Using the B&C Galleries

[Kurgan the Lurker]

USING THE B&C GALLERIES

You can use the free Bolter & Chainsword galleries for hosting images that you want to display here at the Bolter & Chainsword. All images must be suitable for use here at the B&C, as defined in the forum rules.

You must be using the Carbon/Default/Full skin/theme to use the galleries. If you are using the Mobile skin/theme and want to use the galleries, you must first switch to the Carbon/Default/Full skin/theme.

Each member has their own gallery. Within your gallery, you can have any number of albums. This allows you to organize your images in a manner that works for you. Inside each album you can have any number of images. By combining album titles and descriptions with album categories, image titles, descriptions, and tags, members are able to find relevant images.

This series of tutorials includes numerous overlapping tasks, each covered as a mini-tutorial.

Creating your gallery
[button=tan]Accessing your gallery

[Brother Tyler]

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CREATING YOUR GALLERY

If you have never created your own gallery at the B&C start here.

[Brother Tyler]

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ACCESSING YOUR GALLERY – METHOD 1

The first method for accessing your gallery is via your profile shortcut dropdown menu at the top of the screen.

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Click on the dropdown arrow that appears next to your display name at the top left of the screen.

If you see the following…

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…you haven’t created your gallery yet and this method will not work. You’ll need to use Method 3.

If you see something like the following…

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…you have already created your gallery.

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Click on My Gallery from the options.

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You should now be seeing your Gallery page, which should look something like the above.

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[Brother Tyler]

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ACCESSING YOUR GALLERY – METHOD 2

The second method for accessing your gallery is via your profile. There are two ways to reach your profile.

The first (and quicker) way is to go directly from whatever screen you are viewing.

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Simply click on your profile picture at the top left of the screen.

The second way requires one additional step.

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Click on the dropdown arrow that appears next to your display name at the top left of the screen.

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Click on My Profile from the options.

Either method will take you to your Profile:

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You’ll see a range of buttons down the left side of the page:

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Click on Gallery from the options.

If you see the following…

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…you haven’t created your gallery yet and this method will not work. You’ll need to use Method 3.

If you see something like the following…

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…you have already created your gallery. You’re not there yet, though…

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Select any album.

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This takes you to that album’s page. Next, click on View all images and albums next to your display name on the right side of the screen.

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You should now be seeing your Gallery page, which should look something like the above.

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[Brother Tyler]

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ACCESSING YOUR GALLERY – METHOD 3

If you haven’t already created your gallery (i.e., if either of the above methods doesn’t work for you), you’ll need to use Method 3. If you already have created your gallery, it is recommended that you use Method 1 or Method 2 above to access your gallery.

In order to reach the galleries so that you can create your first album, you’ll need to use the top level navigation links.

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Click on the GALLERY button. You’ll be taken to the site’s Gallery page:

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Click the Upload button.

This takes you to the Gallery/New Media page. Since you don’t have any albums, your screen will look like this:

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Click on the Create New Album button. The Create New Album dialog box/menu will open.

Next you will be Creating a New Album.

[Brother Tyler]

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CREATING A NEW ALBUM

Creating an album is an essential step in creating your gallery for the first time. In addition, after you have created your gallery, you can add more albums based on your needs.

If you are in the process of creating your gallery and this is your first album, your screen will look like below:

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Click on the Create New Album button. The Create New Album dialog box/menu will open. Skip down to the Create New Album Dialog Box section below.

If you already have one or albums and you are simply adding a new album, you can start at either your Gallery page or any Album page:

Your Gallery page

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Click the Upload button.

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Click on the Create New Album button. The Create New Album dialog box/menu will open. Skip down to the Create New Album Dialog Box section below.

Alternately, you may be at one of your Album pages:

One of your Album pages

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Click the Upload button.

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Click on the Create New Album button. The Create New Album dialog box/menu will open. Skip down to the Create New Album Dialog Box section below.

Create a New Album

Using one of the methods described above, you should see the Create New Album dialog box:

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Enter the Album Name and Album Description that you want. These tell viewers what they can expect to find inside the album.

A step that is often skipped is assigning the Album Category, with most members leaving the default “Miscellaneous” category assigned. Take the time to click on the drop down arrow and select the most appropriate category for your album. This helps to organize albums so that hobbyists looking for images depicting a certain subject can narrow their search down. If none of the categories work, use the default “Miscellaneous” category.

You can then choose how to sort the images in your album, choosing from the available options; then you can choose to sort the images in either ascending (A-Z) or descending (Z-A) order.

The Public Album radio box cannot be unchecked, so all albums are visible to the members.

You can then choose whether or not to allow comments and/or ratings, and whether or not to use the B&C watermark on your images.

Once you have finished entering information and making your selections, you should have something that looks like:

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Once you’ve verified that everything is as you want it, slide down to the bottom of the dialog box:

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Click the Save button.

You’ll be taken to the Gallery/New Media page:

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Note the album name after “Selected Album” – you have successfully created your new (perhaps your first) album.

If this is your first album and you are creating your gallery, the next step in creating your gallery is Uploading a New Image.

If you have previously created your gallery, you can leave an album empty (perhaps you are planning), or you can proceed by Uploading a New Image.

[Brother Tyler]

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UPLOADING A NEW IMAGE

Once you have selected the album into which you want to upload an image, you should see something like below:

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This is the Upload/Upload Media page. If a cover photo has been selected, that image will appear at left. If no cover photo has been selected, or if you are uploading images as part of the initial gallery creation process, a stock image will appear (as above).

Click on the Browse… button.

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The File Upload dialog box will open. Find the location of the image(s) that you want to upload.

If you mouseover the image that you want to upload, file data may appear (depending on your browser):

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The B&C galleries will accept images up to 1,600 pixels in width by up to 1,200 pixels in height. Images that exceed those dimensions will be scaled down until they are within those limits.

While you are allowed to upload a variety of image types (.gif, .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .tiff, .flv, .f4v, .mp4, .mov, .m4a, .m4v, .3gp, .avi, .wmv, .mpg, .mpeg, .mkv), the only ones that can be used reliably are files with the .gif, .jpeg, .jpg, and .png extensions.

Click on the image that you want to upload.

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The files name will appear in the File name box.

Click the Open button.

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The File Upload dialog box will disappear, returning you to the Upload/Upload Media page. The image file name will appear next to the Browse… button. Click the Upload button.

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The image will be uploaded to the queue (but it is not fully uploaded yet). A thumbnail of the image will appear and the file name will be replaced by “No file selected.” If you want to upload more images at this time, click the Browse… button and repeat the steps above.

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Once you have uploaded all of the desired images to the queue, you should see a thumbnail of each, as above.

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Note that the total size of all images you may upload at one time is 2 megabytes. Click the Review & Publish → button.

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You will be taken to the Upload/Review and Publish page. If you desire to change file names, you can change them in the Title cells. Entering correct Tags helps others to find relevant images when searching. The Description cell can provide viewers with information about the image. The Copyright cell can be used to provide relevant copyright information. The Title cell is the only mandatory cell – all others are optional.

The first image uploaded to an album will be used as the album cover image by default. If you desire to use one of the images that you are uploading as the album cover image instead, select the Cover Image radio button that appears below the image thumbnail.

You can also rotate an image as part of the uploading process, ensuring that it appears correctly.

The system will automatically select the Follow Image checkbox for each image that you upload, providing you with notifications when an image is rated, a comment is made to an image, or other actions are taken on an image. You can uncheck that box if you don’t desire to receive notifications about the image.

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Once you have verified that you have entered all of the information that you want, have made all necessary rotation corrections to any images, and have made all selections you desire, click the Finish & Publish → button.

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You will be returned to the Album page, with the images in that album displayed as thumbnails below.

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[Brother Tyler]

I'm am currently working on updating and revising this tutorial. It's going to be an omnibus tutorial that covers the entire scope of the galleries and how to use them, so I'll be adjusting things on the fly.

 

While I'm working on it, feel free to provide feedback, especially if there's something you don't like such as colors, etc. All of the real work is taking place offline in a Microsoft Word document, so it's easy to make changes that cascade across the whole tutorial.