Using your own photos with Ideas Genie

When you use the Picture arrow keys in Treeview mode in Ideas Genie, the program looks in a known folder location for photos.

To use your own photos, you simply copy a photo into the folder used by Ideas Genie.
We will refer to this folder as the IMAGES FOLDER .

Any photo copied into the IMAGES FOLDER will work, and the full image detail will be shown.
However the image may need to be edited to avoid distortion

The following topics explain the process:

• Locating the Images folder used by Ideas Genie
• How to create a correctly proportioned photo for use with Ideas Genie

Locating the Images folder used by Ideas Genie
The location is different for each installation.
To locate the IMAGES FOLDER in your installation, click the Help tab on the menu, and start the program About Ideas Genie - BS400
Screenshot
The Core Data folder is shown in Item 6

The IMAGES FOLDER used by Ideas Genie is located in a sub folder of the Core Data folder. Sub folder name is images.
Thus if your Core data folder as shown by GA600 is:
C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\user\LOCAL SETTINGS\APPLICATION DATA\IDEASFORGARDENS\Ideas Genie C4\
then the IMAGES FOLDER is:
C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\user\LOCAL SETTINGS\APPLICATION DATA\IDEASFORGARDENS\Ideas Genie C4\images

How to create a correctly proportioned photo for use with Ideas Genie
To avoid image distortion, you simply crop a suitable photo to the aspect ratio used by Ideas Genie.
The optimum aspect ratio is 13x15 i.e. the Height to Width ratio is 13/15 and the height is smaller than the width.

1. Either:
   a) Make a copy of the original using the program My Computer
   Save the copy in the IMAGES FOLDER as discussed above
   
   OR (a safe way)
   
   b) Edit the original using using Microsoft Office Picture manager
   Under the File tab, click Save As
   Navigate to the IMAGES FOLDER as discussed above
   Enter a NEW name for the file and click Save
   EXIT the program (thus closing the original - do not Save when closing)
   Tip (applies to either method - a or b):
   In this example, Ive copied a photo named Cambridge367102129_f5e8abdc91_b.jpg and given the copy the file name: Cambridge367102129_f5e8abdc91_b-cropped.jpg
   The photo was taken by Eric Hardy, High Wycombe, England
2. Edit the NEW image you created (in this example IMG_1386-Label-8x10) using Microsoft Office Picture manager
   Make sure you are editing a photo in the IMAGES FOLDER as discussed above, and make sure it is a copy of your original
3. Click the Picture tab on the menu, then click Crop
   Screenshot
   This may differ in your Photo Editor
4. You can now select a region of your photo to use as the image for a label.
   Screenshot
5. Save your changes
   WARNING: Once you save your changes, you can NOT undo the cropping operation, hence our reminders that you use a copy of your original.
6. Start Ideas Genie
   Use the arrow buttons to browse through the images until your personalised photo appears.
   You may wish to click the Set button to make this the default photo