Guide [Issue 14] How to make the Main Topic

[Lhamster 4,081]

 

You will have seen the Main Topic that is posted every issue, with excerpts from the articles and clickable pictures, but you may not know how it's made. In this article I will explain how I make it, reveal my secrets, and it's probably not what you expect! I don't have Photoshop, so I use OpenOffice (Free version of Microsoft Word) and Paint, with a little help from GIMP.
 
To start, I open OpenOffice and set up the formatting, using a header for the main title at the top, and splitting the page into 2 columns, for the articles, with a dividing line to mark the middle.

 

 
I then create the title, with the issue number and month above and a little logo too.

 

 
I make a list of the article titles and the order I want them in, then paste in the article title and its excerpt one by one and arrange them in the 2 columns, making sure the spacing between the paragraphs is even. I then check to make sure everything is in the correct font, and is the correct size. Once this is all done, I will paste in the background. I put it in twice, with the bottom half flipped vertically, to make sure it matches and then stretch the parts vertically to make them meet. If I go onto a second page, I make sure the background doesn't cover the second unneeded header, so that the bottom of the first page and the top of the second match.

 

 

I then go into print preview, zoom to 126%, and go full screen. I will then print screen a section of the page and paste it into paint.
 
To slice the MT so it can be made clickable with links to the articles, I simply select the area that I want to be the slice, using the dividing line I put in to make sure the writing is in the middle of the slice, and crop the rest of the screenshot out.

 

 

I then save the slice as an image, hit Ctrl Z to reverse the crop, and select another slice, crop and save that. I repeat this until I've done all the slicing I can for the section I print screened, and then I screenshot another section and repeat the process. Once this is done, I have my MT in the slices that I need, but they may not all be the same dimensions, which means it won't look smooth on the forum, and some slices may stick out further than others. What I do now is fire up GIMP, and simply resize the slices to make sure they are all the same width, and are the same height as the slice next to it.

 

 

Once this is done, I have my MT ready to put on the forum, so I upload all the slices and put them in the topic that will have the MT in.

 

 

The last part of the process is to link all the images to the article that it has on, so when you click it, it takes you to that topic.

 

 

To do this, we use the code:
 

[url=*topic link*][img=*image link*][/url]

---

So instead of seeing the url, or green clickable text, you see the slice. I then post it, and it's ready for publishing!
 
 
So, a bit of a strange way to make it, but I had to improvise having no Photoshop, and I'm quite proud of the way I came up with to get it sliced. If you look at the MT I made in Issue 10, you'll see it's all one big picture with no links as I hadn't figured out how to do this yet. Thankfully, I realised how to do it and now you know my secrets of the MT. ;)
 
~Lham~

[I3loodShot 3,119]

Wow, I wouldn't understand any of that If I were you :O

[Valletta 834]

Erm... remember when I asked whether I can make one of these for an issue... No thanks   :lol:

[Lhamster 4,081]

lol, harder than it looks eh? :lol:

[hogree 4,179]

Eww.  Designing the newspaper is fun, but when it gets down to slicing, i'd be like "meh, lets play tanki instead", and it would probably stay there undone for millions of days upon end, until conan threatens to fire me.

[Lhamster 4,081]

It's certainly tedious, along with the linking.

[MeCTb_3a_armenia1313 271]

"How to make the main topic" or "How do we make the main topic"!?

;)

[I.Devastation 2,053]

Ooooh. Sweet!

[Notchfan 616]

What font did you use? Just wondering...

[unholycloak5 1,814]

Wow, nice. :O

[TheLonelyEpic 212]

Impressive. Sorry if you wanted some help, it's just that, erm, I have, uh , gotten abducted by some aliens. Have fun, though!

[Lhamster 4,081]

What font did you use? Just wondering...

I use courier new for the small paragraphs, and one called QuadratGrotesk for the titles, which is actually the offical Tanki font, so its not actually preinstalled, you need to get the files and install them, and Bruce kindly gave them to me a little while ago.

[Atakhan 1,229]

Nice way around of creating the main page and tanks for sharing :)

[Endurance 543]

Nice..

[MisterGeneral 692]

This might come in handy for my work, good job!

[HeroPlayer 797]

I've installed a plugin on gimp wich also allows you to export any png, jpg, tif, and gif in slices.

[yatheesh100 2]

seriosly

[Lhamster 4,081]

Heh, it's fun to come back to this and see how noob I was at that stuff when I first started :lol:

[HydroBolt 15]

nice the pictures cannot be seen by the way :D

[jazz20 1,181]

Nice just what we need to know  ^_^

[1stsuperwhitedragon 408]

lol, harder than it looks eh? :lol:

yep :P