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.

The next LDSTech broadcast, scheduled for Friday, October 5, at 12:00pm MDT, will focus on the Record-Keeping and Technology Support site on LDS.org.

This new Record-Keeping and Technology Support site will give priesthood leaders and clerks a centralized location to access training and support for the following topics:

• Membership
• Finance (including Financial Auditing)
• Meetinghouse Technology

This LDSTech broadcast provides an opportunity for you to learn more about this new site and how it can help you get training and support.

To view the Record-Keeping and Technology Support site, go to clerksupport.lds.org.

Note that although the site is live, there's still a lot of content being added to the site. Most likely the content rollout will be complete around the beginning of November. What you see currently on the site is only part of the content.

New video tutorials are available for the LDS.org calendar. These video tutorials provide three-to-five minute movies showing various tasks and concepts with the calendar. The video tutorials cover the following topics:

• Setting Up the Calendar
• Understanding Calendar Views
• Subscribed Calendars and Locations
• Syncing the Calendar
• Creating Calendars
• Scheduling Events
• Sending E-mail Reminders
• Editing Repeating Events
• Dealing with Event Conflicts
• Reservations Versus Events
• Creating Reservations

To view the videos, first go to the calendar by going to LDS.org. Click Sign In/Tools and then select Calendar. In the calendar, click the gear icon (Settings) and then click Help. In the Help, click the Videos tab.

You can also go directly to the calendar help here.

A new opportunity to test online services based on common ancestry is now available. The services are designed to help Church members share information and media. No previous experience or specific expertise is required.

To participate, please complete a seven-question survey. You will then be qualified to test these new services and provide valuable feedback before the services are made generally available.

Upon completion of the survey, you will be added to our list of volunteers. You will periodically receive e-mail messages asking you to evaluate some aspect of an online experience designed for families. Examples may include uploading a photo, testing a registration process, starting a simple family tree, or completing a small survey. Each evaluation should take between 10 to 15 minutes. The frequency of requests should be less than once per week on average.

>> Volunteer to test online family sharing and heritage services.