Storybooks For Healing Publishing Center
Frequently Asked Questions

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Preparing Your Storybook

What is Storybooks For Healing?

Storybooks For Healing (SFH) is an eight week bereavement writing program currently available through hospice, clergy and other grief support groups. Participants use a personal workbook to research the life of their loved one while investigating their loss. As they share their journey together as a group, participants also learn writing and storytelling techniques to preserve and share their loved one's characteristics, values and even personal life-wisdoms that come out of loss. Learn more at www.StorybooksForHealing.com.

Why a Memorial Storybooking Site?

SFH recognizes that creating a memorial storybook is different than other writing, such as compiling a family history or making a vacation photo book. With the emotional reality of loss, confronting happy, light clip art and book layouts designed for lighthearted memory-keeping can sometimes be painful or not fitting for the more profound story you have to tell. As an alternative, Storybooks for Healing has developed a publishing site which has simple layouts with ample space for text so you can concentrate on your story and the important memories you are yearning to preserve.
 
Storybooks for Healing also encourages you to share your story since it can be inspirational to others! As we develop this publishing site and expand the Storybook For Healing program, we would like to stay in touch through our Newsletter and Blog to build a network of Storybooks for Healing publishers (you!). Sharing your story is an important element of healing as it gives you the opportunity to serve and guide others through their own grief journey. Then, as you feel stronger, we will be here to help you continue to honor your memories in a way that comforts you and your family.

Do I need to attend a Storybooks For Healing (SFH) Program to create a Storybook?

No, anyone wishing to preserve their memories is encouraged to write, publish and share. However, the SFH Grief Reflection program is designed to help you to safely explore your grief while you discover characteristics, values and specific memories of your loved one you may want to preserve for yourself, friends and family. You'll also experience the powerful healing and inspiration that comes from collective telling and sharing your story that the group provides.

How many photos can I use in my book?

You may include as many or few photos as you'd like. Page layouts are easily changed to accommodate the number of photos you want anywhere in the book. Storybooks have 21 pages, but you may add up to 99 more for 75 cents per page. Just use the + link found on the bottom of the Project Workroom.

How long should my story be?

Your story can be any length. If you have lots of text, you can add a text box or page to your project anywhere. Larger photos and many pages of content work best in the larger books. However, SFH Storybooks have plenty of custom options to add or subtract photos, text or pages throughout your project.

How much do books and cards cost?

Our storybooks all have custom laminated photo covers with 21 pages printed edge to edge using archival safe premium weight paper. Cards are also printed to the edge on heavy semi-gloss stock. You'll find a list of our products and the prices on our home page using the + Pricing link. Tax, Handling, Shipping and Options are separate and will vary based on location and product choices. These items will be totaled at check out.

What are some other preparation tips?

• Write your story in your favorite word processor, such as Word, for cut and paste ease in text boxes.
• Use spellcheck from your word processor.
• Have a friend or family member read your text before placing in your book to help catch errors; Reading aloud is also a good technique for catching errors by yourself.
• Make a list to match which photos and text "belong" together for quicker book creation.
• For best results, prepare your photos for print by cropping, sizing and color correction first. This can be done in either your own photo software or using the tools found in the Manage Your Photos Workroom.
• Are you already a digital scrapbooker? Save your pages in page size JPG. Upload as you would any photograph (see below). Use the Full Page Photo Theme to place your pages. You are ready to order! Simple.
• Have fun! Perfection is not the goal. This is all about preserving your memories, photos and wisdom!

Manage Your Photos

How do I get my photos into my book?

There are two ways to transfer, also known as upload, your digital photos from your computer to your account: 1) through Manage Your Photos, or 2) from inside your Project Workroom. For beginning projects, use the Manage Your Photos to quickly add, view and organize your pictures. Just follow the easy to use buttons of Add New Folder or Add New Photos.

What type and size of photos can I use?

My Storybook Publisher supports the most common file JPG, known as jpeg photos. The recommended resolution for printing photos is the finished size (such as 5x7) at 300 dpi (dots per inch). One way to quickly guess whether your photo is a high resolution photo is to look at the file size. If it is listed at just a few kb (kilobytes) such as 65 kb, this is probably an e-mail size file not suitable for printing. If your photo is 1500 kb (same as 1.5 mg) this is more likely to be printable. Small 1" x 1" photos do not need to be very large, so the file size alone does not indicate the print quality. You can upload photos as small as 1"x1" or as large as 13"x10".

I just don't understand photo resolution and dpi and megabytes. Will my photos work?

You are not alone! Our Project Workroom will give you a warning if you try to place a photo in a layout that is too small to print. You can then choose to resize the photo, change the frame, or replace the photo.

My photos are on Facebook. Can I use those?

Yes, we support photo transfer from your account in Facebook, Photobucket and Flickr, too. From the Manage Your Photos Workroom, click on the tab where you have your photos and sign you into your website account at the prompt. Then you can upload your photos to SFH. Be sure that you use your high resolution photos!

Some of my pictures are in old photo albums. How do I use those?

Your photos or slides must be digitized before creating a Storybook For Healing project. There are many specialty stores, camera shops and even chain superstores in every town to scan photos - from full service to do-it-yourself kiosks. Just make sure to ask for high resolution print quality scanning. For photos that can't be removed from frames, odd shaped memorabilia, and photo album pages too fragile to handle, you might try taking a digital photo of the page or object. Just set the lighting to minimize glare (lots of natural light coming in from behind or slightly above the camera with no flash works best), place the object on a solid, contrast color background for easy cropping, and position yourself as squarely in front of the object as possible.

What are Stock Photos?

My Storybook Publisher has provided you scenic photos for you to use freely for background fillers or as embellishment. To access Stock Photos from the Project Workroom, use the Change Source link found under the Photos tab. Then select the Stock Photo tab and folder of your choice.

Can I fix red eye and crop photos?

Yes. From Manage Your Photos, click on the corresponding check box to select your photo for editing. Then, click on the Edit Selected Photo in the bottom left of your screen. Now you will have various tools to change your current photo in Edit (crop, auto fix, red-eye and more), Effects (blur, gray, sepia, more.) and Edges. When you save, a new copy is created keeping the original intact. This photo is now prepared for use in your Project Workroom.

How do I rename my photos?

If you want a more descriptive name for your photos, just highlight the name to replace and type in a new one. This is especially handy for revised photos. Photos are sorted in numeric and alphabetical order, and will show accordingly one you've have exited and re-entered the folder.

What are other Manage Photos tips?

• Plan your photos and name them starting with a number (If there are more than ten photos start with a leading zero, i.e., 01family, 02holiday, 03kids, etc. For quickly placing in your storybook. Using the year of the photo is also very handy and keeps them chronological.
• Use folders to organize by project or by subject matter. What makes sense to you is what counts. You can move a photo or copy a photo from one folder to the next.
• Crop your photos, which is trimming the edges, before starting your storybook so that is photo is optimized to look its best. You can access photo frames and add borders within the Project Workroom if you choose.
• Ask family members to send you their favorite photos, too. You may be pleasantly surprised by what they have!

Create a New Project - Books

What size book should I make?

That's up to you. SFH offers three sizes: The Short Story (7"x5"), The Portrait Storybook (7.6" x 10") and The Legacy (11.5" x 8.5"). Most people decide simply by the size. Children and grandparents often love the smaller portable book; some prefer the classic upright style of Portrait; and, The Legacy is a beautiful book for keeping out on a table. Who says you should make just one!? The larger books will provide much more text on a page and allow for several large photos on one page. However, all of our books can be expanded with more pages. To help you decide, create a mock-up page by cutting a piece of paper to size and placing your photo on the pages. Remember, if you have 3 photos side by side in a 7" wide book (our Short Story) those photos will be about 2" wide. If you have 3 photos side by side in a 11.5" book (Legacy Book) those photos will be about 3.25" wide. Once in the Project Workroom, the books appear the same size. To start just click on your book size and click Next. Jump in! You can start or delete as many projects as you want.

What are Project Themes?

Start with Create a New Project. Books are shown by default. Select a book size and click Next. Now you'll be able to choose a Theme, or starting style, for your book. There are several Categories of themes, such as Simplicity or Portfolio, to choose from and each has sample thumbnails to show colors or variations available. The book Themes are professionally designed layouts for your photos and story. Look around, pick one and click Next!

What can I do in the Project Workroom?

This area is for placing your photos and text on each of the pages of your book. You have four tabs to use in creating each page: Photos - to access your folders and Stock Photos; Themes - to change, mix or revise layout pages; Art - embellishment clip art to layer on top of your page; and Text - general text frames for creating more custom layouts. Most authors just use the Photos and Themes. You also have options to manage, add, subtract and rearrange your pages, calculate the price, rename your book, add spine text, and of course, order your book when you have finished!

How do I put my photos in the layout?

Just click on the Photos tab if your photos aren't already showing. Click and hold the photo you want; drag it to the frame shown in gray on the page. Let go and it will drop right in! You can also place a photo directly on an open space of any page. Just drag the photo onto the page. Be careful not to accidently move it into an existing frame!

Can I change the order of the layouts to match my number of photos?

Sure! When a book is initially created the layouts are randomly selected. So you may end up with two of the same layout pages in a row. Also, not all of the layouts available may be included in the pages. This gives you many options for setting up pages in the order you want. Using the Theme tab you access all of the layouts, even from other themes. This mix and match provides you as much creativity and variety as you like. You may use just the related theme layouts for ease. On the Theme tab you'll see thumbnail versions of the layouts. Photos are represented by gray boxes. For example, a thumbnail with two gray boxes is set up for two photographs. Text boxes do not show up on the thumbnail (we're working on that!) but it's easy to find out what's on the page. Just click and hold the layout thumbnail and drag it onto the page. If you already have photos on the page the boxes adjust themselves to your existing photos! If you made layout changes you don't like, just drag the original layout on top and you'll be back where you started.

My photo looks smaller than the frame was on the page. How come?

In most of our book layouts, the photo will fit the tallest or widest side of your photo regardless of the frame size. So if you place a portrait photo (taller than wide) in a frame that is landscape (wider than tall) your photo will only be as tall as the frame. This keeps important parts of your photo from accidently getting cut off by trying to fill the frame. You always get the full picture to start with and can make corrections and zoom in to fill the frame manually. The exception is for the overlay photo pages in which the photo will stretch to fill the frame regardless because this is important to the design of the page.

I want to make my photo fit better in the frame. How do I do that?

Click on the magic wand found in the center of the frame to edit your photo. There are two tabs to use here: Zoom and Crop; and Advanced. In Zoom and Crop you can flip the orientation, or turn your photo sideways, and you can resize and move your photo within the frame. The black outline represents the frame on your page. Move the slider up to the green + magnifier to enlarge your photo and down to the red - to make it smaller. Once sized, use your mouse to move the photo within the frame to its best position. Adjust as needed. Now you can Apply and return to the Workroom page, or use the Advance tab to see the results and more options. This view shows you photo as it will appear on your book page. The Advance tab has some of the same options for effect and frames found in Manage Your Photos that you can apply directly without having to save a copy of the photo. Here you can also change the border, add or remove a drop shadow, move the layer order for overlapping photos and lighten the photo using the transparency slider. Toggle between Zoom and Advance to make adjustments in placement and sizing.

How do I delete a photo from my page?

There are two ways to remove a photo from your page: Just click on the X found on the center of the frame, or drag a new photo into the frame. Note: if the frame is unlocked (See advanced photo edit) clicking on the X will delete the entire frame.

How do I add text to my page?

Most of the project pages contain at least caption boxes for photos (Exception: Portfolio pages which are mostly about the photos and make excellent companion pages to your book.) There are also layout pages within most Themes that are text only as well as combination of half page text plus photos. In the page layouts you'll see "Add Text Here" represents text boxes. Click the T found in the center of the box to bring up the edit. X will clear the text from your box. In Text Edit you can type your content directly in, or cut and paste from your favorite word processor (recommended). If you have too much text for the box size you will receive an Overflow Warning. To correct overflow, you may delete some text, change the font size smaller, or resize the frame larger.

What changes can I make to the look of the text?

The Text Edit box allows you to change type, bold. italicize, rotate, align within the frame, and control drop shadows. You can also move the frame to a different layer (such as on top of a photo). To delete text you can use your keyboard backspace or delete from within Text Edit box, or use the X on the layout page to clear the text entirely from the box.

Where is spell check?

SFH suggests you use a word processor, such as Word, to write your story and check your spelling prior to creating your book. We currently do not have a spell check. However, there are now web browser utilities that are very effective that you may want to consider, such as ieSpell for Windows. Please proof and check your work carefully. SFH is not responsible for the use of add-on utilities on your computer or spelling errors in your finished product.

Why can't I highlight the text in the Text Edit box?

We're working on it. In the meantime, keep your finger on the backspace button to delete text!

What does Lock mean on the Advance Photo Edit and Text Edit?

If you would like more custom control of your page layout you can Unlock your frames (photo or text) by removing the check mark. When you Unlock the frame you can make changes from the page layout. The frame will now have a gray border with a little handle in the bottom right corner of the frame to drag for resizing. In an unlocked frame you can also place you mouse on the frame, click, hold and drag to move the frame to a new location. You may want to Lock the frame again once you have made the changes. A frame that is unlocked can be deleted off the page using the X found in the center of the frame.

How can I get a closer look at my page?

Use the Preview button to review your work. Once loaded you'll see your book pages. Click on the magnifier and then drag the image to read, check layout and get a sense of the overall side-by-side pages.

What are some other book project tips?

• Consistency in your book makes the most professional results. If you use layouts from other themes check for matching text styles or photo frames. For example, if you decide to bold some captions, or use a larger font, try to do that consistently on the other pages. If your book uses a white border on the photos, then also apply the border on photo frames if you use layouts from another theme. But if you like to mix it up, or see the original borders of your old photos, that's fine, too!
• Make of habit of using Photo Edit on every photo to maximize the position and zoom. It's a quick way to take advantage of the layout provided by filling as much of the frame as your photo allows. Pus, this gives you the best framing of the subject.
• If you want to move an entire page to another part of the book, use the Manage Pages icon seen as a set of four pages found along the bottom of the Project Workroom.
• Always use Preview to review each page before ordering.
• Look through Options available for your book. This is the small "gear" icon found along the bottom of the Project Workroom. You can include a Spine Title or change the title of your project name here.
• Use the Text tab or Clip Art elements last. These items sit on top of the page. If the handle or edit controls interfere with other elements, move the item to an open part of the page (so the handle is not overlapping another element box) to size and edit, then carefully place in location.
• You can drag a photo directly onto the page and it creates an editable box. Once in place, be sure to lock it down.

Create a Project - Cards

How do I make a card?

Start with Create A New Project. Choose Cards from the left sidebar; the folded and postcard choices will appear. Highlight the card style you want, and click Next. Cards come in multiples of 6. Choose the package size to continue. Don't worry, you can change this later. Ordering one package of 12 cards is less expensive than ordering 2 packages of 6. Be sure to name your card when you first create it. There is no option to change this later. Otherwise all your cards will be titled My Card!

Why can't I reduce the size of my photo in the cards?

This may happen on certain frames where the photo is designed to completely fill the frame such as in the Vintage Ovals. Often you can use the Edit Zoom slider to enlarge the photo, but not make it smaller than the frame size. If your photo does not fit because people get cut off on an edge, or there is not enough resolution in the photo (you get a warning) try changing layouts (ex., Simplicity layouts have rectangle openings and are placed to the size of your photo, not the frame.) or using a different photo.

I love the front, but my card inside isn't quite what I want. What do I do?

Cards are easy to customize. To add a text box, use the Text tab to drag a frame on the page. Then edit as usual. Check to match the font name and size to the other pages if you want. Be sure to line up with other elements by viewing in Preview. To delete a photo frame completely, drag any photo into the frame. Click the magic wand to Edit. Under the Advance tab, click Unlock, then Apply. The gray resizing box and handle will appear when you are back on the Workroom page. Here, when you click X the whole frame is deleted. Unlocking the frame also allows you to resize or move its location. Note: you cannot drag a photo to the right or bottom inside page 3 of folded cards or the back page of postcards, you can only drop pictures into an existing photo frame on these pages.

How come I only see the front cover of cards and not the insides like I see for book projects?

Cards only have front covers listed on the Themes tab. If you need a different inside layout, either customize by deleting and adding frames, or just start over.

What are some good card ideas?

• Scan or take a digital photo of your SFH program art experiential. Write up the story or feelings about your art for publishing a postcard.
• Create a card based on the SFH Photo Story exercise. List your loved one's characteristics, or include a story that describes why you chose to share this particular photo.
• Create a series of cards instead of a book. Write short little essays. Tie them together and present to family and friends.
• Publish a poem you've written.

Open an Existing Product

How do I open a Project I've already started?

From the home page, just click on Work on an Existing Project. You'll be asked to log in. Highlight the card or book thumbnail. Click Next and you will be back in your Project Workroom. All projects are automatically saved for you when you created it.

How do I delete projects I don't want?

From your Existing Project list, just click the little X in the bottom right corner of the thumbnail. Be sure you want to delete it- this cannot be undone.

How do I add more photos to an open project?

You can add photos into your folder right from the Project Workroom. Click on Add Photos link just under the My Photos tab. This launches the Photo uploader. Make sure the current folder showing is the same one you want your photos placed in.

How can I add a Stock Photo to my Project?

On the Photos tab from the Project Workroom, use the Change Source link. This takes you to Manage Your Photos. Choose the folder name you want to use on the Stock Photos tab. Click OK and you'll see those photos in your Workroom ready for use. Repeat to access other folders in Stock Photos or change to a new folder from your own personal albums.

Ordering Your Books and Cards

How long will it take for my order to arrive?

Please allow 5-7 working days (not including Saturday and Sunday) for production from your date of order, plus 3-6 working days for shipping depending on your location.

What If I need my order by a certain date?

We recommend you order at least two weeks before you want your products in hand. Use one of the faster shipping options as you check out for guaranteed delivery. During winter holidays, we suggest three weeks.

Can I send a copy directly to my family or friends?

Absolutely! Just choose a different Shipping location than your Billing information during check out. You will need to process each different shipping address separately. You may also consider ordering all the copies and then you ship directly to the recipient. Just remember to figure for the extra time required to ship to you, then to the intended recipient if timeliness is important.

Can I track my package?

Orders shipped via United Parcel Service (UPS) are given tracking numbers. Orders shipped via United Sates Postal Service (USPS) do not have tracking.

Can I reorder more books or cards later?

Sure. The best way to reorder is to keep your original book in your Existing Projects, open, and just click Order when you want additional copies.

Can I return my order?

Storybooks and cards are custom orders and cannot be returned for refund. However, if your product is damaged due to shipping or production, contact us immediately to have the order replaced. Please note: we may request that you return the items in question. Orders that have spelling errors, pixelated photos (warned of low resolution warning) or poor quality original photos are not replaceable. If you are planning on publishing multiple copies, we recommend that you order one, review, make corrections and then order the additional copies.

How do I contact you for other questions?

For questions on orders and tracking, click here to e-mail Orders.
For all other inquiries, click here to e-mail Information.
For more about the Storybooks For Healing Grief Reflection program and community visit our website.