will also be able to access these Lifelines from the small Avatar buttons at the bottom right hand side of the screen.

Check out the'How it Works' section at the foot of the page for more information.

The Pets section is a way to track the lives of your Pets! Each pet can have their own lifeline, however long or short. The data for pets is stored within the creator's Vault area.

See the'How it Works' section at the foot of the page for more information.

All files are compressed so that you can maximise the storage space available to you.

In order to be able to see their account you will need to tick the box to create a Co-Owner when creating their Lifeline. This will enable the creator/parent to view the private items on the child's Lifeline but not their Vault.

If you have chosen not to allow them their own Username and Password, you will, by definition, be the owner of their Lifeline and have complete control over their account, and their items will be stored in your Vault.

If they are a 'User', however, they will be master of their own desitny and able to change their password at any time without your consent.

Once Co-Owner controls are removed, they cannot be replaced by anyone but the Lifeline owner themselves. They will be able to add private items to their Lifeline which you will be unable to view, if they choose not to 'connect' with you.

Yes!! We now have a great partnership to help you out too!  Get a 10% discount on all your photo and document scanning services!  Use this link to take you to our partner's website for great scanning and other photo services.

Simply enter the special voucher code "Save3v3ryStep" at the checkout to claim your discount.

Choose from any of the 'bundles' on offer, or select the special 'SaveEveryStep' package by following this link instead

That's fine. It happens. Just send us an email and we'll take care of it for you. You should be aware that any lifelines and media you have stored on the site will be deleted.

If you are paying an annual fee for extra storage, and you miss a payment, we will write to you to remind you. If you don't want to go on, we will de-activate your account for you.

Absolutely. If you want to create an event which has yet to happen, just use the usual Event creation methods. Perhaps you are planning a wedding or a reunion - you can create the template and start sharing the Event before it has even happened!

You can look at anyone's Lifeline if they have made it public. You can see any events and media items they have attached to their Lifeline as long as they have made them public.

Items with 'Connections Only' privacy levels can only be viewed by the friends and family you have invited to connect with you.

To 'connect' with people you know (as long as they are registered on the site), search for them using the 'search' facility on the top navigation bar.

You can then request them to connect with you. They will need to accept your invitation, but, once approved and connected, they can view, add to and comment upon anything with the relevant privacy levels on your Lifeline.

You will be able to see each others’ Connected friends and their respective Lifelines, as well as any other Lifelines of family members created within your own accounts.

When viewing the Event, just select the ‘Add to Lifeline’  or 'Remove from Lifeline' tab on the right of the Event page, then tick (or untick to remove) whose Lifeline you wish to add it to from the drop-down list. The originator of the Event will retain control over the Event, but your Lifeline will hold a dynamic copy of it.

We will release extra storage for you as and when you need it, for a small annual fee.

You can pay for it in the 'My Account' area of the site.

Use the search facility to find friends and family. They will need to be registered on the site in order to view your Lifeline. Once they are connected, you can share any items with them, according to the privacy options you have used.

Once they have built a Lifeline of their own, you can really get rocking and rolling!

There are two options - select items from your Vault which you have already uploaded, or upload some new items.

1. To select items already in the Vault - click on the appropriate option in the Event page and then select the album(s) from which you wish to source media to add. Ensure the boxes are ticked next to the desired items, and then click to 'save' them to the Event.
2. To upload new media - click on the appropriate option in the Event page to add new media. A copy of the item will be stored automatically for you in your Vault, so you will be asked to select where (which album in your Vault) you would like to store the media. You can create a new album if you wish. Simply browse and select the item to upload and hey presto! it will be added to your Event and stored simultaneously in your Vault.

Check out the 'How it Works' section at the foot of the page for more information.

Because the two are not connected. You need to upload a photo to your public profile, and also upload a photo for every Lifeline you make (each needs to have its own picture uploaded to it - remember your dog won't have a public profile so we have to separate these 2 functions!)

The Lifeline avatar acts both as your quick navigation button (on the bottom right hand side of each page), as well as forming a cool watermark which sits behind your Lifeline. Try it!

To upload a picture to your Lifeline, you can do it when you create the Lifeline by selecting the 'browse' button, or by editing an existing Lifeline in the same way.

Your profile avatar is just what people see when they check you out!