Sharing Genealogy Files Via Facebook

In the last few months I have been doing some genealogy on Facebook. While it is possible to share a file within a Group, by uploading to the Group, this isn't always convenient.  Sometimes I want to share a PDF, RTF or TXT file privately.

It can be done.  However, the process is somewhat tedious and not user friendly.

In this post I'll attempt to describe the process of sending a file, or files, as an attachment to a Message.

Click on the talk bubbles in the blue bar at the top of the screen.

Click on "See All" at the bottom of the drop down box.

Click on "New Message" or on a recipient's profile photo on the left side of the screen.

Fill in the "To" line, then look at the bottom of the screen for "Write A Message" or "Write A Reply," depending on whether you are starting a new message or responding to a message thread already started. Notice the paper clip and "Add Files," below the box where you write your message. Click on "Add Files" once for each file you want to send.  I recommend leaving the "Press Enter to send" box unchecked.  That is to say, use the "Send" button when you have your message ready and the file or files attached. This will prevent inadvertently sending the message if you press the Enter key while writing the message.

If you are the message recipient, to download the file go to your messages. Find the message with the attachment.  Click on "download" to the right of the file name.

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Issue I Encountered Because Of My Setup 

I'm using the Chrome Browser so what I describe here(between the rows of asterisks) probably won't be an issue on your computer. When I click on "download" my browser uses a Chrome PDF Viewer extension to display (preview) the file. That is to say I have to take additional action to get the file to download.  The top of the preview screen looks like this. 

After the file displays I need to click on the right most icon on the PDF Viewer menu bar. (The one with the up-seeking arrow.) This is followed by clicking "Open Original" which downloads the PDF to my computer. 

After I disabled the PDF Viewer extension there wasn't any issue with the download. When I clicked on "download" the file immediately downloaded to my download folder.

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Suggestions for changes or additions to what I wrote would be appreciated.

Thanks to Marv Byard and T. Vernon Anderson for helping me with the testing and learning exercise.

Dick Henthorn

8 March 2015