What's covered in this section:

* Primary Commands and Types of Files

* Starting a Folder and Downloading Files

* Let's Get to Work on a Quickpage

PRIMARY COMMANDS AND TYPES OF FILES

Okay...so now at this point perhaps you've either just removed the plastic from around your new software CD, found software to use on your computer, or possibly downloaded a free trial of one of the programs to try. After installing it, you'll need to locate a few commands to get started.

All Windows-based programs usually look pretty much the same. You should see a menu across the top of your screen. For example, here's what I view in PSE 2.0:

And here's the menu for PSP 9.0:

So please look at the top of your screen and locate your software's menu. One of the primary menus you'll be using is:

FILE

Please locate this and click on the word. The commands we'll be using in the short run are NEW, OPEN, SAVE and SAVE AS. Now please locate and click on:

EDIT

The commands we'll be using are CUT, COPY, COPY MERGED and PASTE.

SELECT

The commands we'll be using are ALL and DESELECT.

LAYER

The commands we'll be using are NEW, ARRANGE, BRING TO FRONT, SEND BACKWARD and SEND TO BACK.

There are two primary types of files we'll be working with: .jpg (which stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group) and .png (which stands for Portable Network Graphics). Who cares! The bottom line is that a .jpg (pronounced "jay peg") file will not have any transparency to it, and a .png file keeps its transparency.

In the next lesson, we'll quit all this nonsense and get to work downloading a quick page!

STARTING A FOLDER AND DOWNLOADING FILES

UNDER CONSTRUCTION...

Now we're going to create a main scrapbooking folder and download a quick page or two so you can get scrappin'!

PAGE HERE

Here is a preview of a "quick page" I created. It is 8.5x11 inches in size. The orientation is termed "landscape." It's usually called a quick page because you just layer your photo or photos underneath (your photo will be in the large 5x7 white areas) and your journaling on top...and you're done.

First, you'll need to create a folder in your computer in which to download files and put it in a place where you can easily locate it. To create a folder, decide in which directory you'd like to place your new folder, simply click on FILE, then NEW, then FOLDER. Name your new folder (such as "scrapbooking" or "digital scrapbooking").

Now you're ready to download the quick page folder. (I keep my files at a site called www.4shared.com. They offer file storage and a great way to share downloads with others.) RIGHT CLICK on the link below and select either OPEN IN NEW TAB or OPEN IN NEW WINDOW to take you to the download screen.

http://www.4shared.com/file/77295902/841dc09/teer_lesson1_QP.html

You'll then see a "Download Now" button. Click on it, then click on Click here to download this file. At this point, a File Download window will pop up, and you will have three options: OPEN, SAVE or CANCEL. Click on SAVE. At this point, you can then locate your scrapbooking folder, click on it to enter it, and then SAVE to download the file there. This will begin the file transfer.

Once you've downloaded the folder, you'll notice that it appears to have a zipper on it. You'll need to "unzip" it before going any further. (Most folders you'll come across are compressed before they are shared or sold.) It's easy to unzip a folder. Simply RIGHT CLICK with your mouse on top of the folder. You'll then see a small popup menu that begins with OPEN, and a few lines below that you'll see EXTRACT ALL.

Once you've clicked on EXTRACT ALL, you'll then see another popup window that reads "Select a Destination and Extract Files." Locate your scrapbooking folder and click the EXTRACT button.

A completely new folder (without any compression) will be created. Click on it to open it. You'll see a low-resolution preview (.jpg) and the high-resolution quick page file. Since you'll be placing your photo underneath this high-resolution page, it has been saved as a .png file so it remains transparent.

Questions or comments? Please email me at sondra@sondra-scraps.com, and I'd be happy to help!

Next, we'll get to work adding your photo and journaling on a quick page!

LET'S GET TO WORK ON A QUICKPAGE

Yea! Now we'll have some fun!

Using your scrapbooking software, click FILE and OPEN and locate the unzipped folder teer_lesson1_QP. Click on it to highlight it and then click on the OPEN button. Now, click FILE and OPEN and locate your photo (you may have to use the green "up" arrow to find it). Click on it to highlight it and then click on the OPEN button. In Adobe PSE 2.0, my screen looks like this:

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You can see that my photo and the quick page are two separate files. And you can see the hole in the quick page (the gray and white checkerboard is my background).

Now click on your photo. Go to the top menu, click SELECT and ALL. Now click EDIT and COPY. You've now placed your photo into your computer's "clipboard." Click on the quick page and click EDIT and PASTE. Your photo will appear over the quick page. To move the photo layer underneath the quick page layer, click LAYER and ARRANGE, then SEND BACKWARD or SEND TO BACK. Here's what my screen looks like:

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I show you this now because you'll need to locate your tool bar and have it displayed in your work area. I click on WINDOW and TOOLS to display the tool bar in Adobe PSE.

Now it's time to add journaling. Click on LAYER, NEW and LAYER to create a new layer on your quickpage.Now locate the large "T" in your toolbar; this is your type tool. To begin journaling, click on the type tool and begin typing on your new layer. For my page, I chose a font called Sue Ellen Francisco. (There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of great fonts to use on your pages. You'll have a lot of fun with these! We'll talk about that in a later lesson.) The font size is 18 points in black.

PLEASE NOTE that if you're typing and do not see this layer, click LAYER, ARRANGE and BRING TO FRONT so you can see this layer.

Now my page looks like this:

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To align the font with the tag, I simply click on it (see the faint box around it above?) and move it where I want it. I aligned the edges of the box with the lines of the tag to look as if I wrote on the tag myself.

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Now I want to save it. BE CAREFUL HERE! Don't just save it; if you do, you'll mess up your original file. Instead, click on FILE and SAVE AS. At this point, in the "Save As" window, you'll see "File Name:" and "Format:"--this is where you name your layout and change the format. For this layout, I chose the name "newfriend" and saved the file as a .jpg.

INSERT

By saving the file as a .jpg, the three layers were automatically flattened. I should note here that I also save all my pages as .psd files to keep the different layers intact, in case I want to make any changes later (.pdf files will also retain their layers). I then have the two files "newfriend.jpg" and "newfriend.psd" in my folder.

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In review, we simply created three layers...

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...and realigned the photo and journaling.

Please let me know how your page turns out! Email me at sondra @ sondra-scraps.com with any questions or comments.

Next we'll talk about managing all those files you'll be wading around in before too long!