FootnotesVMT App Instructions
This app has been designed primarily for tablet use. Some computer web browsers are more ahead than others with regard to enabling these functions, so we recommend trying a different browser if you are having problems. As this is an internet-based app, the quality of your connection may alter its speed and efficiency.
To follow these instructions, we advise you to have both this page and the app screen open simultaneously, so you can easily switch between them.
Create an account
On arrival at the page https://app.footnotesvmt.com/welcome it’s easy to create a user account for the first time. Click the ‘create new account’ link and follow the instructions on the next page to choose a username and enter an email address.
You will then need to check your emails. You should have a message with a link, follow this to a new page. Use the ‘log in’ button here to take you to a password setting screen, and follow those instructions to set your password. Pressing ‘save’ opens up the FootnotesVMT web app home page where you are ready to begin digital gridding!
Using the app
This is what your homepage should look like:
You can take advantage of the first free grids. If you want to create and save more, a donation will unlock this functionality as well as enable us to keep developing the app. Visit this page [link] to make your donation!
To make your first grid, click the ‘Create new grid’ button in the bottom right hand corner. This pops up a box where you can give a title and a description to the grid that you are going to make. Press ‘Add new grid’ to complete this step and go to your grid. (You might get a message reminding you about the donation option, so read that first before clicking ‘acknowledge’, and if you would like take a moment to make your donation). This is how the grid looks:
The ‘menu’ symbol in the top left corner brings up a side bar of options for your grid. Many of these are quite self-explanatory (such as emailing, downloading and renaming). ‘Toggle grid title’ switches the title and description of the grid on and off, as you wish. Why not have a go? This is what it looks like with menu and titles on show:
Next you can try double-tapping on one of the boxes in your grid, or a ‘gridlet’ as we like to call them. This brings it up onto full screen, like this:
You can now use different sized brushes, and an eraser, to create your image. Clear if you want to start again, save when you’re happy or cancel if you’ve changed your mind.
Once saved, the screen takes you back to your whole grid, where one gridlet is now filled in.
If you want to add notes to your image, you can do this on the back by flipping the gridlet over! Simply tap the box once to flip it over, then double-tap to make it full screen, like this:
You can then write a description of the image you drew, to help you record any details you would like to remember.
Saving this, the screen goes back to a full version of the grid where you can tap the gridlet again to see the image. In the menu there is the option to ‘Flip all boxes’ at once, which you might find useful once you’ve filled every gridlet up.
You can easily drag your gridlets into new positions on the grid, to rearrange the images.
When your grid is ready, we strongly advise you to download it as a jpeg. (If you’re using a computer, why not make a Footnotes folder on your desktop to create a place to regularly download your grids to.)
To see an overview of all the grids you have saved, choose ‘My grids’ from the menu. From here you can also drag images that you want to reuse into the create new grid ‘drop zone’ on the right of the screen.
NO SCREEN SHOT AVAILABLE
Once you have chosen any images you would like to reuse, the ‘Create new grid’ button will generate your new grid, complete with the copied gridlets.
This should have given you a good overview of how to use the FootnotesVMT Web App. Do explore the not-covered options in the menu. ‘My account’ is the place to go to change passwords, ‘About footnotes’ give you more information, you can email grids to yourself or others as email content or a jpeg attachment through ‘Email grid’ and ‘Email attachment’. The grid, and the text on the back, can be downloaded via ‘Download grid’ and ‘Download text’.