YSA Photo Directory

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ccole59
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YSA Photo Directory

#1

Post by ccole59 »

As someone who works in the IT industry and as Bishop of a YSA ward, I'm surprised with the number of YSA wards in the Church, that there isn't an easier way to develop a photo directory that can easily be managed. Or at least a recommended tool that will take an MLS export and let me upload photos. I've searched several forums and no one has a good recommendation. It needs to be an app that can be easily understood and assigned to a ward member. My ward changes every 9 weeks and I would like to print one more than once a year. There are commercial products for $100 to $200 but they almost recreate the MLS, I don't need that, just a nice photo directory. Is that to much to ask? Hasn't anyone developed a product like that?
natedavis
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#2

Post by natedavis »

The new Directory at http://beta.lds.org has the start of such a program. It allows you or the member to upload pictures and will allow the ability to print such a directory if needed. It is a start, and will only get better as time goes on.
russellhltn
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#3

Post by russellhltn »

You might also look at the existing LUWS. It's not optimal, but it works and is up to date. A website admin can manage it.
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kisaac
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#4

Post by kisaac »

ccole59 wrote:As someone who works in the IT industry and as Bishop of a YSA ward, I'm surprised with the number of YSA wards in the Church, that there isn't an easier way to develop a photo directory that can easily be managed.
Welcome to the forum! As you and others try out the new beta.lds.org directory tool and its photo abilities as suggested, perhaps your feedback to the developers, via the "feedback link" on the site, will improve it, and help make what you suggest a reality to YSA wards around the world!

(make sure you log on with your LDS Account. There isn't much "online instructions" dealing with the photo aspect of the new directory in it's beta trial, but it is functional...your ward clerk (and maybe others,) has photo upload/approval duties and abilities.)
crislapi
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#5

Post by crislapi »

I have created a mail merge for my YSA ward. I use MS Office. I have a custom report that contains all the info I want in the directory. I save the custom report to file and then copy the results to my mail merge database (excel).

Also, we keep pictures of all ward members on the ward computer in a specific folder and w/ file names in a specific format (last name, preferred name.jpg). The mail merge pulls the directory info from the excel spreadsheet as well as a link to the picture. When I run the mail merge, it creates a word document with everything all put together.

I also created a macro that, when run, sizes all the pictures. They do need to be pre-cropped, but you don't have to worry about the size.

With this all done, it now takes our ward about 2 minutes to create a new directory. If you would be interested, I'd be happy to send you the files. Just send me a PM.
jdcr256
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#6

Post by jdcr256 »

As others have mentioned here, the new Directory application at http://beta.lds.org/directory is being designed to meet this very need.
We recently added support for out-of-unit leaders (like Bishops in YSA wards) to view both their home ward, and their out-of-unit ward.

In a soon-to-come release (probably in July) we will give these out-of-unit leaders rights to manage photos as well, but until then, they'll need to rely on their in-unit clerks or councilors to help them.

Also coming soon (hopefully by the end of summer) we will have a full printing solution to allow members to easily print the ward photo directory on-demand.

The beauty of the new Directory application is that you don't really need to have an individual with the responsibility of maintaining the photo directory. Each member can upload their own photo, and an admin only needs to click a couple buttons to approve each photo.

This moves the burden from one 'Directory Coordinator' to each member of the ward. Of course, having someone called to follow up with those who are a bit sluggish to upload their own photo might still be a good idea.:D

If you have suggestions as to how we could make photo management better in this new directory, please let us know!
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greenwoodkl
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Out of Unit Photos

#7

Post by greenwoodkl »

Is there or will there be a way to bring photos from Out of Unit leadership into our Ward directory or allow us to upload photos for them when they don't appear in the member list?
slmsz20
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Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:00 pm
Location: United States, Utah, Logan

#8

Post by slmsz20 »

jdcr256 wrote:We recently added support for out-of-unit leaders (like Bishops in YSA wards) to view both their home ward, and their out-of-unit ward.

In a soon-to-come release (probably in July) we will give these out-of-unit leaders rights to manage photos as well, but until then, they'll need to rely on their in-unit clerks or councilors to help them.

Can you please get the Stake tools in soon. The YSA Stake I'm in charge of does not have any "local unit" leadership, including ward clerks (turnover was too high and it's YSA so there are no in-house councilors). I think the only one that can do anything is our Stake Clerk right now, not even the Stake President can do anything more than login.
crislapi
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#9

Post by crislapi »

Ok, decided to post the files here since I can't attach files to PMs.

There are several files in the attached zip. The office files use macros, so you must have your security set to allow them to run. The directory is made using mail merges. Plenty of online help for that if you don't know how to run one.

Here is a description of the included files

1) Creating new directory2003.docx or Creating new directory2007.docx
These are instructions written for how to use the files and mail merge in the corresponding MS Office version.

2) ward directory export.mls
This is the custom report that is used to export info from MLS to use in the directory. Import this into your custom reports

3) ward directory export.csv
A sample export (from the test ward database)

4) ward merge info.xlsm
This file has a macro that I wrote that sees if the picture file exists. You can edit the path (in the cell formula) to point to where you keep pics. All the formula does is stick in a dummy photo (included) if the pic does not exist. This is also populated with test ward data.

5) PersonPlaceholder.bmp
Dummy picture file for those missing a picture.

6) Ward directory_template.docm
This is the actual merge document. It also has a macro - resize. Once you merge to new doc, you must copy the macro from the original document to the new document. Then, when you run the macro (after updating the links - in the instructions) it will automatically resize all the images.

The main trick is to have a link in your merge document that accepts a merge field as part of the link. This is what connects it to the pictures. The "codebreaker" for me was from this website. I put all the pics in the same folder, and the merge field in the link is the preferred name (in the format last name, preferred name). All pics are named in the same convention (last name, preferred name.jpg)

This puts 25 people per page (I think)
Attachments
Creating new directory.zip
(273.58 KiB) Downloaded 306 times
fletcher.carpenter
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#10

Post by fletcher.carpenter »

When I export from MLS the first columns (A-E) include information that doesn't seem relevant, like head of houshold ID, MRN, HoH position, etc. Did I export the wrong list or shoul I just copy and paste the rows to match your example that was included in the attatchment?
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