Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Technical Tuesdays


Greetings....Tuesday's are release days for new My Digital Studio downloads.  I always look forward to Tuesday's because you just never know what the powers that be at SU will come up with next.  I especially like the fact that usually the designs that they come up with are unique to My Digital Studio...and I even sometimes wish that they would/could release them in actual paper....Like that Number One Kit above...Those papers look super cool.  However, I can use the papers digitally to no end....I love that. 

What are you doing with MDS?  Would you like to learn more about the things you can do with it?  In the coming year, I am going to devote Tuesdays to the technical aspect of MDS so that you can learn and USE your program.

One thing I get asked most frequently is: How do I print an A2 card at home so that the card front does not print right in the middle of the paper?

Here are the steps:
  • Open card template in MDS.
  • Create card, then duplicate that card (so that you can print two of the exact same card on one sheet of paper. To duplicate, right click on the card's icon at the bottom of the page, and insert duplicate page.
  • Go to file, page setup.  Change your margins to 0.  My computer won't change to completely zero, but it's close.
  • Now click on the print icon. Select your two card fronts.  Down in the lower left corner of the print screen, click on advanced.
  • Change the first section (Size of Image Area) change that to Custom, width 5.3, height 4.1 (if you are doing a landscape A2 card). Depending on your printer, you can adjust these to as big/small as you need, in order to get your image just right.
  • Now go down to Image Layer adjustment and change that to Custom Layout.  You will want to adjust your top margin so that your card front moves down to the bottom corner of the page. 
  • Now, in the center of the screen, change the number of images per sheet to 2.  This will put your second card on the page (as long as you had initially selected both of your card fronts)
  • Lastly, click okay, then click Print!
You will notice that the Number of Images will only allow 2 once you have your margins all set just right.  If your Custom width and height aren't just right, you will only be allowed to print one per page.  Just keep adjusting, even by 0.1 until your see that the number of images per page can be increased.  And keep in mind, if you didn't select both card fronts initially, you won't be able to print 2 per page.  You can also print 4 card fronts using this same technique as long as you have duplicated your image 3 times and select all 4 card fronts on the initial print screen.

I hope this helps you out, and PLEASE feel free to comment or email me with any questions.  Now, go have fun with My Digital Studio.

2 comments:

Cyndi G said...

Glad to see these hints in print. I had forgot how to do this, so will definitely be copying & pasting for future reference. Thanks!

Tami said...

Thanks for the reminder! I don't use My Digital Studio often and feel if I knew how to do these things I would. I tried to print the inside of my Christmas cards in MDS and couldn't get it to print the right size, direction etc. So, I just gave up and did it in Word, not as pretty as it could have been in MDS if I could have figured it out! Anyway, I'd love some tutorials.