Galleries/Categories/Sub-Categories

Sunstruck

Good Morning All!

I am having the hardest time setting up my site. For some reason, I just cannot wrap my mind around how to set up Galleries/Categories and Sub-Categories. I have watched David Wolf's video on setting them up and I am just drawing a blank.

I made a cute little chart like he had showed in his video, but could you double check this for me?

I want just a couple of "Categories" These will be my main groups, correct? I am looking at adding Portraits, Landscapes, Fine Art. I do NOT upload to these directly correct?

Now I want to sub-divide my Categories in to smaller bites, I can add as many SUB Categories as I want? For example: PORTRAITS> People, Pets, Formal, etc.

Now I when I upload my photos, I do NOT upload them to my Sub-Category either? I now create new GALLERIES?

So under Portraits> Pets> I would have Cats, Dogs, etc?

There is no way to sub categorize the Galleries? So if I upload photos to my Portraits>Pets> Cats, I cannot add a folder called Ragdolls, Birmans, etc?

If I want to make it look like that, I would have to change my Sub-Category? Portraits> Cats> then Breed, name, etc?

Sorry I am being so dense on this subject. I appreciate any help, or kick in the butt!

Penny

Allen

Sunstruck wrote: »

Good Morning All!

I am having the hardest time setting up my site. For some reason, I just cannot wrap my mind around how to set up Galleries/Categories and Sub-Categories. I have watched David Wolf's video on setting them up and I am just drawing a blank.

I made a cute little chart like he had showed in his video, but could you double check this for me?

I want just a couple of "Categories" These will be my main groups, correct? I am looking at adding Portraits, Landscapes, Fine Art. I do NOT upload to these directly correct?

Now I want to sub-divide my Categories in to smaller bites, I can add as many SUB Categories as I want? For example: PORTRAITS> People, Pets, Formal, etc.

Now I when I upload my photos, I do NOT upload them to my Sub-Category either? I now create new GALLERIES?

So under Portraits> Pets> I would have Cats, Dogs, etc?

There is no way to sub categorize the Galleries? So if I upload photos to my Portraits>Pets> Cats, I cannot add a folder called Ragdolls, Birmans, etc?

If I want to make it look like that, I would have to change my Sub-Category? Portraits> Cats> then Breed, name, etc?

Sorry I am being so dense on this subject. I appreciate any help, or kick in the butt!

Penny

You might have to create cats that include an expanded name like:
Portraits People
Portraits Pets
Portraits Formal
or expanded sub-cat names
Portraits > Pets Cats
Portraits > Pets Dogs

jfriend

If you're just trying to understand what Smugmug has, they have three things:

Categories (which can contain either sub-categories or galleries)
Sub-categories (which can only contain a gallery)
Galleries (which can only contain images and videos)

Every gallery must have a category assigned
A gallery may optionally have a sub-category
You specify the category and optional sub-category when the gallery is created.
You can modify the category or sub-category at any time in gallery settings.

Categories and subcategories may be added, renamed or deleted in the control panel.

This system lets you have maximum levels like this:

Homepage
....Sports
........Football
............Mountain View High vs. Saratoga High - Sept. 2010
............Los Altos High vs. Los Gatos High - Oct. 2010

In this example, "Sports" is the category, "Football" is the sub-category and the other two are galleries.

Sunstruck

There is what I have so far. I have just added the category Portraits/Pets/Dog & Cat. Could you tell me what you think? Also, any comments about the site in general would be appreciated as well.

http://www.pennyjwillsphotography.com/

Thanks for looking!

Penny

jfriend

Sunstruck wrote: »

There is what I have so far. I have just added the category Portraits/Pets/Dog & Cat. Could you tell me what you think? Also, any comments about the site in general would be appreciated as well.

http://www.pennyjwillsphotography.com/

Thanks for looking!

Penny

I think you want to use the minimum number of categories/sub-category levels that is required. For example, I don't recommend creating a sub-category in a category until a category already has more than 10-15 galleries, sometimes as many as 30. The reason is that it's easier for someone to find what they are looking for by scanning a single screen for the desired object than looking in a whole bunch of different sub-categories. In my opinion, people tend to overdo the use of sub-categories and get a site that takes longer to navigate and is harder to find things on.

This generally flies against the urge to present a nicely categorized/organized site that seems like everything is neatly classified. But being neatly classified is not actually the point. The point is that viewers can quickly find and view what they want.

Sunstruck

Thank you John for your reply. Your reply makes perfect sense and I'll do a little editing and see how I like it.

Penny