New website test.

[Killakoala]

I have finally gotten around to creating a website on my domain for displaying my photos.

http://www.stevekilburn.com/album/index.html

Would some of you be kind enough to have a look and let me know what you think, good or bad. (Broadband recommended for viewing the FULL images, dialup ok for thumbnails and medium pics)

The design is created using J_Album and is based on Pbase format, but a bit smarter and more modern, and slightly 'minimalist'.

Cheers

[phillipb]

Hi Steve,
I found your site to be - as Matt would say - Neat and in the middle. It loaded very quickly and is very easy on the eye.
My only question is, when you add other pages of different events to your album, are you going to have a different front page with a thumbnail of each event?

[Killakoala]

Hi Steve,
I found your site to be - as Matt would say - Neat and in the middle. It loaded very quickly and is very easy on the eye.
My only question is, when you add other pages of different events to your album, are you going to have a different front page with a thumbnail of each event?

Yep, just working on that now For now i am just playing with different skins and adding subdirectories, but for now it's looking pretty cool. I just need to work out how to upload new pictures without having to add everything that's already uploaded.

I've never done this before so it's a bit of a steep learning curve.

[sheepie]

Hi Steve - I like the simple look to the pages, which is something that J_Album does fairly well.

What I'm trying to do with my website (which will hopefully be up in the next few weeks) is use Smugmug to store the pics, and have links to them from my pages. I can then write something about the more interesting pictures, and still have Smugmug sitting in the background for more general galleries.

Not sure about the "having to upload everything" point - I have a feeling that there is something in J_album to handle this, not sure.

[Killakoala]

Not sure about the "having to upload everything" point - I have a feeling that there is something in J_album to handle this, not sure.

I sorted that out now. Simply use the 'smartFTP' option.

[Nicole]

Hi Steve, looking good. Easy to follow and quick to load as Phillip said. I've used Jalbum for my website too and once you get the hang of it I find it so much easier than trying to do it all yourself. So many skins etc. to play with!

[bago100]

Steve

I just had a look at your tutorials. Well Done!

Also by putting the date updated at the bottom of each page is an excellent feature because it shows the reader how up-to-date or otherwise, a page is.

Your photos are quick to load and the thumbnails are a decent size for easy selection.

Cheers

Graham

[sirhc55]

Steve - as the others have said this is a quick, simple and to-the-oint website which makes it a pleasure to view - no wizz bangs

[christiand]

Quick and easy site.

CD

[mic]

Hi Killa,

I like it a lot, I like uncluttered Sites.
Great action shots too.

Does it take a while to load all the Pics on it ?

Mic.

[wile_E]

Hi Killa, neat smart site and it loaded v.quickly too.

Just to echo phillipb's comments on having a thumbnail per "album" (once you have more than one album loaded).

[stubbsy]

Steve

Up front I have two confessions to make - I'm a picky bastard and I'm a programmer by profession.

I like the site except for one thing. When viewing an image I'd have a more obvious way of getting back to the top level. For example I know enough to work out that clicking White Water Kayaking will take me back to the page I came from, but a home or a back button or both may be more obvious. Of course once there are multiple galleries I'd expect you'd need a single button to get you to the top level from any screen.

Just my 2 cents. Never heard of J_Album so this may not be possible.

Edit: One thing I wasn't clever enough to work out at first: clicking the filename at the top of the screen shows the full version of the image. Is it possible to have it say something like "Original Image" rather than DSC_xxxX?

[Killakoala]

......clicking White Water Kayaking will take me back to the page I came from, but a home or a back button or both may be more obvious

I can do this, it's just a style sheet adjustment and a new button, but i will have to work out how to do it J_Album does have some verstility for the novice 'coder' like me.

........Is it possible to have it say something like "Original Image" rather than DSC_xxxX?

Now there's something i wouldn't have a clue how to do. But i will look into it. The DSC..... is the original filename so i doubt i could change it to read ORIGINAL on all the individual pics....


To Everyone!!!!!!!

Thanks for your input. I have taken onboard what you have said and i will fine tune the site prior to a 'full' public release

[Nicole]

The DSC.....is the original filename so i doubt i could change it to read ORIGINAL on all the individual pics....

There is a way

Create a file called meta.properties and place it in the same directory as your original images. In the file, for each image you type:

title.<filename>=<Your name>
E.g. title.DSC_3759.jpg=Man Kayaking

I'm sure your names will be better than my example though. Then you just make the album again so the html pages display your name.