How To Use Legacy Trek

Purpose: get your memories out of your head, one question at a time.

The interview shows you one question at a time rather than a long form. That's deliberate — a single question in front of you is something you can answer. A page of thirty is something you close.

Each question is a conversation, not a single box. You can answer, then add more to that same question as things come back to you. Everything stays attached to the question it belongs to, in the order you said it.

You don't have to finish in one sitting. When you come back, Legacy Trek returns you to the first question you haven't answered yet. You can also jump back to any earlier question to add to your answer at any time.

Purpose: decide what the chapters are, before any of them is written.

The Outline step reads everything you shared in your interview and produces a chapter plan — which chapters your book will have, and in what order. Your memories are shaped into the arc of a life, so the book follows your story rather than the order you happened to answer things in.

Nothing is written yet at this stage. This is the blueprint only. You can review the plan, change it, and discuss it before committing — and that is the point of having a separate step. Fixing the shape of the book here takes seconds. Fixing it after every chapter is written takes a lot longer.

Generating the outline takes a little time, and a progress indicator shows how far along it is. You can regenerate the outline later if you change your mind.

Purpose: write the chapters one at a time, so any one of them can be redone alone.

This page shows each chapter from your outline as its own card, with Write and Rewrite buttons.

Working chapter by chapter is what gives you control. If chapter four comes out wrong, you rewrite chapter four. Chapters one through three stay exactly as they were. If the whole book were produced in a single pass, one bad section would mean starting over.

If anyone has contributed material to your project, chapters that include their contributions are marked here, so you can see whose material went where.

Purpose: work on the book as one complete document.

Steps 2 and 3 deal in chapters. The Editor deals in the book. You can generate the full draft here in one pass, and then read it end to end the way a reader would — which is the only way to catch repetition between chapters, or a story told twice.

What you can do here:

• Generate the complete draft from everything you've entered
• Edit the text directly
• Choose your paper size
• Save your draft and come back to it later

Generating a full book takes longer than a single chapter, and a progress indicator keeps you posted. When it finishes, you're taken to the Chapters page — that's expected. Your book has been split into its chapters, and each one now has its own Rewrite button waiting for you.

Purpose: turn the finished draft into a real, produced copy.

The Publish page opens with your book's measurements — total word count, chapter count, and estimated page count — so you know what you actually have before you produce anything.

What you can do here:

• Cover Design — upload a front and back cover photo and write your back cover text. Leave it blank and a default cover is made from your title and author name.
• Dedication, Foreword & Book Sections — your front matter. These live here, not in the outline.
• Generate Book PDF — builds the complete book as one PDF: front cover, every page, back cover. It tells you the final page size and page count, then offers Download PDF.
• Produce Book — saves a numbered, permanent version of your book. You can add a note to remember what changed.
• Audio Preview — Try a Voice — hear a sample of each narrator, then Generate Preview to narrate your current draft.

Six narration voices are available: Deep & Warm (Onyx), Friendly (Echo), British Accent (Fable), Warm & Clear (Nova), Soft & Gentle (Shimmer), and Balanced (Alloy). Each has a Preview button so you can listen before committing. Narration covers your story chapters — title pages, index and other front matter are skipped.

Every version you produce is listed in Produced Versions with its word count, page count and date, and each row has buttons to download the PDF, generate audio, or download the MP3.

Purpose: collect the people and everything you know about them.

This step is a dashboard, not a form. It shows a card for every person in your book, and you pick one at a time to work on. This is where most of your effort goes — the other four steps are much shorter.

What you can do here:

• Add a person. You enter their name, birth date and place, death date and place, marriage date, spouse, father, mother, siblings, and children. Only the name is really needed to begin — you can fill in the rest later.
• Answer questions about them. Open a person's card to reach their question set. This is where the stories come from, and it's what makes the book read like a memoir instead of a list of dates.
• Upload photos onto a person's card.
• Set a profile picture. You can only choose from photos already on that person's card, so upload the photo first, then pick it.
• Edit anyone's details at any time from their card.

Purpose: identical to the Personal History Builder.

From Step 2 onward, Roots Chronicles works exactly the way the Personal History Builder does: Outline plans your chapters, Chapters writes them one at a time, the Editor handles the whole book at once, and Publish produces the finished copy with your dedication, foreword, cover, audiobook, and version history.

The one difference worth knowing: in Roots Chronicles the outline works through your ancestors by generation, so the book follows your family line rather than the order you happened to add people in.

The descriptions in the Personal History section above apply here without change — jump back up to read them.

Purpose: tell us about the person, in whatever order suits you.

You start by entering a Project Name and the Name of the Deceased, then click Begin Guided Tribute.

The questionnaire has 26 questions grouped into six sections: Basic Information, Family, Education & Career, Personal Life, Character & Legacy, and Services. A progress bar at the top tracks how many you've answered.

Nothing is required except the two names. Answer what you can and leave the rest blank — blank answers are simply left out. Your typing is saved automatically as you go, so you can close the page and come back.

Each question has its own Writing Style dropdown: Traditional Memoir, Humorous & Light-hearted, Dramatic & Cinematic, Mystery & Intrigue, Adventure Story, Romantic & Emotional, or Poetic & Literary. This is set per answer, not for the whole eulogy — so a warm story and a funny one can each be written in their own voice.

Purpose: generate the tribute, then make it yours.

When you save the questionnaire you're taken to the writing studio. The page will be blank at first — that's normal. Click Regenerate in the Actions panel on the left to write the eulogy for the first time. Despite its name, that's the button you use to create it as well as to redo it.

What's on this page:

• Regenerate — write, or rewrite, the whole eulogy
• Save Eulogy — save your edits
• Publish PDF — download the finished tribute
• Page View — see it laid out in pages as it will print
• Paper Size — Letter, Trade, or Hardcover
• Response Log — every answer you gave, listed down the side

Click any card in the Response Log to open that answer. You can change the details or the writing style and press SAVE & REGENERATE SECTION to redo only that part of the eulogy, leaving the rest untouched.

Sending an Invitation

Go to Contributors in the menu. There are two ways to invite people.

A personal invitation. Click + Add to put someone in your Contact Book — only their Name is required, but add an Email or Phone if you want to send to them directly. Then use Send Link to email it, Text to send by message, or Copy to get the link and share it however you like.

On the send page you choose which project it's for, when the link should expire (30 days by default — clear the date for no expiry), and you can rewrite the Message to contributor. That message is what they'll read, so it's worth personalising — the default wording is written for a book about your own life, which won't fit if you're writing about an ancestor.

A general share link. With a project selected, use Create Share Link for one open link that anyone can use — good for a family group chat or a reunion. Anyone who has it can submit, and they'll be asked for their name and email.

What Your Relative Sees

They open the link on their phone or computer and get a simple page — no sign-up, no password, no app. They can:

• Record their voice straight in the browser, which is the easiest option for older relatives who'd never type it out
• Type a written memory
• Attach photos or documents — images, PDFs, or Word files
• Add their name and relationship to you

They can send as many memories as they like through the same link, and there's a polite "I'd rather not participate" option if they'd prefer not to.

Reviewing What Comes In

Submissions appear on the Contributors page when you select the contact or the project. You'll be emailed when something new arrives. For each one you can:

• Approve it
• Edit it — fix the name, the relationship, or the text itself
• Delete it, or remove individual attached files
• Play a recording, and Transcribe or Re-transcribe it

Getting Contributions Into Your Book

This part is manual and takes two actions. It does not happen by itself.

1. Go to your Outline step and click View Contributions. A panel opens listing everything that hasn't been placed yet.
2. For each memory, pick a chapter and click Assign to Chapter.
3. Then regenerate that chapter — from the Chapters step or the Editor. Until you do, the memory is only earmarked, not written in.

Once assigned, chapters show a note reading "Includes contribution from [Name]" so you can see whose material went where. The memory is rewritten into the voice of your book rather than dropped in as a quotation.

What Costs What

The Eulogy Writer is free, always. No subscription, no card. The other two tracks are subscriptions:

• Short Story Trek — $59/year (annual only)
• Comprehensive Story Trek — $24.99/month or $99/year
• Roots Chronicles — $34.99/month or $159/year

Annual works out cheaper on both plans that offer the choice. Payment is by card. You'll find plans under Pricing in the menu.

Where The Free Wall Is

On a free account you can start a Roots project, add ancestors, and answer questions about them. You'll be asked to subscribe when you reach the Outline step.

Nothing you've entered is lost. Everything you typed is still there and waiting when you subscribe — you pick up exactly where you stopped.

Changing Or Cancelling

Go to Manage My Subscription from the Pricing page.

• Change Plan — takes you back to Pricing. Buying a different plan replaces your current one; you're never charged for two at once.
• Cancel Subscription — you keep access until the end of the period you've already paid for. The page will then show "Won't renew — access until [date]".
• Request Refund — available within 3 days of purchase. A refund ends your access straight away, unlike cancelling.

Your work is never deleted when a subscription ends. Your projects, drafts and books stay in your account. You simply can't open the writing steps again until you resubscribe.

Your Account

Under Account Settings you can:

• Change your First Name, Last Name and Email Address
• Change your password (minimum 8 characters)
• See when you joined and when you last signed in
• Delete your account permanently, in the Danger Zone

Do I have to do the steps in order?

The first time through, yes — each step uses what the one before it produced. There's nothing to outline until you've gathered material, and nothing to write until there's an outline. After that first pass you can move freely between steps using the numbered bar at the top of the page.

Can I go back and change something?

Yes, at any point. Add a person or answer more questions in Step 1, regenerate the outline in Step 2, rewrite a single chapter in Step 3, or edit the text directly in Step 4. Nothing you produce in Step 5 is thrown away when you go back — every produced version is kept.

Why does generating take a while?

Outlines and chapters are written for you rather than pulled from a template, and a whole book takes longer than a single chapter. A progress indicator shows how far along it is. You don't need to sit and watch it, and starting it twice won't make it faster — if a job is already running, Legacy Trek will keep the one in progress rather than start over.

On my phone, the steps are just numbers

On a narrow screen the step bar shows the numbers 1 to 5 without their names, to keep it on one line. The order never changes: 1 gather, 2 outline, 3 chapters, 4 editor, 5 publish.

I'm stuck on something not covered here

Open Hav, the assistant, from any page and ask in your own words — it can answer questions about your own project that a general page like this one can't. For anything else, the FAQ covers accounts and billing, and you can always contact us.