Create a Photo Album
by Irene Smith
Why a Microsoft FrontPage
tutorial? Now that GeoCities has FrontPage support, I thought
it might be a nice addition. If you don't have a site here at GeoCities, and
your provider doesn't support FrontPage, don't worry. This tutorial does not require the FrontPage
extensions. You can create your photo album and then upload it to your site as
long as you don't add any other features that do require the extensions (like
counters or other FrontPage components).
Why use FrontPage to create
your photo album? Because it takes a major headache off your hands. FrontPage
can create thumbnails (smaller versions of each photo) for you automatically.
Yes, you read that right. The first version of this photo album that I created
three years ago had only about a dozen pictures and it took several hours to get
the pictures ready because I had to create two versions of each picture. When I
updated it last week, I had close to 100 pictures and it took less than an hour
to create six pages with thumbnails of all 100 photographs.
Of course the first step is
to gather your photograph files. If you want to include pictures that are not
already in digital format, you'll have to scan them in. It's worth it to take
the time to create a set of files where the width is not more than about 350
pixels and the height of the tallest photograph is not more than about 320
pixels. Why so small? The pictures will still fit comfortably within a 640 by
480 screen and the picture files will be smaller and therefore will download
more quickly.
When it comes to storing the
files on your website, the easiest way to create the thumbnail pages is to:
- Prepare the page. Add any
introductory text and then add the table in which you are going to place
your thumbnails. In my case I used a table that was three across and had a
two pixel wide border. I did that mainly so I could put a short description
of the photograph with each thumbnail and I wanted to make it clear which
description went with which photograph.
- Insert the photograph into
the page. You don't have to worry too much about the arrangement for now. As
long as you place each photo in its own table cell, you can easily drag them
around later to rearrange them.
- Make sure the image is
selected (in other words that it has the selection handles around it).
Actually, the Pictures toolbar won't appear until the picture is selected,
so you'll know when you've got it right.
- Click AutoThumbnail on the
Pictures toolbar.
As long as your picture is
larger than the size you have defined for thumbnails, FrontPage will create a
thumbnail sized image and replace your image with the thumbnail. It also adds a
link to the original image so when viewers click on the image it will go
directly to the picture. All the work has been done for you. When you save the
page, FrontPage will give you an opportunity to decide where to place your new
thumbnail images. It's really that easy.
You can control the
parameters that FrontPage uses for creating thumbnails as well. Select
Tools/Page Options and then select the AutoThumbnail tab. You can control the
size in pixels of the thumbnail and whether or not it has a border. You can also
give your thumbnail a beveled edge to make it look like a button. I have found,
by the way, that the beveled edge looks better on a dark background because the
edge gets lost against a light background.
Keep in mind the fact that
even at this new smaller size, each picture needs to be downloaded before it is
displayed, so you may want to limit the number of thumbnails on each page to a
dozen or so. Beyond that? Have fun. If you get stuck or have problems, let me
know. I'd be glad to help. Contact me at: computersmith@bitsmart.com and with
your questions or comments.
Want to see a sample
photo album?
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