Using Picaboo Backgrounds

Most photo book publishers provide a wide range of backgrounds and themes to use in your photo books. There are some projects that are just so unusual that they cry out for a different background or theme. There are some photo book makers who like to be as creative as they can possibly be and can't possibly use only the usual themes and backgrounds. You have two choices in this situation. You can make your photo book using another software program that a digital scrapbooker would use, or you can use Picaboo for your books.

You have an unlimited number of backgrounds available to you in Picaboo. There are three ways you can get more backgrounds than those that show up in the software when you first open it.

1. Adding new Themes from the Free Goodies area
2. Adding Backgrounds from the Free Goodies area
3. Adding one of your own pictures as a page background

Getting Backgrounds from the Free Goodies Areas

The "Free Goodies" area has a lot to offer if you are interested in more options with your photo book. When you open up the Picaboo software there is a Free Goodies button in the upper left-hand corner. When you click on this option you go to another screen that gives you the choices of

• Backgrounds
• Themes
• Idea Center
• Life and Love Stories

Each section offers you some good tools or ideas to help in the development of your photo book. The Themes section gives you the chance to view some themes (which include several backgrounds) that you might want to use. Click on Themes and then click on Photo Book Themes. Each of these themes can be downloaded and will then be included as a theme you can choose when you open the Picaboo software to make a book. This is an easy way to add more backgrounds.

If you click on Backgrounds instead of Themes you are able to browse almost 12,000 backgrounds. The backgrounds are organized in many different ways and you have such a wide variety of choices. The search works pretty good, so try and find something you like. Once you find a background here is how you get it into your book:

1. Double click on that background. This will take you to a page where the background has a higher resolution.
2. Right click on the image and choose "Save Picture As"
3. Use the option to rename the jpeg if desired and choose where you want it to be saved.
4. To use it as a background in Picaboo you need to add the jpeg as a picture to be used in your book and you can drag it onto the background.

The http://www.picaboo.com/freegoodies/firefox-bg-help.html are just a little different.

Using Your Own Pictures for a Background

Dragging a picture and placing it on the background as described in the previous paragraph can be done with any picture. This allows you to use pictures you have as a background. If you don't have a picture on hand, and if for some reason there isn't the right background available in the Picaboo backgrounds, you can then purchase a stock photo to use. The sky is really the limit.

Downloading Picaboo Themes

Instead of choosing to download separate backgrounds, you can add new themes from the Goodies Page. Choose one of the new themes and click on the download link and a smart wizard will walk you through adding the theme to your Picaboo desktop. You can then add the name theme by using the left-hand menu where the themes reside.