More information for you from a new relationship, Degeeked.com!

We have found a website that has a lot of information that might be very beneficial for digiscrappers to read. The site is Degeeked.com and their goal is:

DeGeeked is a website dedicated to helping everyday people "degeek" the many technologies that play an ever-increasing role in our lives. Tech advice that is in tech language is not helpful. Our goal is to provide simple answers to tech questions in clear, concise, and simple language that our fathers, mothers, or even grandmothers would understand.

Their goal is very closely related to DigiScrapInfo’s goal of bringing information to you about tools, software and hardware and explaining it in easy how to use format or descriptions.

So let me link you up to some of their latest posts:

1. Top 10 Photography Web Sites To Get You Started  If you are interested in learning more about photography, here is a great list to start at.
2. Top 10 Digital Cameras from Photokina 2008 
3. What accessories do I really need for my digital camera? 
4. Top 10 External Hard Drives over 500GB I love external hard drives it is a weird addiction I have.  The over 500 GB hard drives are all coming down in price.  I personally don’t believe in spending over $100 on EHD because when they fail, (not if they fail) then you lose less money and data.  I have all my photos & digital scrapbooking supplies on a main EHD and use a second as backup EHD.   So I buy 2 for every one EHD I need. 

 

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ACDSee Photo Manager 2009 is released, this is next version after ACDSee 10

To try it out visit:

look for Download Trial button.

I’ll post back later with more info, once I have downloaded and installed it myself.  You should be able to download and install 2009 and still have version 9 or 10 working.  Just remember that if you use 2009, anything you do cannot be reverted back to version 10 or 9. 

Here is the updated feature list from ACDSee:

New version offers up-front organization of images, custom photo borders, enhanced slide shows and more

ACDSee today unveiled ACDSee Photo Manager 2009, the latest version of its powerful digital organization and photo sharing software designed especially for avid amateur photographers, scrapbookers and crafters.

Improved features combine to make ACDSee Photo Manager 2009 the quickest, most flexible and affordably priced organization software available for at-home use. Users enjoy real-time viewing, management and editing of multiple image files, whether treasured family photos or digital design elements for creative projects.

Now, ACDSee Photo Manager adds these new features designed to help users manage their growing digital images, stay organized and share memories with family and friends:

Staying organized with new tools from ACDSee

The new Import tool puts this power into the hands of users, who can now rename, back up, categorize and add keywords to images as they are acquired from a camera, card reader, CD/DVD or other storage device. Used in conjunction with ACDSee Photo Manager’s Auto Categories, which automatically organizes images according to camera metadata, organization is completed as collections grow.

Protect and share custom organization

ACDSee users love that they can supplement camera metadata (IPTC and EXIF) with their own custom metadata, including categories and ratings, in ACDSee Photo Manager. Customers can now protect and share this custom information with other ACDSee users by embedding it into their images. Users who manage many image types can now include important information even with file formats that don’t support camera metadata, such as PNGs, PDFs and GIFs.

Frame and share photos

Photographers can quickly and creatively add a finishing touch with a custom border, drop shadow or edge effect, then share favorite images with friends and family with quick uploaders to online tools like flickr^TM. Users can show off photos in auto slide shows and screensavers that now include creative presentation options such as pan & zoom, black & white and sepia effects and music.

Save originals

ACDSee Photo Manager automatically saves and preserves the original image file when it is first opened for editing within the software. Users can restore to the original at any time after making image edits like adjusting colors, cropping or adding creative elements, such as borders, frames and effects.

Save searches

Users can build complex searches based on folder name, file name, location, custom categories, ratings and other metadata, then save time by storing custom search criteria for future use.

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Stop AutoPlay on EHD’s

What I want to do?  stopping that annoying autoplay on EHDs.

Sometimes autoplay is useful. You insert in a CD or DVD and your computer recognizes it and asks what you want to do.

But everytime I turn on my EHD, it also starts scanning that EHD and asking what to do with it. I don’t want to do anything with it, I want to use it.   So there are a few ways to turn it off. I’ll start with the simplest.

All these instructions are for XP.

Simplest Option:

1. Click on Start | My Computer
2. Right click on your EHD
3. Select the AutoPlay tab
4. Select 1 of the 4 file types and then browse down and choose No Action. 
5. Repeat for the other 3 types.
6. Click on OK

The second option is using Microsoft’s Tweak UI tool.  It requires you to download the tweak ui tool but its still easy to do.  For full directions visit:  Stop the Annoying Auto-play Dialog

I have done this both ways and the best part is it stops scanning that EHD when it is turned on and stops asking me what I want to do with it.

And if you have Vista, visit this page for a long in-depth instructions.  Although as I browsed through the directions, I saw no options for EHD.

Disable AutoPlay in Windows Vista

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Check out these latest sales!

Shutterfly:

Picaboo:

Kodak: Save up to 35% on Photo Books at Kodak Gallery!

DotPhoto: Get 10% OFF your order with coupon code PHOTO10OFF

Snapfish:

Photostamps:

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Digital Scrapbooking Magazine’s organizing styles

Digital Scrapbooking Magazine, October/November 2008 did an article on organizing.   I have yet to read the article and when I do I’ll post any helpful tips that missed.

The ACDSee category file found at Digital Scrapbooking Magazine wasn’t done correctly so you might get strange messages and extra images that you don’t have your computer.

Here is a version done correctly and I also zipped it up so its easier to download. 

DigitalScrapbookingMagazine for ACDSee 10

Here are the directions for importing it in:  Directions to use the Organizing Styles

And the categories are:

• Albums
• People
• Places
• Various
• Type
  • Accent
  • Alpha
  • Brush
  • Button
  • Fastener
  • Frame
  • Journaling Spot
  • Overlay
  • Page Template
  • Paper - Patterned
  • Paper - Solid
  • Ribbon
  • Sketch
  • Stitching
  • Word Art
• Colors
  • Black
  • Blue
  • Brown
  • Green
  • Metallic
  • Orange
  • Pink
  • Purple
  • Red
  • White
  • Yellow
• Style
  • Cute or Whimsical
  • Elegant or Formal
  • Freestyle
  • Grunge
  • Simple or Contemporary
• Themes and Occasions
  • Baby
  • Birthday
  • Christmas
  • Heritage
  • Other Holiday
  • School Days

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Cool little unzip tool, Extract Now

One day, I was on a mission to find a zip tool that I liked. 

My mission was to find:

1. A zip tool that I could dump a bunch of zip files into and watch their progress as they unzip as I do something else (I’m a multitasker.)
2. It couldn’t pop up extra windows (I hate those.)
3. It had to create a folder with the name of the zip so I don’t mix the zips together.  (downfall of ACDSee’s unzipper)
4. A bonus would be to do something with the zips when they are done.

The reason was sometimes I get behind on my digital kits that I downloaded and want to do a whole batch at a time.  

• I have been using the free version Zip reader from pkware.  But I hate the pop-ups.
• I tried the latest version of Winzip, but it didn’t do much of the above.  That was really a pain to uninstall too. 
• and 7-Zip
• TugZip
• and I think another one too. 
• and none really handled the batch processing well.

Until I found ExtractNow.  This is a little program that is cool and met all my above standards.   First, I had to play with the settings of the tool:

On the General tab, I didn’t change much. I don’t have it start on startup and you can turn off the sounds if you want.

On the Destination tab, I changed these settings:

The first two, extract the file into the current folder and create a folder with the name of the zip file.  I also said overwrite existing files (just in case I unzip the same file again.)

On the Post Extraction tab, I selected that after the software is done unzipping my unzip file, move it into this unzipped done folder.  That’s where my zip files are stored until I know that backups have been done on the digital kit that I unzipped.

And on Explorer tab, I checked the following for various reason that aren’t really that important to explain.

Apply all those settings.

In the following video, I am going to drag the files from windows explorer into the ExtractNow and then click Extract.  Once done, the zipped files will be automatically moved to my UnzippedDone folder.

Click here to watch video

Some other notes:

• I could of checked “clear” in the post extraction tool, but I decided for right now, I will clear the files from my list manually.
• I can right click on a zip file or select multiple files and “enqueue” (put in the extractnow list) to be unzipped later. (Like when I leave for lunch then I click on the Extract)
•  

Here’s where you can get this tool:

ExtractNow - Extract multiple archives easily

It’s freeware and read before you download.  Their FAQ states there is no spyware in it and my virus checker & spyware haven’t complained about it.  So I think its okay but you are on your own.

This little tool works very well for me in my digital scrapbooking process and does step 2 & 3 for me with many zip files.  My steps are:

1. Download the digital kit into my Downloads folder
2. Extract the digital kit into a new folder in my Downloads folder
3. Move the zip into my UnzippedDone folder
4. Then organize my digital kits with ACDSee and move them to their final destination in my folders.

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ACDSee Pro 2.5 and ACDSee Photo Editor compatibility issue…

If you have ACDSee 10, ACDSee 9 or ACDSee Pro 2.0, you can stop reading and ignore this issue.  The issue doesn’t apply to any of those products.

If you have upgraded to ACDSee Pro 2.5 AND you are an ACDSee Photo Editor user, then keep reading.  I wanted to get this information out to you..  This is a notice from ACDSee:

Dear ACDSee Photo Editor User,

We have identified a compatibility issue with the ACDSee Photo Editor APD file format and the ACDSee Pro 2.5 Embed Database Information in Files feature.

If you are a Photo Editor and a Pro 2.5 user who has assigned ACDSee database information into you APD file, DO NOT RUN the Embed Database Information in Files feature in Pro 2.5. This feature is presented upon shutdown and the option of not to run is given. Click Cancel. The feature is also available through the Database menu item. Again, do not run this feature. There is no risk to your APD files as long as you do not run the embed feature.

The ACDSee team is actively working on a solution to resolve this issue as soon as possible and you will be notified when the update is available.

As a company, we believe open communication is important and that is why we are alerting you to this issue. Notifications of a resolution will be sent via email and posted to the ACDSee Forums.

We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause you.

The ACDSee team

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My Inkubook order has arrived and its really cute!

I had ordered a 8.5 x 8.5 softcover book.  And its really cute!

Order processing, printing & delivery:

• Time from order to in my hands:  7 days.   Excellent that I didn’t have to wait too long.  (I actually waited so long for my Heritage Makers order that I had forgotten I had ordered it. )

The quality of the pictures & pages:

• The image quality was almost identical to Shutterfly, Viovio & Heritage Makers.
• Color.  This was a little different was colors.  I felt that Shutterfly’s color were a little truer but Inkubook was better color than Heritage Maker’s colors.  Viovio’s color were almost identical to Inkubook’s.
• The “feel” of the page was very comparable to Shutterfly & Viovio’s pages.  Heritage Makers had more weight to them.

Binding:

• The binding is glued I think.  I can’t really compare to the other books because they are hardcover.

A few extra thoughts:

• Gutter of the pages:  This is how much of the page is covered to bind the book together.   On your left page, you have to watch right side of the page.  On your right page, you have to watch the left side of the page.  Their preview tool didn’t reflect the gutter.  There were a few pages that were close to have text cut off on the gutter side.  It would be nice if their tool reflected the gutter especially on full page bleeds.

Bonus:

• No company logo/label/name etc.  This was really nice to see.  I didn’t have a UPC symbol or company name on the back of my book or anywhere in it.  That was really nice.  (I know some companies have different options and some you pay extra to get the name off of it.

Photos of book:

Front Cover:

Back Cover

Inside pages were hard to take because the soft binding cover doesn’t allow the book lay flat.

Side view:

Other good things to know from Inkubook’s website:

• What kind of paper will my book be printed on?
  • “All books from Inkubook are printed on 100 lb. silk paper, which has a nice sheen without being super shiny and prone to collecting fingerprints.”
• What kind of stock will the cover for my softcover book be printed on?
  • “Softcovers are printed on 100 lb. silk cover stock.”
• For those flickr fans, you get get your photos from Flickr.  Their help states:  “As a matter of fact, you can import photos from Flickr.”  I didn’t try it though.

Conclusion:

• I would definitely go back and print at Inkubook.   Especially when the 11 x 11 hardcover book is available.
• I loved their editor to create the book.  It was by far the easiest and fastest and most intuitive to use so far.   I also like the fact that I didn’t have to download a tool to create the book.
• Prices are very reasonable.  ($18.95 for 26 images.)

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Inkubook photo book is printed and on its way…

Ordered my photobook on Monday afternoon and the book is being shipped.  That is about 48 hour turn around from order to printing to shipping.  Not bad..

I’ll let you know what I think of it when it arrives.

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Creating a book at Inkubook

I thought I would share my InkuBook ordering process of my digital layouts. Here’s how simple it is:

Name your book and choose your size to get started!

and then I get into their editor.   First off, you need some pictures.  On the bottom left you can choose Get Photos/Text.  The pictures start uploading.  And get this, I don’t have to wait for all the pictures to upload. Once my first image is uploaded, I can start working with that image in the editor.  How cool is that???

The process is pretty simple.  Choose your layout and drag and drop it onto the page.  To find the full-bleed layout, I had to click on Layouts tab & choose More and find the big gray box. 

Then I drop the big gray box on each page.  Once you tell it the layout of the page, then you drop your photo on the page.  And don’t worry, if you drop your photo first, then your layout you end up with same result.

(Wishlist:  I wish I could tell the Layout tool that I want ALL my pages to be full bleed.  Having to change the layout on each got a little tiresome.  It’s not hard but tiresome.)

Once the image is on the page, you can click on it and do some adjustments.  I could zoom in, move the image to the left & right or even flip.  I didn’t have to do much here since my layouts were square layouts on a square book.  I did need the delete though… when I changed my mind.

A really nice feature was click on Photos tab and checking the Unused box.  As I put my images in order in my book, they start “disappearing” from my list and I didn’t have to figure out which ones I had used or not.   In the All mode there are green checks if you had used it, but I really liked checking the Unused button.

Adding more pages was simple with these icons.  Just remember to be on the page where you want to insert more pages before or after.  And I could also move pages around here.

I didn’t play with the Text or Background features because there was no need since all my images/layouts were full-bleed.  Nor did I share or discuss it with anyone.

There is a preview book icon so you can browse through your book.   With full-bleeds you have to be careful about edges.  They say  “When you look at a page of your book with a full-bleed photo (one that extends all the way to the edges), it is shown with the edges trimmed off.”   I am pretty careful with my layout edges so it was hard to tell but I could tell that a little bit was cut-off.   So a quick browse through the preview book, I could see if anything important was being cut-off.  When I get the printed book, I’ll compare to the preview of it to see if was a good guide.  Some other companies show a highlighted red border of what is being cut off.  I kind of like that better but this is okay. Its better to show what is being cut-off in some way than have a surprised user at the end.

Once done, click on Buy and checkout!  That part was super simple.  No explaining necessary.

Or if you aren’t done, its easy to come back and start where you left off on your book.   I don’t have to worry about saving either.  Each time I did something it autosaved.  So if my browser crashed, I wasn’t out the work.   Nice feature.

I have to say of all the software to upload my layouts to be printed, this has been the easiest tool to work with and most intuitive.    I have gotten mad at some, needed tutorials for others, some are painfully slow, etc.  Inkubook’s tool had none of those frustrations.

So I checked out and am now waiting for my book.  This book I printed has a lot of my digital layouts over the past few years.  These layouts are printed in other books by Shutterfly, Heritage Makers, Winkflash & Viovio.   So I’ll see how the printing quality compares.  And paper quality & binding too!  But I can’t tell you that until my book arrives so you’ll have to wait as I wait.

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