Acoustica MP3 CD Label Maker FAQ

How can I import the song titles from the CD I burned so I don't have to type them all in?

If you burned an audio CD, the Label Maker can usually import your song information from the playlist file you created with your CD Burner program. When you burned the CD, your CD Burning software should have created a file storing the names of all the song files that you were burning onto the CD. If you didn't save this list, please do so from now on -- it will save you lots of typing. 

If you click the "Tracks" button on the CD Label Maker's toolbar to launch the CD Contents dialog and then click the "Import" button on that dialog, the Label Maker will pop up a dialog that lets you find & select the playlist file you used to create your CD. Once you select the file, the Label Maker will scan the playlist file, load your song information from it, and display it in the CD Contents dialog.

If you burned your CD with the Acoustica MP3 CD Burner, you can click the "CD Label" button on the CD Burner's toolbar and the CD Burner will launch the Label Maker and automatically tell it the names, artists, and lengths of all your songs. If the Acoustica CD Burner asks if you want to save before it launches the Label Maker, click the "yes" button.

I printed and nothing happened.

If nothing came out of the printer, it's likely that you selected a different printer than the one you expected to print on. Click the "Print" toolbar button to launch the Print dialog, then check to see what printer is listed at the top of the dialog in the "name" field. Is this the printer you meant to print on? If not, set it to the correct one.

If you got a blank page from the printer, you probably either tried to print a blank label -- one you hadn't added any images, text, or shapes to -- or your hard disk is nearly full. If your hard disk doesn't have at least 200 megabytes of free space, your printer driver is likely to have trouble creating the temporary files it needs to print with.

Can I import my own graphics and put them on labels?

Acoustica CD Label Maker provides two ways to find images on your computer that you can add to your labels: 

1) Click on the "Art Search" tab, enter some text that's in the file or folder names of the art you're looking for, and click the "Search" button. Thumbnails of all supported image files matching your search terms will appear in the window underneath the search button. We support jpg, bmp, png, and pcx graphics types.

2) Click on the "Art Explore" tab, and parse through the explorer tree to see thumbnails of all the supported image files in a particular folder.


If you've found an image you want to make your background, you can do it one of these ways:

• Double-left-click on the image's thumbnail to make it the background

• Ctrl + double-click the thumbnail to make it a tiled background

• Right-click on the image's thumbnail and select one of the "Set as background" options.

If the image you've selected doesn't have the same aspect ratio as the label you're putting it on, it may appear stretched or squished. It that's the case, you can select the image's thumbnail, it onto the label, and release the mouse button, then click on the sizing bars to make it big enough to overlap the label without altering its aspect ratio, and click on its title bar or the image itself to position it where you want it.

If you’ve found an image you want to add to your label as a piece of clip art (rather than as the label background), just left-click on its thumbnail, drag it onto your label, and release the mouse button. The program will place the image where you dropped it. As soon as you drop it, it should be in “selected” mode, with sizing bars and a toolbar. You can click on the image’s sizing bars to resize the image; you can click on the image’s title bar or the image itself to move it. You can also right-click on the image to pop up a menu with a variety of editing options.

You can also drag image files from Windows Explorer and drop them onto your label.
 

I imported my own graphic for a label background and the art looks squished (or stretched).

Your background graphic may look squished or stretched if it has a dramatically different aspect ratio from the label you're putting it on. When you insert a picture as a label background, it will get either stretched or compressed to fit the dimensions of the label you're putting it on. If your image is twice as wide as it is high, for instance, and you try to make it the background for the jewel case front, which is square, your image may appear squished.

To avoid this, you can either use images that are roughly the same shape (and aspect ratio) as the labels you want to put them on, or you can add them to the label as regular clip art rather than as backgrounds, so you can resize them however you like. You can do this by just clicking on the image's thumbnail and dragging it onto the label. You can then move & resize it so that it covers the entire label. It will keep its original aspect ratio unless you right-click on it and uncheck the "maintain aspect ratio" option. You can click the "send to back" button on its toolbar to make sure it appears behind everything else.

I’ve tried to move the text box, but it doesn’t work!  It only let’s me type in text!!  Did I do something wrong?

When you left-click on an unselected text object, it will select the object. The object will grow a title bar, a frame, and a set of resizing bars. If you only wanted to move the object, don’t release the mouse button – you can drag the object anywhere you like until you release the mouse button. Once you release the mouse button, the program will insert a text editing caret next to the text you clicked on.

How do I resize a text box?

First, click on the text box to select it, you should see a red border with 8 red squares around the box.  These squares are points where you can enlarge or reduce the size of the text box.  You can resize the box by clicking on any of the little red resize bars scattered around its border and then dragging them.

How do I hide the “Tools” window?

If you want the tools window to go away altogether, you can click on the left arrow button at the bottom of the window. This will make the labels window take up the entire screen. Once you do this, the left arrow button will turn into a right arrow button; clicking on it will bring the tools window back again.

Can I adjust how the Contents Info/Tracks text box shows?

Yes!  You can adjust how the columns look by “right” clicking on the column in the Contents info box and selecting which columns to show.  You can show or hide the “Number”, “Song Title”, “Artist” and “Length” columns.  You can also decide if you want a “fixed width” column or a “variable width” column.

What’s a fixed width column?

In fixed-width mode, all rows of a column will be the same width. If you set the "track name" column to be 2.5 centimeters wide, every track will have a 2.5-centimeter-wide track name. All rows will line up exactly underneath each other, like the rows in a spreadsheet or a table in a word processor.

What’s a variable width column?

In variable-width mode, each column of each row will be exactly as wide as required to display the amount of text. The title for "You’ve Certainly Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts" will be wider than the title for "Louie Louie." The rows in the text object will not line up directly underneath each other, unless all their text fields happen to be exactly the same length.

However, in variable-width columns mode, there will be a fixed amount of space between columns. If you specify 1.2 centimeters after the track number column, every row will have 1.2 centimeters of blank space between its track number and the field that follows it, no matter how wide individual track numbers may be. When you’re in variable-width columns mode and you drag the column borders in the header bar, you’re actually editing the width between the columns rather than the widths of the columns themselves.

Can I print a label directly onto a CD? Where can I get label paper?

We don't know of any commercially available printer that will print directly onto a CD. Most people who want to create labels for CDs buy sticky-backed CD label paper and print on it, then peel the sticker off and stick it on the CD. Several companies make CD label paper; you can find it at most large electronics stores and some large discount stores. If you're just starting out printing CD labels, we also recommend you buy a CD label applicator. It's a little plastic device, usually selling for a few dollars, that makes it much easier for you to get your labels aligned correctly on your CD.

If you don't want to print jewel case labels on plain paper, you can buy pre-made jewel case label stock at the same places you find CD label paper. It's usually perforated and is thicker than typical printer paper.