This is just some boring admin stuff in relation to the Printables section. On my very long To-Do list I have a whole page just for changes and new templates I want to add to this section. While I’m waiting for my schedule to swing wide enough open to let me actually achieve some of those things, here are the things you need to know. Here is also where I’ll update, from time to time, new templates and printables coming soon. And as always, if you have an idea for a printable, email or leave a comment. Or smoke signal - I like those too.

Format

The files are generally presented in one of three formats - PDF, Excel and Word. Mostly, I prefer PDF and did start out that way, but occasionally my PDF converter software will behave like a petulant puppy and chop off a little of the top or bottom of my document. If there’s no way I can re-configure the document to take this into account, I take a deep breath, scold the PDF converter, and switch to Excel. Hopefully the bugs will be ironed out soon and all of the documents will eventually be in PDF format.

Layout & Design

Lizzie’s Home templates and printables are designed specifically to be graphics-free. Two reasons - first, with maybe one or two exceptions, most graphics artists want to limit the exposure of their freeware (and rightly so). I’ve emailed several of my favourite artists and most would prefer not to have their images used in any digital format, including downloadable printables, even if there was no cost. I completely respect that. The other reason (the original one, before I found the purdy graphics, LOL) was to purposely minimise the amount of ink (and therefore cost) for anyone printing them, while at the same time giving them a bit of a splash of colour (not totally bland greyscale). I know I used to go searching for printables online and a hefty chunk of them have large expanses of shading or colour. Lizzie’s Home printables do have minimal shading, but nothing too major. They’re meant to look clean and simple.

Copyright

I’ve always just created the templates as a personal hobby (I know, it sounds strange to me too!) Then when Lizzie’s Home came into existence, it seemed natural that I make them available to the wider community as well. But in a lot of cases, even though their simple appearance might suggest otherwise, LOL, quite a bit of time has gone into them. Each printable has the URL of Lizzie’s Home on it, and each is presented in a non-editable form, meaning that you print them as-is and handwrite your own information in. So far, this has worked well, except that there are two or three pending printables that really would be better served in an editable format, and I’m working on those as I speak. You’re allowed to save a copy to your own hard drive with the understanding that the link back to Lizzie’s Home remains intact (apparently, you can convert a PDF back into a regular ol’ Word document just as easily as you made it into a PDF originally, with the right software. I did not know this.)

Basic Instructions

For ease of viewing, I haven’t specified the format of the printables next to their names. However, one of two things will happen when you click on a link.

For PDF files ~ These will load automatically if you have Adobe Reader installed on your computer. Most people do, but if not, you can get it here. Once the printable is up on the screen, you can print directly from the PDF by clicking the print icon at the top, or you can save to your hard drive, keeping the link back to Lizzie’s Home intact.

For Excel/Word files ~ These are not quite so straight forward, but don’t be scared off by that. When you click on these links, a window will pop up giving you three options - Open, Save and Cancel. Clicking on ‘Open’ should bring up the document just fine but I have noticed with Hubs computer (Vista), I’m sometimes prompted by the inbuilt security whatsit to ‘Block’ or ‘Allow’. If you click on ‘Allow’, everything should load properly. The file will open up in web browser window. You’ll notice that you can’t select any of the cells (if the file is in Excel format). That’s normal (that’s me setting the Protection on the document, although depending on the document, some cells could be editable). To print the document, go to your File menu and select ‘Print’ from the listed options. It should print cleanly.

Troubleshooting

If you have problems loading or printing any of the files, please don’t hesitate to email using the link at the top of the page :)

Printables Coming Soon

None planned. Keep checking though!

Cheers,
Lizzie

POSTED BY Lizzie on Oct 28 under Uncategorized

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Just an Aussie mother to three, wife to one, special needs advocate, sometimes crafter, always procrastinator and awesome baker. Well maybe not bread. Bread alludes me.