The job of the Send Order Wizard is to manage preparation of your album and printing orders to your suppliers.

Before you Send Order your page layouts should look like the graphic above...

• No aperture warnings.

• Lock symbols on the apertures (added by Photojunction when it created your high-res exports).

• A green check mark  confirming that your high-res exports are up to date.

You should also be satisfied that all work on the design is complete. Photojunction will ask you to confirm that this is so before sending: in other words, that this is indeed the album that you want your vendor to make! If you proceed, the software will lock the design to prevent further changes.

If you do change your mind, and decide that changes are in fact necessary, you'll need to create a duplicate of the album in the Project Browser. You will be able to edit, re-export and re-send the duplicate.

 Step 1

To get started, select Send Order from the Album menu.

The first screen of the Send Order wizard will open. If there are any problems with your images (eg they're missing, or have been edited) the problems will be reported on this screen. You should have already seen the warning symbols on the layout screen, as explained above.

Similarly, if any of your exports are out-of-date, or have not been created, or have been created using a different lab setting file, this too will be displayed. You can print out a report if you wish.

YOUR LAB OR ALBUM COMPANY HAS THE OPTION TO DISALLOW "SEND ORDER" WHERE THERE ARE UNRESOLVED PROBLEMS REPORTED ON THIS SCREEN. OTHER VENDORS MAY ALLOW YOU TO SEND ORDER, BUT CHARGE YOU FOR MAKING CORRECTIONS. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO REVIEW YOUR ORDER AND MAKE CORRECTIONS BEFORE PROCEEDING.

If, after you click Continue, Photojunction discovers that further information is required to complete your order, it will report this, as in the graphic above, so that you can fix the problem. You may also be asked to confirm certain choices. As with this entire Wizard, the purpose is to ensure, as well as possible, that your order is accurate and that you get back what you intended from your vendors.

Step 2 

On the next screen Photojunction will ask you to confirm that you have finished work on the design (when you click Continue the design will be locked, as mentioned earlier) and allow you to choose a location in which to save the order "bundle".

You'll also notice that Photojunction reminds you that you can edit your high-res exports outside Photojunction.  This is perfectly standard workflow behaviour. Most studios will, for example, colour-correct or enhance their image files, or have their lab do it for them. If you're doing the work yourself, by this stage you may have already done so.

HOWEVER, YOU MUST NOT CHANGE IMAGE SIZES, IMAGE CROPPING, IMAGE FILE NAMES OR IMAGE SPECIFICATIONS. IF YOU DO, PHOTOJUNCTION MAY NOT BE ABLE TO LOCATE YOUR FILES, OR THEY MAY NO LONGER BE CORRECTLY FORMATTED FOR YOUR LAB OR ALBUM SUPPLIER.

 Step 3

Step 3 asks you to specify what service you require from your album supplier. The options you see will depend on the services the vendor offers, and your previous choices in the Wizard.

If for some reason you want to send additional files to the vendor (not in the standard bundle) you can drag them to the Support Files box. You can also add instructions specific to this order, and you'll notice that any Regular Preferences you may have set up are included automatically.

Step 4

Step 4 introduces a series of supplementary questions that your album supplier can present to help ensure that your order is accurate and complete. These questions may cover more than one screen. You will need to answer the questions before you can proceed. Generally you can only check one radio button, but you may see questions where you can check more than one box, or where a quantity is required. If you don't understand the question you may find help information displays when you roll over the questions. If you still don't understand the question you will need to ask your vendor.

Once you've answered these questions Photojunction is ready to prepare your order. Click Continue.

Step 5

Photojunction will now create a bundle (folder) of files on your hard disk at the location you specified earlier, ready for you to send to your suppliers. When it's finished you can click Finish and return to Photojunction.

What's in the bundle is what your supplier has stipulated, with the exception of any files you chose to add as "support files" in Step 3. The graphic above shows Queensberry's bundle, including files and reports for both the album supplier and the lab. Generally speaking you'll find two bundles, however - a folder each for the album supplier and the lab.

Note also that Photojunction has labelled the bundle with a "unique ID". This also appears in Photojunction reports for this order.

PLEASE DON'T ADD OR REMOVE ANYTHING FROM THE BUNDLE.

About the "Print Files" folder 

Photojunction has made COPIES of the print files created earlier by the High-Res Export Wizard.

You may have already edited them, as described before (Step 2).

If you choose to edit them now, before sending them to your vendor, please note that you're correcting a COPY: the original export will remain unchanged.

Not quite finished...

Photojunction has sent an email to your vendors advising them to expect your order, but you will still need to upload (or burn and ship) the bundled files.

When you return to the album you will see confirmation that it has been ordered and can no longer be modified.

Finally, you will receive an email generated automatically by Photojunction with details of your order. Your vendors will receive similar emails.