Dr. Don's Buttons / buttonsonline.com presents:
A question about button-making
software for Windows
Q. I see on your site that you have a link to software for making the buttons for Macs. Do you know of a program that will work on Windows PC's? (besides the one that Badge-a-Minit sells, that is.)
Phil H.
A. Unfortunately I don't know anything about software for the Window's world.
(Dr. Don works on a Power Macintosh). What I think I will do, however, is to put up a page of frequently asked questions, such as yours, and see if there are others out there who can help you.Thanks for the question.. Check back soon and hopefully we'll get some answers.
So, can anyone out there help Phil. Is there any particularly good button design
software for Windows?What about Badge a Minit's button design software? Is it any good? Let me know
what you think about it?Also, for those of you who are Mac-users, what software do you find particularly
helpful in designing buttons?
I received several responses to the questions Phil had about Badge a Minit software and other button design software for Windows.
Responses:
Susan Richards writes:
I use Publisher 2002. I have created a button template. On the screen I only see 1 button but when printed it puts 9 per page.
Publisher 2002 to make a template
- open publisher and start with a blank publication
- go file, page set-up, click on custom, type in 2.65" and 2.65" for height and width
- now click on the "change copies per sheet", now you need to play with the margins and gutters so you get 9 per page
(this will differ depending on your printer) I use .28, .77, 0, .76 and click on OK
- I now select the autoshape circle tool to create a circle that is 2.65" (from edge to edge of my publication)
- I also create another circle 2.10" and place it in the middle of the previous circle (this one will be deleted before printing)
- now I "save as" Publisher template (2nd choice in the dropdown menu) and call it button and close the program
- now to create a button, I open Publisher, select "from template" under new and chose the button template
- this will open a copy of the template to begin work onDr. Don writes: Thanks Susan! I appreciate your taking the time to send us the template information.
Herb Gross writes:
Dear Dr. Don,
I was reading your questions and answers on Button Making software and there are a few additions needed.
1. Badge A Minits' 'Create A Badge' software will NOT work with Windows 2000 and some versions will not even work with Windows 98 series 2 or ME. It locks up my machine so bad I have to reboot.
2. Badge a Minit has a new button software for Windows 2000 but it is NOT compatible with 'Create A Badge' and you will not be able to use your stored button designs. Today, 10-23-00, BAM said they no longer support 'Create A Badge' as the company is out of business and even they cannot get upgrades.3. Perhaps an enterprising company such as DR. DON could sell a Windows and Mac software which would be as easy as 'Create A Badge' PLUS allow you to define your own button sizes, not restricted to 2 1/4 or 3, so that you could use it regardless of the machine you had, e.g.. 3 1/2 or
6, or any other sizes you sell. This program should also be able to save finished badges in a standard graphic format e.g.. GIF or JPEG so that there would be much less chance of losing the design if the program were discontinued. I think that this type of program could enhance such
a company's product line.
Carl Draper writes,
"I have found a fairly interesting solution to the problem of making buttons on my Windows based PC. I recently purchased software to make labels for the CD's that I create on my computer. My daughter suggested using it when I was having trouble finding something to create buttons with.
I've been using the "Sure Thing CD Labler, CD Stomper Edition from MicroVision Development (www.mvd.com). It gives me the ability to wrap text around the button, add graphics, place text horizontaly or rotate the text to any plane. I have been able to size the artwork to ANY size
button from 1 to 6. The only limitations I have found are imposed by the size of my circle cutter. (No, I don't have an AC-1 circle cutter - yet.)I have tried most of the other programs suggested here except the BAM software. I have found this CD labeling software to be the easiest and best solution I have tried. Good luck to all of you".
Wally Yee writes,
Just thought I'd let you know that Microvision Development, Inc. has a nice program which one can use for creating buttons. It is called SureThing Office Labeler (The same company that makes
the CD labeler software that another customer wrote about). They do offer a 30 day free trial download of the software too.I downloaded the software, made some button designs and like the progam that I decided to buy the software.
Their web site is www.mvd.com
Steve Holder writes, "Don, another good software package is Microsoft Photodraw. It is part of the Microsoft Office Suite. I'm not sure whioch suite it comes in. It works great. I made a circle template (cutting guide) and can insert graphics into the template. It allows me to resize the image using the mouse. I can enlarge or shrink the image to fit in the button area. It also allows you to Bend text. I can also print 9 button designs to the page".
Jeanette from Peyton, Colorado, says that she uses PrintArtist. She also recently purchased Badge a Minit's software. Jeanette says that she actually prefers the functionality of PrintArtist, but likes the fact that Badge a Minit's software has button designs ready to print.
Marvin, from Texas, says that he uses Corel Draw 5 for designing his buttons. He says it's a little complicated to learn, but works great.
John D, from Manville, N.J. writes"Hi Don, I am a user of the Badge-a-Minit software for PC. I had first started using it last year, it works really well, but you couldn't import BMP files of JPEG files, only WMF and GFX files from Print Artist. But, I called them up last week and now they have a new version 1.12, and now you can finally import those other files, which makes a huge difference, and plus you can scan directly from the program. The interface has been modified a bit similar to the new style of windows like in MS Word. So, I would recommend the program for making buttons it can be learned in minutes by the beginner computer user. I do use it exclusively now. Oh, yea I forgot to mention that you can bend and turn your text around within this program."
Cynthia C. writes,"
There is a program called Kids Printertainment by Avery for the PC . I have tried it out on my Mac using Virtual PC. I used the big sticker label maker (which turns out to be almost the same size as the badges) to make the art work. But it crashes in Windows 95 and will not print or not correctly for me. Also it is hard to import from my Mac system to the PC system the pictures and other art to be inserted.It has some potential to be a good software.......that is if all the bugs could be worked out. It is possible it may work well for some of the PC users out there.
For me I am still looking........"
Greg P. writes,
"Regarding the question of software to use in Windows. I have successfully used several including Windows Paintbrush (simple but effective with a little practice), MS Word (again it takes practice but has some good applications for basic buttons), and I recently came across what is becoming a pretty good program. It's called 'Draw 3' from CompuWorks. I found it while browsing in WalMart for $19.99. Draw 3 is IBM PC compatible and requires only a 486 with 8 Meg of RAM. You do have to run Windows 95 though. The program is great for creating art and will import graphics of most types. You can make the text follow a path (like a circle maybe) and also create many special effects with text and background. Learning Draw 3 is like most things, easy to get the basics but it'll take a while to master. Once you get it down though you can save as a template for future efforts. It just might end up being the best 20 bucks I've spent in a while."
K.L. Hoisington writes: I've been using the Badge A Minit program "Create A Badge" for about 6 months now and love it! You can print up to six of the same or different buttons on one piece of paper with just a click of the mouse and it also allows you to print out thumbnails which is really cool if you are doing it as a business (print your own catalog).
Bobby writes:In response to one of your button tips about button programs, I use the
Create A Badge program (from Badge a Minit) and found that it works really good. One thing that I like is that if you are personalizing each button with someone's name, you can
type a list of names in notepad and Create A Badge will automatically place each
name into the a user-defined location when you print it out. That really saves
a lot of time!
Thank you,
Bobby
