Categories v. Galleries

WashboardmacWashboardmac Registered Users Posts: 1 Beginner grinner
edited August 21, 2010 in SmugMug Support
Hi All

Have been a smugmugger for nearly a year and thought it was time to organise my collection properly.

I've previously just created galleries on an ad hoc basis with not too much regard to the name and had added Categories but really used them. How, however I want to organise my photos into a more themic arrangement for external viewing.

Ideally I would like an analogue to files & folder on a computer, i.e. folders (galleries or categories) can contain files (photos) or other folders, which then do the same, and so on. But I can't seem to replicate that structure here on smugmug. So I thought what are more useful, Categories or Galleries. I had come to a point of just having Galleries and then perhaps using Collections if I wanted a 'sub-folder'. But I find that I can't have a Gallery without it having to be categorised. And I course I can't upload to a Category so I left with a unnecessary/redundant level of organisation that also makes the url look badly thought out.

For example I want a theme called Tones & Patterns in to which I can put abstract photos. They will not need to further classified and doing so would probably make the Gallery too fragmented. It neither really needs a Category but I'm made to choose one so I end up with '***.co.uk/category/TonesPatterns' or similar.

Am I missing a setting that I need or am I stuck with this arrangement?

Your comments appreciated.

Andy

Comments

  • SJLPicsSJLPics Registered Users Posts: 9 Beginner grinner
    edited August 21, 2010
    Galleries and Categories
    You will want to set up your own Categories and Sub-Categories in Control Panel, assign Galleries to those Cat's or Sub's and display Categories instead of Galleries on your Homepage.

    As an example, take a look at my H/P http://sjlpics.smugmug.com/ and see that I set up a Cat called Test Top Level, and inside that is a Gallery called Test Cat Gallery and a sub-cat called Sub Cat 1 which contains it's own gallery called Sub Cat 1 Gallery. This is a typical tree structure such as you describe, so I think you will be able to make it work. All you have to do after creating your Cat's and Sub-Cats is to go into each existing Galleries' settings and assign Cat's and Sub Cat's as required from the drop down's under Settings. Hope this helps.
  • SJLPicsSJLPics Registered Users Posts: 9 Beginner grinner
    edited August 21, 2010
    BTW, thank you. As so often happens, we learn when helping others, and that happened here. In setting up those Test categories, subs and galleries, I finally figured out how to use the Smart feature to include pictures instead of uploading same pictures numerous times to numerous galleries. Sweet feature
Sign In or Register to comment.