Creative Memories Software Solutions Blog

Changes are coming - and we think you'll love 'em!

Jenny Dammann — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:07:45 -0800

So as you know, our blogs have been running for about six months now. We've made some discoveries and gotten some feedback from all of you, and we've come up with some great changes. They're minor, don't worry.

Going forward, this blog (currently named "Software Solutions") will become the "Digital 411" blog. This will encompass all things related to Digital products, so things like Software, Content, Photo Gifts & more will be discussed here. Posts within this blog will be categorized into one of three sections: Product Highlights, Tips & Techniques and "So We've Heard...", which should cover just about any topic that may come up pertaining to these products.

And, we've added a few new authors to beef up this area, so you should see posts on a much more frequent basis than before. We hope you'll find these changes helpful. We're looking forward to making this a super helpful resource for you!

Into Digital? But wanna go Quick & Simple? Check these out!

Jenny Dammann — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:13:26 -0800

As you may know, I love to bling out my projects. Like, really really bling them out. But we're photographers at our house and we've got tens of thousands of photos. Yes, they're backed up across multiple drives. Yeah, we've printed some of them to frame and hang up around the house but that leaves tens of thousands minus about 8 photos left to deal with.

We really want to do a "coffee table" style book, but I never really have dedicated the time to sit down and put it all together. I didn't have the time or patience to create 20+ pages so therefore I didn't do anything.

Enter the new Black Gallery Predesigned Pages. JACKPOT. Yes, these little guys will give us exactly what we need to just select a folder full of our beautiful photos from the state park last summer, or the gorgeous batch of seasonal photos we've taken of sunsets, snowdrifts and puddles, and let them auto-populate into one of these things. I'll go back in and add a little tiny journaling about the date & location, and boom... we've got ourselves a gorgeous coffee table book. And it will look all professional and stuff. PLUS - it will serve as a great portfolio piece for the photographer guy in my house ;)

Check out these sweet new predesigned pages right here. (Scroll almost down to the bottom of the page - there are several sizes available in both black & white).

Using your own sketches in SBC+ 3.0

Corinne Skoog — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:19:13 -0800

I like to doodle. It's even more fun when I can bring it into SBC+ 3.0 and use it in my layouts. (You can find the ones I used in this layout here.)

What's uniquely you? Sketches, handwriting, even your own signature. You can bring all of these into SBC+ 3.0 with just a few easy steps. Before you start, you'll need the following:

• White paper or cardstock
• Black fine tip marker
• Scanner to create a jpg

Once you've created and scanned what you like, follow the steps in this video.

Discover matting with edges!

Beth Bovy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:25:51 -0800

What would be better way to say Happy Valentine’s Day to that special someone in your life than a personalized page print, and one with an edged mat!!

To start creating an edged mat, click on the Insert ribbon and add an Empty Frame. You will then want to size it appropriately. If you need the frame to be a different shape, right click on the frame and choose Aspect Ratio and unlock it; this will allow you to resize the frame to your desired shape and size.

Once the frame is sized, go to your Photos ribbon and drag a random photo to the frame to add it to the page. Next, make sure the photo is selected and click on the Format Photos ribbon. You can then click on the Select option and choose either edges or cutouts under the Commercial folder, and select the desired edge/cutout.

When the edge has been applied to the photo, you can now either fill the frame with a solid color under the Cut and Fill ribbon, or a piece of paper under the Content ribbon, which you can do by right-clicking on the piece of paper you wish and select Fill Selected Shape.

Now, add the pictures you wish to add to the page, and WHALA, you now have a customized page print with an edged mat for that special someone. Hope you all have fun creating your extraordinary pages, and have a very Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

The Support Thing

Stefan Hopfensitz — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Guten Tag
Support can come in many ways, like someone lending a helping hand, a listening ear or a shoulder to lean on. Support is built into our shoes and chairs, and Support can hold things in, out, up, or down. Wherever and however we meet Support, it’s there to help in some way.

Software is a Support too, no? It makes it easier and helps us to write a letter, create a chart or a complex table to calculate expenses. – We seldom need a table to chart our income now, do we?

Photo organizing, sorting and scrapbooking with software Support can be equally nice and rewarding as the hands-on experience, and preferences vary for everyone. There are hard-core followers in each group, some who work with both options, and many that combine the two.

Another Support for software can also be a Support person, like someone on a customer-, software, technical-, or web site-Support team. Plain, a person you can write to, chat with or speak to about any problem on hand for which you need Support.

Creative Memories has great people on the Support teams. Our contact center handles a large variety of contacts and covers all our product lines, digital and traditional with their fine nuances, such as software, Creative Memories Digital Center and Persona Imprinting; and then some. Here is a list with some contact information for our Support teams.

I believe that, in order to get help or Support, one has to be prepared; like the Scouts say, ‘Be Prepared’.

With regard to software Support, there are a few items that I can think of that might help everyone:

One should be on or near the computer and know relevant information.
This could include having order number and date, and the actual software (CD, download/-link).
One should also know, because software titles can be similar, the exact title, version number, serial number and activation code.
Often it is necessary to know what Operating System and Internet Browser one uses; the version type/number can be important as well.
Depending on the situation, indicating what the expected outcome was can be as helpful as steps and details to recreate the issue, this includes error messages.
Also include this information in email communication.

Support, I think, can also includes ones willingness to learn, self educate, and do some research such as, reviewing tutorials, Support (web) sites, and help files.

Of course, being prepared goes both ways, and the one offering Support will do so much better, when ready and good prepared. This also includes that Support staff communicates clearly and realizes that not everyone has an 'Any Key' available to press.

Don't panic, and please don’t ever hesitate to ask if you get to a point of confusion or if you get confronted with too much unexpected and confusing lingo and would like more Support. Not many have one of these either.

Auf Wiedersehen

Create something super cool & fun - photo masks!

Jenny Dammann — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:52:14 -0800

So... I have seen these super cool photo masks (this craze with me was started by Miss Jennifer Fehr in this Project Center Freebie post) and loads of people have been asking how to create them. So, I gave it a whirl. They're actually pretty simple.

I also have set up a super cool, fun Digital Photo Mask Challenge (if you are into digital scrapbooking, but haven't yet joined our CM - Go Digital Group on Facebook, you should!) that involves making these sweet photo masks.

So, have fun creating, and mask away! :)

What's Your Resolution?

Heather Harrington — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:25:31 -0800

What a year 2009 has been, eh? I know I took a lot of great photos with my point-and-shoot and my boyfriend took some even more fantastic shots with his fancy DSLR. So now we have all these fantastic photos on about three different computers; along with some test prints to see if we want to enlarge any photos up and frame them... so what am I supposed to do with all of these images? Sure, having them is great...but finding them or even viewing them is not going to be fun when I need to actually put them to good use. I can see it now:

"Honey! Remember that one photo with the dog and the pizza man?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I want it for my blog. Do you remember where I put it?"

"It's on one of the computers."

"DUH! Which one?"

"I don't know..."

Good times, right? I'm sure you can relate--especially with the dog and the pizza man part.

Anyway, I do have a point. This year is going to be different! This year I am going to be organized with both my digital and printed photos. I am also going to have a fantastic way to display them! If you're totally jealous, don't be! You can have this dream come true as well, with the Creative Memories Resolution Bundle! This bundle includes Memory Manager 3.0 (Photo editing and organization) software, Expandable Milestones Coverset, 15 multi-pocket sleeves, and the Picfolio milestones Kit! This bundle will allow you to organize all your photos with one AWESOME software in one place and when you've figured out what you want to print out, you can display them safely and beautifully in your new Milestones Coverset!

See! My resolution is now complete. You can totally copy me too. :)

Get Resolved Now!

Instructions and Bundle Information

Wishing all of you a memory filled and organized new year!

The File-Extension Thing

Stefan Hopfensitz — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Guten Tag

Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr 2010!

In order to make anything work on a computer, one has to give the computer some brains. Among many other things, it needs some code (software) that tells it what to do once the power-button is switched on. There is some information sort of hard coded, or pre-programmed if you will, in your computer. It is usually referred to as the BIOS (Basic Input-Output System) and is designed to be the first code run by a PC when powered on.

In order to perform any task, may that be to write a letter or browse the internet; you’ll need a program that tells your computer what you want to do. That program translates your actions into computer code and makes things happen when you strike your keyboard and click your mouse key for example.

After your BIOS kicks in, it will eventually load your operating system, currently most likely Microsoft Windows, from where you can manage any number of tasks, all of which include dealing with some sort of a program or file – software.

All electronic files have a file name and File-Extension separated by a period.

In earlier times, file names could only be eight digits and you can still see this practice exercised, not to exceed the 8 digits, today at times. That led to interesting naming conventions. Back then, you could not include spaces or dashes or other special characters such as & either, whereas today there are very little restrictions, making it easier to give a file a meaning full name – that doesn’t mean one actually makes use of it though. File extensions are typically still only three digits, but there are some exceptions floating out there too.

Normally you could probably care less what type of file you are opening, as long as it does what you want.

However, every now and then you may need it. May that be because you clicked on a file and nothing happened or more likely, you got a pop-up where the computer is asking you what you want to do with the file, typically with a message such as “Windows cannot open this file” and whether you want to use the web service to find the appropriate program or if you want to select a program from a list. Either can be equally (not) helpful.

During the installation process of a program, it also registers on your computer what type of files can be processed with that program. This is helpful for that you usually do not have to remember what program to start in order to work on or view a certain file. The file extensions registered with your computer at the time of installation will tell it what to do to properly display or process that file.

You can find a list of currently registered File-Extensions (and to make File-Extension show when browsing your computer if they currently don’t show up) on your computer quite easily. Our Microsoft Windows users, for any version, can hold down the Windows key + E-key on the keyboard, this gets you to “My Computer”, for which you may also have a shortcut on your desktop and/or Start Menu. (Windows 7 users please use Windows Key + E > Organize >Folder and Search Options)

Then go to Files > Folder Options…
…go to View if you only see file names and are interested in seeing the File-Extensions as well. Scroll down until you reach “Hide extensions for known file types”, uncheck that option and confirm with OK.
…go to File Types to see the list of Extensions and File Types. When you click on any of these it will tell you what program it will try to use first when you were to come across one of these file types. Be careful if you were to delve further into this.

Here are a few File-Extensions for files you may come across with at Creative Memories: BMP, DOC or DOCX, GIF, JPG or JPEG, MP3, PACKAGE, PDF, PNG, TIF, WMF, XLS or XLSX, ZIP.

Having said all that, one instance where this knowledge could come in handy is with StoryBook Creator 3.0. During installation of StoryBook Creator 3.0 it registers the StoryBook Creator Package Installer as the handler of .PACKAGE files. Yet, other programs may automatically reset the handling of certain files like .PACKAGE to itself whenever executed, though it should ask the user for permission.

Where, or how this may affect you is in that with StoryBook Creator 3.0, you can Open a .PACKAGE file during the download process (or at a later time) and it automatically installs in StoryBook Creator.

Now, if another program has changed the .PACKAGE file association and is no longer telling your computer to use the StoryBook Creator Package Installer to process the file, you will get an error message instead.

The way to correct this is to follow the outlined path above (Files > Folder Options > File Types), locate PACKAGE in the Extensions column, click on it to highlight the row and then click on “Change”. In the “Open With” pop-up window, select “PackageInstaller” from the list of programs.

Auf Wiedersehen

Looking to make your pages “pop?”

Andy Sandstrom — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:11:22 -0800

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed the recent trend for movies to be offered in 3D. From family films to horror flicks, I can’t go to the local movie theatre without seeing one of the movies being offered in 3D. So, why not apply this to my very own StoryBook pages? (And no big plastic red and blue glasses needed!)

Here’s a page about my family’s trip to Duluth last summer

Now, I highlighted the border on the left, clicked on “Format” at the top, and then clicked on “Filters.” On the pop-up choose “3D Edge.” I like to play around with “Amount,” “Softness,” and “Width” numbers. You can also adjust the directional arrow to achieve your desired look. You can click on “Preview” to see what these numbers will adjust.

Here is the border element on my page with the 3D effect. I used Amount of 80, Softness of 50, Width of 93, and Direction of 60.

I like to make borders, embellishments, mats, and titles in 3D. Here is my finished page

Now go make your pages “pop” too!

Create your own Calendar Templates with your Important Dates

Beth Bovy — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:05:57 -0800

I come from a big family – 8 kids (including myself), most of us are married and have kids too. There are 20 grandchildren in our family. Altogether there are 36 of us when we get together to celebrate holidays. It can be complete chaos with that many people in one house at a time, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

This year for Christmas I decided I was going to create a calendar for each of my siblings and my parents. I thought it would be cool to personalize each calendar by using mainly pictures of each sibling’s family, so they could have a good start to a family album when the year is over with their page prints from the calendar, but I also wanted to capture our entire families’ important dates on everyone’s calendars.

Now let me tell you, it took me a while to enter birthdays and anniversaries of all 36 family members as well as national holidays and I knew I did not want to have to do this 9 times! Thankfully I thought of this in advance, so decided to complete each months grid’s with the holidays, birthdays and anniversaries I wanted to include. I used embellishments from a variety of packages to mark each special day as well as text to state the event taking place that day. Once I completed this for each month, I saved the calendar as “Von Holtum Calendar”. This now serves as my 2010 calendar template from which I have started all other projects from because the grid is already done. Here is a sample page from the calendar I created for myself.

For each calendar that I want to work on for my siblings now, I just start with my "Von Holtum Calendar" template and complete the pages. When I am ready to save my progress on that calendar, I do a “save as” and assign that project a new name. This has saved me a lot of time and I am thankful I have not had to create 9 of the same calendar grids!

I do have one caution to add to this and that is if you plan to change a page to a different template. Unfortunately selecting the “change page” option in the software will wipe out the entire page – including the calendar grid. If at all possible, set your calendar up with the pages you want to use first and then complete your grid to save your template. If you decide to change the page after the grid is designed you can also open a new project and design your page print, then copy it into your calendar (the directions for this are noted in Corinne’s posting from 10/13 - Calendar Templates: Defining your time).

Happy Holidays and Happy Calendar Making!