Introduction

This photo album user guide assumes that you have basic knowledge of how to use your computer and basic knowledge of digital photos.

This user guide will use Photo Album holid013 for demonstration purposes, but the instructions will work with ANY photo album downloaded from this site.

Download as many photo albums as you want - FREE!

If you haven't done so already, you will need to download the DNL Reader. It will only take a few minutes to download and install it. You will need to have the DNL Reader installed on your computer in order to view and use our photo albums. (The DNL Reader is comparable to the Adobe Reader, which allows you to view PDF files or the Macromedia Flash Player, which allows you to view Flash files). DNL files are data-only files; therefore, they are resistant to computer viruses. DNL format also helps to keep the file size of the finished photo album small.

Navigating the Photo Album

Once you've downloaded the photo album of your choice, locate the place you downloaded it to on your computer and double-click on it to open.

To turn the pages of your photo album, simply click anywhere on the right side of the page to move forward, or anywhere on the left side of the page to turn back. Alternatively, most photo albums include a navigation on every page to allow you to easily move to a specific page in the album:

You can also navigate by right-clicking anywhere in the photo album which will bring up a menu. Choose Go To as shown below:

Then select the page you would like to turn to:

Inserting Photos into the Photo Album

Inserting photos is easy! You can insert images that you have stored on your computer's hard drive, from a floppy disk, or a CD. You can also copy an image in from a Web page or another source and paste it into your photo album.

You will notice on each page where there is a photo slot, there is also a photo insertion navigation, that normally consists of an EDIT link, a PREVIEW link, a SAVE link, and a LOCK link:

Clicking on the EDIT link will make the editable regions appear. The #1 arrow shown below is pointed to the editable image region where you will insert your photo. The #2 arrow shown below is pointed to the editable text region where you can add a caption or comment if you chose.

Clicking on PREVIEW will close the editable image and text regions, so that you can see what the page will look like with your photo and captions.

SAVE will save the photo album, saving all the changes you have made to it.

LOCK will lock the page, which means you will no longer be able to edit the page. You will no longer be able to add or change photos or make changes to the captions. Locking a page is permanent - you will not be able to undo this feature, so use caution.

Ok, let's get started on the fun stuff and learn how to insert images. First, click on EDIT on the photo album page. Now right-click anywhere within the editable image region (#1 above) to bring up another menu. You will use this menu whenever you want to insert images, remove images, or make changes to images.

If you are going to insert an image that you have stored on your computer, on a disk, or on a CD, click on Insert/Change image as shown below:

This will bring up a window that will allow you to locate the place where you have your digital photos stored:

Once you've located the photo you want to insert, double-click on it and  - it is inserted into your photo album!

You can use your mouse cursor, which will look like a hand, to move your photo into place. However, you have some other options available. Right-click anywhere on the photo or in the editable photo region to bring up your menu again.

Fit horizontally will automatically resize your photo so that it fits horizontally (across) into the photo slot.

Fit vertically will automatically resize your photo so that it fits vertically (up and down) into the photo slot.

Fit and trim horizontally fits the image horizontally and also trims it to fit the size of the image slot.

Fit and trim vertically fits the image vertically and also trims it to fit the size of the image slot.

Remove image will (obviously) remove the image from the photo slot.

Paste image will be inactive unless you have copied an image onto your Windows clipboard. If you have copied an image from another source, such as a Web page, you would then use Paste image to paste it into your photo album.

Zoom in will change your cursor into a magnifying glass with a plus sign inside of it. Clicking on your image will allow you to zoom in on your image. You can click on your image multiple times to zoom in multiple times.

Zoom out will change your cursor into a magnifying glass with a minus sign inside of it. Clicking on your image will allow you to zoom out on your image. You can click on your image multiple times to zoom out multiple times.

Zoom ratio will bring up a window that allows you to specify a specific zoom.

Move image will change your mouse cursor back to the hand which will allow you to grab the image and move it in any direction.

Optimize image is one step you will not want to skip. Optimizing your image will greatly reduce the file size of your completed album.

If you'll look at the screen shots below, the original file size of the image we are using for demonstration purposes is 73.42K in size. By moving the pointer along the optimization line, and watching your photo, you can actually see the difference optimization will make in the quality your photo. Our experience is that you can optimize an image up to 80% without seeing much difference in the photo quality. Notice that optimizing our image 80% reduced our file size from 73.42K down to 22.85K - a HUGE difference!

Trim image - once you've got your photo positioned exactly the way you want it, use Trim image. Trim image will trim any extra edges around your photo so that it fits the image slot perfectly. If you happen to have a great deal of extra edges, using Trim image will also help to reduce the file size of your image.

Lock image will lock the image so that it can no longer be changed. You'll want to lock your images before you send your photo album out in order to keep others from changing or removing the images from your photo album.

Page option is a time-saving feature that will allow you to optimize an entire page or lock an entire page. The photo album we are using for demonstration purposes has 2 photo slot; however, many of the photo albums have 2 image slots or more per page. Using the Page optimization would allow you to optimize all the images on the page at one time instead of optimizing each image individually. Using Page Lock would allow you to lock all the images on the page at one time instead of locking each image individually. Remember, locking is permanent - you will not be able to undo this feature, so use caution.

Book option is another time-saving feature that will allow you to do a number of things that affect the entire photo album. Book optimization allows you to optimize all the photos in the entire photo album all at once. Book save allows you to save the photo album, saving all the work you have done to it up until this point. Book save and trim saves the photo album and trims all the images in the entire photo album. Book lock locks the photo album so it can be viewed only. Once you have locked the photo album, you will no longer be able to add photos or edit existing photos.

Help is basically a mini help guide that appears on the screen and gives short and simple explanations for each of the features we discussed above.

Inserting Text into the Photo Albumum

To insert text into a photo album, click on EDIT and locate the editable text region. Then simply place your mouse cursor into the region and type!