How does it work?

If you would like to create a Lifeline which looks like the one below, read on!

This guide is designed to help you to navigate around the site and get started making and enriching your family Lifelines.

 

 

1. Get started by registering [click to expand/collapse]

Enter your details and click on the 'Register Free' button, then follow the wizard. It take seconds.

Create an account to make Lifelines for the whole family.

The registration process will make your own, first lifeline for you automatically. It will contain just two events - the day you were born, and the day you registered to use the site. You can then fill in the blanks!

 

You won't have to pay a penny to use the site whilst ever you remain within the 100mb of storage space which is included with your free account.

The Lifeline function runs on software called Microsoft Silverlight, which allows us to make the Lifeline more visually exciting. If your computer does not already have Silverlight installed, you will be prompted to download it. It is a perfectly safe Microsoft product and will only take a few seconds to download.

2. Basic site navigation [click to expand/collapse]

This is the navigation bar, which you will find at the top right hand side of the screen. Use the keys to quickly move around the site. Each is explained below....

 

My Lifeline - this is the public face of your account and the place where other site users can view any Events which you allow them access to. Use this button to view your own Lifeline (see 3 below)

 

 

 

My LifeVault - this is entirely private and contains your media store, account information, connections, messages, etc. (see 4 below)

 

 

 

MyFamily - this is the area of the site where all other Lifelines relating to family members within your account are stored and created. (see 3 regarding Lifelines)

 

 

 

MyPets - this is where all of the Lifelines relating to your family's pets will be stored and created.

 

 

 

Create Event - use this button to build a brand new Event for anyone's Lifeline, at any time.

 

 

 

Storage limits

Your account has an initial free storage allowance of 100MB. The indicator, at the top left hand corner of the screen, will keep an up to date record of how much has been used.

If you go over the free limit, it's no problem, you must be having fun! You can continue creating events but in order to upload more media you will now need to pay a very modest annual fee, which starts at just £12 / $12 / 12Euros. You can check out our reasonable pricing scale for extra storage in our FAQs.

All family members within the account will be working from the same single storage allocation.

To increase your storage allowance, click on 'my account'.

 

Viewing and searching someone else's Lifeline

You may want to search for someone who is not within your own account.

To do so, use the search bar at the top of the screen, and enter their name.

 

 

The search facility will produce a list of all closest matches to that name who are registered on the site. Simply select the right person and you can then view their profile information. There you will find links to their Lifeline, as well as any other Lifelines they may have within their family account. You will also be able to see anyone they are, in turn, connected with.

 

3. Making and managing Lifelines [click to expand/collapse]

Your Lifeline is the public area of your account. It is made up of Events which you can create yourself or copy from others. You can choose to make your Lifeline and/or any of its Events (or single media items therein) either entirely private, entirely public, or visible to your connected friends and family members only.

When you initially register, your Lifeline will have been automatically created for you with two Events - 1). your birth date and 2). the date your registered for the site. Hover over the picture part of an Event to see a preview of it. Open an Event by clicking on the preview - this will take you to the full page version of the Event, where you will be able to add/edit and view all of the media associated with it, and comment upon it.

Use the scroll bar (horizontal, bottom of Lifeline) to move quickly across the years and months.

Use the zoom bar (vertical, left hand side) to alter the view mode from years, to months, or weeks.

Click on a '+' symbol to expand the Lifeline's scale. The '+' symbol indicates that there are multiple Events on the same date(s) which are hidden until you expand to view them on the Lifeline.

 

 

Viewing a family member's Lifeline

The MyFamily and MyPets buttons will display a summary of the Lifelines contained within your account. Simply click on the appropriate Avatar to view their Lifeline (see below).

 

Alternatively, you can use the 'quick navigation' thumbnails (miniature pictures) for every family member and pet Lifeline which exists within your own account, at the bottom right hand side of every screen.

 

 

 Creating a new Lifeline for a family member

Once you have registered, how about making Lifelines for your children? Or an elderly / deceased parent? Or the dog?!

Go to MyFamily  or MyPets  and select 'Create new Lifeline'.

There are two types of human Lifeline you can create, as follows:-

1. A Lifeline with a User - this will allocate the owner of the Lifeline their own log-in facility with a password, as well as access to a private Vault of their own for media storage etc. (see (4) LifeVault).

2. A Lifeline without a User - this gives the creator complete ownership of the Lifeline as if it were your own (e.g. access, editing, private item viewing rights etc.) Any media items added to this Lifeline will be stored in your own Vault. This is perfect for small children or elderly relatives who are unable to manage their own Lifeline, for example.

In order to ensure that parents have the ability to monitor the Lifelines of children or teenagers, a co-ownership facility has been created. By ticking the co-ownership box next to your name, you will be allowed access and editing rights of the Lifeline. It is best illustrated with the example of setting up a new Lifeline for say, a teenager - they will want their independence so will need a User Lifeline (to provide them with a private Vault and their own Log-in & password), but in order to ensure an element of parental control, simply allocate a Co-Owner for the Lifeline during the set-up process. The Co-Owner will have equal access rights as the owner.

The Co-Owner facility is available on both types of Lifeline (with or without a User). You can allocate more than one Co-Owner by ticking multiple boxes, so both mum and dad can add events to a child's lifeline until they are old enough to manage it for themselves.

Only your own Lifeline (when you are logged in with your own Username & password) will be stored in the 'My Lifeline' area of the site. All other family member Lifelines will be displayed in the MyFamily area of the site, and all pets in the MyPets area.

4. Your LifeVault and its contents [click to expand/collapse]

 Your LifeVault is a private area from which you can do the following:-

My Account - manage your account information - here you can amend your personal details, email address and password, as well as pay for additional storage space etc.

 

 

My Media - manage your media store - upload and store all your photographs and other documents. We hope to bring you Video upload and playback facilities soon.

 

You can create Albums to store items logically, or however you like!

You can select privacy levels for whole Albums, or individual media items so that, when added to your public Lifeline, they are only visible to the people you select.

Click on an Album to see its contents. You can comment on the album at the bottom of the page.

To view a single media item within an album, simply click on the item and it will open a new page.

Here you can edit the item name, add a commentary to it, as well as choose which item you wish to be seen as the album cover, etc.

Remember - when you are choosing privacy settings for individual media items, they will NOT appear on an Event if you have marked them as 'Private', even if the Event itself is Public!

You can also MOVE a media item here by choosing the EDIT option and selecting a new album location from the drop down list.

MyStories - write a story for posterity.

A Story is designed to allow you the freedom to write as much free narrative as you like, without necessarily wishing to tie it to a specific date on your Lifeline. You may wish to write about your childhood, school days, or a particular Event which you cannot tie to a specific date. This is the perfect place to do so.

You still have the flexibility to add media, share, and add to your Lifeline if you wish to do so.

MyConnections - manage your connected friends and family.

A Connection is someone you have agreed mutually to link up with on the site. You can connect with anyone who is registered as either a Visitor or User.

A Connected friend has specific privacy level viewing rights to events or media items which you classify as 'Connections Only'.

The people you are connected with will be visible as miniature avatars at the bottom left hand side of the screen.

 

 

To create a new Connection...

...search for the person you are looking for (by name) in the top search bar.

The search facility will produce a list of all closest matches to that name who are registered on the site. Simply select the right person and you can then view their profile information. There you will find links to their Lifeline, as well as any other Lifelines they may have within their family account.

Once you have found them, click to add them as a Connection, and select the nature of your relationship with them from the drop-down list.

 

They will automatically be sent a message telling them that you wish to connect with them. When someone sends a Connection request the recipient will receive a notification  in their Connections 'inbox' on the site. The recipient needs to accept or decline the request for the connection transaction to be completed.

 

 

CreateEvent - as per section (5) below.

 

 

 

MyMessages - send and receive messages to other registered users.

You can send a message to anyone else who is registered on the site. You will receive a notification when someone sends you a message - your blue indicator will tell you how many message you have - click on it to enter the message area, or navigate there via the Vault.

 

You will also receive a notification when someone attempts to add media to one of your Events. These will appear in the 'Media Items Pending' inbox, which will indicate a number in the blue circle once a request is received. Click it to enter, and approve or decline the media items in question. 

5. Create and manage Events [click to expand/collapse]

An Event is how you add something to your Lifeline.

You can make an Event in three ways (all the same but different modes of attack):-

1. By using the 'Create Event' button which you can find on the top navigation bar 

2. By using the same 'Create Event' button which is located in your Vault

3. By clicking on the words 'Create Event' beneath your Lifeline itself.

A template will appear, which you need to complete with details of the Event, such as date, title, location etc. Type as much free text as you like in the large box - (this will form the body of the text about the Event), then click 'save'.

Remember to choose an appropriate privacy level for your Event, depending on who you wish to see it. if you select Private, it will only be visible on your Lifeline to you alone, and noone else will be able to see it.

Enrich your Event with media

You can add photographs and other media files to your Event, or choose to store them separately in your Vault albums.

Videos can only currently be stored in the Vault albums (via embedded YouTube videos). It is not currently possible to add a video to your actual lifeline/event. We hope to bring you this functionality shortly!

To add a brand new media file, select 'upload new media' to launch the browser. You can then select the item from your camera/computer which you wish to upload. It is currently only possible to upload single items at a time.

You will be asked to select an Album storage title so that a copy of the items will be saved in your Vault as well as attaching them to your Event.

Alternatively, you may have items which you have already stored in your Vault which you wish to select for this Event. Select 'Choose media from LifeVault' and your albums will be presented to you. Click on the album you need and its contents will appear (as below). Simply tick the boxes of as many media items as you would like to add to the Event and select 'save'.

 

Copying an Event from someone else's Lifeline

If you are browsing someone's Lifeline and find an Event which is of interest to you, or perhaps at which you were also present, you can choose to add the same Event to your own Lifeline (or any over which you have ownership/co-ownership).

Simply click on either 'Add to Lifeline' or 'Remove from Lifeline' on the right hand side of the Event page, then tick (or untick to remove) the name of the Lifeline to which you would like to add this Event.  You can do this more than once, to multiple Lifelines!