Photo Gallery - Help

This page is intended to give you some help in using the photo gallery. Of course, if you get stuck, just ask for help and I'll alway do my best to assist. Once you get used to it I hope you'll find the gallery quite straightforward to us. Please feel free to put on there what photos you like, so we can all share them and enjoy seeing what different members of the family are doing.

If I have made any mistakes in these instructions, or missed anything out, please let me know!

Please experiment! You won't do any harm. These instructions are not comprehensive, and I haven't explored all the capabilities of the Gallery package (I only installed it and made it available). If you find something new which could be useful to other people, please let me know and we can add it to the instructions.

Creating Albums

When I set you up as a user on the gallery I shall also create a main album for you on the front page of the gallery. I shall call this "Fred's collection" (if your name is Fred) or something like that. If you want to change the name, just click on the words "edit title" next to the name, and call it what you like.

You can create as many sub-albums within your main album as you wish. You may like to create one called "Christmas 2006" and another one called "Our House" or even one for your next-door-neighbour's goldfish - it's up to you. To create a sub-album:

Enter your main album by clicking on its name
At the top of the page you will see a drop-down menu - select "new nested album". You will now be presented with a blank page for your new album
If you would like to give your album a name, select "properties" in the drop-down menu and a pop-up box will appear.

Adding Photographs to your Album

If you have just created a new album, click on the words "Hey! Add some photos" at the top of the page. A pop-up window will appear - sometimes this can take a little while to load. Otherwise select "Add photos" from the drop-down menu at the top of the page
If you have Java running on your machine (most people do) then you can choose to upload photos using the "Applet" button (this is more flexible and you can choose several photos at once); otherwise I suggest you use the "form" button, where you have to select photos one-by-one.
If you use the Java applet, press the "Add Pictures" button and choose the photos from your machine that you would like to upload (if there are several, hold the "Ctrl" key down while you select them and then press the "add" button when complete. Finally press the "Upload" the button, and teh photos will be loaded, resized and put into your album (this can take a while if they are large).
If you use the Form, then you will be asked to choose and upload your photos one-by-one.
Note that you can upload photos in a number of dufferent formats, including movies (not too large please, as these can be very big!)

Other Useful Album Actions

You may also choose the other options from the drop-down menu to change the album:

Delete this (sub) album: If you dont' like what you've donw you can always take the (drastic) action of deleting it and starting all over again!
Edit captions: This allows you to add a caption against each photo in the album (far easier than adding them individually)
New nested album: You can create another album inside this album, of you so wish - there is noi limit (as far as I know!) to the number of levels you can have
Permissions: If you would like to allow other people to alter your album, then this will allow you to do so. The default is that only the owner of an album can change things in their own album
Poll reset and Poll results - I haven't explored these!
Rearrange items: this allows you to put the photos in a different order
Rebuild thumbs: if the thumbnail (small) pictures in your album are not the right sixe, or need to be rebuilt for some reason, then this will allow you to do so
Resize all: I haven't experimented with this!
Sort Items: this will allow you to sort your photos automatically by a numebr of different criteria - date, name, number of comments, random etc.

Adjusting Photos

You can change the appearance of your photos by using the routines available in the drop-down menus. These include

Edit text: This will allow you to change the caption under the photo
Edit thumbnail:This will allow you to choose part of the photo to display as the thumbnail on the album page
Rotate/flip: Turn your photo around if you didn't hold the camera up the right way on the first place!
Set as highlight: This will allow you to choose which photo in your album will appear on the front page as the main photo