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All registered Ancestry users and subscribers can use AncestryPress free of charge to create family history book projects.
Signing in
To log in to AncestryPress, simply type your Ancestry username and password in the spaces provided at the top of the landing page. After you log in you will be able to create new projects, access existing projects, or print projects.
Privacy
Since each project created on AncestryPress is of a vital, personal nature, privacy is of utmost importance. All of your content in AncestryPress is password protected, and is not visible to other customers unless you explicitly share it with them.

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  Start a Book Project  
 
Beginning a project
AncestryPress book projects can be created using Ancestry family trees or from scratch. Books generated from Ancestry trees will automatically bring in all primary photos, attached historical documents, stories, notes, comments and up to 10 timeline events. You can start a project by clicking on the “Publish” tab on Ancestry and then selecting the “My Projects” tab in AncestryPress.
Naming your project
AncestryPress book projects can be created using Ancestry family trees or from scratch. Books generated from Ancestry trees will automatically bring in all primary photos, attached historical documents, stories, notes, comments and up to 10 timeline events. You can start a project by clicking on the “Publish” tab on Ancestry and then selecting the “My Projects” tab in AncestryPress.
Book from Templates

Select Tree Options
Ancestry trees—To automatically create a book from templates, you need to select which tree you want AncestryPress to use. If you have just one tree, it will already be selected. If you have multiple trees, click the radio button next to the tree you want to use.
Select a tree style
AncestryPress books can be based on three different types of family trees or lists:
  • Standard Pedigree—The standard pedigree book includes a photo pedigree, a family group sheet for each couple, and any record pages you have attached to your tree along with a timeline for each of the 16 people in the tree.
  • Combination Tree—The combination tree includes a photo combination tree, a family group sheet for each couple, and any record pages you have attached to your tree along with a timeline for up to 26 people in the tree.
  • Descendant List - The descendant book includes a descendant list of the starting person along with all their children and grandchildren and their spouses. It also includes a family group sheet for each spouse listed, a timeline page fore everyone in the list and record pages for each person that has a record attached to them in your Ancestry tree.
Choose a starting person
Slowly type in the name of the starting person for your tree and select that person when they show up in a list based on what you type. Then select the “continue” button. The “continue” button will not be active unless you properly select the starting person from the list that is displayed as you type.
Auto-generation of book
In an automated process, AncestryPress pulls all the names, dates, places, photos, and records from the specified tree into professionally designed templates. You will see the page count growing as the pages are created. Once finished, your new book project will open, and you will be in the AncestryPress editing tool. Note: If your project does not open you may get a notification that a pop-up blocker blocked the tool window from opening. If this happens, you will be notified and receive directions on how to access your new project.
Book from Scratch

Book creation
Your new book project will open, and you will be in the AncestryPress editing tool. Note: If your project does not open you may get a notification that a pop-up blocker blocked the tool window from opening. If this happens, you will be notified and receive directions on how to access your new project.

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  Working With the Tool  
 
Getting Around
Once you are in a project, there are two ways to navigate the AncestryPress tool:
  • Thumbnails—A thumbnail image of each page in your book appears along the bottom of the window. Click on a thumbnail to go to that page. A slider below the thumbnails allows you to quickly scroll through all the thumbnail pages to access any of the pages in your book.
  • Next page, previous page—At the right and left of the main editing window there are two arrows that move you forward one page (button on the right) or back one page (button on the left).

Tool bars

Page level
Page level controls are located at the top of the AncestryPress tool. They are:
  • Zoom—The zoom slider allows you increase the size of the page. Dragging the slider toward the “-“ will zoom out while moving it toward the “+” will zoom in. You can also click on the “+” or “-“ signs to zoom in or zoom out on your project page.
  • Add/delete/copy page—At any point while working on your AncestryPress project you can add a page, delete a page, or copy a page.
    • Add—To add a page, click the “New page” button. This will pull up a window that allows you to choose what type of page you want to add. You can add a family tree page, a record page a timeline page, a family group page, a blank page or other pages that consist of recipe pages, military, family and immigration pages. In each case, other than the blank and other pages, you will be able to select a person from your tree to have the page focus on. You can also rightclick on a page thumbnail and then select “add page” to add a new page.
    • Delete—To delete a page, select the thumbnail located at the bottom of the window and click the “Delete page” button. You can also rightclick on a page thumbnail and then select “delete page” to delete that page.
  • Show Grid – Click on the “Show Grid” icon to view gridlines and rulers. A red line is also displayed beyond which placing items is discouraged for bound books. Click on the “Hide Grid” to turn the gridlines and rulers off.
  • Update – Clicking on the “Update” icon will allow you to automatically make updates to your page or poster so that it matches your online Ancestry tree.
  • Backgrounds—Click on the backgrounds icon to change the background for the current page, or to apply the background to all pages in your book.
  • Undo/redo—Click the undo button to erase the action just taken. Click redo to reapply an action that you have undone.
  • Add text—Add text by clicking on the “Add Text” icon. A new text box will appear on the page. Double click on the text box and enter whatever text you’d like. You can also cut and paste text from other documents into text boxes in AncestryPress.
  • Print page—The print button allows you to print a proof page from your project to your own home printer. You can print as many pages as you want, but they must be printed one page at a time.
  • Purchase-Click on the “order” button and following the instructions to order a book.
Working with text
All text in AncestryPress is editable, meaning you can add new text blocks, edit existing blocks, and delete any text you don’t want to include in your final book. When you select a text box, the text tool bar appears just above or below the item selected. The tools included in this tool bar allow you to make adjustments to the text box selected.
  • Select text—Allows you to select and edit text inside a text box.
  • Text color-Click on the color dropdown to view and select from a variety of colors to change the color of the selected text.
  • Spell check-Click on the spell check icon to see possible spelling errors. Underlined words can be clicked to see a list of possible spellings.
  • Align—Align text to the left, center or right by clicking on the corresponding icon.
  • Bold/Italic/Underline—Apply text styles to some or all of the text in the box.
  • Font/Font size—Change the font and font size to fit your taste.
  • Move to Front/Move to Back—Use these icons to move text boxes behind or in front of other objects on the page.
  • Update – If text is associated with your online Ancestry tree an update icon will be displayed on the element menu bar. You can click on that icon to update the text. If you have made changes to the font, the font size or color, you will lose those changes when you do the update.
  • Duplicate item—Create a duplicate copy of the text box.
  • Delete item—Delete the selected item.
Working with photos
Clicking on a photo in the AncestryPress tool will bring up the photo tool bar. The tools included allow you to make simple-yet-powerful changes to the size, shape, appearance, color, and number of your images. Note: Be on the lookout for the low-resolution warning, which will appear on your image as a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark inside. This means that the resolution of the image you placed on the page is too low to reproduce well in the final, printed book. You are still able to place the photo if you choose. Here is a brief rundown of the tools available:
  • Color mode change—Change the color of your image by toggling between color, black and white, and sepia.
  • Pan—Drag to move the image within a frame. Note: you won’t be able to pan unless you have already cropped or zoomed in on the image.
  • Flip horizontal—Flip the image horizontally.
  • Zoom in/Zoom out—Enlarge or reduce the image within the border.
  • Border color—Toggle between black and white border colors.
  • Border thickness—Apply a border to the image.
  • Move to Front/Move to Back—Use these icons to move images behind or in front of other objects on the page.
  • Update – If an image is associated with your online Ancestry tree an update icon will be displayed on the element menu bar. You can click on that icon to update the image.
  • Duplicate item—Create a duplicate copy of the image.
  • Delete item—Delete the selected item.
  • Rotate—Rotate the image in place.
  • Crop—Adjust the size of the image from any of the four sides. After cropping, you may need to pan to center the object.
  • Scale—Drag to make the picture box larger or smaller. Be aware that if you make the image too large, you may get the low-resolution warning, meaning that it will not print well in the final product.
Adding Ancestry records and images to your book pages

Located on the left side of the tool are three sections that contain images and records that can be easily dragged onto your book pages. The filters, located at the left of the AncestryPress tool, allow you to quickly and easily browse through graphical elements for use on your project pages.
Ancestry Records
The Ancestry Records section can be clicked to display all the records, photos, certain stories, notes and comments attached to your Ancestry tree. You can display elements attached to a person in your tree or those that are not attached to a person in your tree.

  • To view all the items attached to a person in your tree, first select the desired tree from the dropdown list, click the radio button next to "Person" and begin typing the name of a person from that tree in the associated box. As you type, matching names will be displayed that you can select in order to view all the items attached to that person.
  • To view all the items not attached to a person in your tree, simply select the desired tree and click on the "Not attached to a person" radio button.
Once the information that you want is displayed, simply drag the desired elements onto the page for placement and editing.
Photos
The photos section allows you to view any photos that you have uploaded to AncestryPress and to upload additional photos. To upload photos click on the “upload images” button in the photos section. A subset of the photos can be viewed by typing a name or part of a name into the search box. To view all of the photos make sure the search box is empty.
Embellishments
Select the embellishments section to view all the embellishments that can be added to pages in your project. A limited set of embellishment can be viewed by entering a name into the search box as described in the photos section above. Embellishments can add a flair and variety to your project pages.
Updating Pages and Elements to Match Changes in Your Online Ancestry Tree

Note: The update feature will only work for pages or elements created/added after Feb. 21, 2008.

If you created a project from data in your online Ancestry tree, your project data is not automatically updated when you make changes to your online tree. You can, however, trigger updates whenever you want. Currently, these updates can be made at a page or element level.

It is important to understand the differences between the page and element level update functionality to determine which will best help you accomplish your desired results. You’ll probably need to experiment a little to get a feel for how changes are made when you use the “Update” feature. You can click on the “Undo” arrow icon on the top menu bar to undo an update if you don’t want to keep the changes.

Although there are some limitations on what can be done with the update feature it should greatly facilitate incorporating changes to your online Ancestry tree into your project.

Project level
Updates cannot be made at a project level at this time. This means that if you attach new records to a person in a tree or if you add or delete people, new pages will not be created or deleted to reflect those changes. You can, however, add new pages with the page wizard to reflect the updates. You can also delete any pages that become irrelevant.
Page level
This feature allows you to make updates to your current page or to your entire poster so that it matches your online Ancestry tree. Here are some helpful things to understand when using this feature:
  • You will lose any text changes you make as well as changes to the font type, size or color for all text elements that are associated with your tree and automatically included on the page. However, if you drag text elements from your tree onto a page, the position will be maintained.
  • You will also lose any image editing that you do for image elements associated with your tree that were automatically included on the page. However, if you drag a photo onto a page, regardless of whether or not it is associated with your tree, none of your edits will be lost.
  • You can undo the update if you don’t like the results by clicking on the “Undo” icon on the top menu bar.
  • Any elements you add to a page and any of the changes you make to those elements, if they are not associated with your tree, will not be affected by the update.
  • Some pages like descendant lists cannot be updated. If you want to update pages that have an inactive “Update” icon, you will need to do it manually by using the new page wizard from the “Pages” drop-down and then deleting the old page(s).
Element level
This feature allows you to make updates to an element or group of selected elements so that they will match your online Ancestry tree.
Here are some helpful things to understand when using this feature:
  • If an element is not associated with your online Ancestry tree, the “Update” icon will not be displayed when that item is selected.
  • When updating a text element you may lose some of your edits such as font type, size and color. Unlike with the “Page Update” you will not lose element placement, rotation, cropping or other image enhancements such as drop shadow. All image editing will be maintained.
  • You can undo the update if you don’t like the results by simply clicking the undo arrow button on the top toolbar.
  • You can update several elements at the same time by selecting them (hold down the left mouse button and drag or hold down the control button while clicking on different elements) and then clicking on the “Update” icon on the element menu bar.


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  Tips & Tricks  
 

Here are some important things to know:
Nudge
In AncestryPress you can select an object and move it a small distance by using the arrow keys on your keyboard.
Duplicate
Any object that can be selected in AncestryPress, either by clicking on it or dragging to select, can be duplicated. This is a great way to create a second copy of an image or document that can then be enlarged to show detail.
Align
As you add elements (photos or text boxes) to a page, you may find it necessary to line them up. This is simple to do by using the align tools on the tool bar. You can align items using the left edge, center, right edge, top, middle, and bottom.
Select multiple (group)
Any object can be selected in AncestryPress, either by clicking on it or dragging to select. This is especially useful if you want to change multiple items, either text or photo, at once. For example, you could select all the text boxes on a page and change the font, font size, color, etc. at the same time.
Copying objects between pages
Images, text and lines can be selected on one page and copied to another page. Select the objects you want to copy and right click with the mouse. Select “copy element(s)” and navigate to the page you want to copy the objects to. Right click on that page and select “paste element(s)” to paste the copied objects at the location of the mouse cursor.
Copying objects between projects
Images, text and lines can be selected on one page in a particular project and copied to another page in another project. Select the objects you want to copy and right click with the mouse. Select “copy element(s)”, close the current project and open up the project and page where you want to copy the objects. Right click on that page and select “paste element(s)” to paste the copied objects to the location of the mouse cursor.
Bulk upload
Photos can be uploaded to AncestryPress one at a time or in batches. To upload more than one image, you can drag to select multiple items or ctrl+click to select the specific images you want.
Sepia highlight
There is a simple way to add a sepia highlight to a portion of a historical record (or other record). First, duplicate the image you want to highlight. Next, select both the original and the duplicate images and click both the center and middle align buttons. Click to the side of the images to de-select them. Next, click the copied image (which is on now on top of the original) and select “sepia tone” from the color drop down list on the photo tool bar. Now, all that’s left is to drag the top and bottom cropping buttons until only the desired area of focus is shown.
Edit timeline facts
Text boxes and lines on Timeline pages can be selected by dragging the cursor. Once you have them selected, click the duplicate button to create new lines and text boxes.
Make a copy
Before making any major changes to an AncestryPress project, you may want to create a backup copy. This can be done easily on the My Projects page using the “copy” link by the project you want to copy.
Updating a page
When you make changes to your Ancestry tree those changes will not automatically show up in a book that you have already created. However, when you add new pages to your project they will contain the latest information from your tree.
Changing page order
You can easily change the order of pages in your book by clicking on a thumbnail page and dragging it to the desired position.

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  Printing from Home  
 
Why can’t I print my entire project at once?
AncestryPress is built using Flash, a set of multimedia tools that help make the Internet great. It allows us to make AncestryPress useful and interactive, but it has some limitations when it comes to outputting your project. One of these is that you cannot print your entire project at once, though limitations of your computer and printer memory contribute to this as well.

When you choose the “All” option in the “Print Range” section of the AncestryPress printer dialogue, your project will print in large groups of pages, or “batches.” After each batch, the printer dialogue will reappear and you’ll have to click Print again. If it didn’t happen this way, your project would quickly use up your computer and printer memory and your computer could freeze up.
Why does my computer’s printer dialogue appear in addition to the AncestryPress printer dialogue?
Again, as great as Flash is in creating stylish and useful Web applications, it does have some limitations. One of those is that it does not allow us to interact with your printer dialogue.
Which print quality option should I choose when printing from home?
The Short Answer
Obviously, you want to choose the option that best fits your needs:
  • If you choose “Normal quality,” your project will print with all of its embellishments and design elements (transparencies, drop shadows, and so on). Choose this option if you have lots of design features in your project or if you are just interested in checking the overall design of the project before you have it printed professionally.
  • If you choose “Higher quality,” your project will print with crisper, sharper text and images. However, because of limitations with Flash, objects with transparency such as many of the embellishments will not print. Drop shadow and some other design elements will not print as well. Choose this option if your project has no design elements or if you want to carefully check the text and images before having your project professionally printed.
The Long Answer
What you’re really choosing with this option is how Ancestry Press will output your project to the printer. If you choose “Normal quality,” it will output as a series of raster images. If you choose “Higher quality,” it will output as vector images. So what does that mean?

Essentially, when your project is converted into raster images (using the “Normal quality” option), it becomes a series of pixels. This means that it can include all sorts of visual effects, like transparencies and drop shadows, because these effects are made simply by manipulating pixels. The downside, however, is that because of how and where pixels are generated in a raster image, your text or images may not seem as sharp.

On the other hand, when your project is converted into a vector image (using the “Higher quality” option), it becomes a series of outlines that are generated mathematically. This means that your text and images will come out cleaner and crisper, but because there are no pixels, none of your design effects such as transparencies, embellishments, or drop shadows will appear.

Note that you don’t have to worry about this when you choose to have your book published professionally. Your project will always look top-notch and include all of its design elements in that case.

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  Purchasing and Sharing  
 
Printing
With AncestryPress you have two printing options:
  • Proof pages—It is often helpful to be able to see your pages printed before you order a professionally printed and bound book. Printing these “proof” pages is easy in AncestryPress. Simply click the “Print Page” button at the top right of the window. This will allow you to print the page to your desktop printer.
  • Professional printing—Ancestry has contracted with professional printers that can print a high-quality, heirloom copy of your AncestryPress book. Once you are happy with your book, click the “Purchase” button at the top right of the window. This will start a quick and easy ordering process during which you will be able to specify a title for the book, review order details such as the type of cover and enter the quantity of books you want to purchase.
    • Books are printed on 100 pound gloss, acid-free, archival paper, and stitched and bound with hard covers. The covers are stamped with a two line gold foil title. Books are limited to 250 pages and require 1 to 2 weeks for printing and shipping (international shipments may require an additional week).
Sharing
Part of the ongoing development plan of AncestryPress includes the ability to both share and collaborate on a project. With the share feature you will be able to invite family and friends to view and purchase your book. Using collaboration, you will be able to assign family members or other researchers the right to view or edit the project.

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