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Post by flanz on Aug 15, 2021 22:20:00 GMT
Help~
I hope someone can tell me what has happened.
I spent probably 200 hours and $200 to create a gorgeous lay flat premium paper photo cookbook for DD and her fiance. 90 recipes, over 300 photos, plus some family stories and messages for them.
I printed one copy and then converted it to magazine format and printed one of those. The conversion took me a day and a half to complete.
Now when I go to Bookwright, the software Blurb offers for book creation, the project details for the first, expensive book are gone. The project name is there but all of the pages are blank!!! What happened?
I do have an email in to tech support but this is making me a bit crazy. Wondering how to retrieve this huge file and its contents.
There are a couple of corrections I want to make before reprinting for DD and her soon to be DH. I thought that was going to be quick and easy.
Disappointed, and hopeful there's a solution.
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Post by Lexica on Aug 15, 2021 22:41:28 GMT
How very frustrating! It sounds like a lovely project. So you do have one copy printed and in your hands, right? And after printing this you converted it to a magazine format, but did you save the full copy separately? I hope it didn't save over the full version as the magazine version, deleting the full version. Did you name them differently or with a different extension?
I just looked at the Bookwright website and see that it is free software that you download to your own computer. Have you done a computer search for any files? I am assuming it saves them to a predetermined location on your hard drive. Mac or PC? The first thing I would do is a search on your drive. If you cannot locate where they should be saved, try opening the program and creating a one-page book, save it and note where it is being saved. Then go into that area when outside the program to search for the files.
Good luck. This sounds like such a special gift and is motivating me to make one for my son. He is a terrific cook and loves making our family recipes. He usually just calls me for them but I know he would love having a book of his own, especially of my father's recipes. I do have a video of my father teaching him how to make pierogi. He and I are the only family members that wanted to learn to carry on the tradition of making them and have done so in my home several times.
ETA: I just downloaded the program to my Mac and noted the files are saved under documents/blurb/filename.blurb. Hopefully you will find everything you created in your master file.
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peasquared
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,527 
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Post by peasquared on Aug 15, 2021 23:52:21 GMT
Oh No! I know you worked so hard on this. I hope someone is able to help you!
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Post by malibou on Aug 16, 2021 1:43:41 GMT
Please please let flanz find all of her hardwork. Your dd will be so pleased to receive this. |
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Post by hop2 on Aug 16, 2021 1:47:32 GMT
I hope you can get it back it sounds like a super special & thoughtful gift!
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Post by flanz on Aug 16, 2021 3:54:32 GMT
Thank you all for your supportive comments, and thank you very much, Lexica , for your suggestions.  I was able to find a .blurb file for the magazine version of the 110 page book and am grateful for that. Despite being in touch with customer service a few times regarding converting from one book format to another, I somehow ended up with just one of the files. I ordered 4 more copies of the magazine version and will give "the kids" the nice layflat book which I already have in my possession. I had decided to keep that one and order another, slightly improved version for DD and her fiance, but I'm okay with them having one with a couple of small errors. On one page a photo is partially covering a line of text in the recipe instructions, and it's easy to figure out what that likely says. I was also going to add more little monster figures hidden in some of the photos, a sort of Where's Waldo game for them and their kids, if they're lucky enough to have that dream realized. I have several in there but they're mostly in plain sight. Lexica , I have written two long replies to you and they both got deleted as I absentmindedly closed my computer before finishing and hitting "post." I appreciate all of your great advice, and I'm tickled about our pierogi connection! I have a two page spread all about pierogi making in our family, as all four of DDs grandparents were born in Poland and we've all made hundreds of pierogi. I love that you know pierogi is the plural. (One is a pierog, people, and perogies is just WRONG!) If you PM me your email address I'll send you a screenshot of that two page spread if you'd like to see it. Back to the small errors in the big photo heavy cookbook... this former perfectionist is thrilled to be happy and totally ok with giving them that version. I'm not going to sweat it. In fact, I've come to really appreciate imperfections. Do you know about the Japanese art of Kintsugi? I love it! I've had pretty great customer service from the folks at Blurb during the book making process, and I'm still curious to learn what I should have done differently. I think the other detailed file is prob. irretrievable. |
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Post by Patter on Aug 16, 2021 10:15:15 GMT
So glad you found the magazine version. I was sitting here panicking for you. Whew! That's always what scares me about digital files. I know they will love this gift!
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Post by Lexica on Aug 16, 2021 16:45:45 GMT
Thank you all for your supportive comments, and thank you very much, Lexica , for your suggestions. I was able to find a .blurb file for the magazine version of the 110 page book and am grateful for that. Despite being in touch with customer service a few times regarding converting from one book format to another, I somehow ended up with just one of the files. I ordered 4 more copies of the magazine version and will give "the kids" the nice layflat book which I already have in my possession. I had decided to keep that one and order another, slightly improved version for DD and her fiance, but I'm okay with them having one with a couple of small errors. On one page a photo is partially covering a line of text in the recipe instructions, and it's easy to figure out what that likely says. I was also going to add more little monster figures hidden in some of the photos, a sort of Where's Waldo game for them and their kids, if they're lucky enough to have that dream realized. I have several in there but they're mostly in plain sight. Lexica , I have written two long replies to you and they both got deleted as I absentmindedly closed my computer before finishing and hitting "post." I appreciate all of your great advice, and I'm tickled about our pierogi connection! I have a two page spread all about pierogi making in our family, as all four of DDs grandparents were born in Poland and we've all made hundreds of pierogi. I love that you know pierogi is the plural. (One is a pierog, people, and perogies is just WRONG!) If you PM me your email address I'll send you a screenshot of that two page spread if you'd like to see it. Back to the small errors in the big photo heavy cookbook... this former perfectionist is thrilled to be happy and totally ok with giving them that version. I'm not going to sweat it. In fact, I've come to really appreciate imperfections. Do you know about the Japanese art of Kintsugi? I love it! I've had pretty great customer service from the folks at Blurb during the book making process, and I'm still curious to learn what I should have done differently. I think the other detailed file is prob. irretrievable. I'm glad you found the magazine file on your system. I had another thought. When you were finished with the book file, did you have to email the finished file to the company to order the book itself? If so, it will be in your email system. Fingers crossed! I love that you make pierogi too! My grandparents on my father's side were born in the Ukraine. My grandparents moved from the Ukraine to Canada, independent of each other, and met while my grandma was a cook in a restaurant. My grandfather kept going to the restaurant to see her and eventually talked her into a date. The pierogi that I make come from Grandma's recipe. When we were kids, making the pierogi was a whole family commitment and if you didn't help make them, you didn't eat them. The only excuse was if you were deathly sick. We each had our jobs. Mom, at one end of the kitchen, was in charge of making the dough and cutting it into squares. My siblings and I were in the middle along a lengthy work surface where we stuffed them. At the other end of the kitchen, my father was in charge of quality control (Heaven forbid if you allowed any tiny bit of stuffing to peek out causing the dumpling to explode in the boil water!) Once he approved of a batch, he boiled them, dipped them in butter, and monitored the finished pierogi to make sure we were not sneaking any before supper. I have such fond memories from those days. And any time Dad left the kitchen for something, my siblings AND my mom each grabbed a dumpling to eat before Dad came back and caught us! Such fun. I will send you my email. I would love to see your pages on making them! |
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Post by flanz on Aug 16, 2021 20:07:28 GMT
Thank you all for your supportive comments, and thank you very much, Lexica , for your suggestions. I was able to find a .blurb file for the magazine version of the 110 page book and am grateful for that. Despite being in touch with customer service a few times regarding converting from one book format to another, I somehow ended up with just one of the files. I ordered 4 more copies of the magazine version and will give "the kids" the nice layflat book which I already have in my possession. I had decided to keep that one and order another, slightly improved version for DD and her fiance, but I'm okay with them having one with a couple of small errors. On one page a photo is partially covering a line of text in the recipe instructions, and it's easy to figure out what that likely says. I was also going to add more little monster figures hidden in some of the photos, a sort of Where's Waldo game for them and their kids, if they're lucky enough to have that dream realized. I have several in there but they're mostly in plain sight. Lexica , I have written two long replies to you and they both got deleted as I absentmindedly closed my computer before finishing and hitting "post." I appreciate all of your great advice, and I'm tickled about our pierogi connection! I have a two page spread all about pierogi making in our family, as all four of DDs grandparents were born in Poland and we've all made hundreds of pierogi. I love that you know pierogi is the plural. (One is a pierog, people, and perogies is just WRONG!) If you PM me your email address I'll send you a screenshot of that two page spread if you'd like to see it. Back to the small errors in the big photo heavy cookbook... this former perfectionist is thrilled to be happy and totally ok with giving them that version. I'm not going to sweat it. In fact, I've come to really appreciate imperfections. Do you know about the Japanese art of Kintsugi? I love it! I've had pretty great customer service from the folks at Blurb during the book making process, and I'm still curious to learn what I should have done differently. I think the other detailed file is prob. irretrievable. I'm glad you found the magazine file on your system. I had another thought. When you were finished with the book file, did you have to email the finished file to the company to order the book itself? If so, it will be in your email system. Fingers crossed! I love that you make pierogi too! My grandparents on my father's side were born in the Ukraine. My grandparents moved from the Ukraine to Canada, independent of each other, and met while my grandma was a cook in a restaurant. My grandfather kept going to the restaurant to see her and eventually talked her into a date. The pierogi that I make come from Grandma's recipe. When we were kids, making the pierogi was a whole family commitment and if you didn't help make them, you didn't eat them. The only excuse was if you were deathly sick. We each had our jobs. Mom, at one end of the kitchen, was in charge of making the dough and cutting it into squares. My siblings and I were in the middle along a lengthy work surface where we stuffed them. At the other end of the kitchen, my father was in charge of quality control (Heaven forbid if you allowed any tiny bit of stuffing to peek out causing the dumpling to explode in the boil water!) Once he approved of a batch, he boiled them, dipped them in butter, and monitored the finished pierogi to make sure we were not sneaking any before supper. I have such fond memories from those days. And any time Dad left the kitchen for something, my siblings AND my mom each grabbed a dumpling to eat before Dad came back and caught us! Such fun. I will send you my email. I would love to see your pages on making them! Thanks for sharing your memories. Such fun! This is almost exactly what happened once a month when DH was growing up, except the dough was cut into circles with one special drinking glass which was just the right size. I totally understand the "there better not be a speck of filling visible" vibe! They'd make about 400 at a time. His dad did the boiling and coating in browned butter, and the ones that didn't get eaten right away were cooled and then stacked into large rectangular plastic boxes for the freezer. We ate tons when making them. Nothing better than fresh pierogi, hot from the pot. I'll send you the photos, thanks for your email address, Lexica, as well as all of your help. (No, I didn't email the file, there was a live link to upload it to Blurb.) |
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