(Creating Thumbnail Gallery) WEB PAGE GALLERY GENERATION

Click here to show the Web Page Gallery Wizard Screen.
Click here to see an actual Web Page Gallery created by Photo Jockey on the Internet.


You can load the Web Page Gallery Wizard by clicking on the Main Menu and then choosing "Auto Web Page Gallery Creation".

Creating web pages that have a gallery of thumbnails are usually a pain to create. It requires that you resize all of your images to small thumbnail sizes and to manually create the gallery. Although, some packages out there do this for you, they are not fully customizable or the thumbnails they produce are not as good a quality. Also, any text comments or Database fields that you may have for your images can be integrated into the web pages too.

Photo Jockey can create these web pages for you automatically. Please keep in mind that these web pages are NOT LIMITED to just being viewed on the Internet. They can be stored on your hard drive or CDROM as well for later viewing with a Web Browser. Click here to learn how to burn web galleries to CD-ROM.

Web Images:
We refer to Web Images as any image files that can be displayed in a Web Browser. These are *.jpg, *.gif, *.bmp, *.png

Normal Images:
We refer to Normal Images as any image files that can be displayed by Photo Jockey. There are many image formats displayed by Photo Jockey.

You can jump to the most commonly used sections of this web page gallery creation help section by clicking one of the following links:

Should I Use Simple or Advanced Mode?, click here

Using SIMPLE Mode, click here

Using ADVANCED Mode, click here

What files are created by the web galleries, click here

How do I upload the web galleries I created, click here

Some trouble shooting tips, click here

Before you start, you will notice that you can either use the normal mode or the batch mode. Batch mode is for creating MANY web galleries from many folders all at once. The normal mode is to just create or re-build an existing single web gallery. For more information on Batch Web Galleries, click here.

SIMPLE MODE:

If you are not sure if you should use SIMPLE or ADVANCED mode, click here.

In simple mode, there are two pages of settings that you can configure:

Select Web Page Gallery Files

Select Web Page Gallery Format

The "Select Web Page Gallery Files" page allows you to pick which image files you want to work with.
The "Select Web Page Gallery Format" page allows you to pick colors and layouts and to actually CREATE the Web Pages.

IMPORTANT: The files that get copied into the Web Page folder location, using the "Copy Chosen Files" button on the "Select Web Page Gallery Files" page, have all filenames prefixed with "pjWeb_". So, if "IMG_1001.JPG" gets copied, it ends up being "pjWeb_IMG_1001.JPG" in the Web Page folder location. This is so that you can know if an image is one of your originals or a modified and possibly resized Web Image. So, when you are cleaning out your Web Page folders to recoup some disk space, all the files that start with "pjWeb_" are safe to delete. All other image files should not be deleted unless of course you really want to.

Select Web Page Gallery Files:
This page allows you to select a folder in which to copy web images. The source folder is the currently displayed folder in Photo Jockey. The destination folder is shown in the "Web Page Location". If you want to work with an existing folder, you can do so and browse to locate it. You can then decide what files to copy and how to resize them if you wish. Afterwards, click the "Next" button to take you to page two. Page two does the actual Web Page Gallery Generation.

Web Page Title:
Enter a title to your Web Page Gallery. This text appears at the top of the Web Gallery that you will create in this process.

Web Page Location:
This is the destination location where any copied files will be copied to. The files can optionally be resized while copying. The source folder is the currently displayed folder in Photo Jockey. If you are using an existing Web Page folder, you can click the "Browse" button to find the folder you want to work with. This folder MUST contain some web images.

Current Folder:
This is the source folder from which you may copy files.

Create new Web Page Gallery or use Existing Web Page Gallery:
If you haven't created a Web Page folder for the images you are interested in creating web pages for, then you should select "New Web Page". Otherwise, if you want to work with a folder that you had previously created and it currently has some web images, then pick "Existing Web Page".

Copy Files FROM current folder TO Web Page Location:
This checkbox allows you to indicate that you want to copy some files into the destination Web Page location. Only normal images are copied from the current folder. For example: *.mpg, *.avi, files won't get copied EVEN though they are displayed in the main Photo Jockey window.

Source JPGs maintain original Quality:
If some of the images you are copying are *.JPG files, then INSTEAD of saving them into the new folder with the "Quality Of Copied Files" quality factor, it will use the JPG Quality factor of the ORIGINAL file. This takes a little bit of time to calculate, so the copy process will go slower! BUT the advantage is that you won't be saving JPGs using a HIGHER or LOWER quality setting than needed. IE: If the source JPG files are of real low quality, then it's best to use the original quality setting so that the copied file will still be small in file size.

Web Page Image Sizes:
You have the option to restrict the dimensions of the copied files. If you don't want to resize the larger photos, then just select "Do Not Resize" option.

Quality of copied files:
This allows you to select a JPG quality factor that will be used to save all of the web images into your web page folder. If you have checked the "Source JPGs maintain original quality", then "Quality of copied files" will be used as NON JPG files are being saved into the web page folder. For example: *.tif, *.gif, *.pcd etc...

Advanced Settings and options:
Check this checkbox if you want to work in the ADVANCED mode. The advanced mode has a lot more options and features. This makes the "Next" button change to "Advanced".

Copy Chosen Files:
This copies the specified files to the specified folder with the specified quality settings. After copying the files, you can then click the "Next" button. In the process of copying files, images that are NOT JPG files are converted and then saved as JPG files. This way all of the files in the destination folder end up being web images.

Next:
This takes you to page two which allows you to pick a Web Page Gallery Layout format and then creates the Web Pages for you.

Advanced:
This takes you to the ADVANCED window of options and features. This button appears ONLY if you have checked the "Advanced Settings And Options" button.

Cancel:
This allows you to cancel out of the Web Wizard and takes you back to the main Photo Jockey window.

Select Web Page Gallery Format:
This page allows you to select the colors for the Web Gallery and the Layout Format for the Web Gallery.

Web Page Colors:
This allows you to select what colors you want for the background color of the Web Pages created.

Web Page Layout:
This allows you to select the Web Page layout. You can pick from these choices:

Linked Page Layout

Split Window Layout

Linked Page layout is your standard web gallery of thumbnails. You can click on a thumbnail and it brings up a page that shows you the image in full size.

Split Window layout is a more cool looking layout that shows all of the thumbnails on the left side of the browser window, and the right side shows you the full sized image.

Show Descriptions:
This allows you to show your Text Comments or Database Category, Keywords, Notes next to the image in the image gallery.

Don't Show Descriptions

Text Comments

Database Category

Database Keywords

Database Notes

Database Category and Keywords and Notes


Back:
This allows you to go back to the "Select Web Page Gallery Files" window so that you can copy more files or different files etc..

Make Web Pages:
This allows you to create the Web Page files and automatically brings up your web browser to show you the web pages you just created.

Done:
This allows you to exit the web wizard and takes you back to the main Photo Jockey window.

ADVANCED MODE:

If you are not sure if you should use SIMPLE or ADVANCED mode, click here.

NOTE:

If you selected "default.htm" in the "Default Index HTML Name" setting, then all references to "index.html" in the following help should refer to "default.htm" instead of "index.html". NOTE: Some servers require that the default web page that gets displayed be named "default.htm" and some web servers require "index.html". Since you have the choice, you can accommodate any ISP offering web server access.

HOW TO MAKE THE WEB PAGE GALLERIES:

There are 3 ways to create the web pages automatically.

Easy One-Click method

Easy Customization method:

Fully Customizable Template method:

Easy One-Click:
Just browse to a folder that has images in it that you want for your web page gallery. Then open the Web Page Wizard screen. At this point all you have to do is to click the "MAKE PAGE(S)" button located at the top of the window. All of the needed files are produced and are then ready for viewing or editing..
Easy Customization:
Follow the steps in the "Easy One-Click" method, but BEFORE you click the "MAKE PAGE(S)" button, adjust all the settings to the way you want them.

Simple Settings:
You can control the size of the thumbnails and how many appear on a page. You can control the colors and sizes of all the text. You can enter the TITLE of your web page gallery and the DESCRIPTION too.

Page Properties:
You can also have a BACKGROUND IMAGE that shows as the background on the web pages. And you can select an OPTIONAL MAIN IMAGE that is placed at the top center of all the web pages created.

Web Page Style:
If you're producing only a couple of pages, then leave the "Page Style" setting at "Prev/Next Links". This gives the user the ability to have "forward" and "backward" links. If you are producing many web pages of output, then you should select a "Page Style" of "All Page Links". This gives the user the ability to have a link for each web page, so that they can jump to a specific page. So, instead of clicking on NEXT many times, they could click on "Page 9".

Typically you would have "Each Image Is A Page" un-checked. So, when you click on the created web page thumbnail, you are then shown the actual full sized image in the browser. IF you CHECK that checkbox, then when you click on a thumbnail, you are shown another page that has the full sized image inside of it. There is extra information in this image web page, it contains the file properties like file size, width and height and optionally, any text comments that may have been entered for the image. Also, the user can click on links to go forwards or backwards an image at a time. This is VERY HANDY!

Show Photo Comments:
If you have this option checked AND "Each Image Is A Page" checked then the web page that shows the photo contains the file properties like file size, width and height and any text comments that may have been entered for the image. If "Each Image Is A Page" is NOT checked, then as you hover the mouse over each thumbnail (for a couple of seconds) on the gallery page, then a little hint window pops up and shows you the comments that you may have entered for that photo.

NOTE: You can use the pulldown to select WHICH FIELD is used for the comments placed into the web galleries. You can choose your standard "Text Comment". These are shown at the bottom of the main Photo Jockey window. Or you can pick from a few of the database fields, provided you have made database entries for the filenames that will be placed into the Web Gallery.

Ad Options:
Let's say that you want viewers of the web pages to see some advertisement with a clickable link image. Just check the "Insert Ad at top" checkbox. This places an AD image at the top of each web page. You can select the image you want for this purpose by clicking on the "Browse for AD" button. After you have selected the image, then enter the appropriate link location in the "AD's Web Site URL". This tells the browser WHERE to go when the user clicks the AD IMAGE on the web page.


Once you are done with all the customizations, then click the "MAKE PAGE(S)" button located at the top of the window. All of the needed files are produced and are then ready for viewing or editing..

Fully Customizable Template:
Let's say that you want FULL CONTROL over the appearance of the thumbnail web pages. You may want cool java code inserted and fancy scrolling windows and special fade out functions.

You can do all of this cool stuff in your own Web Page Editor like Front-Page or Netscape Composer, Dream-Weaver, or even notepad if you're good enough.

Steps to produce Templates:

Go into Advance Mode

Check the "Use Template HTML" checkbox

Click the "Make Template Files"

Edit the freshly created Template file(s)

This allows you to create the final web pages BASED on the template files that you create and edit. So, when you click the "Make Page(s)" button, it now merges your template pages with your photo thumbnails to produce the final web pages. Pretty slick!

When you click the "Make Template Files" the file "WP_Template.Html", located in the "webpages" sub-folder underneath your images folder, is created. Also "WP_TemplateImage.Html" is created too.

The WP_Template.HTML can be edited in your web page editor to your liking. This controls the appearance of the actual web pages that are created by the "Make Page(s)" button.

The WP_TemplateImage.HTML is used as a template if you have checked "Each Image Is A Page" checkbox. This controls how the individual image pages appear when you click on a thumbnail and it brings up a HTML page to display the selected image in full size.

Once you have edited the template file(s) to your liking, THEN you can click the "MAKE PAGE(S)" button located at the top of the window. All of the needed files are produced .

SHOULD I USE ADVANCED MODE ?:

Most users should NOT use the advanced mode. It requires a little more thought and is not as SIMPLE to use as the SIMPLE mode. By default the Web Wizard ALWAYS comes up in the SIMPLE mode. If you decide you want the ADVANCED mode, there is a checkbox called "Advanced Settings And Options".

WHAT FILES ARE CREATED AND WHERE:

The Web Page Wizard creates 2 sub-folders called "webpages" and "webthumbs" under your images' folder. There are certain files placed in these folders:

webpages:
index?.html            (Web pages for viewing)
default.htm            (Same as above)
AD_Image.GIF           (AD Image used)
WebInfo.INI            (Settings for web page wizard)
WP_BGImage.GIF         (Background Image)
WP_MainImage.GIF       (Main Image)
WP_Template.Html       (Template for web pages)
WP_TemplateImage.Html  (Template for image web pages)
TVWEB_???????????.Html (Image Web Pages)

webthumbs:
WP_THUMB_???.JPG       (All Thumbnails created)

NOTE: If you decide that you don't want the web pages anymore, you can freely delete those two folders. You can do it EASIER if you are in ADVANCED mode. Just click on the FILE menu, and then pick "Clean Up Web Folder".

HOW TO VIEW THE WEB PAGE GALLERIES:

You can view the web pages 3 different ways The easiest way is to click on the "View Page(s)" button after you have created the web pages with the "Make Pages(s)" button..

Web Browser connected to the Internet: Just load your web browser and connect to the Internet. Then go to the location you stored (uploaded) your web gallery. For example: http://mydomain.com/MyWebFolders/Paris/webpages/index.html

Web Browser viewing from Hard Drive: Just load your web browser and go to the location where your web folder is located. For example: C:\MyDocuments\Photos\Paris\webpages\index.html

Web Browser viewing from CD-ROM: Just load your web browser and go to the location where your web folder is located. For example: R:\Paris\webpages\index.html

HOW TO PUT THE WEB PAGE GALLERIES ON THE INTERNET:

In order for users on the Internet to see your web pages, you need to upload them, Typically you would use an FTP program to transfer your files. Basically, you would create a folder on your site called "Photos" and then you would create subfolders called "webpages" and "webthumbs". Then you would upload all your full sized images to the "Photos" area. Then you would upload the "webpages" and "webthumbs" folders too.

THEN, users could go to the http://mydomain.com/photos/lwebpages/index.html    to view your newly uploaded web site.

NOTE: YOU MUST have the 2 special folders on your web site named in LOWER CASE. These are "webpages" and "webfolders".

Example: Let's say you have several folders of images that you have made into web sites. Your folder tree might look like this:

  C:\My Documents
       \PhotoJockey
            \WebGalleries
                 \Carmel s 3000 Flags
                     \webpages
                     \webthumbs
                 \Paris_Trip
                     \webpages
                     \webthumbs
                 \Test_Photos
                     \webpages
                     \webthumbs

Within your FTP program, you can create a folder on your internet site called "mywebfolders". Actually, you can call it whatever you like. Just remember what you called it. Then you can create a folder called "Paris" inside of the "mywebfolders" folder.

Copy all the files from the "Paris_Trip folder on your hard drive to the "Paris" folder on the internet with the FTP program.

Create a folder called "webpages" inside of the "Paris" folder on the internet site and copy all the files from the "webpages" folder on your hard drive to the internet folder called "webpages" using the FTP program.

Create a folder called "webthumbs" inside the "Paris" folder on the internet and copy all the files from the "webthumbs" folder on your hard drive to the internet folder called "webthumbs" using the FTP program

Redo the above step for each set of photos you want to put onto the internet

NOTE: You will notice that on the hard drive the folder was called "Paris_Trip" and on the internet we called it "Paris". The folder name you create on the internet site DOES NOT have to match the hard drive name. The "webpages" and "webthumbs" folder names DO HAVE TO MATCH.

With your browser you can go to http://yourdomain.com/mywebfolders/Paris/webpages/index.html  (If you were in ADVANCED mode and selected "default.htm" for the "Default INDEX.HTML Name" option), then you would go to http://yourdomain.com/mywebfolders/Paris/webpages/default.htm

HOW TO SETUP AN ALTERNATE VIEWER:

When you click on the "View Page(s)" button, the default web browser is loaded to display the pages you just created. If you do NOT want to view in your default browser, you can setup an ALTERNATE browser. Just click on the "Options" menu and select "Assign ALTERNATE Web Browsers / Editors". This brings up a window that allows you to assign an alternate viewer. Then if you click on the narrow VERTICAL bar next to the "View Page(s)" button, you will be able to select to view in the alternate browser..

HOW TO SETUP WEB PAGE EDITORS:

When you click on the "Edit Page(s)" button, the default web page (*.html) editor is loaded to display and edit the pages you just created. If you do NOT want to edit in your default editor, you can setup an ALTERNATE editor. Just click on the "Options" menu and select "Assign ALTERNATE Web Browsers / Editors". This brings up a window that allows you to assign up to 3 editors. Then if you click on the narrow VERTICAL bar next to the "Edit Page(s)" button, you will be able to select to edit in the alternate editor.

TROUBLESHOOTING:

You can NOT use the Web Page Wizard for a folder of images that are currently on a READ-ONLY drive like a CD-ROM or a network folder in which you do not have WRITE/MODIFY access. In this case, you will need to COPY the images to your hard drive and then work with those images on the hard drive.

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