Calendar Creator Express

Create Your Own Unique Calendar

I used Calendar Creator Express this year to make a digital graphics wall calendar commemorating last year's milestones.

This is a very nice calendar program that comes bundled into the Deluxe and Pro Publisher versions of PrintShop.

You can buy the full version of Calendar Creator separately, but for most people, the Express version is more than adequate.

Before I realized that I had access to this neat little program (because I own Print Shop), I had made a few calendars using Print Shop itself.

The difference is like that between night and day. In Calendar Creator, you can choose from an extensive list of holidays (e.g. U.S., Canadian, Christian, Jewish, etc.) rather than type the holidays in individually.

You also have a large choice of formats, sizes and beautiful artwork to decorate your calendar.

Setting up Your Calendar

The program itself in very user friendly; but finding it and then finding your work the next time is a little tricky unless you have someone to warn you ahead - like me!

You launch Calendar Creator Express from within PrintShop. After starting PrintShop, choose "Calendar" as your project.

When the Calendar options box comes up, scroll to the bottom and click on Calendar Creator. Then follow the user-friendly wizard to create your calendar.

To add events, like holidays and birthdays, click on Events in the top menu bar. If you want more than one of the available Event Lists, for example "U. S. Holidays" and "Christian Holidays", select the most inclusive when you use the wizard to create your calendar.

Once the wizard is done, choose File>Import>Event and select any other standard lists you desire. Add personal events by clicking on Event and then typing them in one by one.

When you're done setting up, save your calendar with a descriptive name like My Calendar 2008. Close Calendar Creator and Print Shop.

Finding Your Calendar Again

The next time you want to use your calendar, whether to print another copy or to modify it, you won't find it by clicking File>Open from the Print Shop menu bar.

Imagine my shock when I discovered this. I thought all my work was lost! The only calendars I could find in my Projects folder (where Print Shop saves all your Print Shop files) were the ones I had created in Print Shop. These have the file extension .cal.

The reason my new calendar didn't show up in the file list is, as I said earlier, Calendar Creator Express is a separate program that you launch from within Print Shop.

In order to retrieve a calendar you have created in Calendar Creator Express, you need to launch Calendar Creator. Then you can open your calendar by clicking on the "Open last calendar used" button or selecting "Browse".

There it is - My Calendar 2008.bcc! Phew! The reason I couldn't find it in the Print Shop Projects file list is that Print Shop does not recognize .bcc files.

Forewarned is Forearmed: A Few Quirks

I guess every program has its little quirks. Here are a few that threw me for a loop as I tried to use Calendar Creator Express "on the fly".

I know ... reading the manual first would have helped; but I learn more easily by doing.

It's really nice to have a huge selection of Event Lists to choose from; however I could not find a way (either by running through all the menu choices or in the manual) to get the lists to start with the calendar year.

They all are imported with a 1990 start date. This means you have to look up the dates and input the individually.

If you migrate away from the calendar view, for example to the Event List or Address Book, do not - I repeat DO NOT - click on the small x to close the window. That closes the calendar you were working on without giving you the option to save.

Instead click on the little calendar icon that is smack dab in the middle of the top tool bar. When you mouse over it, it says "Show Calendar".

If you want a photo calendar using one of the Collections in Calendar Creator, be sure to preview the whole set of artwork. You'll notice that some of them have landscape orientation while others have portrait orientation - within the same collection.

Maybe it's just me, but if I want a horizontal calendar, I want the photos to be horizontal as well.

That's easy to arrange by copying and pasting the images you want into your calendar. So start with the collection that has several photos you want to use. Then get the rest from other collections or your own photo files.