Designing Spreads & Pages

Drop photos on the yellow FlashDesign area - the right half of the last spread in the timeline - and BookProofs builds the book, matching aspect ratios, keeping black and whites together and holding your order where it can.

Select photos in the library and right-click to FlashDesign them, instead of dragging to the FlashDesign area.

A spread takes up to 26 photos. Drop more than that on one and BookProofs offers to FlashDesign them across multiple spreads instead.

Select photos, drag them to the canvas or to a spread in the timeline, and BookProofs picks the best template for the number of verticals and horizontals you dropped.

The darkened strip across the top of a placeholder is the drag area. Grab there to move a single photo; grabbing lower down pans the photo inside its frame instead.

Drop photos on the blue area after the last spread in the timeline and a new spread is created from them.

Select photos in the library and press Enter, and BookProofs builds a new spread from them. Works in photo library full screen or docked.

Click on empty space and drag a box over the photos you want. Works in the photo library, on the canvas, and over spread thumbnails in the spread timeline - the same as selecting files on your desktop.

Select it on canvas and press Delete, and the spread picks a new template for the photos left. For a single photo you can just hover it and press Delete - no need to select it first. To choose what happens instead, right-click and use Remove image.

Right-click an image and use Remove image to pick per photo: rebuild this page only, keep the placeholder empty, or rebuild the whole spread - rather than always getting whatever your global setting says.

Leaves the facing page exactly as you built it and redesigns only the page the photo came from.

Keeps the placeholder empty instead of reflowing, so you can drop a different photo straight into the same spot.

Drag the new photo over the one you want to change and drop it on the "replace the current image" zone.

The drop areas let you target the left page, the right page, or the spread as a whole - so you can build each page separately if you design page by page.

Drag them from the canvas onto another spread in the timeline. They leave the spread they came from and it redesigns itself around what's left.

Drag a photo toward the left or right edge of the canvas and four hidden zones appear (aka super secret drop overlay). The right edge acts on the next spread and the left edge on the previous one, and both offer the same four: drop on its left page, drop on its right page, move the photo to that spread, or create the spread.

Each spread in the timeline has its own drop areas - add to the spread, to its left page, or to its right page - so you can place photos without leaving the spread you're working on. Dropping between two spreads inserts a new spread in between.

Drop photos on the blue line between two spreads in the timeline. A new spread is inserted there and the photos leave wherever they came from.

Grab a spread in the timeline and drop it where you want it. Select several first and they move together, with a counter showing how many.

Select the spreads in the timeline and delete. Hovering a selected spread shows how many will go, and you get a confirmation before they do.

Re-picks the template for the current spread from the aspect ratios of the photos on it, favoring layouts that use more of the canvas.

Lays the spread out in the order you have selected in photo library, even where the aspect ratios don't line up neatly with the template.

One button converts every photo on the spread. It's a straight conversion - if you tone your black and whites a particular way, do those in Photoshop instead so they match your style.

The left and right arrow keys step through the book. Faster than clicking, and the way you'll want to work once you're up to speed.