I have moved …

You might notice things have been a bit quiet around here lately. That is because I have moved my tips and a whole heap more to www.pixels2pages.net , a comprehensive resource for all things relating to Storybook Creator Plus and Memory Manager. Come & visit us there.

Grid Settings on the View Ribbon

On the View Ribbon, under settings, there’s a button labelled Grid. It’s a small button and usually gets ignored, but I want to tell you about some very useful features it has – and I’m sure you won’t ignore it any more!

Ruler Guides

These are lines which you can add to your page to help you line things up. To add a ruler guide line, you click in the ruler at the very edge of the editing screen. In order to see the lines, you need to have “Show Lines” selected. This is a great time saver if you want to quickly line up a number of elements. You can also use it if you want elements on different pages to be placed in the same position. For example you could place grid lines at exactly 5cm from the top & left of the page, then place your photo at that exact spot. On the next page, it takes 2 clicks to add the gridlines in the same position.

To make it even easier, select “Snap to Rulers”. You can still put your element anywhere you like, but if you click & drag it across the page, you will notice that as you get close to the ruler the dotted outline of the element will stop exactly on the ruler, for perfect placement of your element.

Rotation Snap

This is one of the most useful tools; I use it all the time. If you want to rotate a photo or embellishment, it can be tricky to get it just right, especially if you want several elements rotated by the same degree. If you click on Rotation Snap, you can choose the exact amount you want. I generally have mine set to 15⁰, which gives me the flexibility & accuracy I need – I can have a small rotation of 15⁰ or easily go to 45⁰ or 90⁰. (If you want to “free rotate” at any time, just select rotation snap to ‘None’).  

The other time this is useful is when using the cutting tools. The straight cutting tools default to a vertical cut in the centre of the element. If you want to make a horizontal or 45⁰ cut by eye, it is almost impossible to get it right every time. But if you have the rotation snap set – then it’s a snap!  Try it and see for yourself.

Grid

Instead of placing your own ruler guides, you can set gridlines to automatically show. If you click on “Show Lines” the computer will draw a grid across your page. You can set the colour of the grid lines, and more importantly the spacing between the lines. These grid lines are useful for laying out your page, especially if you are the type of designer who likes things to be ‘perfect’. These grid lines DO NOT PRINT, whether they are showing or not – they are simply there as a tool when you are designing the page. The “Snap to Grid” option works in the same way as the “Snap to Rulers”. Note that you can have snap to grid selected even if the lines are not showing, and it will still snap to the invisible grid lines.

Be the first to see new tips

Several people have asked me how to get email notification of new posts to this blog. I am pleased to announce that I have added a subscription option to the main page. (I am pretty new to this blogging business, it took me a while to figure out how to do it!). On the right hand side of the main page, about half-way down the page, it says “Email Subscription”. Click this and enter your details, and you will get notified by email every time I post a blog entry.

Having said that, things have been very quiet over here recently. I have been out of the country and unable to blog, but I’m back now so stay tuned for more tips. Remember if you have particular questions, send them in & I’ll try to address them in future posts.

Meanwhile, I want to introduce you to the the blog of my friend Jan McCallum. Jan’s blog is at www.jansfans.blogspot.com and is full of useful tips & ideas. I am mentioning this today particularly because Jan needs your help. We are testing out software for recording short videos  on StoryBook Creator Plus. Jan has shared a video tidbit created by another friend Tameka Bond, who is a talented digital diva. Watch the video, then answer the quick poll. You’ll be helping Jan, and learn some great SBC+ tips at the same time.

Recovering Deleted Pages in SBCPlus3.0

 

Did you know that if you accidentally delete a page, all is not lost!

On the Home Ribbon, in the Pages Section, there is a button labelled “Recover Page”. If you click on it,  a dialogue box pops up.  Thumbnail images of your deleted pages are visible. If you click on one of the thumbnails you will see a lager preview image of the page.

Simply click “Recover” and the page will be returned to the StoryBook. It will be located at the end of the book, just drag it to the desired location in the Pages panel.

Recover Deleted Pages with a Click

Speaking of rearranging pages – when you have lots of pages to arrange, try enlarging the pages panel viewing area – it makes it much easier. If you hover your cursor over the gap between the pages panel and the main editing screen, you will notice that the arrow turns into a bar with little arrows pointing to the left & right. If you click & drag to the left, your pages panel will enlarge so that you can see the whole book at once.  (You can also see photos & content better this way too).

Matting a Shaped Photo in SBC+3.0 – the easy way!

There are a few ways to create a shaped photo mat in StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0. This one is easy, and gives you full control over the mat & the photo. Thanks to Tameka Bond for teaching me how to do this. There are no pictures in these instructions – just follow step-by-step and it will all make sense.

1. Insert a photo or a photo frame on your page.

2. On the Format Photos ribbon, click “Select Frames”

3. Choose Double Mat (the first option)

4.  On the Format Photos ribbon, click “Format Frames”

5. Click the first Flat Shadow Mat (the top one) and enter the following settings:

• click ‘Change mat fill’, choose ‘Select colour’ and set the opacity to zero
• set the width to zero
• set the cutout to the shape you desire (for example an ellipse)

6. Click the second Flat Shadow Mat and enter the following settings:

• click ‘Change mat fill’, choose the mat you desire
• set the width to the desired width
• set the cutout to an ellipse

NB To create a circle photo, use the ellipse cutout, and set the aspect ratio to square.

Memory Manager Speed Tools – Finding Photos from Specific Dates

When viewing photos in the Media Library, you can easily filter photos to only show those from certain dates. Because of this feature, you don’t need to sort your photos by date, as Memory manager 3.0 does that for you. To filter your photos this click on the “Quick Select” button right at the bottom of the screen, below the timeline.  Your choices here are

Today / The past week / The past Month / The Past Year

These are fairly self explanatory e.g. if you choose ‘today’ only the images dated on the current day will be displayed, etc…

All Dates

All Dates removes the date filter you previously applied and shows all photos in your media library.

Use Calendar

Click on the ‘Use Calendar’ option to select a specific date. But did you know there are a couple of other tricks in this calendar box:

When you open the calendar box, it automatically shows the current month. To navigate to your preferred date you can:

• Use the tiny arrows to scroll left and right a month at a time.
• Click on the month, and it will change to show the current year, with the months displayed. You can then click on the month you are looking for. You can also use the little arrows to scroll a year at a time.

 

• In the whole year view, click on the month you want and hit Enter to select it.
• While the year is displayed, you can click again to see the whole decade, again for a whole century.
• To select a range of dates, click on the first date, hold the mouse button down and drag the cursor to the last date. When you let go of the mouse button, all the images in the selected date range will display in the medial library window.

Custom Date

You can also choose to type in the date you want in the custom date field. You can use many different date formats e.g. 5/9/2008 or 23 Dec 2004 or Jan 2 2007. Remember if to use the American date order (e.g. 12/25/99). You can also use the same “fuzzy dates” that work in the date field on the Item Properties Box, e.g. Summer 1942, Jan 1996, Christmas 2006 or late 1994.

NB Remember to look at the “small print” at the top of the My Media Library Section if you are not sure which images you are displaying. You will notice a line of text which will read something like:

“Displaying items that are rated with 2 stars and are dated between 11/12/2009 and 11/01/2010″ (note the dates here are in the Australian order). or “Displaying Items that have any rating and are dated on 04/08/2009” etc…

While you are there click on the little triangle at the start of that sentence to find a whole lot of menu options.

Speed Tools in SBC+ 3.0 – Using Filters on Multiple Items

If you select a number of elements on a page, because you want to apply the same filter to them all, and then press the filters button, you will see the following Error Message:

“Filters can be applied to only one item at a time. Please select a single item or flatten the items you have selected in order to create a single item.”

Flattening in this situation is usually NOT a good idea, because, as it says, you will create a single item – they will be permanently connected. Also many of the filters will not give you the effect you want that way – e.g. Soft Edges will soften only the outside edge of the group of items, not each individual item.

BUT… the good news … the filters button remembers your last instruction. So select the first element, choose the desired filter, and then press Apply. Then select the next element, Click on Filters, then (this is the important bit) DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING! Just click Apply. Repeat until finished. Easy!!