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You will find basic operational information on the use of the new gallery within the help system, but a more detailed overview follows.
One of the new features this gallery provides is the ability to send Ecards of any image within the gallery. Please note though, that if you send an ecard to a person who is not a member here, they will need to register before they can view the card.
Access the main gallery page via the "Gallery" link in the menu under the header image.
Before you can post images to the members gallery area, you will need to create an album. This is a fairly simple procedure. Click on the "My Controls" link above.
From the menu on the left of the new page, select the "Your Albums" link
Prior to creating your first album you will be presented with the following screen
Click the "Create First Album" link (arrowed above) You will then be presented with the standard album creation page.
A simple process to create your album:
- Enter album title
- Enter a description of your album
- Select "Member Galleries" from the drop down
- Use the check box to allow others to view your album. If this box is not checked, your album remains private, visible only to yourself and the admins.
- Click the Create Album button and you are done.
If you now use the My Albums link in your control panel, you will see the following view:
You will notice the creat album link centre bottom of the central box that appears. Use this to create extra albums. The drop down menu on the right hand side allows the following options:
- Edit - edit album title, decsription, etc
- Delete - Delete album - note that if you have images within the album you wish to delete you will be prompted to provide a location to move them to before being allowed to delete the album.
- View - Allows you to view the contents of the album
- Upload Image - Upload a single image into this album
- Bulk Upload - This will allow you to upload up to three images at once. Beware though if you use this function to upload large image files. You are generating a much longer upload time and this means that chances of failure increase, expecially if attempting to upload three large files via a dial up connection.
Enter a title and description for your image. Then use the browse to locate the image on your hard drive, before clicking the "Post Image" button to add the image.
Allowable image types are gif, jpg, jpeg, & png.
You are also able to upload video files (nothing larger than 10 Mb) in the following formats avi, mpg, mpeg, mov, & wmv
If you are doing a bulk upload, you will see the following screen:
Browse your hard drive for up to three files, then click the "Post Multiple Images" link to upload the files. You will then need to go to the album and edit the images to provide a title and description. Just navigate to the album, and your new image. Open the image you wish to edit and you will see the following screen:
Click the Edit button (arrowed) and enter the title and description just as you would for a single upload. Do not browse for a new image and click the Post Image button at the bottom to complete the edit. repeat this for each of the images you just uploaded.
After you have created your first album, you will see a new link appear at the top of all pages, next to My Controls. It is a shortcut to your album control centre as shown in the image below.
If you click this link at any time, you will be presented with an album control centre as shown in the next image
Clicking the album title link (arrow #1) will give you a page showing the images in that album, and a row of buttons across the top
Slideshow will start a slideshow of the images in that album. Clicking the new album link in this location will create a new album inside the original album, thus creating sub-categories if you desire.
Back at the My Albums view you can use the New Album button (arrow #2) to create a new category. On the left hand menu you will also see a link marked "View Images in Forum" clicking this link will show you all of the images that you have posted elsewhere in the forums. Across the top of the new section that opens with these images is a drop down list allowing you to filter the view by specific forums.
When you enter the gallery, you will see a list of the available general categories. At the moment, there is only "Members Gallery", others will be created for specific purposes and explained later. The image below shows the kind of view you will see upon entering the gallery section.
Clicking the arrowed link will present you with a new list of all the albums created by our members. There may be more than one page. Clicking the thumbnail image will take you directly to that image.
On the gallery front page you will also see 5 random images from the galleries, and the last 5 images to be posted. You may click on any of these thumbs to go directly to those images.
Hopefully that covers the bulk of gallery functions in a reasonably easy to follow format. If you have any qiuestions about other functions please feel free to ask questions by responding to this post.
