Good idea! Good idea!

2009-07-08T17:00:41Z

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One way would be to create a layout based on one of those which have vertical text, such as some of the title pages. I haven't tried it myself yet, but was planning to. One way would be to create a layout based on one of those which have vertical text, such as some of the title pages. I haven’t tried it myself yet, but was planning to.

2009-06-10T18:53:19Z

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2009-06-10T18:53:19Z

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Of course now you can just edit the layout and make the box bigger! Of course now you can just edit the layout and make the box bigger!

2009-06-09T13:43:19Z

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2009-06-09T13:43:19Z

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I found I had to use spaces, counting the same each time. Oh yes, it WAS very tedious! I hope they fix it! I found I had to use spaces, counting the same each time. Oh yes, it WAS very tedious! I hope they fix it!

2009-06-09T13:33:56Z

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There seem to be mostly negative comments on here about the new version. I assume everyone who is happy with it is busy playing with it! I just thought I'd start a thread which was more positive. I love being able to alter layouts and make my own. I find the way of doing it really intuitive and figured it out very quickly. I am excited about being able to do some of the things I needed to be able to do to make some projects which were not working on the old version. Thank you all so much, blurb team!! Of course it's not perfect, there are a few minor niggles which I hope can get sorted or worked around. I sent some suggestions in about those. But mostly I wanted to say how much of a relief it is to just be able to make some text boxes that little bit bigger! And then of course to have the freedom to put things anywhere on the page I want! Fantastic! There seem to be mostly negative comments on here about the new version. I assume everyone who is happy with it is busy playing with it! I just thought I’d start a thread which was more positive. I love being able to alter layouts and make my own. I find the way of doing it really intuitive and figured it out very quickly. I am excited about being able to do some of the things I needed to be able to do to make some projects which were not working on the old version. Thank you all so much, blurb team!! Of course it’s not perfect, there are a few minor niggles which I hope can get sorted or worked around. I sent some suggestions in about those. But mostly I wanted to say how much of a relief it is to just be able to make some text boxes that little bit bigger! And then of course to have the freedom to put things anywhere on the page I want! Fantastic!

2009-06-09T13:32:36Z

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What frustrates me most is the pathetically small sizes of many text boxes which is quite unnecessary as they are surrounded by vast areas of blank space! Why can't they be bigger please? I'd love greater control over them but in the meantime could some of those layouts be changed so the text box is bigger please? People who want a small amount of text there can still have it just by not putting so much in and using tab, space and return to move it to the desired location within the larger box. Also, I'd like more picture on picture layouts or ideally the ability to use my own picture as a background. What frustrates me most is the pathetically small sizes of many text boxes which is quite unnecessary as they are surrounded by vast areas of blank space! Why can’t they be bigger please? I’d love greater control over them but in the meantime could some of those layouts be changed so the text box is bigger please? People who want a small amount of text there can still have it just by not putting so much in and using tab, space and return to move it to the desired location within the larger box. Also, I’d like more picture on picture layouts or ideally the ability to use my own picture as a background.

2009-03-02T14:57:37Z

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As I understand it, the problem with images from phones is more the poor quality of lenses. The resolution is fine. My old camera had similar megapixels and the images came out really well. As I understand it, the problem with images from phones is more the poor quality of lenses. The resolution is fine. My old camera had similar megapixels and the images came out really well.

2009-03-02T14:50:30Z

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2009-03-02T14:50:30Z

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There is a format like what you want, but it is hiding in quotation layouts. It is a full bleed picture with a large text box, although the text box is not quite as large as the one with borders but not a lot smaller. There is a format like what you want, but it is hiding in quotation layouts. It is a full bleed picture with a large text box, although the text box is not quite as large as the one with borders but not a lot smaller.

2009-02-24T14:32:48Z

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2009-02-24T14:32:48Z

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Thanks Tony - found it now, would never have found it without your comment though! Thanks Tony – found it now, would never have found it without your comment though!

2008-12-20T13:20:18Z

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2008-12-20T13:20:18Z

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I was also disappointed to find some code thing on the back covers of 2 of the 3 books in my latest order. Not quite a bar code as it's a lot of small b+w squares plus a number and it is only about 1cm square. But I was not chuffed as there had not been any before in Europe. Also, one of my books was meant to mimic being a medieval book, which it is obviously not going to do very closely, but this code thing rather wrecked the effect. I can live with it, but would rather not, and it would be a huge help if we could know where such things will appear so we can design around them. Also odd that only 2 of the 3 had it? I was also disappointed to find some code thing on the back covers of 2 of the 3 books in my latest order. Not quite a bar code as it’s a lot of small b+w squares plus a number and it is only about 1cm square. But I was not chuffed as there had not been any before in Europe. Also, one of my books was meant to mimic being a medieval book, which it is obviously not going to do very closely, but this code thing rather wrecked the effect. I can live with it, but would rather not, and it would be a huge help if we could know where such things will appear so we can design around them. Also odd that only 2 of the 3 had it?

2008-12-19T22:34:35Z

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2008-12-19T22:34:35Z

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I've had several books from the European printer and they were all great! Maybe I got lucky, or maybe I'm not so picky as some [although my husband would disagree!!] but I never thought any of the images were especially dark. My monitor is not calibrated. The first book was made on my laptop, the most recent on the desktop with a dodgy lcd monitor that's darker at the top than the bottom, yet I was happy with the printing in all my books. Maybe my expectations were more middling. I'm totally an amateur [obviously!] and was thrilled to see my work in print. As evidence that I am not just satisfied with a poor product, I showed them to my colleagues at uni and they were very impressed with my photographs in particular, one even bought a book! and paid twice what it cost me to make! So there is no need to panic until you see the book in your hands and make your own mind up - Blurb still has many very satisfied customers. I’ve had several books from the European printer and they were all great! Maybe I got lucky, or maybe I’m not so picky as some [although my husband would disagree!!] but I never thought any of the images were especially dark. My monitor is not calibrated. The first book was made on my laptop, the most recent on the desktop with a dodgy lcd monitor that’s darker at the top than the bottom, yet I was happy with the printing in all my books. Maybe my expectations were more middling. I’m totally an amateur [obviously!] and was thrilled to see my work in print. As evidence that I am not just satisfied with a poor product, I showed them to my colleagues at uni and they were very impressed with my photographs in particular, one even bought a book! and paid twice what it cost me to make! So there is no need to panic until you see the book in your hands and make your own mind up – Blurb still has many very satisfied customers.

2008-12-19T22:24:18Z

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2008-12-19T22:24:18Z

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I use internet explorer, dunno what version, hubby deals with that but we recently got the patch to fix that hole so I assume it's up to date. I think it's win xp, certainly not vista!When I right click in this message I get an option to select all, and an option to copy background, but not a normal copy. If I select all and right click there is still no copy option. Unless it is copy background?? I use internet explorer, dunno what version, hubby deals with that but we recently got the patch to fix that hole so I assume it’s up to date. I think it’s win xp, certainly not vista!When I right click in this message I get an option to select all, and an option to copy background, but not a normal copy. If I select all and right click there is still no copy option. Unless it is copy background??

2008-12-19T21:45:41Z

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2008-12-19T21:45:41Z

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How long is a piece of string?!My first book, of poems and photos, took a few days to put together, but I had a lot of material which was just begging to go in a book and didn't need much tweaking. I did no post-processing on the pictures and was very happy with them.Others have taken longer, except my MA which took a couple of hours because it was text, althrough I threw in a few pix for interest. Did have to rejig the formatting quite a bit, but still quick. Actually I just got that yesterday and am really chuffed! Looks very professional!I found the software easy to learn and use although somewhat restricting and frustrating. I have been quite happy to use Booksmart to resize my pix generally, unless they need a more accurate or dramatic crop. I never really understood why some people feel the need to resize pix to the exact spec as I have been very happy with the results from just throwing in pix of all sizes, from my old 2mp camera or my new 10mp one. For my first book I never even found the zoom tool! But that was all with my old camera and I could frame my pix with that - the new camera is wide-angle so I have to crop to frame pix far more now.Glennaa - I agree that moving pix within the frame using the mouse is horribly annoying, but they can also be moved with the cursors - far more accurate. How long is a piece of string?!My first book, of poems and photos, took a few days to put together, but I had a lot of material which was just begging to go in a book and didn’t need much tweaking. I did no post-processing on the pictures and was very happy with them.Others have taken longer, except my MA which took a couple of hours because it was text, althrough I threw in a few pix for interest. Did have to rejig the formatting quite a bit, but still quick. Actually I just got that yesterday and am really chuffed! Looks very professional!I found the software easy to learn and use although somewhat restricting and frustrating. I have been quite happy to use Booksmart to resize my pix generally, unless they need a more accurate or dramatic crop. I never really understood why some people feel the need to resize pix to the exact spec as I have been very happy with the results from just throwing in pix of all sizes, from my old 2mp camera or my new 10mp one. For my first book I never even found the zoom tool! But that was all with my old camera and I could frame my pix with that – the new camera is wide-angle so I have to crop to frame pix far more now.Glennaa – I agree that moving pix within the frame using the mouse is horribly annoying, but they can also be moved with the cursors – far more accurate.

2008-12-16T20:48:48Z

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So I just spent a while replying to a post. I am aware that an overlong reply gets cut off and I did not want to lose the end of my post. So I tried to copy it just in case that happened. For some reason this is not possible. Then I noticed the 'preview' button. 'Ah!' I thought 'this might help - I can check if my post is too long or not!' So I pressed the button. The post looked fine. So I pressed post. My post did not appear and there was a stupid message saying 'easy tiger'. So through trying to avoid losing part of my post I lost the whole blipping thing!!!!! Also the forum is really slow to load and to move between pages. Please make it possible to copy the message one is about to post in case of crashes or lenght or other issues.Please do something about the whole preview/post problem - if there had been any kind of warning one could not post after previewing it might have helped!It would be nice not to have a length restriction anyway.Thanks for the Blurb product though! Still loving it. So I just spent a while replying to a post. I am aware that an overlong reply gets cut off and I did not want to lose the end of my post. So I tried to copy it just in case that happened. For some reason this is not possible. Then I noticed the ‘preview’ button. ‘Ah!’ I thought ‘this might help – I can check if my post is too long or not!’ So I pressed the button. The post looked fine. So I pressed post. My post did not appear and there was a stupid message saying ‘easy tiger’. So through trying to avoid losing part of my post I lost the whole blipping thing!!!!! Also the forum is really slow to load and to move between pages. Please make it possible to copy the message one is about to post in case of crashes or lenght or other issues.Please do something about the whole preview/post problem – if there had been any kind of warning one could not post after previewing it might have helped!It would be nice not to have a length restriction anyway.Thanks for the Blurb product though! Still loving it.

2008-12-16T20:38:18Z

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2008-12-16T20:38:18Z

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I think a similar problem with the columns of text moving around is discussed in the booksmart thread 'text slippage' where the problem was solved by copy/ pasting from notepad. I don't know how to put a link in the thread, but its near the top at the moment. I think a similar problem with the columns of text moving around is discussed in the booksmart thread ‘text slippage’ where the problem was solved by copy/ pasting from notepad. I don’t know how to put a link in the thread, but its near the top at the moment.

2008-11-21T14:01:23Z

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2008-11-21T14:01:23Z

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In the faqs is some info about what page size to set word to for importation [it does import if you don't do this coz I didn't] but I assume this gives word the same dimensions as the blurb book pages? Please correct me if I'm wrong someone! If it does, then you can see how many pages it will be. In the faqs is some info about what page size to set word to for importation [it does import if you don’t do this coz I didn’t] but I assume this gives word the same dimensions as the blurb book pages? Please correct me if I’m wrong someone! If it does, then you can see how many pages it will be.

2008-11-21T13:57:53Z

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2008-11-21T13:57:53Z

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A really simple improvement to cover templates I think would be to not link front and back covers etc, so you can select what front cover you want and then choose any back cover to go with it! I have found some frustration with wanting the front from one template with the back from another. But the best would be to allow free positioning of text boxes and pic boxes of course!Also I think one or two of the templates are duplicates. If you look carefully at each one, and I don't mean between categories as I know there are some templates in more than one category, but there was one I found where a template from high on the list seemed identical to one further down the list. I may have missed something, but they seemed truly identical, not that one had no header or something subtle like that. Kind of frustrating when there are loads of templates I don't need but ones I want are missing... A really simple improvement to cover templates I think would be to not link front and back covers etc, so you can select what front cover you want and then choose any back cover to go with it! I have found some frustration with wanting the front from one template with the back from another. But the best would be to allow free positioning of text boxes and pic boxes of course!Also I think one or two of the templates are duplicates. If you look carefully at each one, and I don’t mean between categories as I know there are some templates in more than one category, but there was one I found where a template from high on the list seemed identical to one further down the list. I may have missed something, but they seemed truly identical, not that one had no header or something subtle like that. Kind of frustrating when there are loads of templates I don’t need but ones I want are missing…

2008-11-21T13:51:42Z

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2008-11-21T13:51:42Z

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Booksmart does not handle first line indent, only whole paragraph indent. I found that a drag as well and had to manually go through my book adding spaces at the beginning of each and every paragraph! That was the only way I found to do it, since tab is not reliable, sometimes producing gaps of different sizes.I don't know so much about the text size issue, as I was unaware you could have part sizes. I would asume Booksmart would only allow whole sizes. It is not good at resizing text, since you can only select one page worth of text at a time [if anyone knows a way round this, please share!] so I would suggest making your text size 10 in word and importing like that rather than try to resize in Booksmart. Booksmart does not handle first line indent, only whole paragraph indent. I found that a drag as well and had to manually go through my book adding spaces at the beginning of each and every paragraph! That was the only way I found to do it, since tab is not reliable, sometimes producing gaps of different sizes.I don’t know so much about the text size issue, as I was unaware you could have part sizes. I would asume Booksmart would only allow whole sizes. It is not good at resizing text, since you can only select one page worth of text at a time [if anyone knows a way round this, please share!] so I would suggest making your text size 10 in word and importing like that rather than try to resize in Booksmart.

2008-11-21T13:41:03Z

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It so is addictive! But better for you than many addictions, except the late nights and backache when you just want to get the next few pages perfect and don't notice time passing...I have serious book addiction anyway and this being able to make your own is just another facet of it! I love Blurb! It so is addictive! But better for you than many addictions, except the late nights and backache when you just want to get the next few pages perfect and don’t notice time passing…I have serious book addiction anyway and this being able to make your own is just another facet of it! I love Blurb!

2008-11-18T16:25:52Z

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I got that problem too Irishh. I solved it by exporting to my desktop then moving it from there onto my flash drive - it seemed to work though I haven't checked as such.Evelivesey - you can drag photos direct from the thumbnails in the windows file and drop them in either the 'my imported photos' box' or into the photo box on the page you want the picture, just avoid the 'get photos' method. It's quicker anyway! I got that problem too Irishh. I solved it by exporting to my desktop then moving it from there onto my flash drive – it seemed to work though I haven’t checked as such.Evelivesey – you can drag photos direct from the thumbnails in the windows file and drop them in either the ‘my imported photos’ box’ or into the photo box on the page you want the picture, just avoid the ‘get photos’ method. It’s quicker anyway!

2008-11-18T16:20:46Z

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2008-11-18T16:20:46Z

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More to the point, did you use the right format within Blurb? It looks likely you used the 8"x10" format, which is intended for pictures primarily, rather than the brand new b+w text format, which would be a fraction of the cost. 124 pages in that format, soft cover, would be 5.95 euros, plus post and packing, although if as the page size is smaller you might find you needed a few more pages in that format. More to the point, did you use the right format within Blurb? It looks likely you used the 8"x10" format, which is intended for pictures primarily, rather than the brand new b+w text format, which would be a fraction of the cost. 124 pages in that format, soft cover, would be 5.95 euros, plus post and packing, although if as the page size is smaller you might find you needed a few more pages in that format.

2008-11-18T16:16:19Z

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2008-11-18T16:16:19Z

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The indenting in Blurb is not just for the first line of a paragraph though - it indents every line, which is not very useful to my mind. As many books have indent first line, which I think is what cosmos10 wanted as well, it would be nice if Booksmart did this. The only way I could acheive the effect, very tediously I might add, was by manually adding spaces to the first line of every paragraph! I couldn't even use tab because the gap created was far too large. The indenting in Blurb is not just for the first line of a paragraph though – it indents every line, which is not very useful to my mind. As many books have indent first line, which I think is what cosmos10 wanted as well, it would be nice if Booksmart did this. The only way I could acheive the effect, very tediously I might add, was by manually adding spaces to the first line of every paragraph! I couldn’t even use tab because the gap created was far too large.

2008-11-18T15:59:18Z

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2008-11-18T15:59:18Z

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Hi Mapletree,I have done a couple of poetry books, but I prefer to design my own pages than use the templates. Personally I see nothing wrong with varying formats as long as they work for the poem and for the look of the double page spread. So I would use 1-column rather than have my poem go over a page when I didn't want it to. I have some poems spread over 4 pages in my latest [as yet unpublished] book, I generally assume people will turn the page, especially if the poem did not seem finished, and they will know if it is a continution of the poem by a similar look and the lack of a title. If it's a new poem it will have a title and sometimes a different format, occasionally even a different font.Poems are very personal, your poems are your own and only you can know if they look how you want them to. Although poetry has rules, sometimes it is the breaking of the rules that makes a poem stand out. So try different looks, you can always change them back. Be brave and bold! And remember, this is YOUR book of YOUR poems and if you want tham to look a certain way that's up to YOU, nobody can tell you it's wrong, just that they don't like it. If you like it then that's all you need to know. Of course as long as you can achieve that look within the confines of Booksmart...!Good luck and happy poeting!Annette. Hi Mapletree,I have done a couple of poetry books, but I prefer to design my own pages than use the templates. Personally I see nothing wrong with varying formats as long as they work for the poem and for the look of the double page spread. So I would use 1-column rather than have my poem go over a page when I didn’t want it to. I have some poems spread over 4 pages in my latest [as yet unpublished] book, I generally assume people will turn the page, especially if the poem did not seem finished, and they will know if it is a continution of the poem by a similar look and the lack of a title. If it’s a new poem it will have a title and sometimes a different format, occasionally even a different font.Poems are very personal, your poems are your own and only you can know if they look how you want them to. Although poetry has rules, sometimes it is the breaking of the rules that makes a poem stand out. So try different looks, you can always change them back. Be brave and bold! And remember, this is YOUR book of YOUR poems and if you want tham to look a certain way that’s up to YOU, nobody can tell you it’s wrong, just that they don’t like it. If you like it then that’s all you need to know. Of course as long as you can achieve that look within the confines of Booksmart…!Good luck and happy poeting!Annette.

2008-11-18T15:43:56Z

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Tony, thank you so much for that fix! I had no idea there was a way round it and had just got used to it as one of the many foibles of Booksmart. How fantastic to have one less thing to frustrate me!Annette. Tony, thank you so much for that fix! I had no idea there was a way round it and had just got used to it as one of the many foibles of Booksmart. How fantastic to have one less thing to frustrate me!Annette.

2008-11-18T15:30:03Z

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No, I found out what went wrong! It changed the layout. They were in the very large picture but not full bleed with a large text box over it, but they changed to the full bleed with a large text box over it, but that text box is slightly smaller than the other one. So that's what happened, but it isn't supposed to! No, I found out what went wrong! It changed the layout. They were in the very large picture but not full bleed with a large text box over it, but they changed to the full bleed with a large text box over it, but that text box is slightly smaller than the other one. So that’s what happened, but it isn’t supposed to!

2008-11-11T14:25:45Z

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