A tour of the album workspace

Your album workspace is where you build and manage your album. Your circle's header runs across the top. At the top of the left rail, under ‹ Albums (which takes you back to your albums), you'll see your album's name, a status pill (Draft, Public, Private, or Archived, with “· Updates Pending” added while you have changes waiting), and a little Saved note that tells you your edits are safe. Below that is the list of sections: Album, Media, Invitation, People, Activity, Settings, and Guest Book. At the bottom of the rail sits Preview, with Publish underneath while your album is a draft. Once it's published, a ⋯ (More) button joins Preview. On a phone, your album's name and these buttons share one band at the top, just under the circle header, and the sections stay in the tab bar along the bottom. Invitation is where you write and send your album invitations, Activity is where every post and comment lives — including anything waiting for your approval — and Guest Book is where your guests' contributions gather once you've turned the Guest Book on.

The Album section is where you build the album itself. You'll see your album exactly as visitors will see it. Empty spots — the hero image, the title, the subtitle, and the main story — show up as soft grey placeholders inviting you to fill them in.

• Click the title or subtitle to type right on the page. They save as soon as you click away.
• Click Add a Photo in the hero spot to choose the photo that welcomes your visitors — from your device, your camera, or a cloud service like Google Photos. The hero spot takes photos only, and you can come back and replace your choice any time.
• Click the main story placeholder to open a full writing window with headings, lists, quotes, and links.
• Underneath your photos you'll always see an Add another memory tile — click it or drop a file onto the page to upload more.

Each story or comment can contain up to 20 different web links. Unsafe links cannot be saved. Links in rich text remain inactive until a safety check succeeds; if a check expires, saving the content again requests a new check.

Themes

Beside the section list there's a column of themes you can scroll through (on a phone, it's a sheet you pull up from the bottom). Hover any theme to preview it on your album — colors, fonts, and layout all change. Click to apply it. The strip stays open so you can keep trying different looks without losing your place.

Making it your own with Custom

Prefer to design your own look? Click the Custom box at the start of the themes and it opens right there to reveal a design bar. From left to right you can:

• Pick a layout — eight arrangements for your photos and stories.
• Choose your colors — each swatch is labeled so you always know what you're changing: Text, Background, Main color, Pattern accent, and Pattern detail. We tune the rest of the look to match.
• Add a background pattern — your custom background starts out a clean, solid color. If you'd like a little texture, pick from twenty gentle patterns (stars, florets, waves, and more) drawn in your own colors. Choose Plain any time to go back to the simple background.

Everything updates live on the page as you experiment, so feel free to play until it feels right.

Publishing

When you're ready to share, click Publish at the bottom of the left rail. Just above it is a Preview button, which opens your album in a new tab so you can see exactly what visitors will see before you publish — handy for catching little things like a missing subtitle or a story that needs another sentence. Once your album is live, Preview becomes View My Album (just View on a smaller screen). Your album has to be publicly viewable in Settings and already published before its sharing options appear in the ⋯ (More) menu — that way no one accidentally promotes a draft or a private album.

Sharing your album link and QR code

Once your album is live and publicly viewable, open ⋯ (More) at the bottom of the left rail. Under Share you'll find three options:

• Copy link — copies the full web address of your album so you can paste it into messages, emails, or social media.
• Download QR code — saves a high-resolution PNG of your album's unique QR code. Print it on an invitation, pass it out at an event, or display it on a screen so people can scan and visit.
• Copy QR code — copies the QR code image to your clipboard so you can paste it straight into a document or chat.

Taking your album offline, and bringing it back

After you publish, Archive waits in the ⋯ (More) menu at the bottom of the left rail. If you have changes waiting to publish, publish or discard them first and Archive will be back in the menu. Archive your album any time you want to hide it from visitors. The public link will stop working, and members you invited will no longer see it on their home page. Nothing is deleted. You and any co-editors can archive the album and restore it.

1. Open ⋯ (More) at the bottom of the left rail and choose Archive.
2. We'll check with you first: Archive this album? "Guests will lose access until you restore it. You can restore it from here at any time, and nothing in it is deleted."
3. Click Archive album to go ahead, or Cancel to keep it live.

You and any co-editors will still see the album on your home page, marked Archived. When you're ready to share again:

1. On your home page, find the album under Your albums, marked Archived, and tap it to open its workspace.
2. Click Restore at the bottom of the left rail. Your album is live again right away, and people can visit it just as before.

Media

Your album has two views of the same photos:

• Album view is where your photos and stories are arranged for visitors.
• Media view is the organizer. You can see every photo in a grid, on a timeline sorted by event date, or in a detailed list. Just drop files anywhere on the Media tab to upload.

At the top of the Media page you'll see a little bar showing how much of your album's 20 GB of storage you've used so far.

Hiding a photo without deleting it

Want to take a photo off the album for now but keep it for later? Choose Hide from album on the tile. You'll see a little note at the bottom of the screen saying Hidden. Find it under Hidden in Media. with an Undo button if you change your mind.

Bringing it back

Go to Media and open the Hidden section at the bottom. Click Reinstate next to the photo and it will jump right back to where it was on the album.

Deleting forever

If you're sure you want it gone, choose Delete permanently. We'll ask you to confirm — once you do, the photo is gone for good.

Settings

Under Settings you'll find your album link, three simple privacy toggles (who can view your album, who can leave comments, and whether comments wait for your review before appearing), and an Album Book toggle so visitors can save a PDF copy.

If your album is still a draft you haven't published yet, you'll also see a Delete draft album option at the bottom for starting over. Once you publish, that option goes away and Archive, in the ⋯ (More) menu at the bottom of the left rail, is the gentler way to step back.