Quick and Easy Way to Send Legacy Reports as PDF Files

Geoff Rasmussen

17 Apr 2007

If you want to share a pedigree chart, family group record, or other report with a family member, Legacy Family Tree makes this an easy task. One of our Legacy users, George Quinn, learned about an easy method to share these files. He shared his thoughts with us below….

I like Legacy reports saved as PDF files because they keep the professional look and feel of Legacy charts and reports. PDF files are a real common file format for all kinds of documents and just about every computer that I have ever seen has the Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing them. PDF files are universal and can be viewed on Windows PCs and Macs.

I discovered a quick and easy way to attach a Legacy report created as a PDF file to an e-mail message. It’s incredibly simple and avoids all of the problems trying to find the file and manually attach it to a message.

You must have Legacy Deluxe in order to make a PDF file of a chart or report. I use Legacy Deluxe and just love everything it can do.

In Legacy choose the report you want to send.
Make your report option selections.
In the lower right corner of the report screen choose PDF File and click Create in the upper right corner.
Give your PDF file a name and save it.
When asked "Would you like to view the PDF file?" click Yes to open the Acrobat Reader.
In Acrobat Reader click on File and choose Email on the File menu.
A blank e-mail message will open with the PDF file automatically attached. All you need to do is enter the recipient’s e-mail address, fill in the subject line and type your message!
Click Send and you’re done!

Thanks George for sharing this with us. PDFs are the way to go if you want to preserve the formatting of a report, which often gets lost when copying/pasting information into the body of an email.

Comments (7)

Greatful thanks to Nancy & Bruce. Did as suggested and pleased to report all systems go!
Thank you Legacy for the platform to learn new applications and the opportunity to seek help when the “brain” is not fully engaged.
Regards,
Gordon.

For Gordon, it’s easy to upgrade (and free) to a later version of Acrobat Reader. Just go to ” adobe.com “.

Gordon Jennison and others should update to Acrobat Reader 7.0. It’s entirely free, and there is no reason to stick with older versions. Plus you’ll sometimes have problems reading PDF files created with current versions. Just go to the Adobe.com site, and update your reader.

Legacy News April 17, 2007
Quick & Easy..send reports as PDF Files.
Great idea,have tried to do following given steps. Progress okay until no.6.
Clicked on “File” but email option does not appear. My version of Acrobat Reader is 4.0.
Can you offer any advice please?

I have used the PDF file to send many Legacy reports to other family members. Most of the time I send the Family Group sheet with my notes attached.
Cliff states he has a problem with notes on his general note section, but I have none. This is a copy and paste here from one of my FGS
CENSUS
1870 United States Federal Census – Osage, Allen, Kansas, PO Ozark
GILLHAM, Willliam, 40, m, farmer, IN
GILLHAM, Nancy, 40, f, IN
GILLHAM, Emma R, 15, f, IL
GILLHAM, John B, 13, m, IL
GILLHAM, Susan J, 11, f, IL
GILLHAM, Lizzie L, 10, f, IL
GILLHAM, Rosy S, 8, f, IL
GILLHAM, James P, 4, m, IL
GILLHAM, Mary L, 2, f, IL
GILLHAM, Joseph S, 3/12, m, KS
As you see it shows up exactly like I typed it in. If I have downloaded the census image then I can send it as a .JPG file the same as you would a photo.
Since most of my book reports of descendants is too big to send per email, I use the FGS or make a CD with the report and send that per postal service mail.
I have used Legacy to make a book. My Osborn family begins in NC in 1700’s. This family had 11 children which information was gathered from then until present. The cost to publish a book is over $400, so the solution was to make a CD. The parents were chapter 1 and each child was a separate chapter. This allowed the person who got the CD to print the parent’s and then the child’s chapter to make a book for themself. It made it easy for them to take to any printer shop in their location to have it made into a book.

When he describes how to send Legacy Reports in pdf, he is referring to Legacy generated reports such as pedigree charts, narratives, lines of descent, etc. I don’t consider a census as a Legacy generated report. Try sending the census reports as pics. Then you have to change nothing. I use the pdf features of Legacy so that people can’t change my data as easily. Your average person doesn’t know how to change pdf’s because they usually only have the Reader installed. I like this idea.

I can’t do this because I have to edit every report using Word. I choose to add the Census Reports in the General Notes of individuals. When I do a report, Legecary stacks the data without respect to the spacing. For example:
Doe, John son 13 TN TN TN
The report will be:
Doe,Johnson13TnTNTN
I have asked many times for a change in software, starting on the Carribian Cruise about 3 years ago. And as yet, I still have to spend considerable time editing each report, in Word, putting in blank spaces.

GJ
Gordon Jennison

17 years ago

Greatful thanks to Nancy & Bruce. Did as suggested and pleased to report all systems go!
Thank you Legacy for the platform to learn new applications and the opportunity to seek help when the “brain” is not fully engaged.
Regards,
Gordon.
BB
Bruce Biddlecome

17 years ago

For Gordon, it’s easy to upgrade (and free) to a later version of Acrobat Reader. Just go to ” adobe.com “.
NC
Nancy Cutway

17 years ago

Gordon Jennison and others should update to Acrobat Reader 7.0. It’s entirely free, and there is no reason to stick with older versions. Plus you’ll sometimes have problems reading PDF files created with current versions. Just go to the Adobe.com site, and update your reader.
GJ
Gordon Jennison

17 years ago

Legacy News April 17, 2007
Quick & Easy..send reports as PDF Files.
Great idea,have tried to do following given steps. Progress okay until no.6.
Clicked on “File” but email option does not appear. My version of Acrobat Reader is 4.0.
Can you offer any advice please?
DJ
Donna J Schmidt

17 years ago

I have used the PDF file to send many Legacy reports to other family members. Most of the time I send the Family Group sheet with my notes attached.
Cliff states he has a problem with notes on his general note section, but I have none. This is a copy and paste here from one of my FGS
CENSUS
1870 United States Federal Census – Osage, Allen, Kansas, PO Ozark
GILLHAM, Willliam, 40, m, farmer, IN
GILLHAM, Nancy, 40, f, IN
GILLHAM, Emma R, 15, f, IL
GILLHAM, John B, 13, m, IL
GILLHAM, Susan J, 11, f, IL
GILLHAM, Lizzie L, 10, f, IL
GILLHAM, Rosy S, 8, f, IL
GILLHAM, James P, 4, m, IL
GILLHAM, Mary L, 2, f, IL
GILLHAM, Joseph S, 3/12, m, KS
As you see it shows up exactly like I typed it in. If I have downloaded the census image then I can send it as a .JPG file the same as you would a photo.
Since most of my book reports of descendants is too big to send per email, I use the FGS or make a CD with the report and send that per postal service mail.
I have used Legacy to make a book. My Osborn family begins in NC in 1700’s. This family had 11 children which information was gathered from then until present. The cost to publish a book is over $400, so the solution was to make a CD. The parents were chapter 1 and each child was a separate chapter. This allowed the person who got the CD to print the parent’s and then the child’s chapter to make a book for themself. It made it easy for them to take to any printer shop in their location to have it made into a book.
PA
Paul Abell

17 years ago

When he describes how to send Legacy Reports in pdf, he is referring to Legacy generated reports such as pedigree charts, narratives, lines of descent, etc. I don’t consider a census as a Legacy generated report. Try sending the census reports as pics. Then you have to change nothing. I use the pdf features of Legacy so that people can’t change my data as easily. Your average person doesn’t know how to change pdf’s because they usually only have the Reader installed. I like this idea.
CG
Cliff Gibbs

17 years ago

I can’t do this because I have to edit every report using Word. I choose to add the Census Reports in the General Notes of individuals. When I do a report, Legecary stacks the data without respect to the spacing. For example:
Doe, John son 13 TN TN TN
The report will be:
Doe,Johnson13TnTNTN
I have asked many times for a change in software, starting on the Carribian Cruise about 3 years ago. And as yet, I still have to spend considerable time editing each report, in Word, putting in blank spaces.