How do I auto-generate an entire photo album?

Under the Projects tab, choose the Photo Album or Wedding Album project types - these project types include access to the Book Wizard. The Book Wizard will place your photo collection into attractive layouts quickly. Using it, you will create a ready-to-print album in a few minutes. 

After configuring your book settings and adding a photo collection to the project, move to the Editor's Book tab. Click on the Book wizard icon.

Two options are available:

The Book Wizard All photos in your collection are placed in individual image frames into pre-made layouts. Images will be sorted across the page either according to their chronological order or their alphabetical file name. You may specify the total number of pages or the number of images to use on each page. Note that the wizard will respect image ratings to feature higher-ranked photos in larger frames. Use this option if you have presorted your photo collection to remove duplicate photos and/or if the book represents a single continuous event.

The Advanced Book Wizard This option will automatically build pages from the layouts or template collections. It can sort through the photo collection to detect similar photos then stack them into a single frame, allowing you to choose the best photo option for the layout. It can also groups photos by timeline event, creating page-breaks between distinct events. For instance, it will keep wedding ceremony photos and reception photos on separate pages. This option is appropriate if you have not triaged your photos before adding them to your photo collection and if your album is composed of several distinct events.

The following features are available in both wizards...

Double versus single fill

To only use layouts that keep image frames from straddling the gutter line, choose double. 

To choose layouts that place image frames over the gutter line, choose spread. Note that certain binding techniques may cause the images in the center to be occluded. Usually this option is only suitable for lay-flat style books.

Add images to first single page and last single page

This checkbox is useful only if your book settings include a single page to start and end your book. 

If you want the wizard to fill these single pages, then turn the checkbox on. If you wish to exclude these two pages so you can make a custom front and page page layout with feature images, leave the checkbox off. (Note that this option is only available with double pages separate on.)

Image Distribution

Specify the way your photo collection will be distributed across your book. You may choose the number of pages to create where the images will be distributed over those pages. 

In the example below, the images have been distributed over the 38-page spreads, with the first and last pages untouched to allow for special highlight pages to be created.

You may choose to specify the minimum and maximum number of images to include on each page. Your book will generate pages until there are no more images to add. In the example below, the same image set now covers 56 pages, excluding images from the first and last single pages.

Choose a Single Image layout format, where one image is added per page. Note that your book settings will need to accommodate a maximum number of pages to include every image onto a separate page. 

For the single image option, decide how the images will be placed on the page. 

Choose the Maximized - cropped (best fit) will either fill each side or each spread with a single edge-to-edge image.

Choose Centered - No crop to place a single uncropped image dead center on each side, either on each side or each spread.

Or choose Centered - No Crop and Titles to place a single uncropped image photo on each side with a text frame under it, ready to be captioned.

Book Wizard sorting options

The book wizard lets you determine the order in which your photos will be sorted onto pages. Choose file date/time to add the images in chronological sequence. This choice is ideal for creating an album for an event where two or more cameras were used. Choose file name to simply add photos in order of the name of the file (alphabetically). Use this option if you have renamed your files in a specific way, or have only used a single camera to shoot an event.

Magic Book Wizard photo sorting

Photos are automatically sorted by Date/Time using the Magic Photo wizard. It includes two additional options to build your album smarter: grouping similar photos and organizing the book by distinct events.

Photo Similarity

Turn on Group Similar Images to autodetect photos taken in quick succession from the same angle. Once your pages are created, these stacked photos will display an icon in the bottom right corner of the frame. 

Click on the icon to review your alternative images. In the example below, one image frame offers four additional photos to chose from.

The photo grouping option includes a slider to control how much the photos must match to produce a stack. We recommend keeping it in the middle of the slider - too high, very few photo will be matched.

Too low, photos with very little similarly will be stacked.

Photo Timeline

The Photo Timeline separates photos onto pages into groups based on the difference in their time stamp. Use the time range slider to decide what to consider as a separate event. 

For a vacation photo album, use a large time range, since the difference between separate events will be relatively large (eg: travelling between attractions in a region). For an event that occurs over the course of a single day or within a few hours, use a smaller time range (eg: the time between a wedding first dance and the setup to cut the cake.)

The example below highlights the page breaks between events in a single wedding.

Building your book

One your selections have been made, click on Build My Book to generate the album respecting your choices. 

Once the book is built, you can continue to edit it, apply alternative layouts, and change the style of the book. You can even reflow the entire book using the book wizard to use different settings. 

Note that a book built with photo stacking will not allow you to duplicate pages.