How to Use Digital Scrapbook Templates

Don't you just love the new digital photo or scrapbooks? They are so beautiful and make your photographs and scrapbooks look so much more professional. No more photos falling out of albums, no more bulky scrapbook albums on the shelves, no more CDs shoved onto the shelf. But how do you use the digital scrapbook templates? We'll use a photo book software...read on to get tips on turning your photos into a published book!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Internet access
• Download of software from digital photo scrapbook website
• Digital photos

1. 
    
   website

   Log onto the digital photo scrapbooking site of your choice. Some choices are MyPublisher.com, Scrapbookflair.com, Shutterfly.com, Smilebox.com, Designerdigitals.com, Picaboo.com, and others. I'll be using MyPublisher.com for the examples in this article.

2. 
    
   Download free software

   Click on Download Free software.

3. 
    
   License

   Read and agree to the software license.

4. 
    
   Drag to Folder

   Place the downloaded software in the folder you choose.

5. 
    
   Choose

   Click on the File menu and choose New Book.

6. 
    
   Name Book

   Choose a name for your new digital photo scrapbook.

7. 
    
   Size of book

   Decide on whether you'd like a small, medium, or large size book for your scrapbook. If you have only a few photos, a small size book may be best. If you have a large number of photos, or if your scrapbook will contain stories or portraits, a larger format may be better.

8. 
    
   Style of book

   Depending on your website software choice, different styles of scrapbooks will be available to you. Most sites offer photos only, photos with captions, and storyteller books with photos.

9. 
    
   Cover style

   Again, depending on your software, your choices of covers will vary. Personally, I love the slipcover and it's well worth the few extra dollars.

10. 
     
    Style and photos load

    When you click on the load book button, your book style and photos on your computer will load.

11. 
     
    Choose photo folder

    You can now choose the folder that contains the photos you'd like to add to the book.

12. 
     
    Choose photos

    You can either drag photos that you've selected, or hit the add photo button after you've selected the photos you want to be included in the book.

13. 
     
    Organize photos

    Decide how you would like to organize your book. Will the book be chronological (e.g., a day-by-day journal of a trip)? Will it be by subject (e.g., trees, city life, children, activities)? Will the book have only photos? Or will it have captions with photos? Or will you have a narrative punctuated by photos? Keep in mind that you have different page layout choices - you can fill a page with one photo or you can have 10 photos on one page! You choose the page layout for each page (which can differ from those before and after it), and then choose the photos for that page.

14. 
     
    Cover text and photo

    Choose your cover photo. You'll want to pick a colorful photo that represents your entire scrapbook theme. Then type in the text to name the book as you like. You can choose different font types, colors, and sizes.

15. 
     
    Edit and finalize photos

    Finalize your book by loading your photos into the page templates. If a photo needs to be cropped, darkened or lightened, you can edit the photo at this stage.

16. 
     
    Preview and purchase

    Preview your finished book, and follow the steps to make your purchase. Your book will arrive generally within 10 days to 2 weeks, but will last and can be shared forever!

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to click on the links around this page to explore more information on using digital scrapbook templates!
• Proofread your text carefully. What you submit to the site is what will be printed. The editors do not make any changes even if words are misspelled.

Resources

• Scrapbook Flair
• My Publisher
• Shutter Fly
• Kolo Digital Scrapbook

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on 4/15/2009 How to use digital scrapbook templates; I love this. I never new how to do this until now.