Help › The back of a photo

The back of a photo

A date, a place, a name in someone's handwriting. Often the only hard fact in the whole box.

Adding the back while you add the photo

Straight after the front is taken, the app asks whether there is anything written on the back. Say yes and take a photo of it the same way. Say no and the photo goes in with a blank back.

It asks before any story is recorded, never during one — most tablets cannot run both cameras at once.

Adding the back later

Open the photo and use Add the back. It appears only on photos that do not have one.

Turning it over

Turn it over appears on any photo. The line under it always says which side you are looking at.

• If she turns it over while telling a story, it turns over at that same moment when the story is played back — so the writing is on screen exactly as she reads it out.
• Turning it over by hand during playback stops it following the story until she taps Follow the story.
• A photo with nothing written on the back still turns over. It shows blank photographic paper, which is what is actually there.

Typing what it says

The back can also carry typed notes, for handwriting that has gone faint or a hand that is hard to read. That is for whoever is helping, not something she has to do.

A back that ended up on its own

It happens: a photo of the back is taken as if it were a new photo, and the archive offers her a photo of somebody's handwriting to talk about.

Open it and tap This is the back of another photo. It shows likely fronts side by side, most recent first, because a print is usually turned over within a few seconds of its front being taken. Pick the right one.

What the back looks like to other people

Everyone sees the same thing — in the app, in the web player, and in a saved video file. The back turns up at the same moment in all three, with the same marks on it.

Next: naming people and things →