The screen to view all of the spreads in the album is the Planner View. This is where most quick designing of the album happens through dragging and dropping groups of images to quickly plan out album designs.
Depending on the type of album being created, there will be either a "Page 1" and "Page 2" or the first and last spreads, with the "Add Spread" icon between them, OR a single spread with the Add Spread icon for a spread-start book.
Each time you drag and drop images from the image well to the "Add Spread" icon, the program will auto populate a new, blank spread after it.
*Please note that the "Add Spread" spread is for design use only, this will not be counted in your page total or be exported.
To begin building an Album select an image and drag it on to the empty spread. To select multiple images, click the first image and while holding down the Shift key, click to the last image to select everything between the first and last image. Individually select multiple images by holding down Cmd/Ctrl while selecting the images to use. The program will show how many images have been selected, in this case there were 3.
In the image above, three images were selected and dragged to the first spread. After an image is used, it grays out. This allows for distinguishing between images that have already been used and images that have yet to be placed. Even while grayed out, images can be used more than once.
A Drop Zone will be created on the spread based on the images that are placed. Page numbers are automatically updated and a new blank spread will appear.
Planner View Tools
Use the Planner View tools to arrange your spreads as well as adjust their given designs.
When a spread is selected the Planner View tools appear to the right. Use these tools to do the following things:
1. Move Tool: This will move and organize spreads within the album. Simply select the tab and drag the spread to rearrange the spreads.
2. Shuffle Images: This tab will shuffle the images within the spread while maintaining its current design.
3. Shuffle Design: This tab will shuffle through all the possible auto design outcomes depending on the number of images in the spread as well as the image ratio/rotation.
4. Quick Design Picker: Clicking this will pop up a new screen with a group of auto design combos to choose from.
5. Delete Spread: Clicking the 'X' simply deletes the selected spread.
Add a Spread Between Existing Spreads
You can add a spread between two already designed spreads.
Select the images you want to use for that spread. Drag the images to the space between the two spreads --where you want your new spread to be placed. You will see a yellow rectangle pop up, and that is where your images will be placed. Release the mouse to drop the images there and you will have created a new spread!
How To Duplicate A Spread
Duplicating a spread works just like duplicating a Drop Zone. In Planner View, choose the spread to duplicate and under the Edit menu choose Duplicate Spread.
There will be an exact duplicate of the spread created.
You can see a tutorial video about Planner View and Designer View here.
Images © Danny Dong