Frequently Asked Questions

Amarcord is being launched in beta; this means that some of the features discussed here are still in development.

You can personalise your Amarcord in Settings. You can:

• Change the name that appears at the top of the screen (this is also the name by which your Amarcord will be known to family and friends you share your Amarcord with
• Change the colour of the header
• Choose a header colour palette linked to your Date of Birth; selecting this option will change the colour of the header in line with the number of years from your Date of Birth. This feature helps locate ribbons of past years because the colour of the header becomes lighter in colour as the ribbons get close to your year of birth
• Change how the name of the location appears below the photo (the location below the photo is used by Amarcord in the Search function and helps locate an event or photo)
• Change speed of screen-show. This is useful for long audio comments because audio comments are played automatically in screen-show mode and the speed can be adjusted to the length of the audio
• Change length of audio comment
• Disable sound effects (sound effects have been added to some buttons to confirm that the button has been actioned)
• Remove marker lines on poster photos

Ribbons

Amarcord organizes photos into “ribbons”. A ribbon is a sequence of photos side by side. Ribbons are of two types: Time and Event. A Time ribbon is a collection of photos in chronological order. An Event ribbon is a collection of photos in chronological order but related to a specific Event. The name of the ribbon appears above the photo. Names of Time ribbons (e.g., “2019”) are grey. Names of Event ribbons (e.g., “Hawaii Holiday”) are maroon.

Time ribbons

Time ribbons are created automatically by Amarcord based on the date of the photo. Amarcord creates a Month ribbon for each month of the current year. At the end of the year, Amarcord merges all Month ribbons into a Year ribbon; this operation is automatic and irreversible.

Event Ribbons

An Event ribbon is a collection of photos related to a specific Event such as a trip, a person or a subject. Event ribbons are created by you. To create an Event, select the photo you want to create the Event with and, while the photo is on the screen, click the button Create Event (second button from left at bottom of screen). You will be asked to create a name for the Event and this action creates the Event. Names of Events must start with a letter or a number.

Where are Event ribbons located

An Event ribbon is located inside the Time ribbon that matches the date of the oldest photo of that Event (i.e., the photo when the Event started). An Event ribbon is always be located in the Time ribbon consistent with the date of the oldest photo of the Event since Amarcord assumes that the date of the oldest photo is when the Event started. Example: the Event “Holiday in Italy, December 2019” is a collection of photos taken from 15 December 2019 until 10 February 2020; the Event is located inside the Time ribbon “2019” because the Event starts in 2019.

Poster photo

The photo that you use to create the event becomes the “poster” photo of that Event. The poster photo appears in the Time ribbon where the Event ribbon is located and is identified by two lines on two sides of the photo (the lines can be removed in User Preferences). All photos that you add to the Event will be stacked behind the poster photo. After you have created the Event, you can change the poster photo. To do that, open the Event ribbon, select the photo you want to become the new poster photo and tap the Create Event button. Changing the poster photo does not affect the Time ribbon where the Event ribbon is located.

Open Event ribbon

To open an Event, tap the poster photo. The App will change from Time mode to Event mode and you will see all the photos in the Event. The fact that you are in Event mode is highlighted by the name of the Event that changes from grey to maroon.

Event automatically relocated to a different Time ribbon

When you delete the oldest photo of an Event, if the date of the next oldest photo does not match the Time ribbon where the Event is located, the Event will be relocated to the Time ribbon consistent with the date of the next oldest photo. A typical situation when this may happen is with Events that start on the last day of the Month or Year and continue into the next Month or Year.

Relocate Event to a different Time ribbon

To move an Event from one Time ribbon to another, change the date of the oldest dated photo of the Event to a date consistent with the Time ribbon where you wish the Event to go.

Change name of Event

You can change the name of an Event at any time by tapping the button Create Event when the poster photo with the two lines is on the screen.

Add photos

You can add photos by tapping the camera button in the App. You can also add photos from your photo collection in the camera roll by tapping the + button. You can add multiple photos at the same time.

When you add a photo, in which ribbon does the photo go

When you add a photo with the camera, if the ribbon on the screen is a Time ribbon, the photo will go into the current Month ribbon and if one does not exist already, Amarcord creates one. When you add a photo from the camera roll, if the ribbon on the screen is a Time ribbon, the photo will go into a Time ribbon consistent with the date of the photo in the metadata; if the ribbon on the screen is an Event ribbon, the photo will go into that Event ribbon.

Add photos to Event

Photo added when the Event is open, either with the camera or with the + button will be added to the Event. If, after adding a photo to an Event, you close Amarcord and then reopen it, the screen will present the Event to which the photo was added. This allows you to continue adding photos to the Event.

Photo on screen when reopening App

When you launch the App, the photo on the screen will be the last photo you have added to the App. Thus, if you are on a trip and have created an Event for it, and you relaunch the App, you will always have the App ready to add photos to that Event.

Where are my photos stored

Your photos are stored securely in the cloud; only you and those you authorise can access them.

Add title to photo

To add a title to a photo, tap the date of the photo. Titles are useful when you want to search for a specific photo. Check the Search function in Settings.

Change date of photo

When you add a photo to Amarcord, the date below the photo flashes briefly to alert you that you can change the date of the photo by tapping it (this feature can be turned off in User Preferences). If the photo is in a Time ribbon, changing the date may move the photo to a different Time ribbon consistent with the new date (Amarcord will automatically create a new Time ribbon if one does not exist). For instance, if the date of the photo is 15 February 2020 and you change the date to 15 February 2019, the photo will be relocated from Time ribbon “2020” to Time ribbon “2019”. If the photo belongs to an Event ribbon, and you change the date, the photo will remain in the Event ribbon but its position inside the ribbon will change according to the new date.

Move photo

To move a photo from a Time ribbon to another Time ribbon, you need to change the date of the photo by tapping the date of the photo. To move a photo from one Event ribbon to another, tap the Arrow at the bottom right corner of the screen and select the Relocation option.

Location of photo

The location where the photo was shot is shown below the photo along with the date. In order for App to record the location, your phone must be set to record the location. To do this, tap Settings in your phone and then Privacy; next, tap Location Services and make sure they are ON. If they are already on, swipe down to the Camera icon and turn ON the switch next to Amarcord. For photos already in your camera roll that do not have the location, you need to enter the location manually with Apple Photos before adding the photo to Amarcord.

Edit photo

Amarcord does not have photo editing tools. If you wish to edit a photo, you should do so in Apple Photos or in the camera roll of your iPhone and then add the photo to Amarcord.

Manual

To view the photos in a ribbon, tap a photo on the screen. This will change the App to Viewing mode. To view the photos, swiping left to right or vice-versa. When you reach the end of the ribbon, the next one will come up. This allows you to view all photo as a continuum. If the photo on the screen is a poster photo, tapping the photo opens the Event; tapping the photo again puts the App in Viewing mode. Swiping an Event ribbon does not extend to another Event.

Screen-shows

Tapping the Screen-show button (top right corner of screen) will activate the automatic screen-show of the ribbon you are in. You can stop and restart the screen-show by tapping the photo on the screen. You can accelerate or show screen-shows in User Preferences. Audio comments added to photos will be played during a screen-show; you can change this in User Preferences.

Add Comment

To add text, tap the Add Comment button at the bottom of screen and select the Keyboard icon. Maximum length of a typed comment is 1500 characters including spaces (250 words).
Maximum length of an audio comment is 3 minutes; this can be changed in Settings.

View/Hear comment

When you add a comment, either text or audio, an icon will appear at the bottom of the photo to which the comment is attached.

Edit comment

To edit an added comment, either text or audio, tapping the relevant icon TWICE quickly.

Invite a Friend

You can invite people to see your Amarcord by selecting Invite in Settings

Add emoji

Friends you invite can see your Amarcord but cannot change anything; however, they can add one emoji per photo. Each photo can only have five emojis. Emojis automatically disappears after 24 hours.

Private photos

Photos you select as Private are not visible to persons you invite to see your Amarcord. The same applies to comments and audios attached to the Private photos.

Disinvite

People you disinvite, will no longer be able to view your Amarcord.

Using Amarcord as a Guest

When you use Amarcord as a Guest, your account name is “Guest”. When you sign up, photos and comments you added to the Guest account will be transferred into your new account and the account Guest will cease to exist.

Register

Cloud synchronization

Photos are synchronized to the cloud every time you launch your Amarcord and you are connected to the Internet.

Closing your account

When you close your account, all photos in the cloud will be deleted. You can download photos to your device prior to closing your Account.

Contact us at support@amarcordapp.com