A Practical Guide To Working With Wiseman Mortuary Obits
If you have been asked to handle an obituary for a funeral home or a family member, Wiseman Mortuary Obits is one of the more straightforward platforms available. It is not the only option, but it is widely used in the industry and has enough features that you do not need a separate publishing tool for most cases. I will walk through what it does, how to use it, where it falls apart, and what I would change if I were building something similar. The core function is simple: you input biographical information, upload photos, add service details, and the platform generates a formatted obituary page that can be published online and shared across social channels. That sounds like enough for most families. It is not. The real value is in the workflow tools built around the basic obituary builder. You start by creating an account. If you are a funeral director, you will want the business tier. The free version exists, but it limits the number of active obituaries and restricts photo uploads after the first few. I usually recommend just going straight to the paid plan. The cost difference is negligible compared to the time you save not switching tools mid-process.
Once logged in, navigate to the obituary creation dashboard. You will see fields for full name, date of birth, date of death, survivors, predeceased family members, and a biographical summary box. There is also a dedicated section for service information: date, time, location, and whether the service is public or private. Fill these out in that order. The platform does not enforce any particular sequence, but the order matters for efficiency. Service details are the part most often left for last, and by then the family is usually on a call requesting changes. You will save fifteen to twenty minutes per obituary if you lock down service information early.
Writing The Biography Section
This is where most people struggle. Not because the writing is hard, but because they do not know what to include when they do not have a complete picture of the person. I typically ask for three things upfront: two achievements that defined their career or hobbies, a short anecdote about their personality, and a list of immediate family members. That gives you enough material for a standard obituary without requiring an interview session. The biography box accepts plain text. You can paste from a document if you have one. Word count is not restricted on the paid tier. I have written obituaries up to six hundred words without any issues. Shorter is fine too. Three hundred words is the sweet spot for readability on mobile devices, which is where most people will view the obituary.
Get the Full Details
Uploading Photos
You can upload up to twenty photos on the standard plan. The system accepts JPEG and PNG files. There is no batch upload, which is annoying. I usually compress images beforehand using a tool like TinyPNG so each file is under two megabytes. The platform will reject anything over that size, and trying to upload a full-resolution camera file will waste your time and frustrate whoever is helping you. One thing the documentation does not mention clearly: the order of uploaded photos matters. The first image becomes the cover photo. If you upload randomly, the cover might end up being a group photo from a funeral instead of a portrait. Drag and drop to reorder after uploading. I learned this the hard way on a Tuesday afternoon with a client waiting on the phone.
Publishing And Sharing
When you are satisfied with the obituary, click publish. The platform generates a unique URL. You can share that directly or embed it on a funeral home website if you have access to that feature. The sharing options include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and email. Email sends a formatted message with the obituary link included. It is not customizable beyond the subject line. Here is a counter-intuitive point: do not publish immediately after creating the obituary. Wait at least two hours. The platform caches content, and if a family member messages you about a change within that window, the cached version may still be live until the cache refreshes. I have had families send the link to relatives who then saw outdated information. It is a minor issue, but it happens enough to be worth noting.
Common Pitfalls And Workarounds
The biggest problem I encounter is the character limit in the survivors section. If a person has more than twelve immediate family members listed, the platform truncates the entry. I solved this by using the abbreviations "Mrs.", "Mr.", and "Dr." instead of full titles, which saves roughly ten characters per entry. For families with extended survivors, I move the full list to the biographical summary instead, where there is no hard limit. Another issue is the placeholder text in some fields. If you leave a field blank, the system sometimes displays grayed-out placeholder text on the live obituary. It is subtle, but readers notice it. Always review every field before publishing, even ones you consider empty. I developed a checklist habit early on: name, dates, survivors, biography, service info, photos, publish. Going through that list takes about ninety seconds and prevents most errors.
Limitations And When To Look Elsewhere
Wiseman Mortuary Obits is not suitable for every situation. If you need multilingual obituaries, the platform does not support that natively. You would need to create separate pages for each language, which doubles your workload. If you need integration with a specific funeral management software, check compatibility first. Not all systems connect cleanly, and the ones that do may require additional setup time. For large-scale operations, the per-obituary cost on the paid tier adds up. If your funeral home processes more than fifty obituaries per month, you should evaluate whether a custom solution or a different platform might be more cost-effective. I have seen funeral homes switch to FuneralSmart or Tributes after hitting that threshold. The migration takes about three days and involves exporting your existing obituary data, which the platform supports in CSV format.
What Works Well In Practice
Despite the quirks, the platform handles the basics reliably. The obituary pages load quickly. The mobile view is clean. Families rarely complain about the final output, which is the point. I use it daily for standard obituaries where the information is straightforward and there are no special requirements. For complex cases, I combine it with a secondary tool or handle the publishing manually. The support team is reachable during business hours. Response time averages about four hours for email tickets. Phone support is available but wait times can stretch to twenty minutes during peak hours, which are typically Monday through Wednesday mornings. If you need urgent assistance, email is faster than calling. I do not recommend this platform for anyone who needs real-time collaboration between multiple editors. Only one person can edit an obituary at a time. If a family wants to review and a funeral director wants to make changes simultaneously, you will need to coordinate through the phone or messaging system. It is manageable but not ideal.
