📖 Help guide

🚀Getting started

• Open your tree's link and sign in with your email. We send a one-time code, or use your password or a passkey.
• When you sign in, the tree opens on your own card, picked and centred.
• Signed out, you only see a limited tree: fewer details and no photos of living relatives. Sign in to see everything you're allowed to.

🌳Views

• 🎯 Focus: one person with parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, spouse and children. Best on phones.
• ⭕ Circle: the person in the middle with relatives on rings around them.
• 🌳 Whole Tree: everyone, packed to fill your screen.
• 📊 By Generation: everyone, one row per generation.
• 🙂 Faces: photos with name and age. Hover a face for details.

Switching views keeps the same person in focus.

👆Selecting someone

• Click a card to select them. The tree centres on them and a side panel shows parents, spouse, brothers and sisters, and children.
• The selected card glows. Their family turns orange, brothers and sisters teal.
• Animated lines: gold to parents and children, teal to brothers and sisters, pink to the spouse's family.
• 💍 Spouse side shows the husband or wife's family in pink, when they're in the tree.

🔍Search

• Type a name, nickname, house or place. Pick a suggestion, or press Enter, and that person is selected.
• Ctrl+F (⌘+F on a Mac) jumps to the search box.
• Suggestion lists (job, place, house) are sorted A to Z.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑Adding people

• Open a profile and use + Parent, + Sibling, + Spouse, + Child or + More (cousins, in-laws and more). Nothing is saved until you press Add.
• Adding a brother or sister? Pick Brother or Sister.
• Dates: type a year (1955) or a full date (mm/dd/yyyy). The slashes fill in for you.

✏️Editing & Edit Mode

• Click ✏️ Edit Mode to show + handles on cards and drag to connect two people. Click ✅ Done Editing when you're finished.
• Members can edit themselves, their spouse and parents, and add children and brothers or sisters. Ask a Family head or Admin for anything else.
• ↩️ Undo (Ctrl+Z) takes back your last change.

🏷️Nicknames ("AKA")

• A nickname shows in quotes under the name, like “Babu”.
• No nickname yet? Their first name shows instead, until someone adds a real one in the profile.

🖼️Profiles & photos

• Add photos from a profile. ✂️ Crop and ↩️↪️ rotate before saving.
• Use 👤 Use as Profile Picture to choose the face shown on the card. It's also used for birthday cards.
• Stories, notes, house name, job and places all live in the profile.

💬Messages, notes & wishes

• Right-click (or long-press) a person: ✉️ Send a Message, 💬 Add a Note, 🧬 How Are They Related? or 📋 Copy Name & Dates.
• On someone's birthday, 🎂 Post a Birthday Wish appears on their profile.

📜Ancestors & memorials

• 📜 Ancestor Chart shows anyone's parents, grandparents and beyond as a half-circle chart: father's side in blue, mother's side in pink, empty slots dashed. Find it in three places: the toolbar above the tree (for whoever is selected, or you), the side panel next to 👤 Open Profile, and inside a profile under the name.
• In the chart, tap anyone to see their own ancestors, tap a dashed + to add a missing parent, choose 3 to 6 generations, and 📄 Print it. Long names shrink to fit, or show the first name.
• For someone who has passed away, 🕯️ Memorial Page shows their portrait, years, family, photos, stories and memories. For the living it's called 🧭 Life Story. Open it from their profile, the side panel, or a 🕯️ remembrance in "Coming up".
• Life and times builds itself from the tree: born (with the birth place), married (the wedding date), each child born, parents or spouse passing away, the first grandchild, and their own passing. 🌍 History they lived through appears in between with their age at the time (world events, plus India and Kerala for Kerala trees, or US events for American ones). To add more, fill in dates and places in their profile, or add their children.
• + Life Event adds your own milestones in your own words: "Graduated from high school", "Moved to Dubai for work", "Started a bakery". Pick a year and an icon (🎓 studies, 💼 work, 🏢 business, ✈️ moved, 🏆 award and more), and add the story behind it if you like. Find it in the side panel or on their Life Story / Memorial page. Anyone who can edit that person can ✏️ edit or ❌ remove events. The ✏️ next to an automatic event (born, married, a child born) opens the profile where that date lives.
• 🕯️ Share a Memory adds your memory to their page. 📋 Copy Link sends the page to family.
• People → 🔎 Missing Ancestors lists the gaps: unknown parents, unknown generations, missing dates and photos. Use 👪 to add a parent or 💬 to ask the family.

📖Family stories

• Open the 📖 Stories tab and tap ✍️ Write a Story.
• Give it a title, then pick a style: ✂️ Scrapbook, 🎬 Cinematic Timeline or 📰 Magazine. You can change the style any time.
• Add chapters: a year, a heading and the story. Leave a blank line to start a new paragraph. ⬆️ ⬇️ reorder chapters.
• Photos: 🖼️ Upload Photos (up to 6 per chapter) or 🖼️ From Family Photos. Tag the people in a chapter; if there's no photo, their pictures show instead.
• Everyone in the tree can read stories. The writer (and admins) can ✏️ edit or ❌ delete; 📄 Print makes a clean copy.

🎂Birthdays & anniversaries

• On a birthday or wedding anniversary, everyone in the tree with an email gets one greeting email with a card made from the person's photo: "Happy 60th Birthday, Maria!"
• No photo? The card shows their initials as an elegant gold monogram.
• Several celebrations on one day come in a single email.
• 🔕 Don't want these emails? Open your account page (your photo at the top right → Account & security) and turn on 🔕 No family day emails under 📧 Email Preferences. You can also turn it on in your profile, in the Contact section under Email. Turn it off again any time to get them back.

✉️Joining from an invite

• Open the link in your invite email and sign in with the code we send.
• If the family already made a card for you with the same email, you're linked to that card. No duplicate is created.
• Invited as someone new? Use 📍 Place Me to say where you fit: child, brother or sister, or husband or wife of someone.

✨Ask the family (AI)

• If your admin turned it on, ✨ Ask the Family answers questions about the tree, like "Who are the oldest living members?"
• ✨ Write Their Story turns a profile's details into a short life story.

🔐Your account & security

• Open your account menu (top right) → 🔐 Security.
• 🔑 Add a passkey to sign in with Face ID, Touch ID or your phone, set a password, or turn on an authenticator app.
• 🚪 Sign Out Everywhere Else if you used a shared computer.

⌨️Tips & shortcuts

• Drag to move around. Ctrl+scroll or pinch to zoom. 🔍 Fit shows everyone.
• In Focus view, arrow keys walk the family: ↑ parents, ↓ children, ← → brothers and sisters.
• Right-click (or long-press on a phone) any card for quick actions.

👥Members & RolesAdmin

• Search people (Ctrl+F) and filter: All, Super admin, Family head, Member, Invited, No access yet.
• Change a role from the list, or tick several people to change them at once.
• ✉️ Message, ❌ Remove, 🚪 Log Out (ends their sessions) or ⛔ Remove Access for anyone.

✉️InvitationsAdmin · Head

• ✉️ Invite from a card's right-click menu, or 🆕 Someone New for a person not in the tree yet.
• Choose their role and branch, add a personal message, and we email the link. The window closes and confirms "Invite emailed".
• Links work once and expire in 30 days. 🔄 Resend, 📋 copy the link, or ⛔ Revoke from the Invitations tab.
• If you add their card later with the same email, they're linked to it when they join.

💬MessagesAdmin · Moderator

• Messages visitors send from the tree land here.
• Reply by email, ❌ delete, or ⛔ Block an address.

🩺Tree Health

• A score and a list of gaps: missing parents, dates, genders or photos.
• 🛠️ Fix jumps to each one.

📜Activity

• The latest 500 changes, with who made them and exactly what changed (for example "birth date → 03/15/1942").
• Private contact details are never written into the log.

🔃Import / ExportAdmin

• 📥 Download Excel Template: an orange, frozen header and sample rows for your family's style. Rows marked SAMPLE are skipped on import.
• 📤 Import Excel / CSV. Parents and spouses are matched by name.
• 📥 Export everyone as Excel, CSV or a 📥 Full Backup (.json).

🧩Profile FieldsSuper admin

• Rename, reorder or hide built-in fields (job, house, place…).
• 🧩 Add your own fields (text, date, number, yes/no, list, link) and choose who can see them.

🧰SettingsSuper admin

• Who can see phone, email and address, and who can send invites.
• 🔒 Require a passkey or two-factor for admins and heads, and the admin session timeout.
• Tree name, what visitors (signed out) can see, and placeholder pictures for people without a photo.
• ✉️ Email sending: add your mailbox so codes, invites and family emails reach the inbox.
• ✨ Claude API key for AI features (stored encrypted).

🎂Family day emailsSuper admin

• Settings → 🎂 Family day emails: turn it on or off and pick the family's time zone. Emails go out from 7 a.m.
• Who gets it: every living person in the tree with an email, plus every member. One email, everyone in BCC, so nobody sees the others' addresses.
• Birthdays need a day and month (the year adds "60th"). Anniversaries use the wedding date.
• 👁️ Preview shows the next email exactly as it will look; ✉️ Send Me a Test emails it just to you.
• 🕯️ Remembrance days: on the anniversary of the day someone passed away, the email includes a gentle "In Loving Memory" card with a link to their memorial page. Untick it to leave these out.
• Someone asks to stop getting them? They can switch on 🔕 No family day emails in their account page or profile, or an admin can tick it for them in their profile (Contact section). Everyone else still gets the email.

📤UpdatesAdmin

• Shows your version and what's new.
• Hosted trees update automatically. Self-hosted: download the new kit from your account and replace index.html, api.php and inc/ (never data/).

💳Billing & ReceiptsTree owner

• Hosted trees only: your plan, renewal or end date, and every payment with a 📥 Receipt download. Refunded payments also have a 📥 Refund receipt.
• 💳 Update card, cancel or renew opens your account.

🧑‍💻When our support team helps

• If you ask us for help, our team can open your tree to fix the problem. A red banner shows when support is inside.
• Support changes are recorded separately and don't appear in your family's Activity.

🔒Keeping the tree safe

• Admins and heads should add a passkey or authenticator app. Settings can require it.
• Remove access for anyone who shouldn't be in the tree, and use 🚪 Log Out to end their sessions.
• Export a 📥 Full Backup now and then.

👤Your account page

• Your plan, status, next payment, price and what you've paid so far.
• 🌳 Open your family tree (hosted) or 📥 download the install kit and your licence key (self-hosted).

🧾Receipts & invoices

• A paid receipt is attached to your welcome email and to each renewal email.
• Download receipts any time from your account, or the tree's Billing tab. Each year's order has its own number, for example SA6QNWRT-0002.
• An invoice is only sent if an automatic renewal payment fails.

🔄Renewals & reminders

• Monthly and yearly plans renew automatically. We email you 7, 3 and 1 days before a yearly renewal.
• No proration and no partial refunds.

⚠️If a payment fails

• We email you the invoice and retry the card. You have 14 days to update it.
• After that, a hosted tree is paused: only the owner can sign in until the plan is renewed.

❌Cancelling

• Account page → 💳 Manage billing → cancel. Your plan works until the end of the paid period.
• Changed your mind? Turn renewal back on before that date.

💸Refunds

• 14-day money-back guarantee on your first purchase: cancel or ask within 14 days for a full refund. The plan ends right away.
• Renewals aren't refundable once charged. See refunds.

🙈I don't see photos or details

You're probably signed out. Sign in to see everything you're allowed to.

🔄I don't see a recent change

Refresh the page, or hard refresh: ⌘+Shift+R (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+R.

🚫I can't edit someone

Members can edit themselves, their spouse and parents, and add children and brothers or sisters. Ask a Family head or Admin for anything else.

📭No sign-in code or invite email

Check spam or promotions. Admins: make sure ✉️ Email sending is set up in Settings and use ✉️ Send Test Email to Me.

👯I have two cards after joining

Ask an admin to add your email to your real card. New joins link to the card with the same email automatically. Contact us and we'll merge an existing duplicate.

🎂A birthday email didn't go out

The birthday needs a day and month, the person must be living, and Family day emails must be on. Admins can check with 👁️ Preview.