How to make Magic
This is a guide to creating your Yearbook online with Magic Boomerang
www.magicboomerang.com
Contents:
Page:
1. Uploading images & making albums
02
2. Accessing your Yearbook
05
3. Choosing backgrounds
07
4. Page layouts
08
5. Adding images to your page
09
6. Adding text
10
7. StickerArt
11
8. Creating layers
12
9. Copying and Pasting
13
10. Changing the order of your pages
14
11. Previewing your Yearbook
15
12. Signing off your book
16
Glossary of Terms:
Selection: This is the name for the images which appear along the bottom of
the editor. From here you can quickly add images to your yearbook project.
DPI: Dots per inch. This is a measurement of image resolution. To ensure your
photos are printed clearly, we recommend a minimum of 250dpi.
Bleed: This is an area around the page which is added to the design to ensure
you get ink up to the edge of the page when it is printed. For your yearbook
pages bleed is approximately 3mm wide.
Sign off: Authorisation to send your book to print. We don’t print it until you say
you’re happy with it!
Please note that there is a minimum requirement of Internet Explorer 8
or above to use this Yearbook Creation system.
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Section 1: Uploading Images & Making Albums
First things first: you have logged into Magic Boomerang and want to get your
images onto the site. There are three ways to do this:
1. Uploading images from your computer directly into your Project.
Images uploaded in this manner will only be visible to you.
2. Uploading images from Facebook directly into your Project. Images
uploaded in this manner will only be visible to you.
3. Uploading into Personal Albums. Images uploaded in this manner will
only be visible to you.
4. Uploading into Group Albums. Images uploaded in this manner will be
visible to everybody working on your Yearbook.
1. Uploading images from your computer directly into your Project: This
is done by going into your project and selecting the button marked Upload.
The next screen you come to is the main loader, where you can do one of two
things: either click on Select Images and this will open a browser which you can
use to search your computer for the files you need.
Alternatively, you can click on Advanced Loader, where you can upload up to 50
images at a time.
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2. Uploading images from Facebook directly into your Project: You can do
this simply by clicking on Facebook. This will take you into a log in screen and
you can directly access albums on your Facebook account. Please ensure that
you are allowed to use Facebook when using this feature.
3. Uploading into Personal Albums: The third way to upload images for
personal use is to upload into a Personal Album.
To get to the Albums page, click on the My Photos page from the top navigation
bar. Type a new album name into the box where it says ‘New Album Name’ and
click Create Album.
Next, click Upload Photos and the site will take you to the Uploader where you
can start to upload your images.
To select the images you would like to use in your yearbook, click on Enter
Fullscreen which will take you into your Album.
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To add an image straight
to your selection you
need to click on Add to
Selection. You can
scroll through the
images currently in your
selection in the top left
section of the screen by
hovering the mouse over
the first and last images
shown. Your selection
with automatically scroll
left and right.
4. Uploading into Group Albums: Open the My Photos page and scroll down
to ‘Group Albums’. To upload photos, follow the same steps as outlined above for
Personal Albums. All users in your group will be able to access these images, so
this is a great way to share images quickly.
Which uploading method should I use?
When deciding how to upload your images, consider who you want to be able to
access the images on Magic Boomerang.
A Personal Album allows you to store all your photos on Magic Boomerang and
simply select which ones to use in your yearbooks through the Add to Your
Selection button. So, if you do not wish others to see the images you don’t use
in your yearbook book, then uploading straight to the Project or a Personal Album
is the way to go.
If you want to share all your photos so everyone in your Group can see and use
your images, then you should upload to a Group Album.
An advantage of uploading to a Personal or Group Album is that you can share
these with friends online, rather than just people in your Group. To do this click
on the Share/Save/Bookmark button.
This button allows you to share your photos using over 100 websites, including
Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. You can also email photos directly to people if
you prefer.
Okay, so now you have got your images where you want them, the next step is to
start creating your book!
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Section 2: Accessing your yearbook
To begin working on your book, first you have to
open it. Click on My Projects in the main
navigation bar,
Scroll down to the ‘My Group Projects’ part of the
page and click on the thumbnail image of your
book. If you have more than one book
appearing in this section please contact
Customer Services on 01252 368 327.
Your yearbook will now open
in the Magic Boomerang
editor. This is where you will
create your book.
Once you are in your project, there are a few things that you need to know:
Your covers: The first double page which appears is the covers. The
front cover is on the right hand side and the back cover is on the left.
Page 1 of your book: The single page which appears after your covers is
page 1 of your book. This will be on the right hand side as you open the
book.
Following pages: The next pages will be double pages, until the end of
the book, where you will have a single page on the left hand side.
Multi-user function:
With Magic Boomerang, more than one user can be logged into your Yearbook at
a time, each creating separate pages. This is called the multi-user function.
To prevent you undoing work done by another user in your group, each page
being edited is ‘locked’ to other users. So, if user 1 is working on pages 2 and 3,
these will appear greyed out to all other users in the group and they will not be
able to access those pages. If you try to edit a page which somebody else is
already working on, a message will appear saying “Another user is editing this
page”.
Magic Boomerang will keep this page locked for ten minutes after the last
activity on the page. So, if you want to access a page someone else has been
editing, you need to wait ten minutes after they have finished.
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The Magic Boomerang Editor:
This is what you will see when you open your project.
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1) Edit Buttons: You can use these buttons to add image/text boxes to your pages,
to zoom or shrink the editor, to undo and redo, and also to make a preview of your
book so you can see exactly how it will print.
2) Bleed Area: This extra space around the page is the bleed area, which is cut off
during production. It is shown here so that you can see exactly how close to the
edge of the finished pages your artwork will be. Do not include anything in this
area that you want printed, and we recommend keeping artwork away from the
edge of the page also to avoid losing artwork.
3) Tabs: Click on these to access elements to add to your page: images, text,
StickerArt and layouts.
4) Page List: This shows all the pages in your book. Click on a page to open it in
the editor.
5) Exit: This button is used to exit your book. Please ensure you have saved any
work you wish to keep!
6) Add to basket and Save buttons: You need to use the Save button to save work
you wish to keep, and you can use the Add to Basket button to submit your final
artwork for print. We recommend you check through your artwork carefully first.
7) Add & delete buttons: These buttons add and delete pages from your book.
Please note: We do not advise doing this yourself as the delete button will
permanently delete the last 8 pages of your book. There is also a cost
implication for changing the number of pages in your book. Please contact
Boomerang should you need to add or remove pages.
8) Reorder Pages Button: You can use this button to swap any two pages in your
Yearbook around.
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Section 3: Choosing backgrounds
We are now going to build a page from scratch so that you can see all the
exciting things you can do on Magic Boomerang. The best place to start is
choosing a background.
The first thing you need to do to change a background is go to the backgrounds
tab. This will show you all the different backgrounds available for use on your
cover/page. Also, you can simply select a single colour by using the ‘Click for
colour’ option. Finally, you can also use an image you have uploaded by selecting
the galleries button and navigating to the image you want, as shown below.
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Section 4: Page layouts
When creating your pages you can either add your images and text directly to a
blank page or you can use our wide range of layouts. The layouts allow you to
quickly drop images into place and ensure everything is lined up evenly. You can
also place layouts on top of backgrounds.
Image 4.1 Layouts tab
If you would like to use a layout simply click on the Layouts tab. If you can’t
find one that suits, just let us know what you need and we can create it for you.
This is particularly useful if you want to repeat the same layout on many pages.
You can make a page online or draw the layout marking which parts are text and
which parts are images. Then just get in touch with us on 01252 368 327 or
[email protected].
Once you have decided on your layout simply drag it onto the page and it will
load over anything that is on the page currently. It’s that easy!
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Section 5: Adding images to your page
To put images onto a page, go to the Images tab and then drag the image you
wish to use onto the page or into the frame.
As you can see from the image below, there are now three images placed in the
frames and another has been added to the left hand page without using a frame.
You can drag the image around the page to position it where you want and you
then add effects by using the edit options on the right hand side.
Image 5.1 Adding images to your page
You can use the edit options for the following effects:
Rotating the image.
Changing the images opacity.
Change the layering of the image.
Adding a border.
Colouring a border.
Cropping the image: Changing what part of the image shows.
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Section 6: Adding text
Image 6.1 The Text tab
Now that you have chosen a background and your images are in place, it’s time
to add text to the page. Click on the Text tab and then drag and drop text boxes
onto your page. To start typing simply click on the Plus Icon in the top right
corner. You can resize the text box by using the sizing tool. It is always worth
checking to make sure all of your text is appearing on the page, as if the box is
too small then some words may be cut off.
Image 6.2 Formatting you text
As with all objects in the editor, you can bring up an ‘Edit Options’ screen by
clicking on the plus sign. This is where you type your text into and from here you
can also format the text with fonts, sizes, colours and alignment. You can also
rotate the text and change the opacity by using the options on the right.
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Section 7: StickerArt
A unique Magic Boomerang feature is our StickerArt collection. This contains
many little images and icons that you can use to liven up a page. To add
StickerArt, click on the clipart tab and then drag and drop your selected image
onto the page.
Image 9.1 Using StickerArt
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Section 8: Creating layers
In the image above, the car is behind the image of the student. If you wanted to
change it so that the car was above the student image, you’d simply need to
adjust the layers. You can adjust the order of the layering of everything on the
page. This is a handy tool when you have large amounts of overlapping objects,
like on a collage page, for example. By using the layering function and dropping
the shape down a layer, we can make the picture move underneath the car.
After changing the layer of the car, it now sits above the image. The default layer
of items you add to the page is 0.
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Section 9: Copying and Pasting
One brand new feature of Magic is that you can now copy and paste images or
text. This can be very helpful for replicating something instantly. As you can see
below, I have some speech bubble StickerArt images which I want to copy onto a
new page quickly. I have highlighted the top one, and to copy it I simply press
Ctrl & C together on your keyboard. This adds the copied item to your clipboard.
To place the copied item, all you need to do is go to the page you wish to paste
the item to and click on the page. Then, press Ctrl & V on your keyboard and the
copied item will appear.
The only thing to note when pasting to the same page as the item was copied
from is that the pasted item will be placed exactly where the original was when it
was copied.
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Section 10: Changing the order of your pages
On the bottom of the page you can see a list of all your pages. If you want to
swap pages around you can do this by clicking on the Reorder button.
If you want to move a page around in the book, all you need to do is drag the
page you wish to move over the page you wish to swap it with. Once you have
made any adjustments you wish to make you need to save these changes by
clicking Save at the bottom of the reorder menu.
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Section 11: Previewing your Yearbook
This is a great new tool on the site which allows you to see how your pages will
look once printed. Simply by clicking on the Preview button the site will create
this for you, and you can go through page by page and check for anything not
appearing how you want it to.
As you can see in the image above, some of the artwork is close to the grey
‘bleed’ area. Any artwork in this grey area will be cut off, and we recommend
keeping artwork away from the edge of this to avoid artwork being lost in the
binding. The artwork is close, and I can see that some of the bottom image will
be cut off, but I am happy that it is only losing an unimportant part of the image
so I know I’m happy to proceed.
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Section 12: Signing off your yearbook
When you have finished creating your book and want to send it to print, you need
to sign it off online by clicking on the Order button.
This will save your book and take you through to the ‘Basket’ screen. On this
page you will need to finalise your quantity. Your quantity is the number of
books we will print so please either call or email us with this information also.
Once you have typed the quantity in, click Update.
To proceed, click on Checkout.
On the next page, you need to let us know which address to deliver to.
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If you have entered an address previously, you can select this, but if not then you
will need to type this in using the boxes provided. Once you have done this you
need to click on Confirm Address.
The next page is the final page. You can review the information you have already
put in. Please note, the price marked in the bottom right corner will always say
‘£0.00’.
If the information is correct then you need to put the authorisation code
(previously supplied to the Staff Representative) in the box in the bottom left.
Once you have put this code in then simply click Apply.
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Once your authorisation code has been accepted, all you need to do is click on
Confirm Order in the bottom right hand corner and this will send your completed
artwork through to Boomerang.
You will now arrive at the last screen, which has some information about the next
stage of the process:
“Boomerang will now have a quick look over your artwork for any potential print
problems. To avoid production delays, please ensure that you are contactable over the
next 2 weeks in case of artwork issues arising that require your attention. If you know
you will be difficult to contact for this period, please contact us and let us know where
we can reach you, or someone authorised to make decisions on the yearbook.
We recommend contacting us oce you have submitted your artwork to ensure we have
received it.
Please note: Boomerang will check artwork for major print issues only. All responsibility
for content and layout remains the sole responsibility of the institution.
If all artwork is correct for print then you can expect your order within 6 weeks. If you
have a specific delivery date in mind then please Contact us to discuss. We hope you
enjoy your Yearbooks, do let us know about your experience, we would love to hear
from you!”
If you have any questions or issues while you are creating your Yearbook, feel
free to contact us on the details listed below.
Thank you for creating your Yearbook with Magic Boomerang
The Boomerang Yearbook Team
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