General Posts #221

1. Download Google's Picasa and install it, taking careful note of the directory you installed it into: http://picasa.google.com/features.html


2. Download this template, this time taking careful note of where you download it: /Template/Gallery401.zip


3. In the directory where you installed Picasa, look for a directory called Web and inside that, another directory called templates. For example, if you installed Picasa into C:\Program Files\Picasa3 find the directory called C:\Program Files\Picasa3\Web\Templates.


4. Unzip the Gallery401.zip file into the \Web\Templates directory. When you are done, you should have a directory there called: C:\Program Files\Picasa3\Web\Templates\Gallery401 . (If you do not have a zipping utility, then I recommend 7zip. It's free and easy to use: http://www.7-zip.org/ .

1. Once picasa is installed, find the photos that you are preparing for the web site. If they are already on your hard drive, then simply start Picasa and it will find them for you. If they are not on your hard drive, then get them and place them anywhere you like. Once again, when you start Picasa, it will locate them for you.


2. The first thing that needs to be done is to give the album a title. In Picasa, select the folder containing all the photos you want to make an album of. Thumbnails of those photos should appear on the right side of the screen, above them you will see some text saying "Add a description." Click on that and enter the title of the album. For example, if it's a reunion, then a title like "Reunion 2000: England and France" or "Reunion 2010: Savanah, Georgia" is desirable.


3. Next, each photo should have a caption as well. Double click on a photo and a larger version should appear. Below, you will see some text that says "Make a caption!" Once again, just click on it and enter the caption for the photo. If you are knowledgeable about the photo you are captioning, then make a good descriptive caption. If you are not knowledgeable, then just state the obvious. For example, if the photo is of some airmen in a jeep, then just say "Airmen ride in a jeep." Naturally, more knowledgeable captioning is preferred. To move between photos, there is a button, top left that says "back to library" that will take you back to the thumbnail view. There are also two arrow buttons that will move you back and forth the larger pictures.


4. Once all photos are captioned, it's time to create the album. In Picasa, select the folder that contains the photos you are going to build the album from. Make sure that the folder is selected and that no single photo on the right is selected. In most cases, I'm assuming that you want to create an album for all the photos, so make sure the folder is selected. If, by chance, you only want to do this on selected photos, then selecting individual ones is OK.


5. When you're photos are selected, go to the menu and select: Folder and then Export as HTML page. A dialogue should appear titled the same. First thing to do is to select the picture size. 800 pixels for our site.


6. Next, give it a title. It says "title" but what you are really giving it is a directory to save the results in. Note carefully the field called "Folder", below it. It shows you the file path that the album will be created in.


7. Now, look at the list box containing a number of templates and find the one called "401st Gallery template." If you followed the steps for preparing Picasa, above, properly then it should be there. If it isn't, then you may want to recheck your steps.


8. Once selected, click on the export button. Picasa will do its thing and generate a number of pages for the gallery.


9. Not quite done yet. If you're knowledgeable on the album that you're creating, then a little extra information wouldn't hurt. 🙂 A page created by Picasa will be be called "Target0.html" where the number 0 will increase for each page. I.e. the first page will always be called "Target0.html," the next will be called "Target1.html," the next "Target2.html" and so on... Locate the directory you exported the album two and edit each page to add any additional information. Look for some text in the file that says "<Insert Description Text Here>" and replace it with whatever additional information you have. Make sure you replace all of it, including the "<" and the ">". If you don't, the text you insert will not display. Knowledge of HTML will help you here.


10. You can check what you've done by simply double clicking on the index.shtml file in the album's directory. Don't be alarmed if it doesn't look exactly like it should look when it's on the main web site. You either don't have, or your browser can't find, the additional files it needs. Just note the links named "First," "Previous," "Next" and "Last," as well as the thumbnail images. These will allow you to navigate through all the images. Check them and make sure nothing is grossly wrong.


11. Finally, contact me, and we'll make the final arrangements to get the album on-line and available for all to see. Don't be upset, however, if I send them back to you. It may be that a little more needs to be done -- I have high standards 😉 -- or there's something I didn't tell you or such. We just need to make sure that everything was done right and it's ready for the site.

"win-win":
That file opens OK, but just shows '.txt.' 'text - there's nothing resembling the Web page or Album display. (I was expecting to be able to open and view my 'Album' just I would open a Webpage I had downloaded - can you tell me what's wrong with this 'picture'?) Worst-case, I could E-mail my exported 'Album' folder to you (2.93MB) - would that help?