Auto Layout is designed to make creating photobooks quicker and easier. As a customer adds or removes pictures, it automatically updates the design of the page, choosing from the page layouts built into the product.
The core idea is simple: Auto Layout is a layout selection tool. It draws on the range of page layouts already available within the product and applies the one that suits the number of pictures on the page.
What Auto Layout does
When a customer drags a picture directly onto a page, Auto Layout counts the pictures the page now holds and selects a suitable page layout from those available in the product.
For example:
• A blank page with one picture may change to a layout containing one picture box.
• Adding a second picture may change the page to a layout containing two picture boxes.
• Adding a third may change it again to a three-picture design.
The page design adapts as the customer works, leaving them free to concentrate on their photographs.
Because Auto Layout draws on the layouts within the product, the range of designs available shapes the experience. The broader the selection of page layouts, the more choice Auto Layout has.
How Auto Layout chooses a layout
Auto Layout follows a consistent set of rules when deciding which design to apply.
It counts picture boxes. The number of picture boxes required is the main factor. Drop one picture onto a blank page and Auto Layout looks for a layout containing one picture box. Add another and it looks for a layout that accommodates the new total.
It can use spread layouts. Where the product contains both single-page and spread layouts, Auto Layout can select a spread when that suits the page — for example, when a picture or picture box crosses the centre of a two-page spread.
Layout availability is controllable. Auto Layout selects from the layouts made available to it. Layouts marked as Private or Excluded from Autoflow stay reserved for manual use, which gives precise control over the designs Auto Layout can reach for.
It uses the first suitable layout. Auto Layout works through the available layouts in the order they appear in the layout list and applies the first one that matches the criteria. Layout order therefore has a real influence on which designs customers see most often, and is well worth arranging deliberately.
When a picture is removed
Auto Layout responds in the same way when a customer removes a picture or picture box, selecting a layout suited to the new number of picture boxes.
There is one helpful exception. Where a single picture box remains on the page and the customer removes it, the page keeps its current design and the picture box is simply cleared, leaving the page ready for whatever the customer wants to do next.
Matching the layouts to the page
Where the product contains a layout for the number of picture boxes required, Auto Layout applies it. In other cases the page behaves in the familiar way: a picture box is added when a picture is dropped onto the page, and removed when a picture is deleted.
Providing a good range of page layouts keeps Auto Layout active across a wide variety of pages.
Dropping pictures into existing picture boxes
Auto Layout responds when a picture is dropped directly onto the page. Where a customer drops a picture into a picture box that is already part of the design, the current layout stays exactly as it is.
This means customers keep full manual control and can fill an existing design however they like.
Which products suit Auto Layout best
Which products suit Auto Layout best
Auto Layout works particularly well with photobook products offering a good variety of page layouts, ideally covering a range of picture counts:
• Page Style 1 — one picture box
• Page Style 2 — two picture boxes
• Page Style 3 — three picture boxes
• Page Style 4 — four picture boxes
• And so on, as appropriate for the product
A layout for every possible number of pictures is optional. What matters is offering a good range, which gives Auto Layout more flexibility and keeps a suitable design available as customers build their pages.
A key design consideration: leaving space on the page
It is worth thinking about how picture boxes sit on the page. Taopix recommends page layouts that leave some open space around the picture boxes, particularly for single-page designs.
The reason is practical. Open space gives the customer somewhere to drop the next picture, and that is exactly what invites Auto Layout to respond with a fresh design. Layouts where picture boxes fill the whole page area — full-bleed designs, for instance — are best suited to pages intended to stay exactly as designed.
Design tip: for the liveliest Auto Layout experience, build in a little breathing room around the picture boxes.
Deciding whether to enable Auto Layout
Auto Layout is a strong fit for products designed to give customers a quick and flexible way to build their photobooks. A few questions help confirm it is the right choice:
• Does the product have a good variety of page layouts?
• Are there layouts available for different numbers of pictures?
• Are those layouts suitable for automatic use?
• Are they arranged in the desired order?
• Do the designs leave enough open space for customers to drop additional pictures?
• Will the layouts deliver the kind of experience you want customers to have?
Where the answers are yes, Auto Layout will speed up the design process considerably.
Products built around a specific, carefully curated set of page designs work beautifully with Auto Layout switched off, keeping every page exactly as intended. The setting sits under Pictures → Options → Auto Layout, where it can simply be unselected.
In summary
Auto Layout is a page-layout selection tool. It works with the layouts built into the product, applying an appropriate one as customers add or remove pictures.
The key to great results is to give Auto Layout a good selection of suitable page layouts, arrange them in a considered order, and leave room on the page for the next picture. Set up this way, Auto Layout reduces the manual work involved in building a photobook while leaving customers completely free to create the book they want.