Mended Memories' Family History Journal, frequently asked questions, answers

Questions about Mended Memories
Questions about the Family History Journal CD

Questions about Mended Memories

Q: What ways may I pay?
A: Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express!

Q: What happens after I place my order? How do I know if you got it?
A: You will receive an email confirming your order.

Q: What happens if I forget my password?
A: Just click the "Please Email Me My Password" button. We'll send you a reminder via email, immediately.

Q: What do you do with my email address?
A: We will only use your email address to notify you of sales, specials, and updates or to contact you about your order. We will never sell or give your email address to anyone else for any reason. (see Privacy Policy)

Q: What is your return policy?
A: Any item(s) received through the mail, may be returned for a refund or exchange within 30 days of the order if the product seal is not broken. The original receipt must accompany the order on any refund or exchange. Opened software packages may only be returned if the product does not function properly. Mended Memories must be contacted via email or telephone for prior approval to return open packages for refunds. Refunds are not allowed on downloaded products. Shipping charges will not be refunded, sorry. (see Return Policy)

Questions about the Family History Journal CD

Q: Do I need to buy more than one CD design series?
A: No, not at all. To start your project, you can order just one design series and do your whole journal in just that one design. If after doing a few pages, you find you want the sections of your journal to look differently, come back and order more template designs. Consider these options:

1 design for the maternal side of the family and 1 design for the paternal side

1 design for each generation as you go back in time to help the reader identify the different generations

A different design to highlight a special individual in your ancestry, making them stand out in your journal

If you have a large amount of information about your ancestors, making a very large journal, you might want to choose a combination of design templates to add variety, using different designs for different families or generations.

Q: Do I need to have Microsoft® Word on my computer?
A: Yes. The files on the Family History Journal CD are only compatible with Microsoft® Word.

Q: Does the CD work on both Windows PC and MAC?
A: The Family History Journal CD has been created to use with Windows PC. However, most newer model Macintosh computers can read and use these files.

Q: Can I use this on earlier versions of Windows or Word?
A: The Family History Journal CD has only been tested on Windows version 98 or newer. Try at your own risk on earlier versions. Earlier versions (e.g., Microsoft® Word 97) may view the Family History Journal CD files, but there may be differences in the colors of some of the fonts (appearing red instead of brown) and also in some of the frames around the pictures (not as many line styles were available in earlier versions).

Q: How much experience do I need to have with Word to use these files?
A: Most Word users have adequate experience to use the Family History Journal CD, having no problems. Detailed instructions on the CD completely and easily explain the individual elements of the template pages (e.g., working with frames, inserting pictures, scanning pictures, working with text boxes and WordArt graphics). If there are questions with the basics of Word, you can always use the HELP function found in Word itself.

Q: What makes this different from other products? Why is this special?
A: We have not seen any software like ours. The Mended Memories ® Family History Journal CD has:

Customizable pages - Most scrap booking software has a certain number of static pages with fixed frames for pictures. Mended Memories ® Family History Journal CD has moveable, resizable frames that can be added or deleted from the templates. In fact all the graphics and text boxes can also be moved, resized, added or deleted. The title can be also customized.

Provision for family stories - Regular scrapbooks or photo albums do not usually provide the family stories that were passed down. They usually only have pictures of relatives but no real history about those people or their lives. The Mended Memories ® Family History Journal CD pages all have story text areas to capture the feel of who those ancestors really were and the lives they led.

Professional classic design - Old family photographs are usually aged, rich in brown tones. Putting those beautiful pictures in brightly colored scrapbook pages does not enhance them, but rather takes away from them. The Mended Memories ® Family History Journal CD uses only the sepia-toned pages with very classic, simple, line art drawings to enhance the pictures rather than take away from them. The page design is secondary to the photographs, complementing them rather than detracting from them.

Pre-formatted template pages - With the Mended Memories ® Family History Journal CD, most of the work has been done. You can have a beautiful finished product with no cutting or pasting. No new software to learn. Ideal for the working person with little time to dedicate to lengthy projects.

Ability to be duplicated - One of the unique characteristics of the Mended Memories ® Family History Journal CD is that you have the ability to print as many copies of the completed journal as you like. Share all the pictures with your children or family members rather than deciding who gets which picture. That way everyone will have the same family pictures and stories.

Capability of being amended - After you have completed your journal and found a correction or additional information, you can go back into your journal files and make the changes or additions and print another copy of only that specific page. You can't easily do that with a regular scrapbook or album.

Provisions for safeguarding originals photos and documents - By circulating and enjoying only the printed copy of your Family History Journal, you can safeguard your original documents and photos by storing them properly in a secure place, away from danger of fire or further deterioration. If anything happens to your printed journal copy, you can always reproduce it from your original files that you, as the instructions suggest, have saved on external media, such as CDs.

Q: I don't know how to make my photos have the sepia tones. What will black and white and color photos look like in the pages?
A: That isn't a problem. As you can see by these examples, sepia-toned, black and white, and color photos all work well with the page layouts. Making your photos all the same sepia-toned color must be accomplished in other photo editing software you might have, or even with some printer settings. However, if you want to make them all black and white, you can double click on the picture after you insert it into a frame on the page. Then click on the Picture tab, click on the Color pull down menu, and pick Grayscale.

Q: I have trouble with my machine crashing when working on files with heavy graphics and especially on the Family Tree page on the Family History Journal CD. Any suggestions?
A: Here are a few suggestions:

When

working with picture files in the Family History Journal CD, you will want to be sure to have your pictures in .jpg format. Other formats will work, but have very large file sizes and may cause your computer to shut down or report error messages.

You also need to save your file after successfully inserting each picture.

If you are working for many hours at a time, on scanning photos and inserting them into your document, you may need to shut down your machine occasionally for about 10 minutes to clear the temporary memory on your computer.

Pages like the Family Tree page, with a possibility of 30 pictures or more on just one page, require more RAM memory from your computer. Before inserting photos on this page, try cropping the picture down to just head and shoulders, either when you scan them, or in other photo-editing software, thus saving the pictures to smaller file sizes. Cropping the pictures before inserting into Word will keep the size of the Word file down and less chance of your computer shutting down or receiving error messages while printing or working with the Family Tree page.