Printed Photo Directory

[denarh]

I'm trying to create a photo directory that I can print out for an organization - I'm new to 5.0 and am not sure I can even do this with this software. Could someone point me to a training session - or at least get me started. Thanks in advance.

[Wendy]

Hi ...

I am not really suere what you mean by a Photo Directory ... could you give us a little more information :)

Wendy

[denarh]

Wendy - thanks for trying. I also posted this in beginners so I may be in the wrong forum. I am in a basketball officials organization and am now in charge of the telephone directory that goes out to the schools and coaches. This directory includes photos of the officials, general contact information, and ads purchased from local businesses to fund the directory. Currently there are about 150 officials so it is a multi page book. I can upload you a scan of the current - very bland - directory if that would help clarify.

[Wendy]

Hi ...

Oh now I see what you mean .. you could do that in Elements but to be honest Elements is basically graphics software and text is not reallt its stronh point.

I am just wondering if Word would be better to use ??

Wendy

[denarh]

This is my first year to take over the directory - and I was hoping to be able to add some cool pages using our banquet photos and some year end award pages as well. We also have a scholarship we award and I was hoping to create a page for the winner of that. When I was doing the research for the software I needed it appeared to me that Elements 5.0 was the way to go. Looks like I fell for the advertising machine.

[BrianZero]

Something like PagePlus might be better

[denarh]

Thanks to both of you for the help. I just returned from office depot and the guy who helped me pick out the 5.0 said it could be done by doing multiple layers - but now that he thinks about it there probably is better software out there. So now I'll check out PagePlus and the ABCdirectory. Hopefully I can still use the 5.0 for the specialty pages I mentioned earlier. Thanks again.

[baderms]

You could do the photos in Elements and create the directory with the photographs using MS Access if you have it.

[denarh]

Thanks for the advice. However have since run into another potential problem with using layers - if I have to add a photograph/official - then i have to change everything by hand to move it - i doubt if it would sort alphabetically since it's not too strong on text. Right now I'm leaning towards pageplus x2 as suggested since i can incorporate 5.0 for the specialty pages.

[SCRAPPYGIRL]

Before you purchase you might want to look at a free versionl. . . link below.

http://freeserifsoftware.com/software/PagePlus/default.asp

[cats4jan]

Microsoft Word works very well for this type of project. You can add photos and graphics and use text boxes. Photos can easily be moved around - even cropped, bordered in Word.

I wouldn't use Elements for this - it's too difficult to see volumes of text - even if you copy/paste it onto your project.

[denarh]

If I use ms word can i incorporate that into the 5.0 for the other pages - or vice versa? Either way may not be too big a deal since i'm printing it here at the house.

[cats4jan]

Copying and pasting text into Elements from Word is usually cumbersome and some of the parts of the fonts don't always transfer over - like dashes - apostrophes, etc. And the real problem is - adjusting the text to fit the page - judging the size of text - etc.

I would do just the opposite. I would create my graphics in Elements - and then copy/paste them into the Word Document.

I've done both - and for me - I find it easier to do large amount of text driving projects with Word - but - you may find feel otherwise once you get started.

Try Elements - create a large body of text in Elements - and work with it. Then create the same with Word - fool with it - then paste it into Elements - see what happens and if it's easy for you.

I would suggest if you are going to use Word to create your text and copy it into Elements, you may want to save your text using the "plain text" format - that might help with the font glitches.

[denarh]

I'll take your word for it - no pun intended. I just wanted to make sure when i completed the directory i just had one file to print - and not printing out a few 5.0 pages for the specialty pages and then printing out the word pages with the photos then matching them up in order. i believe according to what you posted above i can do this. thanks for your help.