Tuesday's Tips provide brief how-to's to help you learn to use the Legacy Family Tree software with new tricks and techniques.
How to Set Up the Custom Icons on My Toolbar (Intermediate)
You can add four custom shortcuts to your My Toolbar. These shortcuts can go to programs that you have installed on your hard drive or to websites you frequent.
Click the little icon in the bottom right corner of the My Toolbar to bring up the Edit screen. This is where you can add and delete items on your My Toolbar and you can also rearrange the icons. There are four icons that you can edit for your own use.
Right click one of the custom icons and you will see the edit screen. You can see that I am adding a shortcut to MS Excel which is on my hard drive. I could link to a specific spreadsheet if I wanted to but I am going to link to the main program.
In order to add a program you will need to use Windows/File Explorer (on Windows) or the equivalent on a Mac and drill down on your C:\ to find the executable file (.exe) for the program. An easy way to find a program is to use the search feature and search for *exel*.exe (using wild card asterisks around the program name. Then copy the file directory path as shown in the photo below.
You also have the ability to change the icon. I have added the MS Excel icon to replace the generic rocket ship. Legacy comes with many of the most common icons but you can also add your own by linking to the location of the icon on your hard drive. To find the icon associated with the program you are about to add use Windows Explorer and open the folder for that program. Look for a file that has an .ico extension. For example, if I wanted to add Deedmapper (a program I use to draw land plats) here is the entire file path for that icon.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Direct Line Software\DeedMapper 4.2\DM42.ico
Not all programs will have icon files and your file paths might look different than mine depending on what version of Windows you are using.
After you have created the new shortcut you will need to drag it to the toolbar.
And now you will see your new shortcut on your My Toolbar.
I could have done the same thing for a website by entering the URL instead of the file path to a program on my hard drive.
And now you can see both of my new shortcuts.
I try to keep as much information within Legacy as I can. It simplifies my research process. Being able to access the most frequent programs and websites that I use from within the Legacy itself saves me time.
Find tech tips every day in the Facebook Legacy User Group. The group is free and is available to anyone with a Facebook account.
For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page. These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.
Michele Simmons Lewis, CG is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.
Certified Genealogist is a registered trademark and the designation CG is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists®, used under license by Board certificants who meet competency standards.
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