How can I enhance my MyCanvas project by learning some tips and tricks?
Nudge— In MyCanvas you can select an object and move it a small distance by using the arrow keys on your keyboard.
Duplicate— Any object that can be selected in MyCanvas, either by clicking on it or dragging to select, can be duplicated. This is a great way to create a second copy of an image or document that can then be enlarged to show detail.
Align— As you add elements (photos or text boxes) to a page, you may find it necessary to line them up. This is simple to do by using the align tools on the tool bar. You can align items using the left edge, center, right edge, top, middle, and bottom.
Select multiple (group)— Any object can be selected in MyCanvas, either by clicking on it or dragging to select. This is especially useful if you want to change multiple items, either text or photo, at once. For example, you could select all the text boxes on a page and change the font, font size, color, etc. at the same time.
Copying objects between pages— Images, text and lines can be selected on one page and copied to another page. Select the objects you want to copy and right click with the mouse. Select “copy element(s)” and navigate to the page you want to copy the objects to. Right click on that page and select “paste element(s)” to paste the copied objects at the location of the mouse curser.
Bulk upload— Photos can be uploaded to MyCanvas one at a time or in batches. To upload more than one image, you can drag to select multiple items or ctrl+click to select the specific images you want.
Sepia highlight— There is a simple way to add a sepia highlight to a portion of a historical record (or other record). First, duplicate the image you want to highlight. Next, select both the original and the duplicate images and click both the center and middle align buttons. Click to the side of the images to de-select them. Next, click the copied image (which is on now on top of the original) and select “sepia tone” from the color drop down list on the photo tool bar. Now, all that’s left is to drag the top and bottom cropping buttons until only the desired area of focus is shown.
Edit timeline facts— Text boxes and lines on Timeline pages can be selected by dragging the cursor. Once you have them selected, click the duplicate button to create new lines and text boxes.
Make a copy— Before making any major changes to an MyCanvas project, you may want to create a backup copy. This can be done easily on the My Projects page using the “copy” link by the project you want to copy.
Updating a page — When you make changes to your Ancestry.com tree those changes will not automatically show up in a book that you have already created. Within the project you can pul in those changed by clicking the Update button. Also, when you add new pages to your project they will contain the latest information from your tree.
Changing page order— You can easily change the order of pages in your book by clicking on a thumbnail page and dragging it to the desired position.