Okay so you have 2 items to consider. These items both tell the same story. They both have identical story telling items such as photos, clippings, text sections. One item is a notebook, plain and simple. A notebook that involves just telling the story and if the story isn't so good, chances are that the person reading it will miss the point or not finish. The other item is a scrapbook. It too tells a story. But with the story come items that don't affect the story but do offer some glitter and attractiveness. This is achieved with things like stickers, templates, punches, borders etc. The items complement the story grabbing the reader and making it more likely that they continue.

The popularity of scrapbooking is soaring. From early records called hyponemata, used by ancient Greeks to today's art form. Not only is scrapbooking an art form but it is now considered an industry. Go ahead look in the yellow pages in the phone book. There are always entries for scrapbooking and there are more references every year. Both online and brick and mortar locations are proof to the ascension of this activity.

On the timeline of scrapbooking, you will see several blips or examples when the penetration of the market increased markedly. The ready availability of paper and supplies let common people take part in the art. The latest event to boost scrapbooking is the proliferation of computers and the internet. In days of old, supplies consisted of papers, stencils, pens and pencils. The stamps, templates, glue and scissors are now joined by printers, scanners, photocopiers because of the technology boom.

Along with the digital scrapbook comes scrapbooking software. Online companies that specialize in scrapbooking supplies found that without scrapbooking software, the supplies were slow to sell. They found that if they gave away or charged minimally for it; lots of people would try it out. Give the people the tools and they will come and buy. Once confined to paper products, quotes and decorating material, the art of scrapbooking has a lot more options with digital format. You can combine digital with paper product at any point in the process. You can produce the whole scrapbook digitally or produce it digitally and then print out a hard copy. You can just pick up digital items for a hard copy scrapbook.

Instead of the old paper, glue, scissor method of scrapbooking now people are using scrapbooking software to produce a page virtually. No paper, no glue and no running with scissors. Instead of paper, there were displays, (save the trees), glue and scissors were taken over by copy, cut and paste. Online scrapbooks were the result of scrapbooking software. Photos, clippings and text can be entered on pages with standard pre-prepared layouts. Don't worry, you can still add touches or mix and match. You can make digital collages, picture clipboards or whatever you fancy for a medium to store your memorabilia online. The scrapbooking software will lead you through the process question by question. The process ends with a beautiful accounting of the story.

One of the benefits of scrapbooking software is that the producer can decide who sees the final project. It can be private, it can be whomever he decides should see it or just post it online, even to groups of scrapbookers checking out each other's methods. When you come to think of it the present social networking boom has its roots in scrapbooking. It is a logical progression of the technique. A page on Myspace is very similar to a page in your scrapbook, either online or offline. The thing about social networking and some scrapbooking online entities is that now you can attach sound and video: the total package.

Some people would think that the computer is taking over the art form with the resulting loss of creativity, but actually the opposite is true. The computer offers a lot more options to scrapbookers and makes it easy to be creative, just click and place. Scrapbooking software can be used for a number of purposes with social networking. One can communicate what they want to various groups. Groups like friends, dates, marriage and even employers. Using the software effectively will portray the producers as talented and someone who should be checked out. If you are designing a social networking page, you could help yourself by checking out software for scrapbooks. It is a perfect medium for connecting with other people and telling stories.