Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Gettin techy with it! A tutorial for securing clipart for your TPT products.

Trying to navigate all of the technicalities of clipart, products, fonts and being a TPT seller can be completely overwhelming at times. I always want to make sure that I am giving credit where credit is due to be given and protecting the work of others, too. 

So many of you have asked for my simplified sub plans, but I needed to make sure  that all of the clipart was secure. It is important to flatten and secure images EVEN IN A PDF!!! I had no idea, but even when you create a document and save it as a PDF the clipart is still not secure.  I did some research and searched through a few tutorials. After a little frustration and a lot of hunting I came across this gem at the 3am Teacher.


She has an amazing tutorial for Windows users and a link for a tutorial for Mac users. 

There was only one problem for me. Her tutorial for Windows was for products created using powerpoint. I however, use a MAC. Boo, sadsies. The tutorial for the Mac users was for products created with Pages. Danggggg IT! I just started creating all of my products with PowerPoint. 

So again, I was stuck. I could not find any other tutorials that would help so I started tweaking and messing until I figured it out. My efforts paid off for you too because I have a tutorial here for those of you who are in the same boat. I hope that the directions are easy to follow! Let me know if you have questions. :)












37 comments:

  1. We have been wanting to know how to do this!! Thank you so much!!

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  2. Thank you so much for this post!! I was able to follow these easy steps and create awesome TPT products that I don't have to worry about people taking the graphics, or images off of my pages! Thank you so much!!

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  3. SO glad to have found this amazing post! Thank you for sharing your handwork!! I too had found the 3am Teacher's great post, if only I was on a PC or was using Pages on my Mac. Thank you again! I am bookmarking this AND pinning it!

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    1. Thank you, so much for the feedback. I'm so happy to hear that it worked for you.

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  4. Easy to follow directions! Thanks!! Did you have a problem with quality? After following your steps, my images became a little fuzzy… solutions?

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    1. Yes, unfortunately it does get a bit fuzzy. That's definitely a down side.

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  5. This was extremely helpful. Thank you so much!

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  6. Shayla, I discovered the same thing with my images. They are not nearly as clear. I have googled and tried some things, but no results yet!

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    1. I know Emily it stinks. The print quality is better than it looks on the computer fortunately. It is a bummer though after you make your pretty products and they get a bit blurred.

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  7. Is there a way to use your method with a pc?

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    1. Check out the link to the 3AM Teacher's post above. :)

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  8. Girl, you are awesome!!! Thank you!!

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  9. Best tutorial EVER!! THANK YOU SO MUCH. :)

    Allie Braumiller
    http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Allie-Braumiller

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  10. I just found this post! Thank you for the explanation and demystifying the process.

    Krystyn
    Ms Richards's Musings

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  11. Thank you so much! I have tried MANY different versions and none really protected my products ALL THE TIME! Thank you again! I am your newest blog follower.

    Best wishes!
    Jen ;)
    TeacherKarma.com

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    1. Jen, thanks for following. I'm so happy to hear this was useful for you!

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  12. This was incredibly HELPFUL! I cannot thank you enough for putting this together- and for FREE! Such a phenomenal help to your fellow educators and teacherspayteachers colleagues! Thank you thank you!

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    1. Oh, absolutely. Gotta help out all my teacher peeps :)

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  13. Awesome tutorial! It is incredibly helpful:) Please explain how tokeep links and buttons active on the credits page as flattening makes them inactive. I know I can achieve this by adding a password to my document but then others will not have access once uploaded to TpT. PLEASE clarify this. Thank you so much.

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    1. I am going to have to do some more research on this piece. Let me see what I can figure out.

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  14. This. Is. Awesome! It has just come to my attention that I was not securing my clipart/products correctly so I googled it and found this tutorial. It was so easy to follow and so helpful!
    Thank you!
    Paige
    Our Elementary Lives

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  15. This. Is. Awesome! It has just come to my attention that I was not securing my clipart/products correctly so I googled it and found this tutorial. It was so easy to follow and so helpful!
    Thank you!
    Paige
    Our Elementary Lives

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  16. So helpful and easy to follow! THANK YOU! Do you have a solution for making the hyperlinks clickable?

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    1. Delaney, thanks for the feedback. I'll see what I can figure out.

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  17. I found your tutorial from another TpTer/blogger Erica Bohrer so thank you! My only question is, is it normal for the fonts to change when you do it as a secured pdf? I used a specific font with Spanish characters and after following all your instructions, the font is basic times new roman when I hope it to view. :(

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    1. Kristin, I emailed you back but I'll see what I can find out. I've never had this happen, but it's certainly possible.

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  18. Thank you so much for this blog post! It is AWESOME! I tried it for the first time today and it worked!!!!! Do you know if there is anyway to add pages (such as my terms page) into the secure PDF once I have followed your steps? It has hyperlinks in it and I don't want to loose those... Thank you again!!!! : )

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  19. Awesome tutorial! I learned how to do these steps last week, I'm just stuck on the hyperlinks remaining clickable after following these steps! Have you been able to find a solution yet? :)

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