How to Download, Save, Unzip and Use Digital Scrapbook Kits and Elements

Hi, this is DeeDoo. Thought I would write a few words about digital scrapbooking for anyone new to digital scrapbooking who is wondering what in the world we are talking about and how in the world you get started!

Don and I have been working with computer graphics for 10+ years in one form or another. Don is a professional video editor and is my computer guru. Without his help I might have given up on learning years ago... not because the graphics programs are too difficult, but because the cotton-pickin' computers are so temperamental! Today you can purchase computers "off the shelf" for very little money that make the ones we had seem like stone tablets. Wonderful as this is, they, too, can have tons of problems and conflicts in the software, not to mention all the virus threats from the Internet, etc. But, that is fodder for another article!

To do digital scrapbooking, you need a graphics program that allows you to work with layers of graphics. We use PhotoshopCS almost exclusively. However, we also have used Photoshop Elements, which can do tons of things and costs much less than PSCS. There are many programs available from which to choose. Again, that is another article!

What is a layer, you may ask? For one thing, it can be a hard concept to grasp if you haven't been exposed. For you that have used word processing programs, think of it like you have several word files open at the same time, only instead of the white background you normally see on each one, there is no background ... meaning you can now see the letters you typed on all the articles you have open because they are "stacked" on top of each other with no "divider" (background) to keep them visually separate. A jumbled mess, right? Right! UNLESS you had typed only on the top 2 lines of one, the next two lines of another, and so on, never overlapping. If you had done that, your entire page would appear as if it were written in only one word document, rather than several. Now, imagine that you can tell your word processing program to "merge" all of your open documents into one ... Voila! ...one complete document, which was made from many fragments, is now "coherent" and can now be handled as just one document.

This analogy can help to visualize what the layers are in your graphics program. The one difference, however, is that the layers in your graphics program are all in the same "file", rather than each being treated as a different file. Each layer can be painted on and manipulated. Each layer can be "hidden" until you are ready to use it. How much you can see of each layer can be controlled, too, which allows us to have one layer, for instance, be nothing but a solid color. By adjusting the opacity of that layer you are able to cast a tint of that color over all the layers below.

How great for us digi-scrappers! The possibilities are virtually limitless - there is little, if any, restraint on our creativity. We can use our elements and embellishments over and over and over. We can choose to print our creations, or keep them on our computer (or on cds or dvds) in a totally digital scrapbook - or both!

Download one of our free kits and take a look to familiarize yourself with what they contain. Our free kits are our most simple work (they are free, after all ). Here is a step-by-step on downloading and looking ...

1. Click the "download" button located beneath the photo of the free kit on our site.
2. Immediately, a window will open on your screen that says "File Download" in the top left corner. It then asks if you want to OPEN or SAVE the file, and it tells you the name we have given the file (with .zip ending on it), the size of the file, and our URL so you know it is coming from us. Then there are three buttons : Open-Save-Cancel. I almost always choose to SAVE so I can put the file where I want it immediately and open it from there later. So, choose "SAVE" like I do.
3. ANOTHER window opens. This one says "Save As" in the top left corner. Then, right below that are the words "Save in:" and a window that shows one of your directories. If that is not the directory you want to use, click the "down arrow" on the right side of the window and choose the directory you wish to use. I put mine into a folder I have named "DeeDoo Downloads" so I know where they came from and so I can find them easily. Okay, once you know which directory and/or folder you want to put the file into, simply click "Save" at the bottom right of the "Save As" open window. The file will immediately transfer from our site to your file folder; and you will witness this visually on the little transfer window. It happens pretty fast, and you may hear a "ta-da" when it is finished. The transfer window will close and we are finished with this part. Not too bad, huh?!
4. Now what, you ask? Well we need to unzip the .zip file you just saved so you can see what is in it. Another of my famous analogies ... think of the .zip file as a duffle bag into which you have crammed all your toiletries for that trip to Hawaii (one can dream!). Carrying all of that stuff with no bag would be difficult; you probably couldn't hold them all, you would lose some of them along the way, and they might get damaged as you traveled. The duffle bag, therefore, is a very good thing! Well, a .zip file is the duffle bag that contains all the contents of the files DeeDoo made and dumped into the Free Kit you just downloaded. Putting all of the files into a .zip file enables us to send to you a lot of files in a compact and efficient manner, and assures us that you will get everything we put in there!
   
   

   Before we go any further, you are going to need a program that will "unzip" the .zip files for you. We have used WinZip for years and use it now even though though we have Windows XP (which has a built in program for this - see after Step 8). You can download Winzip from many sites. This is the link to download it from TUCOWS (The Ultimate Collection Of Windows Software) : WinZip. Follow the directions to install it and choose the Wizard as the option you want to use to unzip files. WinZip is a shareware program, which means you can use it for an evaluation period free of charge, but if you like it and continue to use it, you need to pay the shareware fee.

   Okay, we don't go to a paint program or anything just yet. First, using your file browser, find the .zip file you just downloaded from DeeDoo. Double-click on the file. A window will open that says "WinZip" at the top. Go to the bottom of the window and click on "evaluation version" (or "buy" if you have evaluated it and intend to use it permanently). A second window will open that says "WinZip Wizard-Welcome" at the top left corner. At this time, choose "Next" at the bottom of the window. Now a small rectangular window will open asking if you want to put the file in the default folder "Favorite Zip folders". I always check "No", so you do that this time, too. The next window includes three options, with the "Unzip or install from an existing Zip file" already chosen. This is what we want, so click "Next" at the bottom of the window. In this window we can choose where we want the file to be unzipped and saved. You will notice that a place is already chosen by default ... c:\unzipped\FreeSummertime (that's the kit I am downloading). Click on the little bar beneath the file name ... the little bar is called "Select different folder". This opens a window allowing you to choose the place you want to unzip (open) the .zip file into. I usually unzip into the same folder so the .zip file and the unzipped file are together. For me this is easiest. So, to follow along, find the same folder where you saved the .zip file and highlight it with your mouse, then click "OK" and that window will close. You are now back to the WinZip Unzip window (whew!). You can now click "Unzip Now" at the bottom of the window. You will see the green graphic streak by, signaling the opening of the .zip file. Your WinZip window is still open; just click "Close" and you are finished.

5. In your file browser, find the directory and folder that contains both the .zip file and the folder "Free Summertime" (or whichever free kit you downloaded). Double-click on the Free Kit, not the .zip file. The Free Kit folder will open, revealing the various files it contains. In the Summertime free kit, there are 14 files. Seven of the files are .jpg format (all paper and the kit preview picture are in .jpeg format). The remaining seven files are in .png format. The .png format allows us to provide you with graphics on a transparent background so you can easily move them into your files without having to clean up a background, etc.
6. Double-click on "AKitPicPreview-SummertimeFreeKit.jpg". Mine opened up gigantic, so much I couldn't see the whole picture. If that happens to you, go to the menu bar on your file browser, choose "View" and choose "fit to window". Then the files will be sized down so you can see the whole thing. You will see the picture has a white background, and there are 6 pieces of paper, 4 frames, and 3 tags displayed. The file you are looking at is like the Word document we discussed earlier that has been "merged" from several documents. Each of the frames, tags, and papers were contained on separate layers in one file I worked on to produce the Preview. Each layer was "transparent" so that only the particular frame or tag or piece of paper was visible in that layer. See how pieces of the paper overlap, as do the frame and tags? Using layers, I was able to move each of those elements and position them as I wished, and I was able to see the element above or below it so I knew how much to move it. Once arranged to my liking, I simply "merged" all the layers into one layer with a white background.
7. Now open one of the .png files. If you get a requester for which program to use to open this file, choose your graphics program (unless you prefer a different option). You will see that the element you chose appears on a clear background.
8. To use these papers and elements, you must have a graphics program that work with layers (mentioned earlier). Open that program and open a new document. Then, find the various elements from the free kit. Select and open one, then, using your mouse, drag that element from its file into your open new document file and release your mouse button. You should now have one of the frames, or tags, or piece of paper in your new document. Using your mouse, and having your new element's layer active, drag the element to any position. Then open a different element and drag and drop it into your new document. Practice moving them around, clicking the active layers on and off, moving layers above and below each other, etc., to get a feel for what this is all about!

By the way, WinZip will allow multiple zip files to be unzipped at once. Select the files ( click on the first file, then shift-click on the last file to select all in between, or alt-click on files to select non-adjacent files), then right click to see your unzip choices. You can unzip them all to the same folder or different folders for each file.

• If you have Windows XP, you don't need to download a program like WinZip. You already have a built in program to unzip files - the Compressed Folders Extraction Wizard.
1. Right click on the .zip file and select "Open with -> Compressed Folders". Your file manager will open the zip file to show you what is inside.
2. In the menu bar select "File -> Extract All". The Wizard window will pop up.
3. Select "Next" and type in where you want the file to unzip.
4. When the Wizard is done it will have "Show extracted files" checked. Just click "Finish" and you will be able to access the files that were unzipped.

This has been a simple explanation of the complicated concepts and graphics software that allow us to create beautiful digital scrapbook pages. You should now be able to download, save, and open a .zip file. You should also be able to view the unzipped contents of that file in your file browser and graphics program. And, finally, you should be able to open the scrapbook element files and place them into documents in your graphics program. As always, if you have any questions or comments about what we've covered, please feel free to contact us!

© 2005 Dee Doo's Digital Scrapbooking. All Rights Reserved. Dee Doo's Digital Scrapbooking , your source for unique digital scrapbooking items. This article may be included on your website or in email, provided it is published in its entirety, including this credit and link.

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