The ElderBoard Guide

Section 1Start here

ElderBoard is a display for a loved one with memory loss. It runs on a TV or tablet in their home and they never have to touch it. You and your family send messages, photos, reminders and visit notices from a phone or computer, and they appear on the display within seconds.

Setup takes about 10 minutes, and you do not need a TV or tablet to begin. You can preview the display in a browser tab first.

1. Step 1Create your boardOpen the link from your welcome email, enter a few details and choose a 4-digit PIN.
2. Step 2Configure, then previewCheck the name, pick a theme and enter your location, tap Finish Setup, then preview your display and tap Approve.
3. Step 3Send a messageOn the Connect tab, type something and tap Send to Display.

That covers the essentials. The rest of the guide explains everything else, one area at a time.

What you will need

• The link from your welcome email. It takes you straight to starting a brand-new board.
• A phone or computer for the Family App.
• A screen for the display, when you are ready. Any smart TV, tablet, iPad, Fire tablet or other screen with a web browser will work.

Section 2Create your board

Open the link from your welcome email. It opens the Family App on the Start a New Board screen. There is no invite code to enter. Fill in:

• Your loved one's first name. This is the name shown on their display and used in greetings, so use the name they like to be called.
• Your name and your birthday.
• Your PIN. Choose a 4-digit PIN. You will use it to sign in from now on.

Tap Create Board. You become the board admin right away, and the Settings screen opens so you can configure your board (the next section).

Admins and members

As the admin you can change every setting, add appointments and reminders, invite family, approve the display, and promote other people to admin. People you invite later join as members. Members can send messages, photos and visits.

Section 3Configure your board, then preview it

Right after you create your board, the Settings screen opens with every section ready to fill in. A blue banner at the top reminds you to finish setting up so you can preview the display.

1. Check the name that will show on the display. This one is required.
2. Pick a theme.
3. Enter your loved one's location, so the display can show the weather.
4. Tap Finish Setup at the bottom of the screen.

You can change any of this later under Admin › Settings. The Finish Setup button goes away once you have pressed it.

Preview your display

When you tap Finish Setup, a window titled Your board is ready opens. You do not need a TV or tablet yet.

1. Tap Preview my display. Your display opens in a new browser tab.
2. The new tab says Waiting for approval. This is a security step so only screens you trust can show your board.
3. Come back to the Family App and tap Approve on the blue bar at the top. It appears on any screen of the app while a display is waiting.
4. The display tab goes live and starts showing the date, time, weather and anything you send.

Finding your display link later

Where to find it

Copy the link and open it in the web browser of the screen your loved one will use. That screen shows Waiting for approval the same way. Approve it from the blue bar in the Family App, or from Admin › Display › Display list if the blue bar is not showing.

Managing screens

Where to find it

The Display list shows every screen connected to your board, with a dot that shows whether it is on, sleeping (night mode) or offline. For each screen you can tap Rename to give it a name such as Living room, reload just that screen with the circular arrow, or remove it. The This display is a TV checkbox saves as soon as you tick it.

Get an email if a display goes off

Where to find it

If a screen is switched off, unplugged or loses its connection, nobody may notice for a long time. Display alerts send you an email so you can ask someone to check.

1. Type the email address where alerts should go into Alert email and tap Save. Only an admin can change it. It does not have to be your own address.
2. The first time you save an address, every display on your board is ticked. Each display in the list has its own checkbox, Email me if this display goes off, so you can untick a screen you do not need watched.

This is how it works once it is on:

• If a ticked display stays off for 30 minutes, you get one email. If several displays are off, they are listed in the same email.
• If a display is still off a day later, you get one reminder and no more after that.
• When the display comes back, you get a short back online email.
• Night mode does not count as off. A display that dims to a clock overnight is working normally and will not send an alert.
• A display that has not been seen for three days is treated as retired and no longer sends alerts.

Alert emails arrive from ElderBoard. If you do not see one, check your spam folder.

Next, see Putting it on a screen for how to make the display run full-screen.

Section 4Messages and photos

Where to find it

This is where everyone in the family sends things to the display.

Write a message

Type up to 280 characters and tap Send to Display. It appears within a few seconds. If the message chime is on, the display plays a soft chime when it arrives. A message sent this way stays up for the rest of the day and clears at midnight. If you send it at 9 PM or later, it stays up through the whole of the next day and clears at the midnight after that, so a late-night note is still there in the morning. Both the 9 PM and the midnight are the board's local time, wherever you are when you send it. This is why a message such as I'll pick you up at 3 never shows two days in a row: send it in the morning and it is gone by night.

Send a photo

Choose a photo from your files or camera and add an optional caption. Photos appear in the same rotation as messages. How long photos stay, and how to keep your favorites, is covered in Section 6.

Schedule a message

Turn on Schedule this message to choose exactly when it appears instead of posting right away.

Start date and End date

The first and last day the message appears.

No end date

Keeps the message going until you delete it. This works with any Repeats setting.

All day

Show it for the whole day, with no specific times.

Start time and End time

The hours it appears. An end time earlier than the start time means it runs into the next morning.

Repeats

Never, Every day, Weekdays, Weekends, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, or Custom (every 2 days, every 3 weeks, and so on).

A line of plain English under the form tells you exactly what you have set, for example This message will appear from 9:00 AM on August 12 to 5:00 PM on August 13. Check that line before you send.

Recently sent

The clipboard button at the top of the app shows what you have recently sent.

Section 5Announce a visit

Where to find it

Enter who is coming, the date, the time, and an optional note such as Bringing lunch! then tap Add to Display. On the day of the visit, a line such as Sam is visiting at 3:00 PM appears on the welcome screen, and it goes away once that time has passed. Visits with no time show all day.

How many days ahead a visit appears is set under Admin › Content › Panels › Visits (1, 3 or 7 days).

Section 6Daily: appointments, reminders, photos

Where to find it

Everything tied to your loved one's day lives here. Admins only.

Appointments

Add a description, date, time and an optional location. You can make an appointment repeat weekly, monthly or yearly. The display shows the next five on its Appointments panel, and highlights an appointment more strongly in the three hours before it. On the day, today's appointments also appear on the welcome screen (for example Doctor at 2:00 PM) until about an hour after their time. ElderBoard shows up to two; appointments with no time show all day.

Appointments that have passed are hidden from the list. Tick Show past appointments to review them, including each earlier date of a repeating one. How far ahead appointments appear on the display is set under Admin › Content › Panels (1, 3, 7, 14 or 30 days).

Medication reminders

Set a time and a label, such as Morning medications, and tap the days of the week it applies to. When a reminder is due, the display shows it and plays a soft chime.

Cue Cards

A cue card is a photo, with an optional caption, that takes over the whole screen during the times you choose. While it is up, the rotation, the top bar and the page dots are hidden. Upload the photo once, add an optional caption (up to 120 characters), then add one or more times. Each time has a start date, an optional end date, start and end times, and how often it repeats (Once, Every day, Weekdays, Weekends or Weekly).

One cue card can have several times, so a photo of a TV can appear at two different hours from the same card. The photo and caption belong to the card, so they are the same each time it appears. If you want a different caption, make a separate card. When the time ends, the display goes back to exactly where the rotation left off. Cue cards never join the everyday photo rotation, never clear at midnight, and do not count toward the 100-photo library limit.

Cue cards come first. A cue card takes precedence over everything else scheduled on the display, including the caregiver on duty, the daily schedule and Next task box, appointments and messages. Those are hidden while the cue card is up, and the display picks up where it left off when the card's time ends. The one thing that still breaks in is a medication reminder.

Content on display

Lists every message, photo and visit currently on the display, with a delete button for each. Scheduled items show their schedule details. Tick Show expired history to see what has already rolled off.

How photos work

• A new photo is featured for the day. A photo sent through the Connect tab is in the display's rotation for the rest of the day (through tomorrow if sent at 9 PM or later, board time). At the end of that time it leaves the daily rotation, but it is not deleted.
• Older photos come back to fill empty slots. The display rotates through a set number of family-content slots. When today's messages and photos do not fill them, older photos from your library are shuffled in, so the screen always has family content. Messages are different: they clear at the end of their day and do not come back.
• Save a photo to keep it. In the Photo Library you can save any photo permanently, with no limit on saved photos.
• Pin up to 5 favorites. A pinned photo rotates on the display every day and never disappears. Pin a favorite family portrait here.
• The library holds 100 photos. When it is full, the oldest unsaved photo is removed to make room. If all 100 are saved, you are asked to unsave a few. The count, such as 23/100, shows at the top of the Photo Library.

Back to the top

Section 7What the display shows

Where to find it

These settings decide which panels appear and what the welcome screen says.

Panels

Turn each panel on or off:

Welcome Panel

The greeting, the weather, and notes for the day: today's appointments and today's visits appear here until their time has passed.

Appointments

The next five, with a stronger version in the three hours before one is due.

Visits

Upcoming family visits, shown a set number of days ahead.

Family Content

Photos, messages and visits. Choose how many slots (3 to 8) are shared between messages and photos.

Emergency Contact

Add a name, a phone number and the relationship to the rotation.

Caregiver

Shows whoever is on duty right now. Explained below.

Caregiver on duty

Turn on the Caregiver panel and a weekly scheduler appears. First build a People Library: add each person once, with an optional photo. Then, for any day, assign a person to any of four periods (Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Overnight) and set start and end times. Use the arrows to move between days.

The display shows the person whose shift is happening right now, with their name and hours. Because everyone comes from the shared library, you only enter each person once.

Custom greeting

By default, the Caregiver panel says who is on duty. Tick Custom greeting to replace that line with your own, up to 45 characters. Leave the box ticked and empty to keep the default. The text sizes itself to fit, and a short greeting is shown larger.

Because the panel shows a person, a photo and their hours, a custom greeting turns it into a general-purpose “who is here” panel. See Section 12 for ways to use it.

Welcome panel boxes

Up to three small boxes sit across the bottom of the welcome screen. Box 1 always shows the day of the week to help with orientation. You choose what appears in boxes 2 and 3 from this list. A box left empty does not appear.

• Safety affirmation
• Next task, from your daily schedule
• Next appointment
• Custom message
• Medication reminder
• Daily activity
• Favorite phrase
• Inspirational quote
• Bible verse
• Today's weather
• Day of the week

If you pick Next task, a Daily Schedule builder appears. Add time blocks with a start time, an end time and a label such as Breakfast, Lunch, Rest or Dinner. The display shows whichever block is current, and any gap shows the safety affirmation. You only set it up once.

Daily quote

The italic line under the greeting. Choose Random Rotation, a gentle quote that changes, or Custom Message, your own short line of up to 50 characters that stays until you change it.

Night mode

Dims the screen to a quiet, clock-only view overnight. Set the time to dim and the time to wake.

Section 8Music and sound

Where to find it

Background music

Turn on music, then set when it plays, how loud it is, and where it comes from.

Time window

Music plays only during these hours. Leave it blank for always on.

Volume

A slider.

Radio

Streams by decade (1940s through 1980s, or a Mix) from Music for Dementia's free, ad-free m4dRadio.

Curated

Upload your own MP3s and play them in order or on shuffle.

Message chime

A soft sound that plays when a new message or photo arrives. Use the default, or upload your own chime (MP3 or WAV, up to 30 seconds).

Section 9Look, name and weather

Where to find it

Display name and birthday

The name shown on the display, for example Grandma, plus your loved one's birthday and gender. These feed the greetings, birthday messages and holiday greetings.

Display theme

Pick a color theme to match the room, or a high-contrast option for easier reading.

Display appearance

Font size

Small, Medium or Large.

Panel speed

How long each panel stays on screen, from Fastest to Slowest.

Anyone standing at the display can swipe or tap the screen to move to the next panel. It resumes rotating on its own.

Weather and units

Location

A US zip code or a city name.

Country

Optional. Helpful for cities outside the US.

Temperature

Fahrenheit or Celsius.

Date format

Month Day Year, or Day Month Year.

Section 10Family and your phone

Invite family

Where to find it

Tap Invite Member to make a personal invite link and invite code. Send it by text or email. The person sets up their own name and PIN when they join. From the same list, an admin can Make admin or remove admin for any member, and can create a new code for someone who needs one.

Your profile

Tap Profile to add your spouse and children with their birthdays. These feed the birthday notifications on the display.

Using ElderBoard on your phone

If you signed up on a computer, you can sign in on your phone as the same person, with no new account.

1. On your computer, tap Profile and find Use ElderBoard on your phone at the top.
2. Scan the QR code with your phone's camera and enter your 4-digit PIN. If you cannot scan it, tap Copy my link or Email it to myself and open the link on your phone.
3. Add it to your home screen so it works like an app: Share, then Add to Home Screen on an iPhone, or the three-dot menu, then Add to Home screen on Android.

The link is personal to you, so please do not share it. To bring in other family members, use Invite Member.

Section 11Putting it on a screen

Adding the display to a screen's home screen gives a full-screen view with no browser controls or address bar, which is what you want for a loved one who should never have to navigate. Always open the display from the home-screen icon, not by typing the link each time.

Smart TV

Open the display link in the TV's browser and bookmark it, or set it as the browser's home page so it opens automatically. Many TVs also let you add the page to the home screen or quick-launch bar. Approve it as a TV (see Section 3).

iPad or iPhone (Safari)

1. Open the display link in Safari.
2. Tap the Share button, the box with an arrow pointing up.
3. Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen.
4. Tap Add in the top-right corner, then open the display from the new icon from now on.

Android tablet or phone (Chrome)

1. Open the display link in Chrome.
2. Tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.
3. Tap Add to Home screen, then Add. Open the display from the icon from now on.

Fire tablet (Silk)

1. Open the display link in Silk.
2. Tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.
3. Tap Add to Home Screen, then Add. Open the display from the icon from now on.

A locked Android tablet

Where to find it

This turns a factory-reset Android tablet into a dedicated display that cannot be exited or fiddled with. It generates a QR code, and you scan it during the tablet's first-time setup. No computer or technical steps are needed on the tablet itself.

1. Factory-reset the tablet, or use a new one that nobody has signed into.
2. In the Family App, open Set up a locked tablet. Give the tablet a label, choose a Settings PIN, pick its time zone, and optionally enter its Wi-Fi details.
3. Tap Generate QR code.
4. On the tablet's first screen (usually the language choice), tap the same spot 6 times (anywhere on the screen) to open the camera, then scan the code.
5. Follow the prompts. When the tablet asks for approval, approve it as described in Section 3.

The Settings PIN lets someone open the tablet's Wi-Fi, display and sound settings later without unlocking the whole board. It is shown again in the Display list, so you can find it.

To open the tablet's settings later: press and hold anywhere on the screen for 10 seconds. A progress bar appears after the first 5 seconds. When it finishes, the tablet asks for the Settings PIN. Enter it to reach Wi-Fi, display and sound settings. The tablet stays locked the whole time.

Section 12Ideas you may not have thought of

Most families start with messages and photos, but ElderBoard can do so much more. Here are some ideas on how to use ElderBoard's other features to make each day calmer and more familiar for your loved one. These are starting points, not rules. Every person responds differently, so try one idea, watch how your loved one reacts, and keep what helps.

Section 13If something is not working

Admin quick actions

Where to find it

Refresh Display

Re-pulls weather and calendar without interrupting the display.

Clear Queue

Removes all current family content from the rotation.

Update App

Reloads the display so it picks up a new version.

Common questions