Since LDS Tools for iOS version 2.1.1 was released on October 19, 2012, many users have been unable to update their LDS Tools data on Sundays.

We have been working on a fix and ask for your patience as we work to address this issue. We will be releasing LDS Tools for iOS version 2.1.2 to the app store in the next week or so, which should resolve this issue.

In the meantime, this issue will likely occur again this next Sunday, November 11. To avoid potential issues, plan to update your LDS Tools data prior to Sunday.

November 10, 2012 Update

We just released 2.1.2 to the app store. Here are the release notes for 2.1.2:

• Resolved issues that were preventing the app from successfully syncing on Sundays
• Added a new feature to preserve current data when performing a sync in case the sync isn’t successful
• Added support for the following languages: Chinese, French, Japanese, and Korean
• Resolved a few issues that were causing the app to crash occasionally

The next LDSTech broadcast, scheduled for Friday, November 2 at 12:00pm MDT, will focus on the Gospel Topics Explorer.

The Church publishes topic-based content in a multitude of locations and formats, but these topics generally stand alone, creating duplication and impeding gospel study.

The Gospel Topics Explorer is a prototype application that consolidates a variety of topic-based content published by the Church. This content can be searched using regular keywords or navigated graphically. The relationships between topics can also be explored to deepen the study experience.

The Gospel Topics Explorer is designed to address the gaps in gospel topics and form a foundation for future gospel study tools that will help users guide their personal study, prepare talks and lessons, and fulfill callings.

The broadcast on Friday will provide an overview and demonstration of the Gospel Topics Explorer prototype, with opportunities for questions and answers. You can attend the broadcast either online or in person at the Riverton Office Building. Stewart Shelline, a solutions manager in ICS, will give the broadcast.

How to Attend

To attend the LDSTech broadcast, go to the LDSTech Broadcast page during the time of the broadcast and click the Watch Now button. If you live or work near Riverton, Utah, you can also come to the Riverton Office Building (ground floor, Zion room) to watch the broadcast in person.

Each broadcast is recorded, so if you miss one, you can re-watch the recording at any time. In fact, if you arrive late to the broadcast, you can rewind the broadcast and play it from the beginning.

Asking Questions

During the broadcast, remote viewers can ask questions through Twitter. If you don’t already have a Twitter account, you can sign up for one at Twitter.com. When you ask a question, include the hashtag #ldstech in your tweet. For more information, see Twitter and LDSTech.

The Family and Church History Departments are conducting photo and document tagging pilots in various communities (for example, Snowflake, Arizona; Family Organizations; and Census Records) to help tag historical images.

WordPress will be the software platform used for the pilot efforts. Advanced WordPress coders are needed to co-develop a plugin (or enhance an existing one) that has the following features:

• Tag people in photos: Community users can click on faces (or other objects) in photos and type in names and other information.
• Tag location in photo: Community users can type in a location field. Location is tied to a map (geotagging).
• Identify the date of photo: Community users can add the date (or the approximate date) of the photo.
• Identify the event in photo: Community users can associate an event tag with the image. Users would be able to create or use existing tags.
• Post links: Community users can post and associate links to a photo.
• Post story: Community users can draft a story and associate it with a photo. The editing tool would have basic text formatting options (for example, bold, italic, underline, styles, font size, bullets, indentation).
• Search FamilySearch API: Identify persons in FamilySearch FamilyTree that match with those with photo tags.
• Source Posting: Post to FamilySearch the source descriptions and references that match the citations.

Getting Involved

To get involved in the project, join the Ancestor Story Chain (WordPress) project by doing the following:

1. On LDSTech, sign in with your LDS Account.
2. Click Projects.
3. If you haven't already completed the Profile subtab, complete it now. This subtab prompts you to agree to the Individual Contributor's License agreement, which is necessary before working on a community project.
4. Click the Ancestor Story Chain (WordPress) project.
5. Scroll down and click Join Project.

After you join the project, project leaders will be notified that you joined.

For questions and other information, contact Gordon Clarke at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

You’re invited to attend the 3rd annual RootsTech—Family History and Technology conference on March 21-23, 2013, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Building on the success and growth of previous years, RootsTech 2013 is shaping up to be the biggest and best yet!

Register for RootsTech

About RootsTech

Hosted by FamilySearch, RootsTech offers an opportunity for technology developers to discover the latest family history tools and techniques, connect and collaborate with end users, and help shape the future of technology within the family history industry.

RootsTech 2013 offers a new Developer Day—a collaborative environment where developers can discover available resources and industry trends within the family history industry—all consolidated into a single, impactful day. » Learn more.

Also new in 2013 is a full track of Getting Started classes and labs where those new to family history can learn where to start, how to build their family tree, and how to use technology to explore family connections. » Learn more.

Registration for RootsTech

Take advantage of early bird pricing to attend the full conference. Or register for the Developer Day on Friday, March 22 and get full access to keynote and developer sessions as well as the expo hall.

» Register for RootsTech.

RootsTech has something for everyone, whether you are an avid genealogist, just getting started, or simply want to discover the latest technologies and solutions to better connect with your family. At RootsTech, come prepared to experience world-class content from speakers all over the country, an exciting exhibitor hall, and great keynote speakers.

The MLS 3.5 release has now been staged to all units in all areas of the world with the exception of Central America, North America Central, North America Northeast, North America Northwest, North America Southeast, North America Southwest, and North America West.

MLS 3.5 will be staged to these remaining areas over the next few weeks, starting with the North America Southwest and North America West areas on Tuesday, November 6th.

In addition, a final build of MLS 3.5 is scheduled to be staged to all units running MLS 3.5 on Friday, November 2nd. To verify which build of MLS you are on, you can click the Help on the MLS menu bar and then click About.

The build number is the number after the version. In this example, the build number is 21021.

Priesthood leaders and clerks in units that haven’t yet upgraded can visit www.lds.org/mlsupdate for more information on preparing for the upgrade. If units experience any problems with this new version, they can provide feedback by e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . In the e-mail subject line type: MLS 3.5 feedback. In the e-mail message, give specific details about the issues.

For more details about what's included in MLS 3.5, see the "Review the release notes for MLS 3.5" section at www.lds.org/mlsupdate.

If you missed one of the previous LDSTech Broadcasts, you can view recordings of the sessions on the LDSTech Broadcasts page.

The following 2012 broadcasts are available:

• New Record-Keeping and Technology Support Site on LDS.org (2012-10-05)
• Personal Progress, Duty To God, LDS Music (2012-09-07)
• Webcasting, Personal Video Conferencing (2012-08-03)
• LDSTech Swarm (mass testcase testing) (2012-07-06)
• Clerk Computer (2012-06-01)
• Gospel Study using Mobile Devices (2012-05-04)
• Annual LDSTech Conference (2012-03-28)
• Adding MLS Functionality to LDS.org (2012-02-03)
• Bible Videos / iPad (2012-01-06)

You can also access recordings from 2011.

Usually about 400 to 500 people watch the live broadcast. About the same number watch the recording later. Altogether, that's about 1,000 people per broadcast.

This year was the first time we made the LDSTech broadcasts a regular monthly feature. In looking at the topics, you can see we have alternated with the meetinghouse technology group.

We would like to hear your feedback about the broadcasts. Is this a feature you enjoy? Are there topics you want to see? Does the format work for you?

LDS Tools 2.1.1 for iOS was released to the app store today.

Version 2.1.1 includes the following fixes and enhancements:

• Added support for iOS 6 and iPhone 5
• Improved performance and stability
• Improved data (including calendar) download process
• Added support for German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish languages
• Added additional reports for leaders and clerks including Members With/Without Callings, Members Moved In, Temple Recommend Status, and Unit Statistics
• Improved photo download and delete process (thumbnails are now "lazy loaded," which should create a better user experience)
• Improved maps functionality (to accommodate the changes in iOS 6)
• Added a new option to provide feedback
• Updated the email address for support
• Resolved several issues including crash on startup for some users

We will have another release in the coming weeks which will include adding support for the remaining Internet 9 languages.

The Book of Mormon app that was previously only available as a Windows app is now officially available on Android, Apple, Windows, Nokia Symbian, Nokia Series 40, and Java Phones (J2ME).

According to Church News and Events, "the purpose of the new Book of Mormon app is primarily to make the text and audio recordings of the Book of Mormon accessible to those of other faiths." As such, "the app is simply a digital version of the print Book of Mormon, but without footnotes or cross-references."

The app allows you to download the Book of Mormon in 32 languages. If you want to listen to the narration, you can choose audio in five main languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. The app can also be viewed on both mobile devices and tablets.

See "Church Members Are Invited to Share New Book of Mormon App with Friends" for more information.

The following screenshots show the Android version of the Book of Mormon app.

To download the app, search for "Book of Mormon" in your device's application store, or go directly to the Book of Mormon app page in iTunes or Google Play. Look for this app icon:

For more information, see previous articles on the topic:

• Book of Mormon App for Android and iOS Now Available for Beta Testing
• Book of Mormon App for Windows Phone 7 Released

As we continue to expand our offerings in other languages, we find that the basic "Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif" fonts don't display well in other languages. Default sizes may be too large or too small, glyphs may display poorly (jagged edges), and so on.

When a new language becomes available (or when its offerings expand) on LDS.org, we try to find the best fonts to use for that language. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to find information about the best web fonts for each language.

We usually explore existing sites in that language to see what fonts are used. However, often what we find is inconsistent. It's not clear if the fonts they use are standard best practices (like Arial, Helvetica or Verdana), poor but commonly followed practices (like Comic Sans), or custom embedded fonts. We also don't know what the font looks like to a native speaker. For example, sometimes it's not clear whether the font is serif or sans serif (or if those even exist in the language).

We would like to have contact with web developers who are native (meaning, developers who actually work in a given language) and can recommend a list of fonts for that language.

We have a lot of Asian languages coming up right now, so that is our immediate need, but any language (that isn't a Roman language) would be helpful.

If you can be of assistance in this area, or know someone who can, please let us know by adding your comments on this LDSTech Forum thread.

We may not use your services immediately. But it would be great to have resources to go to if and when we do need them.

Oct 20, 2012 Update: LDS Tools is now back in the app store. Version 2.1.1 has been released. See this post for more details about the latest release.

LDS Tools 2.1 for iOS was released to the app store late last week, and shortly after releasing it, a major performance issue was identified which required us to remove LDS Tools from the app store. We have resolved the issue and LDS Tools 2.1.1 should be available in the app within the next 5 to 7 days.