Yeah, I know I called the post “How To Edit EZ Ebook Template Backgrounds”, but the tips in this tutorial will help you understand how to edit any graphical element in any of the EZ Ebook Template Packages.
So, without further delay, here’s how to do it — step by step.
We’ll start out editing one of the backgrounds from the first EZ Ebook Template Package. And, it’s a background that can be rather tricky if you’re brand new at this type of editing.
Here’s what the image looks like before we make any changes:
It’s important to understand that this, and a majority of the other graphical design elements included in the EZ Ebook Template Packages are used inside the actual ebook templates as .jpg or .jpeg images. However, they do come in 2 different forms inside your EZ Ebook Template Package. One is the standard .jpg or .jpeg format, and the other is the completely editable .psd format.
And, so, the .psd file is the file we’ll be working with in this tutorial.
So, we need to locate the .psd file for the image we want to edit.
The image we’ll be using in this first portion of the tutorial can be found inside the EZ Ebook Template Package #1 file folder, within an internal folder named “PSD Files“.
You will be looking for a file named: “side background 2.psd“.
To open it up and begin editing, usually, I will simply double left click on the file. This will bring up the image inside your existing image editing program. For me, this is Photoshop 7.0. For you, it could be something different.
And, if that’s the case, then what you will want to do is Right Click on the file and choose the “Open With” option from the pop up menu. And open the image with the image editing program of your choice that exists on your computer system.
Once it’s open, it’s time to begin the editing process.
Editing this background is pretty simple. But I’ll show you how to not only edit the text, but also, how to quickly change the color of the background too.
FIRST STEP: CHANGING THE TEXT
This is the first thing you should see when opening up your image inside Photoshop:
To make changes to the text, we’ll need to left click on the Text layer, represented by the big “T” shown above.
Once our Text layer is selected, we need to also left click, or select the Text Tool:
Once you have done that, it’s time to left click anywhere inside our text layer, like this:
You should see a little squiggly flashing line, as shown above. Obviously because this is a screen capture, it isn’t blinking, but inside Photoshop, it will be.
Then we need to highlight our text by left clicking, holding it down and dragging across our text. You should come up with something similar looking to this:
Now, all we need to do is type in our own text. Normally, this will be the title of your ebook.
You should end up with something similar to this:
And done!
Well, not quite. We still have to save our new image.
To save your image for use in your EZ Ebook Template, you will need to deselect the Text Tool inside Photoshop. Which is where you should still be at this point.
You can do that by selecting the “Move Tool” that looks like this:
Once that tool has been selected, simply click on: File > Save For Web. .
A new window will pop open that should look similar to this:
You’re going to want to make sure that you’re saving the image as a .jpg or .jpeg file. You select this setting from the drop down menu shown below if it isn’t already selected:
You will also want to be sure that the quality is turned all the way up to 100%:
Then, simply hit the “SAVE” button.
A new window will pop open that will give you the option to name, or rename your image.
It might be a good idea to give your edited graphic background a different name, such as “side background 2a”, so that you don’t get it confused with the original, in case you decide to resell the package 
If we want, we can also change the background and text colors of our graphic.
Here’s how to change the background color easily.
Left click the “Background” layer to select it, found at the bottom:
Next, you will want to select the “Paint Bucket” tool:
Then select the new color you’d like to fill the background in with using the color swatches either on the tool bar itself, or from the swatches palette. In this example, we’ll stick to the color swatches on the tool bar:
USING THE TOOL BAR COLOR SWATCHES
Double click on the color swatch and an new color tool window will open allowing you to select a new color:
Once you select a different color you are happy with, simply hit the “OK” button, and it will automatically show up in the tool bar color swatch.
Now all you have to do is select the “Paint Bucket” tool, and left click once anywhere inside the “Background” layer of the image. And the color is now changed:
You can do the same thing for changing the text color, but by using the “Blending Options”.
Here’s how to do it:
Right Click on the Text layer and select from the corresponding menu “Blending Options”.
A new window will appear that looks like this:
You will notice that the Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, and Stroke options have already been set.
To make changes to those, simply left click on the corresponding options text. In other words, to change the Stroke settings, left click directly on the text “Stroke”.
You will see the window change to reflect this:
Here, you can change the width of the stroke line from “1″ to “3″, “4″, “10″, “16″ or any width you wish. Remember, the width is calculated by pixels.
You can change the color by double clicking on the Fill Type color box/swatch.
Do the same things with all the Blending Options pre-selected to see what you come up with.
The last thing to do to change the color of the text entirely, is to add a new Blending Option.
The Color Overlay:
You should see the text change color inside your graphic image already.
Now you can left click the color swatch box shown above and play around until you get a color you like.
Then, as explained before, simply “Save For Web. .” and you’re all done!
Now, we can close down Photoshop. But, before we do, DO NOT save any changes you’ve made to the .PSD file. And Photoshop will ask you if you’d like to “save changes” to the original .psd before it closes. DO NOT!!
Otherwise, it will change the original completely applying any changes you’ve made to it. Plus, it’s always good to start with the original later on to get the same color scheme and text. Remember, you can always go back and change them again. But it’s best to do it from the beginning.
It’s time to put our new graphic background into our ebook template.
And here’s how to do it:
Begin by opening up the EZ Ebook Template inside OpenOffice Writer that you wish to change the background graphic on.
We want to go to the direct TOP of our template as this layout is completely done inside a huge Table.
Up at the top, left click once inside the far left hand column.
Then simply right click for the menu to open.
From this menu, select: > Table. .
You should now see this in the new window that pops up:
Hit The “Browse” button to navigate to your new graphic background you wan to add.
Locate the file and select it by left clicking.
Then, simply hit “Open”.
You should now see your graphic inside the “preview” section:
Make sure the “Tile” radio button on the left hand side is selected, and then hit “OK”.
You should now see your new background showing up:
Follow the same steps above for the Right hand side of the ebook template.
And here’s what I ended up with:
Yours will no doubt be different
Well, I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and that you’ve come away with a greater knowledge of how to change the backgrounds inside your EZ Ebook Templates.
Ah yes. Is there anything better than a nice big, FREE heaping bowl of your favorite ice cream? How about with pixels on the side? What???! “Pixels and Ice Cream“? Yep. That’s the name of a terrific website that offers free photoshop brushes and patters, some of which include wonderful seamless tiling backgrounds, that you can use both personally and commercially. Plus some other cool free stuff.
