P: Ability to create custom book templates/sizes from scratch

I agree that this would be a very poor workaround, only practical for computer savvy users that need few additional templates that are not changed for individual pages.
If anybody from Adobe is reading this, I hope they realize that they still need to offer a flexible book module.

When the Book module was launched initially and this issue arose, Adobe promised publically on one of their forums that they would publish a means by which templates could be adjusted. As far as I am aware (and I am eagerly open to correction) that has never happed.

For me, modifying templates is just a poor workaround. It will cause an iterative approach to dealing with small adjustments needed on individual pages, depending on the nature and size of images and text. It would be worse than the "padding" solution. Real world needs the ability to tweak templates on the fly on a page by page basis, and if the need applies tweak and save the relevant template as well.

As there was not an official Adobe means to deal with this I can use InDesign. As this is too labour intensive for me most of the time, I only produce books under extreme duress. If the Book module was more usable, I would create a book for every project I do, trip I take, etc. Bottom line, if Adobe are getting a percentage of revenue from Blurb for books created from the Book module then they are losing at least 95% of the potential.

Thanks for the links, I will explore later in the week, when I will have some breathing space.

Searching the web about this topic I found some information about the possibility of creating custom page sizes and templates for the book module by editing template LUA files that can be found in the Program files\Adobe\Lightroom folder.

I have not tried it yet, but if it works, it would help in cases when when the user needs just a few custom templates and book sizes, and it is willing to go through the trouble of creating these templates.

You can find some information at:
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1254145
http://www.lightroomforums.net/showth...

Thank you very much for for explaining

Following the release of Lr6, I am just reviewing my personal wish list relative to the top requests in this forum. I notice this is in the top 10 requested by users to Adobe, but has been ignored completely in LR6.

This request was originally posted more than 3 years ago.

This is the fundamental flaw with the book module and has been since its inception. The padding option is just that ...padding. The option to move cells should be there for text and images, on individual book pages and also the ability to apply same editing options to template pages.

The native Blurb app is better than the Adobe book module, but we are then forced to create massive amounts of intermediate work files. If we then need to adjust the size of an image we have to re-create the image again, if you want to be careful re your sharpening settings. Nightmare stuff.

Listiew provides the Metadata of your choice from Lightroom in an Excel or text file which you can then use to merge with a Photoshop, InDesign, Word or Publisher mailmerge style document. I have used all of these options. The disadvantage is that you can only use a single template, so not good for books. The disadvantage of Photoshop and InDesign is that the workflow is tedious (I have written JavaScript to automate this in InDesign and Photoshop, but still tedious) and you can only work with a single template page layout at a time. The advantage of Word is that I can run a script to get rid of the soft page breaks, so I end up with a document which has a flow of photographs, with professionally constructed Titles, Captions, Location, Date/Time, Copyright, etc. This is perfect for creating PDF documents or web pages, where I can use the full editing power of Word or Publisher to adjust the layout to my needs with the perfect marriage of image and metadata, perfectly formatted.

What is really aggravating is that Adobe provide us with the tools to manage metadata with an image, but seriously constrain our ability to use the metadata with our images. The annoying thing is that the feature is in the Slideshow module (which I do not use) but not in the Print module, which I use all the time. The Book module is crippled, so do not use that. I use JavaScript + Mailmerge + Photoshop to produce high quality PSD's for printing of images, but the techniques I use are beyond the scope of most Creative Suite users. Shame on Adobe for making it so difficult for us to work with our images and metadata.

A tip re Listview. There is a setting which allows you replace a space by another character (eg underscore) in column titles, to make mail merges less painful.

I would love to spend a month with the Adobe Lightroom and Creative team to show them what really needs improvement to streamline workflow for the serious user.

Sorry for the long post... but I thought this info might be useful to you. You can email me directly if you want to ask any specific questions. I

Good summary. I will look into ListView as a work around for the lack of a working book module. I have been using the book module just to organize pictures and pages. Then I use the print module with custom templates for each page type to create one jpeg for each page. Once I get all the pages in jpg format, I go to the software from the book printing service, and I manually sort the pages using the book module as a guide. This is a tedious process similar to what one would have to do without a computer.
I wonder what would be a good forum to exchange ideas for a better workflow.
It would be great if one could get a collection with the pictures in a Lightroom book module sorted as in the book and with tags noting which page template was used.
I wonder if a working book module could be created as a plug-in. If someone where to do that, I would be ready to buy it.

I agree with most of the points here.

1. I use InDesign but would prefer to do books in Lightroom for lots of workflow efficiency reasons.
2. I am not overly concerned re Blurb, but I agree ... it should be called the Blurb module.
3. My personal nickname for Adobe is Adobe 80%. Adobe do a good job doing the first 80% and then get lost and take another 10 years to do the next 10% and so on. So, so many examples across the entire creative suite.
4. I am depressed as usual that the Book module has been left literally "on the shelf".
5. It is clear that a lot of effort went into the initial book module, a pity its overall template design was so badly flawed and misconceived.
6. A lot of good stuff under the hood in Lr6 / CC. The only new feature I see useful is the panorama merge, clever to hold the details in a dng file. As this was already in Photoshop, most of the new features are badly needed improvements in the core architecture of Lr. Having waited patiently so long for a new release, I have to say I am disappointed.
7. I do not use the Book module. Lots of people I know avoid this module also.
8. I can create really good pdf's. word docs, html pages using Microsoft MailMerge with Word or Publisher. It is really simple to create a page template and merge with a file created by John Beardsworth Lightroom plug-in called ListView. This does a good job for me of placing images on a page with professionally formatted Title, Caption, Date,Time, Copyright info relative to the image. To me this is a sad workaround. Adobe could so easily do the right thing here.
9. I still do not understand why the mobile version does not allow me enter metadata and lock an image if I am happy with its current status from further developments. This is real usable stuff.

I suspect many people who are serious about books already have InDesign. I would be happy to pay for a pro version of Lightroom which had a functional book module. Also, I would happy to purchase a dedicated Book app.

So, I will set the alarm clock for another 2 years or so and see what the next version will bring.

I'm pretty sure that they have some sort of a deal with blurb. I now think of it as the "Blurb Module" and it helps me. As a blurb module it does do extra stuff that makes it helpful. But as a book model it is very disappointing and does not serve much if any real purpose. As a new user who reads what is in Lightroom, like I did when I started this thread, it is frustrating, as I had expectations of being able to design a book or album in Lightroom.

Maybe instead they could just change the name and stop advertising it as if it is something that a pro could use for a client, and make it more of an extra that someone might use if they happen to want to make their own little book, or to make a quick on screen demo for a client of what their book might look like, then it would be pretty cool.