> I need to change my sites from FrontPage to Dreamweaver. I want to
> use photogalleries. Is visuallightbox.com a good one to use? Or do
> you use lightbox2 or is there a good plug in to use? It was so easy
> to use FrontPage to make Photogalleries, but FrontPage is not
> supported. I do have the CS4 suite. What do you use that is
> reasonably simple?
Depends on how much sophistication you need in your galleries. I
looked at a number of ways to create galleries, most of which are
independent of Dreamweaver. Having a good working knowledge of CSS is
a prerequisite that will allow you to keep your branding elements the
same across your site: colors, fonts and styling, etc.
For straight gallery generation, Lightroom has a number of templates
that are customizable, to a degree, and greatly simplify the export of
web galleries. There are third party templates as well -- Lightroom
Galleries ( http://www.lightroomgalleries.com/ ) has a number of good
solutions, both Flash, and non-Flash, and one that can be integrated
with a PayPal shopping cart. Customizing it requires some delving into
a core document to change variables, but once that's done, it's done.
It can also pickup IPTC metadata and use it to generate captions -- a
huge timesaver. Free.
JAlbum ( http://jalbum.net/software/ ) is another very popular gallery
generator. While I have demo'd it, I have not used it. The templates
didn't suit me as well as the LRG setup, but many many styles are
available for download. JALbum also has a mobile edition for the
iPhone. Once it's set up, it's drag and drop for gallery building,
which is dirt-simple. But if you use Lightroom or Aperture for
generating jpegs, you'll need to create folders of images to feed
JAlbum: an extra step. Free, donations accepted.
I've also looked at visuallightbox ( http://www.visuallightbox.com ),
but personally I don't care for pop-up-style gallery displays. It has
two editions. The free version carries a credit line for
visuallightbox, and is for use by non-profit organizations. The
business version costs $49, but allows you to customize with your own
logo. It also has hooks to Picasa, if you use that, and templates for
Facebook, Photobucket, iPhone, Android and a host of other styles. The
wizard is drag and drop, If you can get past the pop-up style full
image display, this might work for you.
Project Seven also has a new image gallery generator, which I have not
tried.
Image Magic ( http://www.projectseven.com/products/galleries/hgmagic/index.htm
)
Project Seven is a well-known developer of javascript and css tools
for Dreamweaver, which automate the tedium of creating hierarchical
menus. It allows you to create galleries from specific folders, and
will auto-resize images on the fly as copies, without degrading the
original. It's CSS based as well, which will allow you to take their
basic templates and modify them. It is also Dreamweaver template-
aware, which means that you can embed a gallery within a page template
for creating groups of galleries. The templates are fairly limited to
a filmstrip style interface, however, with the strip either top or
bottom. Project Seven does build some amazing software tools that save
the developer time, but their plug-ins are pricey for a one-time
user. Note that these are plug-ins for Dreamweaver, and not
standalone applications like JAlbum and VisualLightbox. $95
The Creative Suites also have a web gallery automator built in. It
used to be in the Automate menu in Photoshop, but has been moved into
Bridge with CS4 and above. I haven't used the Photoshop galleries for
a while -- they were difficult to integrate into an existing design,
and the Lightroom versions are a definite improvement.
HTH
Jim Parker
parkerparker :: design | photography
http://www.parkerparker.info
@dakkid / twitter
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