Creating a Template
Templates are made up of an overlay image, photo placeholders, caption placeholders and optionally a background image.
To begin a template, you should first create an overlay image using image manipulation software such as PhotoShop.
You should save this image in PNG format. Wherever you intend for the template user to drag and drop an image, you should leave a transparent area. The ability to leave transparent areas is a feature of the PNG file format.
These transparent areas need not be rectangular. In fact they can be any shape you desire. The image that is dragged and dropped into this area will effectively lie behind your overlay image, and only show through the transparent areas.
Once your have created your overlay image you are ready to start assembling your template using Photo Layout.
Start the application and select 'File->Create New Template' from the menu.
The Modify Template Properties dialog will appear.
The Modify Template Properties dialog is where you select the images, control text and image placeholders.
Template Descriptions
Enter the template name and artist name in the Template Descriptions. If you choose to sell your template online with picturelayout.com, these details will be displayed to potential customers.
Template Categories
When templates are sold through picturelayout.com, customers browse through template categories online to locate templates they may wish to purchase. You should categorize your templates so that customers can easily locate them.
Photo Layout comes with a wide variety of pre-defined categories. Expand out the Template Categories tree control to view the available categories.
Photo Layout allows you to create your own sub-categories under the pre-defined categories.
You may not create sub-categories in the first two levels of the tree hierarchy, but you may create as many sub-categories as you want at levels below the second.
To create a new category, right click the desired parent category, and select Add Category. Then type the name of the new category.