Make a calendar using your own photos

Published: January 18, 2006

With every new year, it's time to get a new calendar. Of course you can buy a new calendar, but you can also create your own calendar that includes your own digital photos. This article will walk you through the steps of creating a calendar using Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006. You can then make a calendar for yourself or print a few for family and friends.

Photo showing pages of a twelve month calendar

Here's what you'll need:

•	Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006
•	Digital photos
•	Printer and paper

To make a calendar

1.	In Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 Editor, on the File menu, click Create a Project.
2.	Click Calendars.
3.	Click Twelve Month to create a yearlong calendar.
4.	In the Themes box, click General, click a calendar design in the right pane, and then click Open in the task pane on the left.
5.	In the task pane, under You can change the start date for your calendar, enter the start date, enter the first day of the week, and then click Next.
6.	In the task pane, click Open a picture.
7.	In the File Browser dialog box, locate the digital photo that you want to appear on the first page of the calendar, and then click OK. You can find and select photos on your computer by clicking the All Files tab, or you can find and select photos in your Digital Image Library by clicking the Digital Image Library tab.
8.	In the task pane, click Next.
9.	If necessary, move or resize the first photo, and then click Done.
10.	To edit text on the page, click on the text box, and then select the text. Type the new text.
11.	To change the font, with the text selected, on the Text menu, click Font. On the Font tab, select a different font, font style, size, and color if you want.
12.	To change another picture for a different month, click the month palette that appears next to the current calendar page, select the month, and then select the current photo for that month.
13.	On the Format menu, click Replace Picture. In the task pane, click Open a picture, select a new picture, and then click OK. The picture you selected will now appear for that month. Click Done.
14.	In the month palette, click a different month. Repeat steps 10 through 13 to edit the existing text and to select a different picture. Do this for each month in the calendar by using the month palette.
15.	To save the changes to your calendar, on the File menu, click Save. In the File name box, type a file name, and then click Save.

Customizing your calendar

You can further customize your calendar by changing its appearance, the fonts used in the calendar, and you can even circle special dates. These are only a few of the different changes you can make to your calendar by using the different commands that appear on the Calendar menu in Digital Image Suite 2006.

To circle a date and insert text

1.	In the month palette, select the month that contains the date you want to highlight.
2.	Click inside the box for the date you want to circle.
3.	On the Calendar menu, click Circle the Date.
4.	If you want, type the name of the occasion. This lets you add your own text to any date in your calendar.

To change the date font

1.	In the month palette, select the month for which you want to change the date font.
2.	Click inside any date box on the calendar.
3.	On the Calendar menu, click Date Font.
4.	In the Font dialog box, change the font, font style, size, or color.
5.	If you want to change the date font for more than one month, repeat steps 1 through 4 for each month.

To change the color of the gridlines in your calendar

1.	In the month palette, select the month for which you want to change the gridline color.
2.	Click inside any date box on the calendar.
3.	On the Calendar menu, click Gridlines.
4.	In the Gridlines dialog box, select the colors for the different gridlines. You can also adjust the thickness of the gridlines by dragging the Line thickness slider. Click OK.
5.	If you want to change the gridlines for more than one month, repeat steps 1 through 4 for each month.

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Printing Your Calendar

After you create your calendar and format it to appear the way you like, you can then print your calendar.

If you want to use specialty paper to print your calendar, you might first want to print a test copy of the calendar on plain paper to make sure it prints correctly.

To print a calendar

On the File menu, click Print.

In the task pane, do the following, and then click Next.

•	Under Select a printer, choose the printer that you want to use to print your labels.
•	In Copies to print, enter the number of copies that you want to print.
•	Under Select a print size, choose Exact Size.
•	Under Click an orientation, choose Portrait or Landscape depending on the calendar design you selected.

In the task pane, under Select pages to print, click All. If you want, use the buttons in the task pane to preview different pages of your calendar.

Screen shot with the Select pages to print option and Preview all pages buttons highlighted

To print the calendar, click Print.

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