You do not have to know a thing about traditional scrapbooking to enjoy using My Memories Suite. Even experienced scrapbookers will love how easy, affordable and mess free this digital scrapbooking software is compared to dealing with paper scrapbooking. We looked at quite a few digital scrapbooking applications and found My Memories Suite to be the best; it easily earns our TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award.
Everything in this software is adjustable and customizable. You can easily change image size, rotate items, add textures to objects and copy embellishments. My Memories Suite comes with a host of template sets, paper patterns and embellishments. To add even more options, My Memories Suite offers quite a few free design downloads and hundreds of low-priced papers, templates and packs in their Design Shop.
We tested every aspect of this application; we loaded images, created albums, tested their design download service and consulted their help files and blogs. We can honestly say that this digital scrapbooking software is simple to use, and we feel that it offers enough options to capture our attention for quite a long time. Templates can effortlessly be altered to create an unlimited number of combinations, and the Word Art Designer can create custom text styles that can be saved and used again. We really think you will enjoy creating scrapbook pages and scrapbook albums with My Memories Suite.
We had a lot of fun with this software. All elements can easily be modified, and you can add customized text and purchased (or free) new designs pretty effortlessly. We like that this digital scrapbooking software goes beyond just static photo pages to include multimedia elements like video, audio tracks or loops, as well as link options to other pages, websites or other files. It can also create QuickTime MP4 video files that can be viewed with any Apple product, including the popular iPhone.
The biggest appeal of this type of software is that those that do not have the time, resources or patience for traditional scrapbooking can enjoy scrapbooking without purchasing fancy scissors and acid-free glue. Not to mention that this type of scrapbooking is fast and your images can be shared in a wide variety of ways, including in online albums, as JPEGs or even in professionally printed and bound photobooks.
Adding images to My Memories Suite is simple. You can import entire album files and have them automatically populate your template pages, or you can just as easily drag and drop individual images right where you want them. We also were able to grab images from the internet and drop them into albums. This ability makes it simple for you to add images from image hosting sites like Flickr, Photobucket or even Facebook.
Using My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software, you can easily create attractive pages in minutes by using their free or purchased templates. Everything on a page can be altered; For example, you can copy design elements like boxes or flourishes, and they can also be moved around, rotated and resized. You can even change the color of template elements to create a whole new look. You can also add paper designs or textures to template items.
This digital scrapbooking software can add text boxes as well as create text art with its Word Art Designer – an interesting tool that will let you create and save unique text styles. The text tool includes many fonts, from the popular Arial and Lucinda Sans to the more obscure Vrinda symbols. The word art tool utilizes the fonts available, but you can also rotate the text, select fill types and opacity, and adjust stroke width and opacity. Shadowing and beveling effects can be added and text can be arranged to display in ways other than a straight line, such as in a downward or upward arc shape.
This scrapbooking software includes numerous embellishments that can be altered, as well as over 30 album templates, 1,500 paper types and 1,300 page embellishments. You can easily add shapes to pages as well as links, music or video. One of our favorite features of this software is the color editing tool. Not only can you simply just pick a color, but you can also adjust HSB and RGB values or use the Color Picker. The Color Picker will display a preview image of your page and you simply select the color you want to match. The gradient tool was especially fun to play with; after you pick your color, it can be used to create customized gradient color swatches, and you can even adjust the point at which that the color starts and in which direction the color will fade.
This digital scrapbooking does include some basic photo editing tools as well. With My Memories Suite you can resize images, crop images, zoom in and out, and reduce red eye. You can also add image effects such as black and white, sepia, mirroring and emboss. The photo editing tools included with this software are suitable for most basic editing; however, for advanced editing you might want to use a professional photo editing application.
The Design Shop
The design shop is where the design fun really begins. The free pages and templates that come with the software really are just a teaser compared to what you can get online. And My Memories Suite even offers numerous free downloads. You can also purchase templates, papers and full packages. They offer over 350 templates and over 500 packs that include emblems, frames and paper packs, each for under $10. They feature 15 designers that all have a distinctive style to help create a varied collection for you to choose from. Even if you do not own a copy of My Memories Suite, you can still download and utilize the designs they offer.
My Memories Suite includes quite a few sharing options. Of course you can print your creations with your printer, but you can also export them as JPEGs or as an iPod- or iPhone-ready movie. You can also create photo albums, greeting cards, trading cards and calendars. This digital scrapbooking software can also create videos and burn them to a DVD. My Memories Suite also provides a printing service that can assemble professionally printed and bound photo albums in a variety of sizes. You can choose from hard cover, soft cover, leather bound and wire-o bound books.
There was a bit of a learning curve involved when first using this digital scrapbooking software. When testing a few of the features, we had to experiment to find out how to do things like utilize the Word Art Designer or add a link and have the mouseover text appear. The help pages were also not entirely helpful. For example, the search tool generates a list of help topics based on your search item, but the list is not always comprehensive. We were surprised to find no topic named “Word Art Designer.” Rather than use the search feature, we found it was much easier actually to just go to the content list to find Word Art help. Likely they just need to update the version of RoboHelp that they are using for their help files.
Basic functions like adding images, changing colors, or importing and exporting images are simple and do not require a visit to the help pages. One of the things we liked is that the more we played with the software, the more we found out what it could do. We had zero trouble adding images from the internet, image files or from the desktop. Piece of cake.
This digital scrapbooking software comes with a PDF user guide and searchable help files, and you can acquire free updates online. You can also read through helpful FAQs posted online or contact the manufacturer by email. My Memories Suite posts their own blog with featured bloggers, promotional codes and feature highlights. You can also follow them on Twitter, join them on Facebook or watch their videos on YouTube.
We tested their online download service by downloading both software and purchasing new pages. We did not experience any problems during the download process, and we received our verification emails almost instantly. We also went to their website and downloaded one of their free pages. The only thing to note here is that you do need to be logged in to your account in order to receive your free download, and it does take you through the buying process just like when you purchase from them, with the exception that the free downloads are completely free. What we liked is that the free template pages are downloaded directly to the software, so when you go to the software it is already in the template file.
My Memories Suite has everything we were looking for in digital scrapbooking software. It is easy to use and offers nearly unlimited choices in design because you can alter nearly every template element and also download new pages, kits and embellishments from their design store. This scrapbooking software was truly a pleasure to review.
