How do Alphas work?

[mom2cj]

How do you use alphas? I looked around and can't find an answer. It's probably simple and I'm missing something. Thanks for you help!

[diturpin]

They work just like an element. They are placed in layout individually same as you would a brad or ribbon. They do not work like a font. I'm not sure what program you use but in PSE or PS I use the "grid" on my layout to give me a way to line them up if I want them straight. But most of the time, I just place them a bit more randomly. Hope that helps.

[mom2cj]

Does it take a long time to select and use them? I'm selecting with the marquee tool and then dragging the letter onto my layout. Is that the best way to do it?
Thanks for your quick reply.

[HeatherH]

You don't have to select them with the marquee tool first-at least not in PSE or PS. You can just click and drag them on to your LO. Also, what I do to get them all sized the same is I drag all the letters I want to use on to my LO, just one right on top of another, then in my layers pallette, I select all the layers, right click and select "Link layers". I size them all together, then unlink them and move them where I want to. Hope that makes sense.

[mom2cj]

Got it. I have a sheet of letters, all on one sheet. Maybe that isn't called a alpha kit? It wasn't from this website. Anyway, I downloaded the alpha kit from this web site and I now get how to use it. Thanks for the hint of highlighting the letters all at once to resize, I don't think I'd of thought of that.

[Abby]

Yes, definitely, if the letters are all on one sheet, you have to use your marquee tool to select, copy and paste .. very time consuming, of course - but it works :)

[Wanda]

And for alphas where each letter is separate (rather than on a single sheet as you describe), I like to use the "place" command in PSE. In PSE, click on File_Place, browse to wherever your alpha is located, select the letter you want, then click on Place, and the letter is placed in the middle of our layout on its own layer in the layer palette. Resizing works a little differently when the place command is active because the constrain command isn't automatically selected, but if you click the accept key to remove the "place" bracket you can select it again for regular resizing.

I like this for two reasons--first, the letters are immediately placed on layers and not in the photo bin (not nearly as much clutter) and second, the layer is named with the original file name so I don't have to re-name in order to keep track of the different letters (also, if I forget to write down the kit info for crediting, the file name gives me a clue where I got it).