Question 1

How can I quickly set up a layout with the Journal Filler Plugin for Powerpoint?

Accepted Answer

This tutorial shows you how to quickly create a tight layout in Powerpoint using the Journal Filler Plugin for Powerpoint.

As you know, each 'page' in Powerpoint is called a slide. That's the terminology we will use in this tutorial.

Overview

The Journal Filler Plugin for Powerpoint will save you time with two different options:

Quickly fill a shape with lines, squares or dots (see: Lines, squares or dots)
Add new shapes to set up a layout quickly (this tutorial)

To use the Journal Filler Plugin, click on the "Add-ins" option in the Powerpoint menu. This will open the Add-in ribbon, that includes the "BookPublisherTools" options. In the "More Options" menu you can find "Journal Filler". This will open a new side panel in Powerpoint.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/c2xd7twyDJ/Add-in%20menu.jpg (Add-in menu.jpg)

There are two ways to add new shapes on a slide (or on several slides)

Add shapes on a blank slide - this will create new shapes with black/white colors only
Set up a shape on your page, and use that as a template for new shapes.

Add shapes on a blank slide

An easy way to get started with your journal or planner layout, is by adding a basic layout on a blank slide. With a blank slide we mean a slide that does not yet contain any shapes or other things.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/UUTYtulvDt/006%20Empty%20Blank%20Slide.jpg (006 Empty Blank Slide.jpg)

As you can see in the screenshot, we've used Easy Journals to set up an 8.5"x11" page layout, and to add guides for the 0.5" margins. (These guides are not required for Journal Filler.)

At the right you see the Journal Filler plugin, where the "Shapes" tab is selected. Here you can:

Set outer margins, that you don't want covered with shapes. You can set this to 0 (zero), to 0.5" for KDP margins, or to larger sizes to create a specific layout. For example to keep the top half of the page empty.
Set Interior Margins, the margins between your shapes. You can specify the horizontal distance between columns, and the vertical distance between rows
Set the number of rows and columns.

In the example we create 3 columns x 3 rows, with 0.1" margin between the rows and columns, and 0.5" margins on the outer borders. This will result in a new layout like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/qtC7QP8VC6/007%203x3%20for%20Blank%20Slide.jpg (007 3x3 for Blank Slide.jpg)

When you create shapes on a blank slide, the shape fill color is white, the border line will be black, and the font color is black as well.

You can also use custom colors and font settings for your shapes, by starting from a 'template' shape:

#Add shapes from a 'template' shape

Or... you may want to use specific color settings - a rose gold background with a purple script font and green borders.

Journal Filler will let you replicate (copy) the shape you create with the exact same settings.

Step 1 - Set up the shape format, position and size

First you add a shape to your slide. For journals and planners you'll probably use squares, but you can use stars, arrows, etc as well.

You can change the colors, font style and font color as you wish. In the screenshot below we just used a white background with black borders:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/chogcVIhdF/Filler-Squares.jpg (Filler-Squares.jpg)

To be honest, these four squares have been created from a larger square.

Step 2 - Set up the number of shapes you want

Journal Filler will create the specified number of shapes in the place of the selected shape. If you set the number of rows and columns both to 2, you will end up with 4 shapes, each approximately 50% of the height and width of the original shape. (It will apply the Interior Margins you set).

Step 3 - Add the new shapes

Now you can select the shapes you want to use as templates (1 or more) and click "Add" to add the new shapes.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/BuZqZa6IpQ/Filler-Smaller-Squares.jpg (Filler-Smaller-Squares.jpg)

In this screenshot you can see the result after:

Selecting the top left and bottom right squares, and selecting 1 column and 2 rows, then clicking 'Add'
Selecting the top right and bottom left squares, and selecting 2 columns and 1 rows, then clicking 'Add'

Using Ctrl-Z you can undo all the changes made by the plugin.

Step 4 - Customize and embellish

After you've created this basic layout, you can manually change, resize and edit the shapes any way you want. These are 'just' Powerpoint shapes.

Question 2

How do I create journals with Easy Journals?

Accepted Answer

Easy Journals

Easy Journals is a plugin for Powerpoint - it requires MS Windows and MS Powerpoint to be installed on your computer. It doesn't work with the cloud version of MS Office / Powerpoint.

If you haven't installed the plugin yet, you should do that first. There's a tutorial for downloading and installing the plugin here.

Applications

This plugin doesn't just create journals, you can use it for many other mix and merge applications, such as simple memes that consist of a text quote and a background image. Wherever you see 'journal' in this tutorial, you can replace it other products if that works better for you.

If you create journals, you could create a guided journal, or a journal with writing prompts, by setting up a text file with the text for each page and then use the plugin. If you want a small illustration at the top or bottom of each page, that's different on each page, you can select the list of images as well, before using the plugin.

You can even create coloring books this way, by adding a (large) placeholder for images on each page, and then use the plugin. This way all the images will be placed at the exact same location. (However, if the dimensions of the images are different, they may appear stretched).

It's very easy to do a test run, although it's best to use a limited text file (just 2 or 3 words or phrases). That way you can see the results, and use Ctrl-Z to quickly remove the new slides. (Using the plugin counts as a single action for Powerpoint, so you only need to press Ctrl-Z once, even if you have 100's of new slides).

Using Text and/or Images

With Easy Journals you can use text and/or images to quickly generate a journal.

You can use text, images, or both. The plugin will copy your 'template' slide, and replace the placeholders with words from your text file and/or images from the list of images you selected.

Click "Text File" to select the text file you want to use. This file should contain each word (or phrase) on a separate line.

You can choose the codes that need to be replaced. By default these are set to "{TEXT}" and "{IMAGE}". You can use all the Powerpoint styling options for the text, these will be applied to the new text as well. Images will be added as a 'fill' for the shape containing the code "{IMAGE}".

This screenshot illustrates how it works. Please don't be offended by the lack of content and styling, it's just showing the mechanics.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/hF6GHM1xIL/EJ%20001%20placeholder%20codes.jpg (EJ 001 placeholder codes.jpg)

The green arrows show how the codes are configured and added to the page.

The red arrows show how to set the content that will replace the codes.

After using the plugin (click "Go") the output could look like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/REWnkc1Zr1/EJ%20002%20Rendered%20page.jpg (EJ 002 Rendered page.jpg)

Reminder: You will need to remove the template slide before uploading your journal to KDP or Etsy.

Page Setup with Easy Journals

There's one other (free) feature in Easy Journals: You can quickly set up the page format you need and add guides to indicate the margins.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Ta2wJYpIXu/EJ%20003%20Page%20Setup.jpg (EJ 003 Page Setup.jpg)

Using the button 'Get Current' it will retrieve the current settings from Powerpoint. These will be translated from the internal Powerpoint format (72 points per inch) to inches.

You can change the format to e.g. 8.5" by 11". Once you click "Set", the page (slide) format will be changed.

Powerpoint does not work with margins, because it's an app to create presentations, not books. However, you can easily use guides to help you out here: Just set the margins the way you want to and click "Add Guides". This will add four red guides - top, bottom, left, right.

It will also remove other red guides: Because the plugin doesn't know which guides were set as 'margins', it uses the color red for this purpose. Guides in other colors will not be affected.

How can I quickly set up a layout with the Journal Filler Plugin for Powerpoint?

How do I create journals with Easy Journals?

Not many results?