Step 1: Creating Images

There is one rule for this. Once you have all of your images ready and named, you need to create thumbnails for all of them. Name all of the thumbnails EXACTLY the same as the big images except use "t" in front of it. For example, an image named "stuff.jpg" the thumbnail would be called "tstuff.jpg". This is how the program recognizes which is which.

A good rule of thumb (no pun intended ;)) for sizing thumbnails is just to resize the original with the height set at 100 pixels. Width isn't that important. Unless, of course, there is more variating to the width instead of hieght, in which case it is better to do just the opposite.

Step 2: Categories

The first thing you should do after log-in in is create a new category or subcategory. If you are creating a category that is a one time event, then just create the category with a description and date, and go to the next step. If you are creating a category for something that will probably happen again (i.e. a new category called "Parties" (no description for this would be necessary)) then create a subcategory for the images (i.e. "Dragon's Party" etc. with a description (and date)). There is already a category called Stigmata. So for pictures from a Stig outing, just create a new subcategory with a description and date.

Step 3: Uploading Images

There are two ways of doing this:

#1: You can upload images manually through FTP. After you have created your category and/or subcategory, you can login to FTP (ask me for the login) and find your directory. Under the directory "gallery" there is another directory called "category". Inside there you will find the directories that the program created for the individual categories and subcategories. Find your category or subcategory (subs will be inside categories) and upload all of your fullsize images into the folder called "media" and all of your thumbnails into the folder called "thumbnails". Then just close FTP and go back to the control panel. Click on the link called "Batch Build" which is the third link down. After doing that, you go to "Edit Existing Media" Where you can add descriptions for the images. And that's it!

#2: You can also upload images via the control panel. The fourth link up from the bottom is called "Upload Media". Click that and you can upload the full-sized image and thumbnail and a description into a category or subcategory. Unless it is necessary, you can ignore the "Copyright" and "Author" boxes. They aren't set up to display anyway. Once you do this once, the category or subcategory is set and you just need to repeat the process for the other images until you are done. Even after you are done with this process, or at anytime, you can go to "Edit Existing Media" and delete images or change descriptions. You can also go to any category/subcategory and add comments to descriptions that others have posted (though it is probably polite to ask or add your name, i.e. putting something like "Sio adds: blah blah" or "Jonni adds: blar!" etc.). This way we can have multiple comments, descriptions, etc. (ok, now i'm just being lame and silly!! :)).

That's it! If you have any questions or problems, let me know.