Magic Gallery - Thumbnail Software Help Information
Magic Gallery allows you to easily create
online galleries. If you have
problems and questions please let us know so that we can add the
information to this help file.
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Magic Gallery Help Information
Magic gallery allows you to create online thumbnail galleries with
just a few clicks. This help file should explain the software and answer
any questions you have. If this page does not help you please don't
hesitate to send us an email we are always trying to keep this page
updated with the latest information.
1)
Creating a gallery always begins on the first page. From here you will
want to add photos into the gallery you are creating. To add one
photo at a time click the "Add Pictures" button. To add an
entire folder of pictures select the "Add a folder" button.
The pictures will then be added to your picture list. From here you
can change the order of the pictures or remove any pictures that you
don't like. Simply select the picture so that it appears in the preview
window. Press the move up and move down buttons to change it's order in
the list, or press the remove button to remove the picture from the
list. Removing a picture does not delete the picture it simply
means that the photo will not be in your gallery. To quickly rotate a
photo simply right click on the photo and select Rotate.
2) Once
you are happy with the pictures you will use click the next button at
the bottom of the screen. This will bring you to the second tab. Here
you will enter the location and name of your gallery. You can save it
anywhere on your computer that you want. A typical location will
by in the my pictures folder. Use the browse button to select a
different location or a different name.
If you would like to send an email about your gallery or if you need
information on purchasing your own .com website check those boxes
The current versions of magic gallery don't support FTP so if you want
to copy your gallery to a website you will need to use a separate FTP program. I
recommend the FTP program built into Windows XP but any FTP program will
work including FrontPage and others.
3) Click next to choose the template that you will use. Magic
gallery provides many templates, you can create your own templates using
the information in the template gallery SDK. the
template controls the look and feel of the gallery. Different templates
may ask you different questions as they process your gallery.
4) Click next to advance to the final preview screen. During
this time Magic Gallery will create the thumbnails for all your
pictures. It may also ask you some questions about your photos and the
gallery. You can answer these questions or click "don't ask me
again" to avoid answering any more questions for that gallery.
5) On the preview page you can do some basic editing. You can
enter text and delete some pictures. You can drag and drop pictures, use
the drop down control on this page to select different pages to
edit. Once complete press finish to view your work in a web
browser.
6) Once you are happy with your
gallery use an FTP program or even FrontPage to copy your gallery to
your website.
Program Shortcuts
Select photo tab (ALT+S)
- ALT+A = Add Pictures
- ALT+F = Add a folder of photos
- ALT+U = Move a photo up in the
gallery
- ALT+D = Move a photo down in the
gallery
- ALT+R = Remove a photo from the
gallery
Publishing Options tab (AlT+P)
- ALT+R = Browse for a location to save your gallery
- ALT+E = Send an email announcment about your gallery
- ALT+O = Purchase your own .com website
Other shortcuts
- ALT+T Choose your template tab
- ALT+E Preview and edit tab
- ALT+B - back one tab
- ALT+N - Next tab
- ALT+F - Finish and preview in browser, only on last step
- ALT+C / ALT+F4- close program
- Ctrl+N - New gallery
- Ctrl+O - Open an existing gallery
- Ctrl+S - Save the current gallery
- Ctrl+A - Select all files (when focus is in the photo list)
- F5 - Refresh template list if new templates have been added
Questions and Answers and Issues
Q: I've
already registered my software how do I reinstall?
A: Take a look at our reinstall
page.
Q: Component
'DHTMLEd.OCX' file is missing or invalid
A: Magic Gallery requires that you have Internet Explorer 5 or greater installed on your computer.
If you are using Windows ME or Windows XP you should already have this.
Otherwise you can download a newer version of internet explorer from: http://www.microsoft.com/ie/
Q: I get an error about 'COMDLG32.OCX'
during install
A: This generally means that some other
piece of software has incorrectly installed this file. To fix this click
the start button and click search. Find the file comdlg32.ocx and
renaming it as comdlg32.bakup. Note that the file is usually located in
the Windows System folder. After renaming the file reinstal Magic
Gallery software. This will correctly install a new version of
comdlg32.ocx to your computer.
Q:
My photos are showing banding of color, how
can I fix this?
A: Color banding may be caused by two
things. The first is if you have set the JPG compression too low. To fix
this problem go into the options screen and increase the JPG quality.
Another reason you may see banding is if your computer is set up to
display a limited number of colors. To correct this go into the control
panel, display properties and ensure that your display is using either
24 or 32 bit color. This will produce the best looking images.
Q: How do I customize a gallery with my
own look and feel?
A: Go to the templates folder of your
magic gallery. This is usually
C:\Program
Files\MagicGallery\templates\
from here you can edit the templates, copy templates and add your own
templates. Additional information on creating templates is available in
our template developers kit
Q: How do I
remove the little magic gallery button off my pages?
A: We ask that you keep the button on
your page if possible but it's totally upto you. The way to do this is to edit the
template that you are using. Go to the template folder, find the
template that you would like to edit. This folder is generally located
in:
C:\Program Files\MagicGallery\Tempaltes\
Select the template that you would like to edit. For example for the
Basic Black template open Basic Black.htm in notepad or a similar
editor. At the bottom of the page you will see something
like this:
<a href="http://www.raizlabs.com/software/magic/"><img
border="0" src="magicgallery/MagicGallery.gif" align="bottom" alt="This
gallery created with Magic Gallery" width="96" height="21"></a><br>
Simply delete this text and save your template. Do the same thing with
the file called:
C:\Program Files\MagicGallery\Tempaltes\magicgallery\basicblacksingle.htm
Regenerate the gallery and the buttons are gone. You can also delete or
make changes to templates directly from Frontpage or Adobe GoLive and
other HTML editors. More information modifying templates is in the: template developers kit pages
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