The book that I have been mentioning in previous newsletters has finally made it to the shelves! WoHOOO!! It's called Paint Shop Pro7 Fast and Easy by Prima Publishing. The author is Diane Koers. If you don't remember I was the Technical Editor of the book and had a blast doing it. The book can be found at many of the online bookstores as well as your local bookstore. Amazon carries it if you would like to order a copy. Order yours today and see if your URL is in the book!

 

I have added to the PSP 7 links page several times since the last newsletter. I know I had to have added atleast 75 new ones so head over and check them out! There are some really cute ones starting to pop up. I also separated out the "help" tutorials so that they are easier to find when you are needing help, there is a link to them on the first page of links which is more "goofing off" type tutorials and stuff to play with.

I added a new tutorial to the color palette section of the site. This seems to be where most people are having some troubles. The first part of the Color Palette section covers the basics of the palette and explains each item on the color palette briefly. The succeeding pages contain more detailed information with some simple walkthrough tutorials for problems areas like the pattern fill and using the textures fills properly. There is a link at the bottom of the first page to all the completed tuts covering the color palette that are on the PSP Toybox site. Let me know if you still have any problems with the color palette or don't understand anything in my tuts on it. This next month I plan to add a section on how to add your own patterns and textures to the PSP options in your color palette. Also finished up the Lucy tutorial so now Charlie has a friend to play with if you would like to try it. The tutorial for her is much easier than the Charlie tutorial was (is). Raggedy Ann was finished but then my hubby told me that she looked like she was on drugs so back to try and fix her, I have to admit she looks rather, uhhhh, well "homely". ROFL Andy is almost done though and he looks much better than she does. You can preview Andy on the tutorials page towards the bottom in the "Tutorials in Progress" section of the page.

Please, if you have a moment could you fill out the survey for me? I am using the survey to determine what else to add to the site and also to determine what contest prizes you would like to see offered here at the PSP Toybox. The first contest I had was a huge success and I would like to offer another one but am unsure of what people would like to have as prizes. Most of you that get this newsletter already have a registered version of PSP 7 so I don't want to offer that all the time.

Added a bunch more tubes too. There are some for Thanksgiving although it's over, there is also a huge load of Christmas tubes added as well. They are for version 7. Had a request for baby items, I added a couple pages of baby tubes with various baby items, like rattles, babies, toys and more. I have a lot more to add and plan to add them just as soon as I can. If there are specific tubes you would like to see here at the PSP Toybox, drop me a line and I will do my best to get them up for you!

Check out this months featured sites. Our Secrets has some really cute tutorials. We just did the North Pole tutorial on the PSP 7 list for the weekly challenge. It was a lot of fun, you can see our works in the Gallery. The second site, Designing Dames also has some really cute tutorials that are perfect for the upcoming Holiday season. There is an adorable toy train, Santa sleigh and much more!

 

Customizing the toolbar and utilizing your workspace can be tough with all the new gadgets and gizmo's in PSP but if you take advantage of some of the new features you can change that a little. First always try to get your toolbars organized so that you know where things are and get comfy with them and if they are right in front of you on a toolbar you save clicks by using the toolbars instead of the optional text menu at the top where you usually have to click at least twice to do anything. Be sure to right click any of the toolbar area and choose the Toolbars, make sure the ones you want visible all the time there have a check beside them. Also at the bottom, see screen shot here, will open in separate window, this allows for the browser toolbar to be on the workspace when needed but "hides" when it is not so that you have more workspace room. Open the PSP browser and the toolbar appears! Close the browser, it disappears leaving you with more space! Also not everyone has noticed that you can add just about any tool to the web toolbar that you can add to the standard toolbar so if yours is all junked up like mine used to be then, take some off the standard bar and add them to the web bar which will also remain open during editing just like your standard toolbar with access to all your tools right in front of you!