40. CREATING CUSTOM PAGE TEMPLATES

THE BOOK MODULE in Lightroom gives you the option to create a custom page template that you can apply to other pages in your book. Let’s start by going over some of the options you can use to create a custom page.

In Figure 40.1, you can see that I’ve taken one of the pages in my layout and made the cell a lot smaller by adjusting the Padding slider in the Cell panel. I’ve also made sure that the picture is zoomed all the way out. This allows you to see all of the image on the page clearly.

When you’re using Single Page View, you will notice that you have an option to add photo text (Figure 40.2). This is a great place for you to add some descriptive text or a title and caption. Click on Add Photo Text at the bottom of the page to open the text box. This also puts a check in the Photo Text checkbox in the Text panel on the right side of your screen (Figure 40.3).

You can select the type of text you want to use by clicking on the drop-down arrow in the text box at the bottom of your page, or on the drop-down menu at the top-right of the Text panel (Figure 40.4). The Custom Text option allows you to put in whatever text you choose, but this can become a little redundant if you’re trying to enter text for multiple pages. I recommend that you use the title and caption information that you added back in the Library module.

When you click on the drop-down, you will notice that there are Title and Caption options available, but what if you want to add both a title and a caption? That’s when you would use the Edit option, which opens the Text Template Editor.

In the Text Template Editor, you can add individual fields, whether it be Image Name, Numbering, EXIF data, or IPTC Data (where the Title and Caption options are; Figure 40.5). Simply select the information you would like to include and click on the Insert button next to those fields.

You don’t want the title and caption to run into one another, so before you click to insert the caption in the Example field, add a colon and a space after the word Title (Figure 40.6). This will give you a little bit of extra space between the two.

You have now created a preset that you may want to use later, so it’s a good idea to click on the Preset drop-down menu at the top of the Text Template Editor and select Save Current Settings as New Preset (Figure 40.7). Enter a name for your new Preset and click Create. Click Done at the bottom of the Text Template Editor, and your text will appear in the text field at the bottom of your page.

Figure 40.1 I gave my image a lot of room on the page by adjusting the Padding slider in the Cell panel and the Zoom slider.

Figures 40.2–40.3 Enabling the Photo Text for a page.

Figure 40.4 Selecting the type of information to include on the page.

Figure 40.5 The Text Template Editor allows you to select what type of information to include on your page.

Figure 40.6 Adding a colon and a space between the Title and Caption in the Example field gives you some space between the two types of text on the page.

Figure 40.7 Save your Photo Text options as a new Preset.

Once you have that set, you can change the appearance of the text by selecting all of the text in the text field, and then adjusting the font, type, color, size, opacity, or orientation in the Type panel (Figure 40.8).

When you make changes in the Type panel, you should save these settings as a preset as well. Click on the Text Style Preset dropdown menu and select Save Current Settings as New Preset (Figure 40.9). Give your preset a name and click Create. Now when you save this page as a custom page, the text style information will be included as well.

After doing a lot of work on this cell, you’ll want to make sure that you can save this information to use on another page. Right-click on the center of the page and select Save as Custom Page (Figure 40.10). When you select another page in your book and click on the drop-down in the lower-right corner of the page, you’ll have an option that says Custom Pages (Figure 40.11). You can select any of the custom pages that you’ve created, and the image size and text options from the custom page will be applied to the selected page (Figure 40.12).

It’s important to note that if you made any changes to the background cell of the image prior to making this style, that information will not be carried over as part of the custom page. You may have to go into the Background panel and change your color manually.

Figure 40.8 Fine-tuning the text with the options in the Type Panel.

Figure 40.9 Saving the text style as a preset.

Figure 40.10 Save your page as a custom page so you can copy its settings onto other pages in your book.

Figure 40.11 Any custom pages that you make will appear as an option when you select Custom Pages in the Modify Page menu.

Figure 40.12 I copied the image size and text options I used for the previous page onto another page in my book.