A Life in Leaves

A way of gathering a life story as a tree. Each branch is a part of life — family, school, songs, places, whatever fits the person. Each leaf is a memory. Leaves run from the trunk outwards, so earlier memories sit nearer the trunk and later ones towards the tip.

Getting around

Tap a leaf to write the memory: a title, when it was, and as much as you like about it.
Tap the amber + at the end of a branch to add a leaf there.
Tap a branch, or its name, to rename it, change its colour, or put its leaves in order. Sort by When orders them by any years or ages written in.
Leaves with a dashed outline are prompts. Fill them in, or leave them empty. Tidy up empty leaves clears away the ones that weren't used.
Drag the background to move around; scroll or pinch to zoom; Fit frames the whole tree.

Your tree stays with you

Nothing is sent anywhere. The tree lives in this browser on this device. Save file writes a copy you can keep or send to the person you're working with; they open it with Open file and see exactly what changed before bringing anything in, so you can each add to the tree in turn without anything being lost.

New tree closes the tree you have open and clears it from this browser, ready for a fresh one. If there are changes you haven't saved as a file, it offers to save a copy first. A file for a different tree always opens on its own, so two people's trees are never mixed together.

Print gives the tree on the first page and the written memories after it, to keep or take home. Choose "Save as PDF" in the print window for a file instead.

On an iPad or phone, open the tree from its web address in Safari, then choose Add to Home Screen from the Share menu. It then opens like an app, and the device holds on to your tree more reliably. Whatever device you use, save a file now and then. That copy is yours, whatever happens to the browser.

Esc closes panels.

Credits and licence