help

How to add your guest book pages

For staff with a Public Lands Log account. Sign in, photograph the pages, check them, and your visitors by month and by state are ready. No app to install: it all works in your phone's web browser.

Updated

1. Sign in

  1. Go to publiclandslog.org/login on your phone or computer.
  2. Type the email address your account is under and tap Send sign-in link.
  3. Open the email from Public Lands Log and tap the link. You're in. There is no password to remember.

No email after five minutes? Check your spam folder. Still nothing? Write to hello@publiclandslog.org and we'll send you a new link.

2. Add your pages

  1. Tap Add pages in the menu.
  2. Choose your site, if your account has more than one.
  3. Enter the first and last dates written on the pages. Use the dates in the book, not today's date.
  4. Tap Take a photo for each page, or Choose photos or PDF to add many at once.
tip

Work one month at a time. The dates you enter then match the pages, and each batch is quick to check.

For a photo that reads well:

  • One page per photo, with all four edges of the page in the shot.
  • Lay the book flat in daylight or bright overhead light. Avoid shadows and curled edges.
  • Hold the phone straight above the page, not at an angle.

3. Check and publish

Each page is read in a minute or two. Then:

  1. Open Check pages on the Add pages screen.
  2. Compare each row (name, hometown, state and date) with the photo of the page. Fix anything that was misread.
  3. If your book has a party column (Party, No., Adults and Children), check the Party number on each row. A blank counts as one person.
  4. Add anyone who was missed with Add a missing entry.
  5. Tap I checked every row. Publish entries.

Nothing counts until a page is published, so a misread line never lands in your numbers.

4. See your numbers

  • Entries: every published visitor, the monthly trend and the states represented. Export CSV gives you the whole list as a spreadsheet.
  • Map: where your visitors came from.
  • Dashboard: sign-ins by month at a glance.

Set the dates on Entries to any stretch you need: a month, a season, a year. You don't have to decide ahead of time whether you want daily or monthly numbers.

Old guest books

Same steps. The quickest way through a stack of old books: photograph a whole book with your phone's camera, in page order. Then, on a computer, add the photos a month at a time with Choose photos or PDF, entering that month's dates.

A volunteer can add pages without an account through an upload link. An owner or admin on your account makes one on the Add pages screen and texts or emails it to them.

Visitors who don't sign

Many visitors walk past the book. A QR check-in sign at the desk or the door lets them check in with their phone's camera in a few seconds, and those check-ins count in the same numbers and map. See QR check-ins.

Stuck?

Write to hello@publiclandslog.org with your site's name and what you see on the screen, and we'll sort it out with you.