How to Make a Year-at-a-Glance 2009 Calendar

Make a personalized year-at-a-glance calendar for 2009 with your own family photo!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer
• Microsoft Word computer program
• Color printer
• Printer paper

1. 
   Prepare to download the calendar background image

   The first step in this project, is to download the year-at-a-glance calendar background image that I created for you, and save it in your "My Pictures" folder in the "My Documents" folder on your computer. Using your web browser, go to the web page at: http://qtmonster.typepad.com/ehow/year_at_a_glance_calendar_2009.jpg to save the calendar background image.

2. 
   Click on Save Picture As

   When you see the year-at-a-glance calendar background image that I made for you-with your mouse over the image, right click and select the "Save Picture As".

3. 
   Save the calendar background image

   In the "Save Image" dialogue box that appears, navigate to the "My Pictures" folder in the "My Documents" folder on your computer, and save the calendar background image on your computer.

4. 
   Launch Microsoft Word

   Launch Microsoft Word. For this year-at-a-glance calendar project. I used the Word 2003 version of this program.

5. 
   Prepare to set the calendar margins and paper size

   Prepare to set the correct margins and paper size for your calendar by clicking on "Page Setup" from the File menu.

6. 
   set the margins of the calendar

   On the "Margins"tab in the "Page Setup" dialogue box, set the Top, Bottom, Left and Right margins to .5". Also set the paper orientation to "Portrait". Don't click OK yet, because you need to set the paper size for your calendar.

7. 
   Set the paper size of the year-at-a-glance calendar

   On the "Paper"tab in the "Page Setup" dialogue box, set the Paper Size by choosing "Legal 8 1/2x14 in" from the Paper Size drop down menu. Click the OK button to close the dialogue box.

8. 
   Prepare to zoom into your calendar

   Prepare to change the zoom setting of your calendar document so the whole page appears on your computer screen. First, from the View menu select "Zoom..."

9. 
   Set the zoom so the entire calendar appears on computer screen

   In the Zoom dialogue box, select "Whole page". Click on the OK button to close the dialogue box.

10. 
    How the calendar looks at this point in the process

    This is what your calendar look like at this point.

11. 
    Prepare to insert the calendar background image

    Prepare to insert the background image into the calendar-at-a-glance by pulling down the "Insert" menu, clicking on "Picture" and then "From File".

12. 
    Insert the calendar-at-a-glance picture

    In the "Insert Picture" dialogue box, select the year_at_a_glance_calendar_2009.jpg, that you downloaded from the internet in a previous step, and click on the Insert button.

13. 
    Format the calendar background picture

    Double click on the image to open the "Format Picture" dialogue box. In the Layout tab, click on "Behind text". Then click the OK button.

14. 
    Prepare to insert the calendar background image

    Prepare to insert one of your own pictures at the top of your calendar-at-a-glance by pulling down the "Insert" menu, clicking on "Picture" and then "From File".

15. 
    Insert family photo

    In the "Insert Picture" dialogue box, select the one of your favorite family photos and click on the Insert button.

16. 
    How the calendar looks with the family photo

    This is what the calendar looks like at this point.

17. 
    Set the layout of the family photo

    Double click on the family photo to open the "Format Picture" dialogue box. In the Layout tab, click on "Behind text" and select "Center" as the horizontal alignment. Don't click the OK button yet though, because we need to set your photo to the correct size.

18. 
    Resize the family photo

    On the Size tab of the "Format Picture" dialogue box, set the Height to 3". Be sure that the "Lock aspect ration" and "Relative to original picture size" options are checked. Click OK to close the dialogue box.

19. 
    Adjust the position of your family photo

    To adjust the position of the family photo on your calendar, click on the picture once. Then use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the photo into the correct position.

20. 
    Prepare to change the background color

    To match the color of the white margins to the calendar background, select Background from the Format Menu, then click on "More Colors".

21. 
    Set the background color of the year-at-a-glance calendar

    In the "Custom" tab of the Colors dialogue box, enter 247 for Red, 231 for Green and 215 for Blue. Click OK to close the dialogue box.

22. 
    Completed year-at-a-glance calendar

    This is the finished family year-at-a-glance 2009 calendar.

Tips & Warnings

• Try printing this year-at-a-glance 2009 calendar using different color papers and different weights of paper.
• Be sure to text print your year-at-a-glance 2009 calendar using inexpensive paper first.