Help with Gallery Organization

PainterskipPainterskip Registered Users Posts: 40 Big grins
edited May 30, 2012 in SmugMug Support
I am pulling my hair out trying to understand the gallery organization system here. This is my second go-round with this and I still don't understand. And it's not like I'm a rookie at computer file systems at all...I've been doing computer stuff for years. I just can't figure this out...

Here's what I would like to do....

Currently I think I would have three main categories...

Skip's Portfolio (my fun stuff)
Family Photos
Dance Photos (these would be from several different events and studios)

So under the Dance Photo Gallery, I'd like to organize into specific studios...like so...

Dance/ZGD
Dance/Dance Artistry

And then under each dance studio would be additional galleries....

Such as:

Dance/Dance Artistry/2012 Rehearsal
Dance/Dance Artistry/2012 Recital
Dance/Dance Artistry/2012 Studio Photos

And then, if possible, yet another series of subcategories. For those of you that hav ebeen to dance recitals, you know that there would be many performances, usually named according to the name of the song.

So for the above galleries, I would have approx. 30 sub-galleries in each.

Can I do that?

What is confusing me is the strange labels SmugMug gives to each field. Also, it's not at all intuitive, it seems to me. I'm so confused over all this I can't even explain it:-) It's SO easy to set all this up in a normal file system.

Should I be using the Events system?

Thanks in advance....

Username is painterskip if you want to go see the mess I made:-)
www.skipdyrda.com
www.emurals.com
www.thesarasotamuralist.blogspot.com

Comments

  • TheOnlookerTheOnlooker Registered Users Posts: 168 Major grins
    edited May 30, 2012
    Painterskip wrote: »
    I am pulling my hair out trying to understand the gallery organization system here. This is my second go-round with this and I still don't understand. And it's not like I'm a rookie at computer file systems at all...I've been doing computer stuff for years. I just can't figure this out...

    Here's what I would like to do....

    Currently I think I would have three main categories...

    Skip's Portfolio (my fun stuff)
    Family Photos
    Dance Photos (these would be from several different events and studios)

    So under the Dance Photo Gallery, I'd like to organize into specific studios...like so...

    Dance/ZGD
    Dance/Dance Artistry

    And then under each dance studio would be additional galleries....

    Such as:

    Dance/Dance Artistry/2012 Rehearsal
    Dance/Dance Artistry/2012 Recital
    Dance/Dance Artistry/2012 Studio Photos

    And then, if possible, yet another series of subcategories. For those of you that hav ebeen to dance recitals, you know that there would be many performances, usually named according to the name of the song.

    So for the above galleries, I would have approx. 30 sub-galleries in each.

    Can I do that?

    What is confusing me is the strange labels SmugMug gives to each field. Also, it's not at all intuitive, it seems to me. I'm so confused over all this I can't even explain it:-) It's SO easy to set all this up in a normal file system.

    Should I be using the Events system?

    Thanks in advance....

    Username is painterskip if you want to go see the mess I made:-)

    Our site organization works like this: CATEGORY --> SUBCATEGORY --> GALLERY --> IMAGE. Your images must be in galleries, and galleries must be in categories. You can also add an extra level of sort between categories and galleries, using subcategories. They allow you to subdivide a category like Weddings or Sports into smaller groups, so your viewers can easily find the galleries they want to see.

    Our hero, Rich, has set up a site that demonstrates that quite nicely. Look here, and click the Galleries link: http://richw-t3.smugmug.com/

    You can create Custom Categories or Subcategories in your Control Panel, on the Customize tab. To change them in your Galleries, just go to your Gallery Settings. Categories are under Essentials, and Subcategories are under Extras. You can move several galleries at one time, using your Multiple Galleries tab.

    For you, this is what I would suggest:

    --- Dance Artistry (CATEGORY)
    2012 Rehearsal (SUBCATEGORY)
    Gallery
    Gallery

    Since there is not a way to make additional levels in your site organization, you may want to boost up the requests we are getting in here on the Feedback Forum. Yes, we do have some awesomeness in the works!! thumb.gif

    Look here to see more about adding categories and subcategories: http://smugmug.assistly.com/customer/portal/articles/93306-how-to-use-categories

    And here you can see more about your gallery settings: http://smugmug.assistly.com/customer/portal/articles/93307-gallery-settings

    When you have your galleries in the categories and subcategories, just the way you want them, you can change your homepage gallery display to show categories, if it's not that way already. That's a simple mouse click in the upper right corner of the display box.

    -KevinW
    Support Hero
  • PainterskipPainterskip Registered Users Posts: 40 Big grins
    edited May 30, 2012
    TheOnlooker wrote: »
    Our site organization works like this: CATEGORY --> SUBCATEGORY --> GALLERY --> IMAGE. Your images must be in galleries, and galleries must be in categories. You can also add an extra level of sort between categories and galleries, using subcategories. They allow you to subdivide a category like Weddings or Sports into smaller groups, so your viewers can easily find the galleries they want to see.

    Our hero, Rich, has set up a site that demonstrates that quite nicely. Look here, and click the Galleries link: http://richw-t3.smugmug.com/

    You can create Custom Categories or Subcategories in your Control Panel, on the Customize tab. To change them in your Galleries, just go to your Gallery Settings. Categories are under Essentials, and Subcategories are under Extras. You can move several galleries at one time, using your Multiple Galleries tab.



    For you, this is what I would suggest:

    --- Dance Artistry (CATEGORY)
    2012 Rehearsal (SUBCATEGORY)
    Gallery
    Gallery

    Since there is not a way to make additional levels in your site organization, you may want to boost up the requests we are getting in here on the Feedback Forum. Yes, we do have some awesomeness in the works!! thumb.gif

    Look here to see more about adding categories and subcategories: http://smugmug.assistly.com/customer/portal/articles/93306-how-to-use-categories

    And here you can see more about your gallery settings: http://smugmug.assistly.com/customer/portal/articles/93307-gallery-settings

    When you have your galleries in the categories and subcategories, just the way you want them, you can change your homepage gallery display to show categories, if it's not that way already. That's a simple mouse click in the upper right corner of the display box.

    -KevinW
    Support Hero

    Thanks, Kevin....I'll go through all of your suggestions tomorrow....my eyeballs are worn out for tonight:-) I appreciate the reply.

    Skip
    www.skipdyrda.com
    www.emurals.com
    www.thesarasotamuralist.blogspot.com
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