A while ago, I wrote about how Blurb is no longer offering BookSmart in their program offering. You may still be able to open and upload a book you’ve already started….but I’m not sure that will always be an option in the future. And I recommend testing out the upload process within BookSmart at the beginning before investing time in a photo book that can no longer be uploaded for printing.
But all is not lost! There’s a way to import your BookSmart photo book into BookWright – either to keep working on a book-in-progress or to use your favorite layouts for your next BookWright photo book.
I don’t have insider knowledge but BookWright definitely seems to be the direction Blurb is heading. It’s missing a few features I love (text styles and setting an aspect ratio to photo boxes) but there are great things about BookWright that were missing in BookSmart (ability to work in a spread format, auto alignment, and custom margin guides).
If you’re ready to take the plunge but don’t want to start completely from scratch, this tutorial will show you how to transfer your finished BookSmart photo book into BookWright.
01
First, you want to make sure you’ve downloaded the BookWright software from Blurb. It’s free and you can get the download from their website.
Once you’ve downloaded BookWright, launch the program.
You’ll want to select “BookSmart / Bookify Users Import”.
02
Next, you’ll need to sign in with your Blurb account. Since you are importing from an already completed and uploaded photo book created in BookSmart, you should already have an account.
03
A window will pop up with all of the books you’ve made with BookSmart or Bookify. If you only want to select from the books you’ve made in BookSmart, there is a pull down menu to narrow your choices.
Keep in mind, these are books that have already been uploaded from BookSmart to your online Blurb dashboard for print.
04
Next, your photo book is converting into a format that you can open from BookWright. Check your email (associated with your Blurb account) to find out when the conversion is ready.
05
The first photo book I tried, it did not work. You’ll notice in the email, the project is titled “null” not the name of the book I selected. And when I downloaded it, the file was a text file, not a BookWright file. If this happens to you and you really need this particular book, I recommend you contact Blurb customer support. In my example, I selected another photo book with my favorite layouts to convert.
06
The second book project downloaded perfectly. In this email, there is the appropriate book name and when I clicked the link, a BookWright file downloaded. Once the file has fully downloaded, all you have to do is double click and it will open within BookWright.
07
First, it has to update to get ready for BookWright.
08
Then it finally opens!
09
This warning lets you know that there might be slight adjustments to the layouts based on updated photo book sizes. This could be a very minimal (read: unnoticeable) changes. My guess is that it may affect the centering of layouts but is most likely not anything you need to worry about. To be safe, I recommend flipping through the layouts before you save or print just to make sure.
10
All of the photos that were included in BookSmart project automatically carry over into the BookWright program. This is great if you had a few adjustments to make and wanted to finish a book in BookWright.
11
One thing that did not carry over was the text style. The font switches to a standard font within BookWright. This is an easy adjustment….if you don’t have a lot of text in your photo book project.
12
In this example, I simply changed the title in the text box and updated the font style to something I wanted.
13
One of the best reasons to open up a BookSmart project into BookWright is to save your favorite layouts and structure for your next photo book. To accomplish this, simply delete the photos from the boxes to create a blank layout. Then click “Save Layout”.
14
Finally, select if you want to save the left page, right page or the entire layout as a spread. This will place this layout into your “My Layouts” pull down menu. Go through the entire book and save your favorite layouts that you’ll want to use again.
After you have saved your layouts, delete the pages you no longer need and delete the photos from from the Photos tab.
Now you are ready to start your next book project, in BookWright, with your favorite layouts at the ready!
Learn how to be more creative with your BookWright layouts. Get 5 ideas to go from blah to exciting with your photo book layouts.
