Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Easily uploading multipage documents

You may have seen attempts to upload multipage documents as a series of individual files.

This can be done but the results are seldom satisfactory to you as the reader. You read a page and then you need to find a file containing the next page and then find the next page, etc. This is very awkward.

The idea is excellent, but the method is flawed, Ideally you will convert the multipage document to PDF format so that the whole book is a single file. PDF also has the advantage of being able to use a variety of different fonts and layouts including images. Images take up a lot of storage apace, but 2000 pages of text can easily fit within the 15 GB size limit allowed by FamilySearch. 

If you have written a book. create a PDF copy from your word processor by using File > Save As or File > Export, or File > Print > Print to PDF. Then upload the PDF file to FamilySearch memories.

For example, see "Ancestors of Ernest (Robert) Kinney"
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/L492-3Z6
(This is a short book, generated by genealogy software and enhanced in a word processor.)  


If you want to create a PDF from a series of separate page images (eg. JPEGs), the process is more complicated, If your scanner has the option, load the pages into the document feeder and choose Scan to PDF. Then run the resulting file through Optical Character Recognition to convert the images of text to actual text, greatly reducing the file size.

Alternately, you can import the page images into the word processor and export the file as PDF, The page images take up a lot of storage apace, creating a huge file, but OCR may reduce it to a usable size.

If OCR software did not come with your scanner, there are sites online that do OCR conversions,

What re the responsibilities of Consultants?

Consultants are our "front line" workers. They are listed online as the people to go to for help.

What are the specific responsibilities of our callings in Temple and Family History?
These can be found in the General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
For example:

25.2.4 Ward (or Branch) Temple and Family History Consultants
Ward temple and family history consultants serve under the direction of the ward temple and family history leader. The bishopric calls these members to serve. Adults and youth may be called. The elders quorum, Relief Society, and Young Women presidents may suggest who could serve.

Consultants teach others in simple ways how to participate in temple and family history work. They have the following responsibilities:

Help members prepare to receive temple ordinances and make temple covenants.

Help members experience the blessings of discovering their ancestors and performing temple ordinances on their behalf. These experiences are especially important for those learning the gospel, new and returning members, and those preparing to receive a recommend for proxy baptisms and confirmations.

Participate in temple and family history coordination meetings (see 25.2.7).

Serve in a local FamilySearch center when assigned (see 25.3.6). [If you had this assignment you would know.]


A personal perspective
on helping in family history (Bill Buchanan):
There is a common misconception that Consultants need to be experts at all things concerning family history. But that is the role of FamilySearch Support. Consultants should be able to help with routine things such referring members to the bishop if they need to get a temple recommend, using Ordinances Ready, booking into a temple session, adding people to Family Tree, reserving ordinances and printing temple cards. Any additional skills are a bonus. Much is learned through personal experience. 

To reach free FamilySearch Support, call 1-866-406-1830 (8 am to 8 pm Mon-Sat or 1 pm to 8 pm Sun)  or email North America Support at nasupport@familysearch.org