I love words. I taught middle school English for 13 years and spending all that time sharing stories with adolescents gave me a deep appreciation for words. Words are magical to me. They can turn our dreams into something real and tangible. Words can capture emotions and memories long after they pass.
Due to my love of words, journaling is by far my favorite part of the scrapbooking process. So I knew the next step in learning to scrapbook on my iPad was how to add and style text. This tutorial will feature how to add text to a layout, and how to adjust the text’s font, size, color, and opacity using the Keynote app.
Tip: This tutorial is part of series on scrapbooking with a tablet using Keynote. The first steps can be found by visiting the Scrap Girls Blog here and here.
My son just turned 13, but the pictures don’t really tell the whole story. So while creating the layout below in Keynote, I knew that some journaling was needed to explain the pictures and the moments surrounding them.
Tip: Before adding any text in Keynote, lock all the layers by tapping them until the blue dots appear and selecting “Lock” from the black options bar above the layer. This will prevent any accidental moving of layers while journaling.
Figuring out which tool allows for the addition of text in Keynote can be a little tricky. Almost every feature needed to scrapbook in Keynote is located under either the plus (+) or the paintbrush on the upper right. To add text, click the plus sign (+) and choose Shapes. In the shapes window, there is a plain T. Tap the T and the word “text” appears on the layout.
Tap on the Text layer and type in the journaling. I prefer to type out all of my text before I make any adjustments. This allows me to figure out how much space my journaling needs. Once the journaling is finished, tap on the text layer again. The blue dots show the text is activated. Now it’s time to add the finishing touches!
To change the text size and style, tap on the paintbrush at the top right and select Text from the options at the top of the window. The first window changes the font, text style, and orientation. Tapping on the font’s name (Helvetica) brings up a window to change the size and color. Tap through all of the options to see what each can do.
Text borders and shadows are also found by tapping the paintbrush but this time select Style. Then in the Style window, select Style Options. Here are the options to add text shadows, reflections, or change the text layer’s opacity. I thought the color options provided were a little stark for this layout, so I lowered the opacity of my journaling to soften the text a bit.
Many of these same style options (shadows, borders, reflections, and opacity) found under the paintbrush are also available for the pictures as well. So be sure to click through all the windows when adjusting text or pictures. Keynote has many fun features, so sometimes it takes a bit of “exploring” to find them.
Once all the text is styled to my liking, my layout is ready for sharing with my birthday boy.
As you can see, words can be the key to tying a layout together by telling the story behind the pictures. What stories do your pictures have to tell? Think of one and try adding it to a Keynote layout. We’d love to see the magic that your stories create, so be sure to share your digital scrapbook layouts in the Scrap Girls Gallery!
Digital scrapbooking supplies used:
Tutorial written by Angie Durr
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