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Media Gallery


Any number of pictures, sounds, video clips, and documents can be attached to each individual in a Family File.  Legacy reads all popular picture file formats.  The pictures can then be displayed at any time and also included in many printed reports.

 
The Media Gallery is reached by clicking the button on the Family View or by clicking on any existing picture displayed on either the Family View or Pedigree View.  Up to nine pictures, sounds, videos, or documents are displayed in the window at one time.  If more are attached, a scroll bar appears that can be used to bring up more.

Which Pictures to View
If you display the Media Gallery from the Family View or the Individual Information screen, the pictures shown are the ones attached to that individual.  If you want to look at the pictures attached to that person's Birth, Christening, Death, or Burial events, click the down arrow of the combo box in the upper-left corner of the window.

Adding Media
To add a new picture or other media file to the Media Gallery, click the Add Media button and then choose the type of media you want to add.  The Load Picture dialog box appears, prompting for the folder and name of the picture file you want to attach.  The pictures can be previewed in this window so you can make sure you are selecting the correct one.  (Whenever a picture is attached to an individual, only the picture file name is included in the Family File database.  The actual picture file is not loaded.)  When a picture has been selected, it is loaded into the Display Picture window where you can view it and add captions and descriptions.  (See Displaying a Picture for more information.)  Clicking Close from the Display Picture window adds the picture to the next available location in the Media Gallery.

Note:  Some pictures (and other media files) are just too big to handle.  For example, if you try to add a picture file that is 180 MB in size, Legacy will display an error message telling you that there is not enough memory available within the picture control in the program to load and display the picture.  If this happens, you should create a smaller version of the picture (lower resolution) to load into Legacy.

Scanning Pictures
You can also add pictures by scanning the actual picture from a scanner.  Many printers nowadays include a built-in scanner that can be used for this purpose.  To start the scanning process, click the Add Media button and then choose Scan a Picture.  You will be prompted to choose your scanner from a list of available scanning devices (if you have more than one) and then the scanning will begin.  After the picture is scanned it will appear in the Display Picture window where you can add the caption, date, and description if desired.  (See Adding and Scanning Pictures for additional information.)

Pasting Pictures
If you have previously copied a picture to the Legacy clipboard, you can paste it to any other gallery by either clicking the Add Media button and then choosing Paste, or you can right-click on an existing picture and choose Paste from the dropdown menu.

Adding Sound
Sound files can be attached to specific pictures or as stand-alone sound files.  To add sound to an existing picture, see Displaying a Picture .  To add a stand-alone sound file, click the Add Media button, choose Sound, and then specify the drive and folder where the sound file can be found.  When a sound has been attached to a picture, the number above the picture will change color (to the Contents color set in Options > Customize > Colors tab)

Adding Video
Video files with an extension of .avi, mov, mpg, and mpeg can be attached to a person or marriage.  To add a video clip, click the Add Media button, choose Video, and then specify the drive and folder where the file can be found.

Adding Other Documents (Deluxe Edition Only)
In addition to pictures, sound, and video files, you can also attach any other type of document to a person (or to an event, source, or location).  These documents can be word processing files, PDF files, spreadsheets, web pages - whatever you like.  Just as with sound and video files, these other documents cannot be included on reports, but you can load and view them as you would any other file.  Double-clicking on a word processor document starts your word processor and displays the file.  The same happens for any other type of file.  Whatever program is associated with that file type will be loaded to display the file.  To add a document, click the Add Media button, choose Document, and then specify the drive and folder where the document file can be found.

Adding Internet Links (Deluxe Edition Only)
You can add Internet website URLs.  To do this, click the Add Media button, choose Internet Website, and then enter the URL address.  (This is most easily done by copying the address from a browser window.)

Displaying and Editing
To see an enlarged view of a picture, highlight it and click Edit...  The picture is loaded into the Display Picture window.  From there you can add a caption, date (the actual or estimated date that the picture was originally taken), and description to the picture.  You can also change pictures attributes such as brightness, sharpness and contrast and rotate and zoom the picture. (See Displaying a Picture for more information.)  You can also edit a picture by right-clicking on it and choosing Edit...

Options
Zooming
You can display the current picture in a larger window by clicking the Options button and choosing Zoom.  You can also enlarge the picture by just double-clicking on it.

Removing Pictures
To remove a picture from the Media Gallery, highlight the picture by clicking on the caption area below the picture and click on the Options button and choose Remove.  Legacy prompts for confirmation and then unlinks the picture from the individual.  Another way to remove a picture or document is to right-click on the picture and then choose Cut.  The picture file itself is not deleted...only the reference link is erased.

Sound
If you have a sound file attached to a picture or attached as a stand-alone file, you can play it by first clicking in the caption area under the picture and then clicking the Options button and choosing Play.  (See Recording Sounds for more information.)

Video
You can play a video clip by first clicking in the caption area under the video you want to see and then clicking the Options button and choosing Play.

Setting the Preferred Picture
The picture in the number one position is considered the Preferred Picture by default  This picture is displayed on the Family and Pedigree Views whenever the individual is current.  The Preferred Picture is also printed on reports that include pictures.  You can quickly change any picture to the preferred picture by highlighting it and then clicking Options and choosing Set as Preferred.   You can also right-click on a picture and choose Set as Preferred from the dropdown menu.

Slider Show
A sliding picture show displays the pictures in the Gallery by sliding them across the screen in various sizes and various speeds. To start the Slider Show, click the Slider Show... button.   (See Slider Show for more information.)

Slide Shows
To view a sequential slide show of all the pictures in the Media Gallery, along with their sound files, click Slide...   (See Slide Show for more information.)

Print the Photo Album
To print all the pictures in the Media Gallery, click the Options button and then choose Photo Album.  The Photo Album Options window appears where you can select the type of photo album layout you want to print.  (See Photo Album Options for more information.)

Using the Media Relinker and Gather Media Tools
The Media Relinker can automatically find and relink all of your media files for you when you have manually moved them or have moved to a different computer with a different folder structure. Click the Options button and choose Media Relinker.

If you want to keep all of your family pictures and other media files in one place, the Gather My Media Files tool can help you quickly do this.  Click the Options button and choose Gather Media Files to get started.

Tagging and Untagging All Media
You can quickly tag or untag all the media in the gallery by clicking the Options button and then choosing Tag all pictures or Untag all pictures.

Sort Media by Date
If you would like to sort all the media items in the gallery by date, click the Options button and then choose Sort Media by Date.  If any of the items do not have a recognizable date, they will be sorted to the beginning.

Showing More or Fewer Pictures
You can change how many pictures are shown at a time in the Media Gallery.  This can range from 1 to 9.  To change the setting use the slider bar in the lower-right corner.  Moving it to the right will increase the number of pictures displayed.  Moving it to the left will decrease the number. Legacy saves your setting and uses it for subsequent gallery displays.

Tagging Pictures
There is a checkbox above the upper-right corner of each picture in the Media Gallery.  This is used to tag and untag pictures.  When you are printing a scrapbook you can choose to print only the tagged pictures if you want to have more control over which ones are included.  (See Picture Scrapbook Options.)

Moving Pictures
You can move pictures from one position to another by dragging them with the mouse. Hold down the left mouse button over a picture, drag it and drop it over the picture you wish it to be in front of by letting up on the mouse button.  This places the picture in the box you drop on and moves the underlying picture and all subsequent pictures one place to the right to make room for the new picture.

Copying Pictures
You can copy any picture in any gallery to the Legacy clipboard by right-clicking on the picture and choosing Copy from the dropdown menu.  If you want to copy all the pictures on a gallery, choose Copy All from the dropdown menu.  If you want to copy two or more pictures from a gallery (or gather pictures from multiple galleries and put them on the clipboard, choose Copy/Append from the dropdown menu.  Copy/Append All will add all the pictures from the current gallery to the clipboard.

Now you can go to any other gallery and Paste the picture(s) there.

Showing the Preferred Picture on the Family and Pedigree Views
Normally the Preferred picture (the picture with the asterisk) is displayed on the Family View and Pedigree View.  If you would like to turn off this feature, uncheck the Show Picture on Fam/Ped View box in the View section of the Customize screen.  This can speed up the display time on slower computers.  (See Customize - View for more information.)

Re-sizing the Window
You can stretch the Media Gallery window by dragging its edges and corners.  The picture boxes automatically re-size when you do this.  Legacy remembers the size and location of the window from session to session.

Note:  The settings for the Photo Gallery screen are saved in a file called Gallery.usr in the [My Documents]\Legacy Family Tree\_AppData\Usr folder.

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