Faq's - Frequently Asked Questions About Making E-Cards At Create Ecards

Get quick answers to many frequently asked questions at createecards.com. Get info about using your own images, resizing images, adding music, removing ads, tested operating systems and more.

Q. I'd like to find a tool that let's me use my own image/artwork for e-cards. Can I do this with your tool?

A. Registered members can upload up to 9 images that they can use freely. These images can be added or replaced at any time by selecting the "Edit" link below any image. Currently these images are only uploadable in JPG format at a recommended max size of 480w x 640h and a max file size of 150,000 bytes.

Q. I just made my first card and it is huge and not like a normal size ecard. When I use my own images, how can I make sure the ecard will be normal size?

A. By default, the cards will fit nicely on the view screen and also fit nicely when printed on paper using either portrait or landscape view, since the graphics we provide are all 300 pixels wide by 390 pixels tall.

When you provide your own images, there is no restriction on the image width or height, provided you keep the image file size below the maximum allowed file size, however, we recommend you do not exceed the common size of 480x640 so that you still have a great portrait printing and screen viewing experience. You can also select the alternate size of 640x480 for landscape printing, however, right scrolling may be required to view the whole card.

You can use any photo editor of your choice to resize your images, or you can use this online photo editor.

For example, if you have a favorite image that is 800 pixels wide and 1500 pixels tall, the card will be very unbalanced since the image is so large that you will have to scroll far to the right and far to the bottom to see the card. To fix this, resize the image so that neither the width exceeds 480 nor the height exceeds 640. In this example, simply reducing the width to 480 still results in a height of 950...way too tall. Instead, we resize the height to 640, resulting in a width of 323. This image should now fit nicely on the card and not require scrolling for most viewers and will also print nicely as well.

Q. I noticed this comment "Sorry your browser doesn't support Java." when using the card program. None of the cool special effects are working. How can I fix this?

A. It's possible that you just need to change a few settings within Internet explorer. Follow these steps.

• Open internet explorer and click on "Tools" in the upper menu bar
• Then scroll to the bottom of the list and select "Internet Options"
• On the box that opens, select the "Security" tab.
• On the next screen, select "Custom Level" near the bottom of the window.
• Scroll down until you see "Java Permissions" Select any option other than "Disable"
• Scroll down much further until your see "Scripting"
• Select "Enable" for "Scripting of Java Applets"
• When completed, select "Apply" at the bottom of the window.
• If asked, restart your computer.

Q. Can I use my own music when sending cards...and if so, how do i do it?

A. With respect to music, we have not provided a way for you to use your own music or save music files in your account, due to possible copyright issues. If you do have some other place online where you can save the song, you can create your card as "html" on "STEP #7 CREATE YOUR MESSAGE". Just include the code below to embed your own song.

<embed src="http://www.PATH-TO-YOUR-FILE-ONLINE" hidden="true" autostart="true" loop="true">

If you do include your own reference to a music file, leave "STEP #9: PICK A SONG!" as "No Music Selected", so that you do not have a conflict of more than 1 song trying to play.

Q. The images from my digital camera are 5 times larger than the image size you allow members to upload. How can I use my digital camera images with your e-cards?

A. Digital cameras generally create very large images that are great for creating high resolution pictures that you can print on glossy paper. The internet does not use these large images since they would fill the screen and require scrolling for several screens both to the right and to the bottom. Providing an image that is 2448x1632 (500,000 bytes) is not practical since the average internet user has a screen resolution of 800x640 or perhaps 1024x768. Also, since not everyone is connected by broadband, the upload could take several minutes.

By reducing your image size to no greater than 640x480, still rather large (100,000 bytes), your image will now fit on one screen view and will take less than a half minute to load without broadband. In addition, if the person wanted to print their card, it will be able to fit better on the sheet. If you do not have a photo editor to do this on your own, use this Online Photo Editor.

Q. I'm a registered user. I thought there would be no ads in the e-card that I sent, but there are ads. Why is this happening?

A. Provided that you are logged in when creating the card, there will be no ads on the card page. Registration alone does not eliminate the ads. You must make sure you also log in each time when creating the cards. As a final confirmation, when you are logged in and looking at the page that makes the cards, below the top left hand corner will be your name and number of days left to your card registration.
If you do not see this, you are not logged in.

Q. I uploaded my images fine, but they are not showing in the the "My Images" area where you create the cards. I want to use these images. How can I get my images to show up?

A. As long as the images uploaded fine, the only possible cause of the images not showing up is if the browser needs to be refreshed. Depending upon your browser settings, this can be remedied as easy as clicking your refresh button. If this does not work, shut down all browser windows and start a new browser session. Overall, the issue is in getting the browser to accept the newer images versus the ones it may be holding in its cache.

Q. I use webtv, which is not java based. Are there any of your items not java based.

A. The bulk of the special features of our e-cards do use Java, and the cards themselves are created with Java Script. We have not tested with WebTV since the percentage of users is not large enough to warrant the time to create a version that will work for WebTV.

Q.What OS (Operating System) and browser do I need in order to use your great E-Card creating program?

A.We recommend you use the WindowsXP, 2000, NT, 98 or ME Operating System since Macintosh (Apple) & Linux are not supported. In addition, we recommend you use the Internet Explorer 6 or newer browser since other browsers like FireFox, Netscape and Opera were not considered during program design.

Q. I forgot my username or password. How do I get a new one or find out what the current ones are?

A. We have a Login Help Page set up specifically to help you. You can select to have your current information sent to your email address, or answer the security question that was asked upon registering. Please refer to the Login Help Page for more details.