Home ScrapbookingFreebies My Memories Suite Tutorial 1: Introduction

My Memories Suite Tutorial 1: Introduction

Posted in Freebies, My Memories Suite, Scrapbooking, Tutorials , on October 1, 2008 , 25 Comments
My Memories Suite software Tutorial 1

My Memories Suite software Tutorial 1

I’ve received a few emails over the past several months asking me some more specific questions about the digital scrapbooking software I use: My Memories Suite by Polaroid.  One of the more recent emails I got asked a lot of good questions that I realized isn’t very obvious based on the website ad and video.  They’re more technical use questions that aren’t modeled on the infomercial or explained on the site for someone who may be trying to check out the program’s capabilities before buying.  Now that I have been using this amazing software for nearly a year, I felt inspired to create some video tutorials that cover some of the more important aspects of the program and some of the common questions I’ve been asked about it.  Today I’m releasing my first freebie software tutorial, which is a basic introduction.  In this video I do a 30 minute walkthrough of the program’s main features and show you the basic capabilities of My Memories Suite.  The video is embedded below, or you can click here to watch the video over on YouTube, where you can bookmark it and rate it to come back to in case you don’t have 30 minutes all at once to spare.

 

I hope that the video goes into enough detail to give you a better idea of how powerful My Memories Suite is, and perhaps even encourage you to purchase it for yourself.  I couldn’t possibly rave more about how much I love it!  And if you’re a newcomer to the pink toque craft blog, you may wish to read my review of My Memories Suite here.  Stay tuned, I have FOUR additional tutorial videos planned for this software that I will make and release as soon as I can :)  And speaking of upcoming things to release, I have so many freebie goodies coming very soon!  I’ll go ahead and announce that my next freebie will be a 3 day extravaganza starting this Friday (Freebie Friday!) in honour of the start of the new hockey season.  If you’re a Calgary Flames fan, you won’t want to miss it!

And WOW! Thanks to all of you that downloaded my CU paper edgers freebie the other day — they seem to be quite popular :) And I really appreciate all of the kind comments <3  I hope to make some more CU items in the future, too.  Enjoy the tutorial and I’ll see you back in a few days for the hockey special Freebie Friday!

Updated January 28, 2009: I am now part of the affiliate program and can offer readers of my craft blog who enjoyed this tutorial a $10 discount on the My Memories Suite software, plus an additional $10 to spend in the MMS online store! To get the discount, click the banner link in the upper right corner/sidebar of my blog (Where it says “Get My Memories Suite”) or the link below, and use coupon/promo code STMMMS21122. Enjoy! :D
My Memories Suite $10 discount PLUS $10 to spend in the MMS online store, ORDER NOW! (with code STMMMS21122)

Updated April 23, 2011: Google Videos is ceasing to exist- you will now find the tutorial above on YouTube, and all links and embeds have been updated to reflect this change :)

25 Responses to “My Memories Suite Tutorial 1: Introduction”

  1. I have very recently bought a Polaroid My Memories Suite with the primary purpose to put photos (35mm slides – i.e. iransparencies) from my computer onto DVD discs. My poblem is that some slides are horizontal and some are vertical. The horizontal slides come out pretty well bur the vertical ones almost always come out with heads and/or upper torsoes cut off. How can I remedy this problem?
    Robert Platt
    at
    REPlatt631@gmail.com

  2. Lesley says:

    Robert:

    I don’t know anything about importing 35mm slides using My Memories Suite. I think what you need to do is take the photos from the slides using an image editing software like GIMP (free) or Photoshop or any software that comes with your scanner? if that’s how you’re transferring the slides from slide format to digital format. Once you have them in digital format on your hard drive then you should be able to use them within My Memories Suite to create pages, (which you then plan to export into dvd format.) How are you adding them digitally? Are you dragging and dropping them or are you trying to fit a vertical shaped slide into a horizontal shaped photo area? Are you getting an option to “crop” the photo? It sounds like the way you might be adding them (if it’s not how you’re transferring them digitally) is cropping them when you don’t want to be cropping. Try changing the shape of the photo box (click “Add Photo Box”) to be the vertical or horizontal shape to fit the slide. You can also right click the photo to adjust the way it’s cropped.

    If you can give me some more specifics on how you’re transferring the slides digitally or how you’re actually inserting them into the program (are you using a ready-made template or are you building the layout from scratch yourself? Are you clicking “add photo box” and creating a photo box shape where you will add a photo — and then are you double clicking to add the slide photo or are you dragging and dropping? How you add the slide photos to your page matters since some ways crop automatically and others do not) I can try to recreate what you’re doing and help. I’ve never worked with 35mm slides before so I’m not sure, but let me know.

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  4. Christine says:

    I am thinking of purchasing this software. I will mainly use it to create photo slideshows for DVD. My biggest hold up is that I am not sure if it will allow me to create a DVD menu when I am finalizing the slideshow for DVD. Can you tell me if that is a feature. What I mean is that once the show is burnt, when I pop it into the DVD player, will their be a menu created– where I can chose a background and show chapters and play??

    Thanks!

  5. Lesley says:

    Hi Christine,

    I have not yet made anything that I’ve exported to DVD, so I am not sure. That is a good question, though! Perhaps try giving the company a call and see. I’d love to know the answer, too! Good luck.

  6. Daryl says:

    Christine,

    You can’t create a menu-driven DVD-Video from within the software, but there is a work around. Export the album as a Movie and choose the DVD Quality option (which is an uncompressed, high quality movie). Once you’ve exported to that format, you can put it in any one of a number of DVD authoring tools that allow you to create a menu and add movies. You can add as many albums as will fit on a disc. (By the way, a movie exported at that high of quality won’t play well on most computers until it is authored onto a DVD because it’s too high of quality, but don’t let that concern you. It will play great on the DVD.)

  7. Lesley says:

    Daryl,

    Thank you SO much for this explanation — it really helps out all of us! I will keep this in mind. Maybe I can make a DVD for my parents for Christmas, now that I know how I can work around getting a DVD menu. Thank you for your knowledgeable contribution! :)

  8. Sharlene says:

    Hi Leslie!
    I was really excited to see the detailed tutorials you put together for My Memories Suite. It’s my favorite program too…even if I am biased since I work for the company that created that software! Thanks for taking the time to put that together, you did a great job! Take care, Sharlene

  9. Lesley says:

    Hi Sharlene!

    What an honour to hear from you! :) I love My Memories Suite, and am glad to spread the love and knowledge around. It’s not bias at all since MMS is such a fantastic program! :)

    Take care, and thank you for the kind comment!

    Lesley

  10. Ron Lewis says:

    Does anyone know a store in Calgary where I can purchase this software?

  11. Lesley says:

    Ron,

    Honestly, I think the only way anyone can get this is to order it directly. Check out mymemoriessuite.com to order online or get the number to place the order over the phone if that’s your preference. Just as a side note, I live in Calgary and it seemed to take a few weeks more than I thought it would to receive it, but I think that’s because it was shipped from the U.S. to Canada. Good luck.

  12. Fayette says:

    I have to say that I’m partial to MMS software too…it’s fantastic! I may be a bit biased because our website http://www.ettesandcompany.com just announced today that we are partnering with MMS to produce the artwork for their software. (You can read all about it on our blog too http://www.asktheettes.blogspot.com )

    If anyone is interested in buying the software, use the promo code “ettes” to receive 30% off of any software purchase you make in the next 30 days :)

    Fayette <—really excited about MMS!

  13. Lesley says:

    Congratulations on your partnership with Polaroid! How fantastic! :) Isn’t the software wonderful?

  14. jennifer says:

    Just wondering if anyone knows if there is a current promo code for the polaroid memories suite software?
    THanks

  15. Lesley says:

    The current promo is 25% off the software — click the link to the right in my sidebar for My Memories Suite to get it. It’s up towards the top under the site navigation menu in the upper right where it says, “Get My Memories Suite”

    Enjoy! :)

  16. Kenzie says:

    I was wondering how you can do custom pages sizes such as 12×2 or 8×8. if you can help me i would sure appreciate it!

  17. Kenzie says:

    Figured it out never mind :D

  18. Lesley says:

    @Kenzie

    The software allows you to work in either square or portrait format. So if you wanted to make a book that will be 12×12, you just select the “square” format. Within the program you’d design your pages as normal. Once you’re ready to export the pages as JPGs or for printing, that’s when you select the size you want them to be printed as or save them as for printing later — you can then choose 12×12 or 8×8. I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any further questions.

  19. kenzie says:

    robert,
    i worked in a walmart photo lab and i found the best thing you do with those slides is to scan them sideways and then rotate them using your editing program that way the won’t cut off the heads. walmart also will put them on a cd if that is what you wish to do. it does cost about 26-29 cents a slide but it sure saves you the headache. hope this helps

  20. kenzie says:

    robert,
    also if you wanted them printed they will do that for about 29 cents a picture and then you could ask them to put them on a cd for you. since they would already be scanning them they shouldn’t charge you twice for putting them to a cd. ask befroe though because some walmarts are out for you money and then it could be come a huge hassle.

  21. Erin says:

    I wanted to know how many pics a slideshow will hold, if there is a limit, and also if you can add your own music to it.
    I recently made a slideshow in Windows XP Movie Maker, but my problem is I can’t get it to a DVD. I have almost 600 pics on it. Maybe it’s too big.
    Please let me know.
    Thank you.
    Erin

  22. Lesley says:

    Erin,

    I do not know how many pics a slideshow will hold; as far as I know there is no limit except space on the DVD. This might be a good question for the tech support at My Memories Suite since it’s a more technical aspect, but as far as I know, the only limit on a slideshow that is created is the space you have on the DVD. What you’d do is create a new page for each image — you can either scrapbook the page to dress it up or just fill the page with a photo — and then when you save it to DVD it turns into a slideshow and you determine the length between changing pages, etc.

  23. Erin says:

    Thanks Lesley! I did Email about this, and they did say there was no limit!

  24. kenzie says:

    i recently updated my software but now i can’t get it to pull up a different picture folder than the first one i selected. i want to use multiple folders but i can’t get it to work. hope you can help. i haven’t been able to use it for a while so i figured i would now that i have a chance but i can’t get it to work the way i need it to. i’m half tempted to egt my momey back because this is really making me angry

  25. Lesley says:

    Kenzie:

    I am not sure what problem you are having. You mentioned picture folders, so I am assuming you’re talking about adding a photo or picture to your page. When you add a photo box (and double click it to find a picture to put there) or add a picture from the picture menu on the right side, you can then browse any folder on your computer to fill the space with. If you are having issues after updating your software or are having other technical issues, it would be best to direct them to the technical customer service representatives on the website, http://www.mymemoriessuite.com . Also, are you running Windows Vista? There tends to be a couple of hiccups with the software with Vista (Vista’s fault, not MMS’ fault) and so you might try right clicking the icon to launch My Memories Suite and choose to “Run as Administrator” first. This may or may not have anything to do with the issue you are having (I am still not 100% sure I understand what is wrong), but I highly recommend talking to the technical customer service and explaining the problem. They will probably want to know what version of Windows you’re running or other hardware specs to make sure that your computer can run MMS, too.

    This is the first I’ve heard of any complaints! Best of luck getting it resolved.