Help!

[April]

Someone just e-mailed me this question but I don't have time to respond so I have directed her here. If anyone else has time to help I would really appreciate it. I can probably help her later tonight if no one else can earlier.
(I think the main thing she needs to do is figure out the cascade windows button and learn how the move tool works)

I bought the playground disc from you in Idahofalls and I'm not to smart at computers. My question to you is that I can't figure out how on the program you were demoing for me how you just clicked the paper and draged it to your layout and then you could make it any size you wanted. I have adobe photoshop and all I have to do is keep opening the files then move them to my paper, but I can't size it very well.

I don't know if this makes any sence, but If you have any advice for me. It looked so easy all you do is click and drag, but now I have it at home it seems hard. Please help me if you can.

[Quinn]

To help you move the papers easily onto your layout, make sure that you've found the cascade windows button on your workspace. This button makes it so the paper doesn't fill the whole screen, hiding your layout completely. I'm nervous to tell you exactly where the button is located on your version of Photoshop because I think that can vary, but I'm sure you can find it if you look in the drop down menus. I found mine under "Windows" then "Images" then selected "Cascade."

It sounds, though, like you're able to get the paper onto your layout, but struggling in the resize department. No worries! There are several ways to resize images. The simplest way is using the "move" tool. Click on any corner box surrounding the image and resize as desired, holding down the "shift" key (maintains proportion).

Another option for resizing is to find the "resize" option in your drop down menu. I have Photoshop 4.0 for Mac, so I found it by selecting "Image" and then "Resize." Once you've found that, you can change the size before moving your paper onto your document (if you try to use this option when your paper is already on the document, it will generally resize the entire document). I love using this option if I want to move a 12x12 paper onto a smaller document (like an 8x8). I just resize the paper to 8x8 and move it onto my document.

When I first started I kept having problems with sizes of images because I wasn't dilligent about making sure that every paper and picture I moved onto my document was in 300 dpi (resolution). Watch out for that. Generally at the bottom of your screen it will show your document size (i.e. 12x12 inches 300 dpi). If the resolution ever isn't 300, you can change that using the "Resize" option also.

Hopefully I didn't overwhelm you with information & hopefully this helps. Check this website's "Tips" section and read up in the tutorials to help you get over the learning curve and know that someone is usually always quick to answer questions here in the forum! Hooray to you for learning digital scrapbooking! Stick with it and you'll LOVE it! (Write back with more questions!) :)

[Alyson]

I don't know exactly what the problem is, but some of these tips might help. Make sure you're Photoshop screen is in cascade. If your screen looks like the 2nd picture (below), click on the button in the top right corner where the mouse is in the picture (looks like a box with another box behind it). Your screen should look like the 1st picture.

From your question, it seemed like maybe you had a problem resizing things. I had a problem at the beginning that my "show transform controls" box wasn't checked. If you have the move tool selected (the little arrow on the left toolbox), the "show transforms controls" box should be at the top of the screen. Make sure there's a check next to it. You should then have little boxes on the corners of the item that is selected. (Also make sure you have the "auto select" box checked (near the box referred to above) or you have to select items in the layers palette.) If you want the porportions of your selected item to stay the same, hold down the shift key while dragging one of the boxes on the corners of the item.

One more tip. To drag an item to your blank page, make sure the window that item is in is selected before you try to drag it. I hope all of this makes sense and answers your questios. Let me know if you need any other help and I'll try to help if I can.

[April]

Thanks so much for helping you guys!!!!

Here is one other tutorial that might help if Cascade Windows wasn't the problem. http://www.digitalscrapbookmemories.com/tips/mistake1.asp

[alb52]

lol she could always just build her LO on top of the paper and then resave?