How To Duplicate or Copy Previous Photo Book Projects

Whether you’re working on your first-ever photo book or are a longtime Mixbooker, it’s always satisfying to discover new features and tools in the studio. Learning new tips and techniques helps inspire creativity, saves you time, and ensures you end up with a unique and special photo book.

One of our favorite handy tips is copying a photo book project to create a duplicate. There are lots of reasons to do so. Top among them are helping you make informed design decisions, and saving you tons of time on new projects. Once you discover this technique it will become a valuable part of your Mixbook skillset. Plus, duplicating projects is a very easy process. Simply follow the step-by-step guide below.

How to duplicate a Mixbook project

All your projects, including unfinished, in progress, and completed photo books, are always saved in your Mixbook account. Copying a photo book starts with locating that project in your account. Navigate to the “My Projects” screen.

Tip: If you have a lot of projects to search through, filter by the type of project (photo book, card, or calendar) and sort by date or title for easier browsing.

Follow these steps to create a copy of any project:

1. Click the "Copy" link next to the project – it’s the third one down in the list of links to the right of the project thumbnail and description.
2. In the dialog box that opens, rename the project. By default it will display “Original Title (Copy)” as the new name. Type in a new name if desired.
3. Select the variation you want to copy to: square, landscape, or portrait. (Note that size, style and paper choices will be available during checkout.)
4. Check or uncheck the “Include Photos” box to choose whether to include the original photos or leave the photo frames empty in the copied project.
5. Click "Copy Project" to complete the duplication process

Your new duplicate will appear in the "In Progress" section of your "My Projects" page. Click on the title or thumbnail image of the new copy to open the project in the studio. The new copy is ready to be customized in any way you choose.

Why copy a previous project?

Given that you can open and work on a project even after you’ve completed and ordered it, making a copy isn’t always necessary. However, there are several good reasons to make a copy. These are the most common of them:

Compare different designs

There are a lot of design decisions to make with every photo book project. From themes and layouts to captions, backgrounds, and stickers, choosing all your favorite design elements can leave you perplexed! The “undo” and “redo” buttons are handy for changing elements as you work, but copying is often a better alternative.

By duplicating a photo book project, you can make and save multiple versions of the same book and choose different design elements for each. The original copy remains untouched. Choosing whether to make a background blue or red, or perhaps use a full-page photo instead, is easier when you can see those different ideas side by side.

Create one or more copies of a photo book to compare and contrast other design elements such as:

• Text options for captions (typeface, size, color, text boxes etc.)
• Photo sizes, borders, shadows, and effects, such as black and white or sepia tones
• Layouts
• Stickers
• Book orientations – square, portrait, and landscape

It’s much easier to make design decisions big and small when you can see the different options in front of you.

Personalize gifts

Use Mixbook's copy feature to personalize gifts with a unique cover photo or special message. It’s a great way to connect with family. Grandparents might want to make photo books for each grandchild, keeping the contents the same but featuring each kid’s own photo and name on the cover. A family history book is another amazing gift project that lends itself to multiple copies with customized covers.

Related: Check out the Holiday Gift Guide to spark your creativity.

Reuse a favorite design

If you love the look, layout, and other design elements of a previous project, why not reuse them for a new one? You already spent time selecting the perfect design, so there’s no need to start from scratch the next time you want to create a photo book. Copying a previous project is the fastest and easiest way to reuse a favorite design.

To reuse the design for a whole new set of photographs, be sure to uncheck the “Include Photos” box on the copy options.

Create a cohesive collection

Many types of photo books lend themselves to multi-volume collections, which benefit from matching, cohesive designs and formats. Think about displaying the books together on a coffee table or lined up on a bookshelf – they’ll look more attractive in matching cover designs, or with the spines perfectly lined up. The duplicate feature makes this easy to achieve.

Examples include year-in-review books, anniversary books, and milestone birthday books. If you have multiple children in college or high school, a set of matching graduation books is a nice idea.

How will you use the “Copy” feature?

By following these simple steps, you can easily replicate past Mixbook projects in seconds. Whether you want to make a slight modification, or reuse some key elements and change everything else, copying a previous project is a very handy technique. Share your customer story and let us know the creative ways you used duplicate photo books.