Germ of Idea
This project is envisioned at 8.5”x11” but could easily be the lock screen on your iPad. Best to use a service bureau to print because this project will use lots of ink! Staples or Office Depot will have a plexiglass holder for door signs designed to quickly change the paper. These holders can sit on a desk or be attached to a wall and are available in landscape or portrait orientation.
I’ve been stewing on a calendar project for a couple years, inspired by letterpress calendar designed to fit in a CD case. Making the individual months for a layout was a cumbersome task with the tools and current skills at my disposal.
In our Studio class we explore mobile apps with the mantra “Touch Every Button”. There could be an additional slogan “Dig Deep Into Each Application”. The activity described below evolved from discovering features crossing between apps and understanding the power of copy and paste.
Our photos are pixel-based, in the past known as “bit-mapped”. This project uses another type of image called “vector” where the “objects” have attributes that can be stretched, rotated, re-colored, filled or outlined, fonts can be changed and type size increased or decreased.
DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE FILE FROM DROPBOX as
Free apps from Apple are this solution
Keynote, usually used for presentations, and Numbers, usually used for spreadsheets are the key to this project.
Every element added to a slide has an order determined by when it was added to the slide. But this is not fixed - select an element and use the Arrange palette to bring it forward or send it backwards. Tap an element to see eight “Handles” appear on each corner and on each side. Keynote will show options and buttons related to any selection: shape, text or photo.
Layers are included in some of our sophisticated image editing apps and early on I felt this characteristic would be critical to this project. However, after working on a Keynote document, presentation features seemed fresh and powerful. Instead of layers in the editing app sense, now we will use layers in the slide sense. One slide per month with a photo background as the bottom layer (added last), a rectangle shape will float above the photo on layer three, the month is layer two and important dates as circle shape are the top layer. All this is included in a custom presentation template.
The last challenge is how to create the individual months. Can this be done easily? Yes! With another free app in the iWork Suite from Apple - Numbers, the spreadsheet. The Academic Calendar Numbers template can change the year and adjust the small calendars on the sheet easily! Each month is an individual table of cells. These tables of data can be formatted with colors and different fonts. Each table can be copied to the Clipboard and moved to an application that knows how to import from the Clipboard with the Paste function.
Leverage the Clipboard
Tap an object or double tap a word to select. The popup menu will have many choices, but Copy and Paste are key.
Pasting each Numbers table to a slide will present two options: Paste with Formulas or Paste as Values. This project wants values and each table is pasted as a group of objects with pliable attributes.
Skill With Keynote or Numbers is Not Required
Our seminar is about iPhone Photography not creating presentations or calculating a 5-year plan. So I am providing you both documents to complete your calendar. At your convenience, if you are inspired to know more, begin experimenting and making edits. To help in this deep dive, Apple offers Keynote User Guide and Numbers User Guide - free in the Books app. If you are a Windows computer user, Keynote, Numbers and Pages are also available if you login to https://icloud.com with your Apple ID.
Get Ready
In the Photos app, collect 12-16 photographs in a new album, “Calendars”. In my first effort I’ve selected abstract photos with areas of bold color. Look at your collection and take a moment to edit any images, maybe increasing saturation and leveling any horizons. Slide presentations are landscape orientation, mimicking television screens. Consider rotating photos now to save this step in Keynote.
When looking in Photos at My Albums, this new album is at the top of the list. I only hope that is the case when adding photos to individual sides.
Begin
Open my Keynote Calendar template with all the slides and months in place. Included on each slide is a rectangle that can be used to improve readability between the month details and your photo. Several other slides are included with tips, hints and rings for marking special dates. Look for additional year calendars in case you are inspired by this idea.
Take a few minutes to poke around at all the buttons and views of Keynote. “Touch every button” is a habit, right? The “+” is shared with many of our other apps and it means “Add”. But this critical button is visible in the Slide view, not the Light Table or Outline views.
Views are selected on the left side of the screen. The Slide view is where you will do your work, adding a photo, sending the photo to the background and moving the color shape and calendar into position and using the eyedropper to grab up a color. The Light Table view is a way to step back and see the entire project. In my mind, the pages/slides will be seen one-at-a-time. Tap the slide thumbnail to change to next/previous slides.
The Keynote tools are on the top right side of the screen. The Paint Brush button will be your main tool. Each selected tool displays a palette with several tabs. Buttons and controls in the palette change depending on the selected object.
Workflow Tip
There are 12 slides and you will add a photo ON TOP of the other elements on the slide. Rather than finesse each slide after adding the photo, switch to the next slide and add a photo - repeating 11 times.
Then repeat the next steps on each slide:
-Select the photo and use the Photos palette to send it to the back
-Select the shape box
-Tap the fill button and swipe to second page of Color
-Tap the Eyedropper tool
-Move your finger over the photo to pick a new color
-Month text and numbers need contrasting colors to show up
-Select text/numbers and change the color
-Select the photo and scale as needed
-Select the shape and month to move to the best position
Add Your Photos
After tapping the + at top right, you will see four TAB buttons in the palette. Tap the Photos button on the far right to see all the image options. Tap Photos and Videos to open the Media Browser for direct access to Albums in Photos or use Search. Navigate to your Calendar album. Tap a photo to add it to a slide.
Continue adding your photos by switching to the next slide using the left side navigator. Back on the right side tap to add an image.
Distraction
You do not have to use the Photos palette to add photos. On some iPads (Pro models) you can split the screen between two apps - Keynote and Photos - and touch-and-hold on a photo then drag to a slide.
Review Your Work
Change to the Light Table view to step back from your work.
Other Formats
Maybe you don’t need 8.5”x11” calendar. Why not try to design months that fit in a repurposed CD holder? Or … whatever rocks your boat. Enjoy seeing your photos every day in new ways.
Interactive Keynote Features opens as a Keynote collaborative document because it is in iCloud.
This is another experiment, hope it works. Keynote document with 8 slides and links to bounce back and forth from table of contents on first slide to hints about Keynote features. For best use, download the file and open in presentation view.
Video Playlist ... to be continued
