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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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?