TNG: How to add media

When adding media into TNG, you have three basic methods available:

• You want to add only one media, or one media at a time, with the opportunity to edit the media information at that time. Read on.
• You have a number of media files in your TNG media folder, but not yet associated with your family tree. You just want to bulk import them into the tree and will associate them later.  Read the article on “How to import media”.
• You have a number of media files on your home computer and want to bulk import them into TNG. But you also want to then give them titles and descriptions, and to associate them with individuals, families, sources or places. Read the article on “How to upload media”.

  If you are not sure what “media” is in TNG, visit the other articles on How to use media, an overview and What is media? So let’s say you only want to add a photograph or recording from your home computer, and to associate it with a family member.  You will need editor, media editor or administrator privileges for this task.  Go to the Media page.  The ‘Search’ tab will show you the current list of media in a table layout.  But we want to add another image, so click on the ‘Add New’ tab. Media File The ‘Add New Media’ page has a lot going on, so let’s walk through the steps.  This will be a photo of my dad, so set the Collection choice to ‘Photos’.  The steps will be very similar for the other collections.  I will ignore the next checkbox: “This media comes from an external source”.  That only applies if the image comes from another website, but we are getting our image from the home computer instead. The next area tells TNG where to find the media file.  There are three choices:

• File to upload comes from your home computer. My choice this time.
• File name on site comes from your own media subfolder on the TNG website.
• Body Text will accept a direct text file from you. You can hand type it into this box.  Or you can copy-and-paste from another text or word file from elsewhere (e.g., a file on your computer or text from a website).  Note that you have some text formatting buttons along the top of this box.

So click on “Choose File” to get an image from the home computer. Next, we need a thumbnail image to be created from the original.  TNG can create one for you, if the original is a valid JPG, GIF or PNG image.  My original image file name is 103.jpg, so TNG names the thumbnail for me: thumb_103.jpg.  TNG does not like it if you try to keep the thumbnail and original image file names the same and it will complain!  By default, let TNG store the media files in the same collection folder as selected earlier. Media Information The Media Information boxes are optional, but may add value to your visitors and be informative on the context and relevance to the research. Selecting a cemetery is used only for headstone images.  “Always viewable” overrides the “living” status and user permissions. Selecting “Open in new window” will cause the media to be opened up in a new browser window when its link is clicked. Okay, we “Save and continue…” and go onto the next page, where we can link this photo back to the ancestor, where it was taken and who might be in the photo.       Media Links Now we connect the photo to an ancestor, or ancestors.  This being a photo of my dad, the Tree = “Benedict” and the Type = “Person”.  Which person?  Each individual in your family tree has a unique person ID.  If you know it, type it in this box.  If not, use the search icon to do a look up for that person.  My dad is ID= I3.  Note: all ID’s start with the letter “I”.  If you type in the ID number, click on the “Add” button. If you have more ancestors in the photo and want to link them as well, you can do that.  Just enter a new ID number in the ID box or do another search and then click “Add” again.  You should see a growing list of people that you just linked.   Place Taken/Created If you want a map location to be associated with this photo, you do it here.  We will do a separate article on mapping individuals and places later. Image Map I like this feature and should use it more often.  If you have a photo with multiple family members (see Media Links, above), you can tag each of them in the photo and link back to their individual page.  As well, when someone visits the photo on your site, they will see the names appear as the cursor is moved across each person. So let’s get started. You should see a full sized image of the photo here.  First, select the tree.  Then imagine a rectangle that would border the face or body of the person in the picture.  With your cursor, click on the upper-left corner of that rectangle, then the lower-right corner.  You should see a dotted outline.  In the pop-up window, identify that person (again, for dad, the ID= I3).  Or, if you don’t know the ID, put in the First Name and/or the Last Name and let TNG list the choices.  Click on one of them to select the person. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and save your media. That’s it.  Enjoy adding your media into TNG, whether they are photos, documents, headstones and more.  If in doubt, don’t forget there is further information on your TNG page in the “Help in this area” link.