An online memorial page is easier to set up once you know what it actually looks like when someone scrolls through it. This walkthrough is for families and friends who are about to start a memorial on Forever In Our Hearts and want a clear picture of the page itself – the order of the sections, what each one displays, and how the experience differs for a visitor reading the page versus the family member managing it behind the scenes.
TL;DR
- A Forever In Our Hearts online memorial page is built from a fixed set of sections in a consistent order: hero header, photo gallery, life story and timeline, guest book, service details, and a footer with QR code access.
- The hero section at the top shows the person’s name, photo and key dates – it is the first thing every visitor sees.
- Visitors see a clean, read-only version of the page; the family sees an additional editing layer with upload buttons, moderation queues and privacy toggles that visitors never see.
- Privacy and access controls are not a separate page – they sit inside the same editing view and decide who can reach every other section.
- The guest book and service details sections are dynamic – they can be open, closed or hidden depending on where the family is in the funeral process.
- Every memorial includes a QR code, generally surfaced near the footer, that opens the same page instantly on a phone or tablet.
Why it helps to see the page before you build one
Most guides to online memorials focus on what to write or what to gather – photos, stories, dates. Fewer explain what the finished online memorial page actually looks like once it is live. That gap matters, because families setting one up for the first time are often picturing something closer to a social media post or a printed program, when the real layout is closer to a single-page tribute site with distinct, ordered sections.
This guide is for anyone about to start a memorial who wants to picture the page before opening the editor: bereaved family members, friends asked to help set one up, and funeral directors or celebrants briefing a family on what to expect. If you have not yet decided what content to include, our family checklist for what to include in an online memorial covers that separately. This article is about the page itself – what is where, and why.
For a broader introduction to the platform and its features, see the full guide to online memorials in Australia. The rest of this article walks through the page from top to bottom in the order a visitor actually scrolls through it.
The anatomy of an online memorial page, section by section
Every Forever In Our Hearts memorial follows the same underlying structure. Individual content varies from family to family, but the order and purpose of each section stays consistent, which is what makes the page easy for visitors to navigate even when they have never seen one before.
1. The hero header
At the very top of the online memorial page sits the hero header: the person’s name, a primary photo, and their key dates – typically date of birth and date of passing. This section is deliberately simple. There is no clutter and no navigation menu competing for attention. A visitor arriving from a QR code scan or a shared link sees this header first, before anything else loads into view, so it sets the tone for the whole page in a single glance.
2. The photo gallery
Directly below the header is the photo gallery – a grid of images that visitors can open and browse. This is usually the section people spend the most time on, because photographs communicate a sense of who someone was faster than text does. The gallery is arranged as a scrollable or paginated grid rather than a single large slideshow, which lets visitors move through the images at their own pace rather than waiting for an automatic transition.
3. Life story and timeline
Beneath the gallery sits the written heart of the page: the life story, often paired with a chronological timeline of milestones. On the page itself, this typically reads as a block of narrative text followed by a simple visual timeline – a sequence of dates and short labels a visitor can scan without reading every word if they are short on time. The timeline gives extended family and friends who only knew the person at certain points in their life a quick sense of the full arc, while the narrative gives anyone who wants more detail somewhere to read further.
4. The guest book
The guest book section appears after the life story, as a feed of messages from people who have visited the page. Visitors see a simple form to add their own tribute and a scrollable list of existing messages from others. What they do not see is the moderation step happening behind the scenes – every submission is reviewed before it appears publicly, which is part of why the guest book on the live page generally reads as warm and considered rather than unfiltered. For more on how this works in practice, see our guide on the online guest book for funerals.
5. Service details
If the family has chosen to include them, funeral or memorial service details appear as their own clearly labelled section – date, time, location, and any livestream link. This section is the most likely to change over time: visible and prominent in the lead-up to a service, then often simplified or removed once the service has passed, while the rest of the page remains as a permanent record.
6. Footer and QR code
At the bottom of the page sits the footer, which typically includes the memorial’s QR code alongside any closing details the family has chosen to add, such as a donation link. The QR code is the same one printed on funeral programmes or memorial cards – scanning it opens this exact page directly, with no app or account required on the visitor’s end.
What a visitor sees versus what the family manages
One detail that surprises a lot of first-time visitors is how different the page looks for them compared to the family member who set it up. Understanding this distinction in advance makes the setup process much less confusing.
The visitor view
Anyone who opens the memorial link or scans the QR code sees a clean, read-only version of the page. There are no edit buttons, no upload prompts and no settings menus visible anywhere in this view. The only interactive element most visitors encounter is the guest book submission form – everything else on the page is there to be read, viewed or scrolled through, not configured.
The family/admin view
When the family member who created the memorial is logged in, the same page gains an additional editing layer. Each section – the hero header, gallery, life story, service details – has an edit control attached, letting the family add photos, revise the biography or update service information directly on the live page rather than through a separate dashboard. The family view also includes a moderation queue for incoming guest book messages and a panel of privacy and access controls that do not appear anywhere in the public-facing page.
Privacy and access controls
Privacy settings are not a section visitors ever see directly – they are a control panel the family manages from their own logged-in view, and the setting they choose determines who can reach the page at all. A memorial can be set to public, link-only, or restricted to approved guests, and the family can change this setting at any time without altering anything else on the page. The eSafety Commissioner recommends reviewing privacy settings carefully whenever publishing personal content about a family member online, which is exactly the kind of decision this control panel is designed to support.
How the page changes before, during and after a service
Because every section can be shown, hidden or edited independently, the same online memorial page looks slightly different depending on where the family is in the funeral process.
In the days before a service, families often publish the hero header, a handful of gallery photos and the service details section first, then add to the life story and timeline as time allows. During the service period, the guest book and service details sections tend to be the most actively used, with the QR code printed on programmes so attendees can reach the page directly from their seats. After the service, many families simplify or remove the service details section, while the gallery, life story and guest book remain as the permanent, ongoing record – this is the version of the page that anniversaries and later visits typically return to.
For a wider look at how an online memorial fits around the practical timeline of a funeral, Grief Australia offers general guidance on pacing memorial-related tasks around a loss, which can be a useful reference alongside the page structure described here.
FAQs
What is the first thing visitors see on an online memorial page?
Visitors see the hero header first – the person’s name, a primary photo and their key dates. This appears before the photo gallery, life story or any other section, and it is designed to load quickly so the page makes sense within a second or two of opening, including when accessed by scanning a QR code.
Can I change the order of sections on the page?
The core structure of an online memorial page – hero header, gallery, life story, guest book, service details and footer – follows a consistent order designed for readability. Families can choose what content to include or leave out of each section, and can show or hide sections such as service details, but the overall layout stays consistent so visitors always know where to find each type of content.
Do visitors need an account to view or contribute to the page?
No. Visitors can view a public or link-shared memorial and submit a guest book message without creating an account. An account is only required for the family member managing the memorial, since that is what unlocks the editing controls, moderation queue and privacy settings.
Why does the guest book look different from a typical comment section?
Every guest book submission on an online memorial page passes through moderation before it appears publicly, which keeps the visible feed calm and considered rather than open and unfiltered. Visitors only ever see approved messages; the review step itself happens in the family’s admin view, not on the public page.
What happens to the service details section after the funeral?
Many families simplify or remove the service details section once the service has passed, since it is the part of the page most tied to a specific date. The rest of the online memorial page – photo gallery, life story, timeline and guest book – typically remains exactly as published, forming the lasting version of the page that people return to later.
Where does the QR code appear on the page?
The QR code is generally surfaced in the footer section, alongside any closing details such as a donation link. It links to the exact same page a visitor would reach by typing in the URL directly, so scanning it from a printed programme or memorial card opens the live memorial instantly on a phone or tablet.
Is the page layout the same for a pet memorial?
Yes. Pet memorials on Forever In Our Hearts follow the same section order – hero header, gallery, life story, guest book and footer with QR code – as a memorial for a person. Details are at foreverinourhearts.com.au/pet-memorials.
Knowing the page before you build it
Seeing how an online memorial page is actually organised – what sits at the top, what a visitor scrolls through, and what only the family can see – makes the setup process far less abstract. Once the structure is familiar, filling in each section becomes a matter of adding content at your own pace rather than guessing what the finished page will look like.
If you are ready to see the structure in practice, you can start building your own page and fill in each section as you go.
