I never would have started doing Family History, gathering old family pictures or writing those stories until I found the Heritage Makers publishing system. They have:
Story maps to help you start working on the story (feel free to print this out if you want to use it).
Free 1 G photo storage space
totally customized layout design ability
several publishing choices (hard-bound books, individual pages, even posters and cards) Acid free
the ability to print just one copy
an Archive, so you project can be published again later

I'm 25 with 3 kids ages 5 and under. I know that my time is precious so I'm really grateful that there is so much Technology to help me better use my time and still get these important histories recorded before I lose the family members who know the stories are gone. I am an independent publishing consultant through Heritage Makers now. So I get to help others with their stories. I'd love to help you too, message me or go to www.sharingheritage.com for more info. Thanks!

Shari McLaws

PS- Trudy Where do you get your magazine covers at?

I've played with several family history software programs, and the end result: I am not a Mormon but I cannot say enough about the FREEBIE system offered by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, PAF (Personal Ancestry File), down-loadable at familysearch.org. I just ignore the parts that are directly related to preparing data to submit to the Temple, and use the rest. It stores my data, lets me prepare all kinds of reports, and (under the report protocol) gives a tab for "books" which allows a couple of different options. The option titled "modified registry" lays out the family in text format and prints to Microsoft Word, and gives me both the option of using a pre-formatted report which meets the the standards of the Board of Certified Genealogists, or adapting my own version through the usual Word software. (I stick to the former when doing work for others, go "wild" on my own family!) In either case, I've documented my sources on each individual record, so the footnoting is done for me. (LDS also offers companion document software--for somewhere around $20--which lets you do neat things with colored fan charts and more. But before you buy, you can play with the free demo model which allows you to display up to 5 generations!)

This is an interesting and helpful discussion.
I have a couple of very basic questions - What style and size font do you use. I will be putting the information of a disk and the family can print out the parts they want. I am using word and doing the formatting and aranging myself.

I have heard that Century Gothic uses the least amount of ink -which is good for printing at home. The others I am looking at are Times New Roman and Ariel. either 10 or 12 point.

On the disk - how do you get the "chapters"to be in the order you want them.
Is there a way to set it up so the whole"book" can be printed at one time, or doing it your self is it only possible to print each doc file separately. I have each family as a doc in it's own file folder. The maps, census and pictures are on individual graphic pages.

I have the information and most of it is written up, I need help in formating it to give to others.
Thanks for the help.
Myo