There are many tools specifically for making a photo or art gallery online. JAlbum is the best. It is fully “Skin-able,” meaning that you can change its look and feel with hundreds of different “skins.” Many of the skins come with built-in shopping carts for those hoping to sell prints online.
Downloading the Program
Go to JAlbum.net in order to download the program or to try it out. There is a “Download JAlbum" button that shows up on the left side of the page. This will begin automatically initiate a “Create an Account” registration page (it’s free) and a step-by-step download process. Just follow the steps and install JAlbum.
Once it’s installed, go ahead and start up the program.
Using JAlbum
Once JAlbum starts up, the first step is to drag and drop pictures into the main window. The pictures will appear in thumbnail form, and as they are edited (add captions, basic photo editing, etc.) the thumbnails will be automatically updated. JAlbum allows easy captioning. Hovering the mouse over any image in the photo pane brings up an "Add Caption" link beneath, and clicking the link opens up a caption box.
JAlbum Offers Hundreds of Skins
The next step is choosing your skin. The skins are in a drop-down menu on the bottom-left of the application window. Select the theme you’d like to use, and it will automatically be applied. At the JAlbum website, skins can be found under the "Downloads" link at the top of the page. Users can download the skins they want, and once the files are downloaded, double-clicking on them begins and automatic install.
To preview the gallery, click “Make Album” on the bottom left of the JAlbum application. The photos and skins will be processed, and users are then offered the choice to either “Preview” your gallery or “Upload” it straight to your website (or to your JAlbum account).
Click “Preview” to see the gallery. It will open in a browser exactly the way it would if it were uploaded to a domain. Go through all the pictures to ensure that they show properly.
Troubleshooting & Options
To make changes to your gallery, or to change skin settings, click on the name of the album and then the icon of the gears next to the name of the album in the album pane (top left). This opens the “Album Settings” for the whole gallery. Changes can be made to the centering and/or “Fit” of the pictures, the resolution of gallery images, and more. Users can make it impossible for site visitors to “Save Image As” for all the photos or prints in the gallery. Every skin gets a tab in the Album Setting window, too. In it, there are specific options that vary for each skin, like a PayPal shopping cart in some and individual photo templates for others.
Saving and Uploading the Gallery
When the gallery is finished, all tweaking and personalizing done, it’s time to save the project and to upload it to the website. Make sure the name of the album is something that makes sense (like album). Create a folder/directory in your file manager named “album” or “gallery.” Then “Make Album” again in JAlbum, but when it’s finished, choose “Upload.” When JAlbum finishes processing that request, select “Change Location.” A prompt to enter some FTP information will appear in a pop-up. Enter the FTP account information. All web hosts provide that information in the CPanel.
When uploading to the domain, the gallery must be uploaded to the directory, something like "ftp://www.domainname.com/album." If it uploads directly to the root, without the "/album", it will take over the domain and become the homepage. This can be a significant irritation if the intent was to upload to a directory.
The final step is adding a link to the front page (or in “Links” or a Sidebar) that visitors to the site can use to open the new gallery.
Ben Lingenfelter - As an intinerant writer, I've found freedom to write and learn about a variety of topics. That fits me perfectly. I've been an English ...
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