How-to

The Holiday Season is just around the corner, so it’s no surprise that a number of calendars are popping up on MagCloud.

Whether you are looking for a gift idea for your family, a fundraiser for your children’s sports team, a new way to gain exposure for your art and photography or another way to build brand awareness for your small business– at $5.60 for a 28-page publication on MagCloud, creating a calendar is both easy and affordable.

Throughout the rest of this week we’ll explore designing calendars with Microsoft Word, iWork Pages, and using MagCloud’s Flickr Uploadr.

First up: Microsoft Word.

Getting Started
In past blogs we’ve discussed the number of resources for Microsoft Word templates. Whether you are visiting Microsoft’s Website, or the program’s built-in project gallery (available on a Mac), you can find various calendar templates to get you started.

In this particular exercise, I have created my own custom template by inserting a table into each page that is 6 columns and 7 rows. To avoid running into issues with rotating pages, when I export the final calendar, I have designed for the landscape appearance while working in a portrait setting. To do this, I have simply set the text orientation on it’s side.

To complete this calendar you will want to have a minimum of 15 images–preferably in a landscape format.

You can start with one of the basic templates, and follow along to make it your own. I’ve created two versions to get you started: a casual look with sans-serif fonts, and a more sophisticated look with a classic serif font. You can download them here:

Download the Formal Word Template
Download the Casual Word Template

Styling Your Calendar
The calendar template has built-in style sheets, so you can easily change the fonts and colors to fit your needs.

To make the necessary adjustments, you must first select a block of text that you wish to modify (for example to change the font style of the days of the week, you could select “Thursday”). Go to FORMAT >> Style; once in the “Format” dialog box, you can narrow the list of fonts to the ones of interest by selecting “User-defined Styles.”

Now you can choose to “Modify” each of these paragraph styles to change the look of your template.

Within the “Modify Style” dialog box you can select different fonts, weights and colors for the “Day of the week” paragraph style.

**Be sure to check “Automatically update” so that when you save your changes, all uses of that style throughout the document are updated to the new look.

Repeat these steps to adjust the “month” and “number” styles to customize your calendar further.

Make it Personal with Photos
Now it’s time to insert photos into the blank pages of your calendar.

To do so, select Insert >> Picture >>From File… Within the dialog box you can select saved photos to insert one at a time on the blank pages.

You will need to rotate each image -90º onto it’s side, (to the left or “counter-clockwise”) so that they will be oriented properly in the printed version.

**Designer Tip: Be sure to adjust photos proportionately, so they maintain the same aspect ratio and don’t look stretched or distorted. On a Mac, you can select “Lock aspect ratio” in the “Formatting Palette,” to ensure that images look their best. You can also set this preference while you have an image selected, and then by going to the “Format” menu and selecting Picture >> Size >> “Lock aspect ratio”**

Save, then Export to a PDF
Microsoft Word 2003: To export your Word 2003 document as a MagCloud PDF on a PC, first go into Tools > Options and select the Save tab. Ensure that the box next to Embed TrueType Fonts is checked, but the boxes next to its subcategories (“Embed characters in use only” and “Do not embed common system fonts”) are unchecked.

Then, in the “Save to PDF” dialog box, click the “Options” button and check the “ISO 19005-1 compliant” box, which should also automatically put a check in the “Bitmap text when fonts may not be embedded” box.

Click Okay, then go to File > Save As and select PDF from the file type drop-down menu to save your PDF.

Microsoft Word 2007 (PC): To export your Word 2007 document on a PC, click on the Microsoft Office Button in the upper left hand corner and choose “Word Options”. Select the Save tab on the left and make sure that the box for “Embed fonts in this file” is checked, but uncheck the boxes below it (“Embed only the characters used in the document” and “Do not embed common system fonts”).

Then, in the “Save to PDF (or XPS)” dialog box, click the “Options” button and check the “ISO 19005-1 compliant” box, which should automatically put a check in the “Bitmap text when fonts may not be embedded” box.

Microsoft Word (Mac): When exporting your PDF on a Mac, there is no option to embed fonts, so simply select File > Save As and choose PDF from the Format drop-down menu.

*This usually is only an issue if you have empty, hidden or transparent text frames in your document, or when a single character within a block of text uses a different font than the rest of the paragraph. If you have problems, you will either need to eliminate these, or embed the fonts in a different program before uploading to MagCloud. (see the help section)

WANT MORE HELP WITH WORD AND TEMPLATES?

Microsoft Office Word Template Site

Mactopia (for Mac Word Help/How-to’s)

Check back with us tomorrow for more how-to’s and tips with calendars using iWork Pages, and again on Friday for a quick an easy calendar that you can make straight from your flickr account using MagCloud’s Flickr Uploadr!

If you’ve been holding off on publishing through MagCloud because you didn’t have the design skills, couldn’t afford expensive design software and didn’t have a best friend who is a graphic designer, why not use a template in a more accessible application?

PC users, I apologize, as this post doesn’t apply to you, but Mac lovers: GET EXCITED.

With Apple’s iWork Pages it’s easy to make a MagCloud-ready PDF. Here in my second exploration of basic design software, I’ll dive into using Apple’s design tool that comes in their iWork productivity suite (retails for just $79 at store.apple.com) to create your MagCloud publication.

When you open Pages it will offer you a number of template options. Any designed to print full size on an 8.5”x 11” piece of paper are almost great starting points for creating MagCloud publications. A number of other sites also offer Pages templates, but for my example today, I’m going to use the standard “Program” template in the application’s “Template Chooser”.

The original Pages version is available here: Download original Pages Template and my MagCloud-ready version with a Southern California theme, is available here: Download Modified Template

GETTING STARTED:
To get started, you’ll want to find and open a template.

In this case I found mine in the “Template Chooser” within the Pages application. Because the template is designed for a US Letter sized paper (8.5” x 11”) it will be really easy modify for my own use.

CUSTOMIZING A TEMPLATE:
Apple’s Pages templates all come with built-in Paragraph and Character style templates which make it much easier to keep a consistent style throughout your publication.

Rather than start with a blank document, I always start with a template in Pages and modify it to suit my needs, this way I already have built-in paragraph and character styles.

*With this particular application, it’s my suggestion that you work on setting up your template before you start adding any of your content.

Add all pre-designed pages within the template
Within the template there are a number of layout styles available. In my example here there are eight (varying from a cover, table of contents, feature article and 4-column text page, etc).

The reason for doing this is that you want to see what’s available to you, and actually modify the “template” so that you can use it again and again, rather than having to copy and paste design elements repetitively throughout the design process.

Change view to “Facing pages”
This not only helps with visualizing layout, but also will help you decide which page styles are going to be right-hand pages and left-hand pages.

Add guides to pages and adjust layout for trim
Adding guides to the outside edges of each page will ensure that everything will fit inside the trim line). Because MagCloud trims its documents to 8.25” x 10.75” we are going to lose 0.125” inches off the top and bottom, and 0.25” off the outside edge. This means in order for our template to be centered on the printed page, we are going to have to adjust the content on the page. With your Rulers active and visible, you’ll want to drag guides into place (0.13 in from the top and bottom, 0.25 from the outside edges). Be sure when you are designing your templates that you are making a conscious decision as to which pages will be left-hand pages and which will be right-hand pages. It will help to name them as such when you “capture” the layouts in a later step.

Adjust style sheets to your needs
Not making a ‘Metropolitan Symphony Program?’ Then go through each page and make the necessary adjustments to layout and fonts. You’ll notice this is exactly the same layout, with different fonts and colors. Amazing how simple style changes can make a template your own.

Tip: After you have adjusted a font in the font menu, such as the headline, update your template style sheet so you can easily apply the same style again. You can do this by either “right-clicking” or “ctrl+ click” on the name of the font style in your “Styles Drawer”, then select “Redefine Style from Selection.”

“Capture Pages” for future use
Save yourself a lot of work in the future by establishing your own templates with your style/colors and fixed text. Once you have modified the provided pages in the template with your own fonts and colors, you can “Capture Pages” to use in your template over and over again. You can do this by “right-clicking” or “ctrl+ click” on the page thumbnails on the left margin or by selecting “FORMAT> Advanced> Capture Pages”

Tip: since you have adjusted your content for the trim settings, be sure to name pages accordingly, like “Left-Feature” or “Right-4 paragraph story”). To delete the old template pages, select “FORMAT> Advanced> Manage Pages.”

Commit to a page count and layout
Planning ahead will save you a lot of design time. You should come up with an outline for your publication before you start laying out pages or entering content. This is important because inserting one page at the front of your document will throw off the layout for all of the subsequent spreads. You should also take your layout into consideration when designing and capturing your template spreads, because certain content will be better suited for a right-hand or left-hand page layout.

Save your file as a “Template” for future issues
If you plan to have future issues with this same style, be sure to save your personalized document as a template. It’s easy to do, just select “File> Save as Template.” This puts a copy of your file into the Pages Template Chooser so you can find it easily next time you launch the application.

TURNING YOUR DOCUMENT INTO A PDF:
This part couldn’t be easier! Simply select “FILE> Export.” Leave the default settings for PDF, and save your file.

WANT MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PAGES?

Apple’s Pages ’09 site

Apple Store: iWork $79

PREVIEW THE TEMPLATES ON MAGCLOUD

Original Brochure Template

Original Brochure Template with minor changes

Transformed Brochure Template with Southern California theme