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Joyce's Hints and Tips
Please note: New hints and tricks will be added to the top of this list. Always scroll down the page when looking for something.
Here is a link for our NEW
Getting Started With Heritage Makers A Guide to the Heritage Studio 3.0 Drag and Drop Publishing System presented by Heritage Makers (Take time to view this, IT WILL BE A GREAT HELP TO YOU!).
http://www.box.net/shared/4dreqyfn75 (tHIS IS IN pdf form so you can save it and/or print it.
 Great help.... ReNee Lee, a HM's Consultant I know gave us these two links:
here’s the Picasa link where she has catagorized and organized all the collections: http://picasaweb.google.com/HMPremierArtwork This is templates designed and posted here that are not submitted to HM home office. http://morehmtemplates.com/ Did you Know??? Heritage Makers has reduced pricing for multiple copies of the same thing. (Scroll to the bottom of this page to see the multiple copy price list.
How to put a slide presentaion into your Blog: A freind just viewed my blog and asked how I put the slide show into it. I use www.slide.com along with Picasa which I use for editing and storing my photo's.
Convert Tif files to Jpeg files: http://www.nchsoftware.com/imageconverter/index.html
Page Maps: If you have scrappers block when it come to how to get started with a layout, card, etc. go to www.pagemaps.com How to copy your screen using Microsoft Vista: (This is a great tool, I use it all the time. Just make sure that you see what you want on your screen.)
Go to start then in search....type in snip do not hit enter, then it will open a window on your left side - click on snip it tool, then you can se e what your want to snip, trace around what you want to copy.then click file and save as. I suggest save to your desk top and then from there you can move it to where ever you want it. I love Picasa for this..... Go to Picasa and find what your took a snip of, then edit it to remove the red line around it. Then this is important, export your corrected jpg picture back to your picture file and then delete the copy on your desk top.
Keep cookies and temp files cleaned off your computer:
A few weeks ago I was having trouble with my laptop and called HP support. During that conversation I was given the following link for a tool to keep cookies and temp files off our computers. I run it every few days and I am amazed as to how much is there to delete. It is quick and easy to use by just clicking the icon on my desk top to run the cleaner, and hip hip horray, all that stuff is gone ;o) It's FREE!
Picasa Photo Editing and Organizing: http://picasa.google.com/ It's FREE. Use Picasa to edit, organize, store your photo's then you can share your photo's online with family and friends.Google Site: Do you want to have your own web site like mine? Build and maintain it yourself. http://sites.google.com/Heritage Makers: To get a FREE "Basic" account if you don't already have one call me 208-747-3596, or go to my site. www.heritagemakers.com/299515 I would love to give you the account FREE and help you get going. If you are looking for a good job where you set your own hours and the amount of money you want to make contact me, HM is a wonderful company.
NOW THAT YOU HAVE YOUR ACCOUNT:
Uploading photo's to Heritage Makers: This is easy don't let it stress you!!!
1. Click on add photo's That will open the add photo's window.
2. If this is your first time to load photo's click on Upload Photos to a New Album, name your new album.(you can have as many albums as you wish)
3. Click create. This will open up the to upload photo's page.
4. Click the choose file black box. (Read the directions there).
5. This is where you select the photo's you want to upload. Usually they are in your my pictures file. If you have several that you want to upload, click on the first photo, hold down the shift key to highlight all your photo's and click on the last photo.
6. Click open to start the upload. At this point it will ask you if you wish to add more photo's. If you do repeat these steps.
7. If you ever have any problem while working in HM. Click save and quit to go out of the program and then log back in.
A few hints when using the uploader.
Please note: With the basic HM membership you can store 2G.(This is being changed to 1G.of photo's but with the premier membership you have unlimited storage for as long as you keep your premier active. This is a wonderful way to store and protect your precious photo's Right now we have the best price ever for premier when you buy a full year for only $99. This is a savings over the monthly price of $139. Only $8.25 rather than $20 per month. A real deal. This sale ends May 31, 2009.
How to get your single pages into an album...... When you have all your pages complete you would go to view then print preview then after checking each page to make sure there are no errors (because you can't move anything around or make corrections later), you click download. A window will open and you can select where you want to save your pages (I save to my desktop) then click save, go to your desk top and make sure they are there.
I use Picasa www.picasa.com to edit, organize and store my photos. I highly recommend this FREE program from Google. Automatically all photo that you have on your computer will go into Picasa. In Picasa you can edit your page and crop off the pink edges. (If you are working with a layout, make a copy of the 2 page layout and save it. Easiest way for me is to paste them into the album just above the album I am working in. Then I drag and drop the copy back into the current album. Then I can make two pages. I like to do this so I can view them as slide presentaion from my computer.) After you remove the pink edge and/or divide the layouts into single pages, you will export them into your "pictures" on your computer. Then when you are sure they are there go to your desktop and remove the original pages that had the pink edge.
Next you would log into Heritage Makers, then new project, then blank pages, then select storybook, then 12x12 size. Upload your pages that are now jpeg pictures into the album. Now you will simply drag and drop each page into the album. be sure that the pink edge is off the edges. Lock and save. Go to your print preview to check and make sure it looks right. Then move on to the next page.
Remember you will need to place the back page, then the front page and page #1 is a single page and then the rest are layouts. You can click pages manage to change the order, add pages or delete a page. Now you can see your pages side by side in the album as they will print. I learned that even when my journaling did't look perfect, it still printed good.
Another way to do it but takes much more time and that would be to build the pages over again in a new album. Which is about like starting over. You can use your my projects and drag and drop all the elements used on each page back into place and that makes it a little bit easier.
Align Elements:
Aligning elements on the pages of your projects so that edges of photos and text look straight on the page is a great way to dress up your books, cards and posters to make them look professional. To line up elements, go to view, rulers, show ruler. A red grid will appear on the page of your project and you can align the edges of photos and text boxes using the lines. Make Multiple Copies of a Page: When making multiple pages that look the same, it’s too much work to drag elements onto each individual page. The Page Navigation pane includes a manage feature that allows you to copy entire pages and place them where you want them in your project. Just click on the “Manage” button located at the top of the Page Navigation pane. A window will pop up showing the pages of your project. Click on the page you want to duplicate so it is highlighted, and click the “Duplicate” button located at the top of the window. A copy of that page will appear next to it. If you want to place it in a different position in your project, just click and drag it. You can also remove and add pages to your project from this pane. Note that when you duplicate a page, a new page is added to your project. So unless you delete another page, you will have more than 21 pages in a book and will be charged for the extra pages. Pricing on Multiple copies of the same thing  Top Ten Reasons for using Heritage Makers
10. Hardcover, professionally-published books with library-bound stitched, reinforced binding 9. Easy drag-and-drop system 8. Complete design flexibility – photos and scanned images where you want them, as much or as little text you want 7. Heirloom Assurance Guarantee (replacement of defect, replacement of damaged book, additional copies available) 6. Fully customizable cover 5. Access to over 40,000 digital scrapbooking backgrounds, embellishments (Premier membership) – over 400 collections with at least new collections added every month – no need to purchase individual kits 4. Unlimited online photo and project storage – no need to download and save anything on your hard drive 3. Preview of pages downloadable as jpg files to share; preview of entire bookwith email-able link 2. Book archived, so it can be reopened, edited, and reordered, again and again, forever 1. Can digitally enhance photos without PhotoShop – PhotoShop capability without the software, the expense, or the learning curve 1z. Make professional books such as Business Profiles, ad books, and textbooks 1y. Completely web-based – no software to download onto your computer other than Adobe Acrobat Reader so you can see your previews 1x. A variety of sizes of books and various products: greeting cards, posters, postcards, playing cards, scrapbook pages, calendars, spiral bound books to meet your desires 1w. Access your projects from any computer station – even from your laptop at a coffee shop or from an internet café (including a cruise ship) – wherever there’s internet access 1v. Archival, acid- and lignan-free paper, no fading or color degradation 1u. Transferable product credits – may transfer your book or card credits to another person with one click of a button – great for gift-giving 1t. Consultant available and eager to help you with your projects 1s. User-friendly website, with tutorials, story ideas, and storybook planners 1r. Free online Drag & Drop webinars and tutorials to teach you creative ideas in making your storybooks 1q. Men enjoy it and teenagers love it 1p. Online availability of quotes and poems to use in your projects 1o. Works with both PCs and Macs 1n. Groups of people may work on the same project at the same time because it’s online – great for families separated by distance 1m. Aid for literacy – make and read own books and card games, create own stories 1l. Elegant Legacy Edition, leather-bound, full-color dust jacket for coffee table book 1k. Oprah endorsement in December 2008 edition of O Magazine 1j. Large order discounts available 1i. Ability to earn free products and get discounted packages 1h. Consultant can be contracted to make projects for you 1g. May combine traditional scrapbooking with digital scrapbooking with our scrapbooking pages in all sizes 1f. Books come standard with 21 pages expandable to 100 pages, except for spiral bound which is expandable up to 50 pages 12 Important Things Every
Heritage Makers Publisher Should Know
#1 Pay close attention to the red lines and gray areas that border each page.
The red line is the ultimate cutoff line. Anything past it will definitely be cut off when printed. The gray area is exactly that – a “gray area” that could partially print or could be cut off during the printing process. If you want a background, photo, or embellishment to “bleed” all the way to the edge of the page, then it must extend all the way to the red line (just past it is safest). If you want to make sure it does not get cut off at all, then make sure to keep it well within the thick gray area that borders the page.
Storybook Covers On the Front and Back Covers, the gray area will be thicker. This is the area that will wrap around the edges of the book. Make sure to keep all important elements well away from the gray area, but make sure to extend the background all the way past the red border to ensure your background will wrap around the edges.
When designing your Front Cover, you can also design the book spine. Make sure to extend your front cover background onto the book spine to ensure a smooth transition around the spine. Also, when you are centering items on your front cover, the book spine can visually deceive you making you think that the front cover is wider than it actually is. Make sure you center items between the right edge of the book spine and the right edge of the cover.
Canvas Prints Heritage Makers canvas prints are gallery-wrapped which means they are stretched over a wooden frame to preserve the artwork by keeping it taut. When working on your canvas print project, you will need to keep your important images and text within the white space to avoid those images from being wrapped around the edges. You will see a gray bleed space that is two inches wide – this is the area to be wrapped around a frame. You will also need to extend your background colors all the way through the gray bleed space and just past the thin red border so that you don't end up with thin white strips showing on the edges of the frame after it has been wrapped.
#2 The page labeled C is the Copyright page.
The very last page in your book will have the Heritage Makers logo and your consultant’s website printed on the bottom, as well as the project ID # near the binding so that another copy can be printed if needed. When you are working in your project, you will see red areas toward the bottom that will actually print as white areas with the logo, etc. You can still design this page, but anything placed in the red areas will be cut off. (It looks nice to leave the background of this page white so it blends in with the areas that will print white).
If your Copyright page follows an odd-numbered page, then it will print as a left page with no page to the right. If it follows an even-numbered page, then it will print as a right page with that even-numbered page to the left of it. In this case the back of the Copyright page will be a blank white page.
#3 Keep objects away from the bound edges so they don’t get lost in the binding.
When your book is printed, extra paper is added to the bound edge of each page so that it gets sewn into the binding and your design does not. But from experience, it is still recommended to keep elements at least ½ inch away from the bound edge to make sure they are clearly visible. (The bound edge is the right side of even-numbered pages and the left side of odd-numbered pages.)
#4 Your photos may appear blurry on screen, but they will print beautifully.
When working on a project in Studio 2.0, you will see low-resolution (72 dpi) versions of your photos. Do not be alarmed when your pictures look blurry or pixelated in your project. If the original photo that you uploaded was clear, and you keep it at a reasonable size within the project, you can be confident that your picture will print clearly at 300 dpi. You can also find the recommended size for printing a photo by clicking on it once in the content explorer. This will show you a larger preview of the photo and state the recommended size for printing it.
#5 You must refresh Studio to access newly uploaded photos.
If you upload photos while a project is open in Studio, then you will need to close your project and re-open it for the newly uploaded photos to become available in Studio.
#6 There are two ways to view the complete catalog of Premier Artwork collections.
Quickly browsing through the artwork in the Content Explorer can be difficult because you have to click on each folder to view what’s in it. Viewing the artwork in the Premier Art Catalog allows you to scroll through a snapshot of each collection very quickly. This is helpful when you want to narrow down your options of which collections you like. When you are in Studio, just click Help and then Premier Art Catalog. If you want to view the artwork by themes, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/HMPremierArtwork
#7 Locking objects prevents you from accidentally making unwanted changes. Unlocking objects allows you to edit them.
At the bottom of the Tool Box, there is a Lock icon. When you click on any object, the lock icon will show whether it is unlocked or locked. An unlocked object can be moved, resized, rotated, or formatted. A locked object can be formatted but not moved, resized, or rotated.
If you need to quickly lock or unlock many items at once, under Edit on the Menu Bar, click on Lock then one of these 4 options: -Lock All on Page, Unlock All on Page, Lock All in Project, Unlock All in Project
#8 The Photo Swap technique makes it fast and easy to customize a template with your own photos.
Follow these instructions to swap a photo: - Click on the placeholder that you want to replace. - Make sure it is locked. An object must be locked in order for the message “drop photo here to swap” to appear. - Find the photo (from an album in your photos tab) that you want to add. -Drag the photo from the album and point to the “drop photo here to swap” area and release. -Your photo will now be in position but still have the dimensions and formatting that the placeholder did.
Tip: Avoid putting vertical photos into horizontal placeholders and vice versa if you don’t want to spend time unlocking the photo and re-cropping it.
#9 The Crop tool functions differently depending on whether the object is locked or unlocked.
In the Tool Box on the Tools tab, you will find the Crop tool.
When an object is unlocked, you are able to adjust the dimensions of the crop area. On the Tools tab, your options are either Crop (if the object has never been cropped) or Adjust & Remove (if it has previously been cropped.)
When an object is locked, you are able to adjust what part of the photo you want to appear in the locked dimensions. On the Tools tab, first click on Adjust, then the Scale and Rotation options appear. The Scale option allows you to zoom in and out on your photo. The Rotation option allows you to rotate the photo.
IMPORTANT: When you have applied a border to a photo on the Effects tab, make sure that you do not zoom too far out or you will have a clear gap between the photo and the border. #10 The Multi-Select technique is a wonderful time-saver.To select multiple objects, hold down the Shift key while you click on each object in the group. To de-select a group, simply click somewhere else on the page.
With a group of objects selected, you are able to move, resize, or rotate the entire group at once. Also, you must use this technique when you want to use the Align, Distribute and Space tools on the Layout tab (in the Tool Box) as these are only effective when applied to a group of objects.
You can also use the Paste Format technique with a group of objects. For example, say you have 10 objects and you want each to have the same drop shadow. First, select one of the objects and apply the drop shadow. Click Copy. Click on one of the other objects, then hold down the Shift key while clicking on all the remaining ones. Right-click your mouse and choose Paste Format. The drop shadow will appear on all the items in the group.
#11 When applying drop shadows, make sure to adjust the settings. Applying a drop shadow in the default setting of Distance 10 and Intensity 90 is very bold and does not give a realistic effect when printed. Also, you should adjust the drop shadow settings depending on whether you are applying it to an object or text. Generally, here are recommended settings: Text: Distance 0-2, Angle 0, Intensity 90-100 Objects (Photos, Artwork): Distance 0-5, Angle 0, Intensity 75-85 #12 You can collapse and expand certain windows to give your “canvas” more room on your screen. To resize the Content Explorer (the bottom section with all the tabs): Click and drag the === symbol at the top of the content explorer. Or click once to collapse it all the way down or expand it all the way up to the last position it was in.
To resize the Pages Tab (right side of screen): Click and drag the ||| in the vertical gray area just between the vertical slider bar and the little page previews. Or click once to collapse it all the way closed or expand it all the open.
To collapse or expand the Tool Box: Click on the _ next to the X in the upper right corner.
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Joyce's Hints and Tips |
