Weekend Warriors July – TOU TRICK and a FREEBIE!!

Heyyy there, friends! Happy Saturday morning to you! I’m teaming up with some of my favorite bloggy friends to bring you another weekend of Weekend Warrior posts.  This month’s theme is Blogging, TPT, and Teaching Secrets!! 🙂

I’ve got a TPT time saver for you today!! . . .

Today I’m bringing you a TPT trick that I – after monthssss of doing it the long and hard way – have put into place for myself that has saved me SO much time when creating my Terms of Use and Credits page for each of TPT products!  I shared this idea at lunch one day in Vegas during the AMAZING TPT conference with 600 of my teacher friends {which you can read allllll about HERE!} and my sweet friends were like . . . TELL US MORE!! THAT IS AN AWESOME IDEA!! Soooo I thought it’d be helpful to share it with all of you!

We all know that we must always always always give credit where credit is due for our graphics, fonts, frames, borders, papers, ETC.!  I’m here today to bring you a quick tip and time saver when giving credit to all of our favorite artists!

When I first began my TPT journey, as I created a product, I would forget to record or list whose graphics I was using! . . . Then, I’d get to the end of my product – be all excited about getting ready to post it – or to give it away –

buttttt oh crap.

I still had A LOT of work to do to give credit to the artists whose work I had used! . . . From listing them, to finding their buttons, to hyperlinking their buttons to their store/blog for proper credit.  OOFDA! It took me another hour to put together my Terms of Use page!! . . .

** (I know some TPTers like to use a pre-made page of ALL of the artists’ buttons that they use in any and all of their products, but I prefer to only include the buttons of the artists whose work I use in each particular file:) I prefer it this way, because I know it’s been helpful to me when I open someone else’s file, they have an AWESOME must-have border, and then I’m able to find it by using their TOU page of artist buttons that are specific to that product! It has helped me in the past, so that’s my little way of trying to help you all, too!)

ANYWAY . . . . .

THEN I got a LITTLE bit smarter.  Just a little.

When I would use a set of clip art in my product, I’d go to the last slide and type in a note to myself of whose graphics I was using.

Then, after I was finished creating and editing, I would go find their buttons.  Insert their buttons. And link their buttons.  STILLLLLL soooooo time consuming.

THENNNNN I came up with this idea.  A MUCH smarter idea.

A what?!

You heard me – A BUTTON FILE!

I made a file of my most frequently used artists’ buttons – I already have the buttons hyperlinked to their stores/blogs for proper credit (those are the blue arrows you see above that tell you that the buttons are hyperlinked!) – and all I have to do as I’m creating is go and grab the button I need! They’re linked, they’re in one place, ANNNND I made sure that it’s an EASILY accessible file, too! . . .

Here’s how….

I’ve titled this file “!! BUTTON FILE” – putting the “!!” in front of the title because that puts it to the TOP of a list of files that are already listed in ABC order!

It’s on my desktop, so when I go to Finder > Desktop (mac language, friends.  So sorry – I don’t speak PC) – it’s the FIRST file I see!! 🙂 HELLLLLO TIME SAVER!

All you have to do is right click on the button you need, copy it, then hop on over to your file for which you’re creating the TOU page, right click and paste it right in!!

Y’ALL! THE HYPERLINK STAYS WITH THE BUTTON! 🙂 You don’t have to re-link it to the artist’s page! Seriously a time saver made in bloggy heaven! YAYY!!

I sure hope this helps give you all a time saving idea when creating your Terms of Use pages!

If these types of organizational tips are helpful to you – check out this {FREEBIE} I’m sharing exclusively with my blog readers! 🙂

It’s a sample page from my Blorganized Binder – which you can enter to win {HERE} through Sunday, July 27!! Take a close look at my Blorganized Binder in my TPT store HERE! 🙂 It’s a fan favorite!

POST UPDATE – you’ve asked about linking the buttons to a website, so, in KEYNOTE here’s how it’s done!! . . .

**TO HYPERLINK THE BUTTONS! or ANY image in your KEYNOTE slide show – I’m not a powerpoint girl, but I’m sure it’s similar!…..

In the “Toolbar” that is in view at ALL times for me to add effects to my images, fonts, etc, (and if yours isn’t in view, go to View>view toolbar!) there is a blue circle with an arrow that is all about hyperlinks! You can see the blue circle that I’m talking about below…

Click the image or text you want to add a link to,  select “enable as hyperlink”, choose “link to webpage” and then enter the URL you want to link to! 🙂 It’s as simple as that!

Looking for some more tips and tricks?! – Well you sure are in luck!! My bloggy friends are here to bring you some! ANNNND check back to all of our blogs again TOMORROW for more tips and tricks coming your way!

Check out my Weekend Warrioring (I know it’s not a word, but it’s fun) friends and their tips below!!