Need to hide owner (URL) for a public gallery, plus customize the gallery (CSS, HTML)

ChancyRat

I tried my hand at my first hide-owner gallery. Please tell me there is a way to customize for background, etc.? Very desperately need to make a public gallery (anyone with the link, but not my site URL), that is customized with HTML and CSS. I don't care how to get there, tweaking-wise. THANKS.

denisegoldberg

Hide owner removes all traces of you. Customization is not possible.

From the help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93131-can-i-hide-the-account-owner-information-for-a-gallery-:

Hide Owner will remove the nickname from your URL and make it completely SmugMug.
Your custom Banner will be replaced with the SmugMug banner. This will also remove all customization on the page.
Links to your homepage won't appear, only the gallery name will.

ChancyRat

DE-NISEEE. Not what I need to hear. Please, what is my next option? It's not that I need to hide ME, just the JoinRats part. What about redirecting-something-or-other?

denisegoldberg

@ChancyRat said:
DE-NISEEE. Not what I need to hear. Please, what is my next option? It's not that I need to hide ME, just the JoinRats part. What about redirecting-something-or-other?

There isn't another option within your smug site. Either you use hide owner to drop back to a www.smugmug.com URL or your URL will be used.

If you're trying to keep something off of your regular site but still available without popping up in the menu, have you considered using a sharegroup? Take a look at the help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93261-can-i-share-multiple-unlisted-galleries-with-one-link-sharegroups-.

ChancyRat

Oh dear, that's not good either... I'm gobsmacked. I had no idea one could not do this.... I thought some folks created a second kind of home page... of some kind ... I would like to create a gallery on a family member who died. Just not appropriate to connect to JoinRats.

denisegoldberg

@ChancyRat said:
Oh dear, that's not good either... I'm gobsmacked. I had no idea one could not do this.... I thought some folks created a second kind of home page... of some kind ... I would like to create a gallery on a family member who died. Just not appropriate to connect to JoinRats.

Do you have a blog? Whether you currently have one or not, you could create a blog just for that purpose. You can pull photos for the blog from an unlisted gallery on your smugmug site.

ChancyRat

Can you load an entire gallery into a blog, and sort the way you want, like a Smugmug gallery? (Blogger is the only one I have, though I don't use it but might could for this purpose.) Or do you have to pull one photo at a time. I just can't believe I can't do this... was so hoping...

ChancyRat

@Allen - please tell me you have a secret to setting up a public page/gallery that is not linked to your SM account name? Don't you have a bunch of "homes" with different names?

denisegoldberg

@ChancyRat said:
Can you load an entire gallery into a blog, and sort the way you want, like a Smugmug gallery? (Blogger is the only one I have, though I don't use it but might could for this purpose.) Or do you have to pull one photo at a time. I just can't believe I can't do this... was so hoping...

The only way you can load an entire gallery from smugmug into a blog entry at once would be as a slideshow. You can put as many photos from your smug site into a blog entry as you'd like though. I usually only post one or two photos at a time, but this entry is an example of one where I posted many - http://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com/2016/12/top-photos-2016.html.

Blogger is not a photo gallery but there is the ability to load multiple photos into an album on https://photos.google.com/. You could then provide a link to the album. I don't often load albums on google but I did for my top photos of 2016. Here's a link to my top photos of 2016 album on google - https://goo.gl/photos/bkajT5wYSxtCFNLS6. Take a look, maybe an album like this one would meet your needs.

You could also reference the photos that you loaded to an album on https://photos.google.com/ in a blog entry if you'd like - but it may be that hosting the gallery on google will solve your needs.

ChancyRat

Oh, Denise I so thank you for these details. Is https://photos.google.com/ the same as google drive? It's a folder on google drive (which I haven't used but which currently houses the photos as a test) that, um, how shall I say this delicately, sucks?

denisegoldberg

@ChancyRat said:
Oh, Denise I so thank you for these details. Is https://photos.google.com/ the same as google drive? It's a folder on google drive (which I haven't used but which currently houses the photos as a test) that, um, how shall I say this delicately, sucks?

It's not the same. They are both part of your google storage / content though.

Go to https://photos.google.com in a browser where you are logged in to Google.
Click Albums to see if you already have created some albums.
Click the Create button on the top right to create a new album.

denisegoldberg

The reason I started down the google photos path in my answer above is that you stated you don't want your smug URL showing but you don't like the hide owner behavior.

On a single smugmug site you can:

• make the gallery public so it can be seen on your \browse page
• make the gallery unlisted and give out the URL to family members
• include the gallery in a share group. You can name the sharegroup so the end of the URL could have a meaningul name - but the beginning will be the URL of your site.
• make the gallery unlisted and set the access to People I choose.

All of these options will use your site URL. As far as I know the only way I am aware of to share a URL to a SmugMug gallery without it using your site URL is to hide owner - but then you lose the ability to customize.

Maybe an unlisted gallery with access set to People I choose would work for you. Take a look at the help page http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/1665424

ChancyRat

Thanks, Denise. I will check the Google photos option, it's probably the only workable solution unless @Allen shows up with sparkly toys. I need the page to be completely public because a lot of non-family would look for the family member. I need them to be able to plug in the name and find the gallery. I'm very confused about why Smugmug doesn't allow this option. What is the mindset that would exclude this (public page, non-site-name URL)....

denisegoldberg

@ChancyRat said:
What is the mindset that would exclude this (public page, non-site-name URL)...

A smugmug site only has a single URL.
If you want a different URL you will need to put your content on a different URL. To stay on smug that means more than one smugmug account (and more than one payment to a domain registrar if you want a custom URL).

Why not set up a blog with a name that reflects the family member, then either place the photos in Google or reference the photos from your smugmug account? You can make a gallery in smug custom then remove the site menus, just have it be a "plain" gallery.

ChancyRat

Thank you Denise. I've sent you a PM. I did go with Google Photos, but if I have to look at an all white background over and over much longer, I might go insane.

I do understand what you're saying about why SM doesn't grant us the option of "public gallery with disguised/private URL", but, I can make an excellent case as to why they should. Ready? lol. SM lets us have a PRIVATE page with disguised URL. That's it, that's why they should let us have a public page with a disguised URL. Maybe some kind of limit, like, no more than 5 per year, no - whatever would be customizing that would generate a pseudo complete new domain with zillions of pages, etc. See?

Anyway, thank you so much.

ChancyRat

Denise, or anyone, so I did a stupid thing and deleted that Google Photos album I set up with only one little click. Google gave me no warning notice ... I thought I was turning it back to private. Where is the "Smacks Head" emoticon. So that, plus the fact that a white background is designed to drive one insane, plus the fact that these google albums are never public, leads me to think I may have to purchase a 2nd SM account. Except I can find no guidance on how to do that on SM, and the chat function is off for the weekends. I navigate via "try now", but when I enter my email address, SM recognizes me and wants me to log in to my existing account. (Only option). Could someone point me to how to buy a second account? Thank you kindly.

denisegoldberg

@ChancyRat said:
...I may have to purchase a 2nd SM account. Except I can find no guidance on how to do that on SM, and the chat function is off for the weekends. I navigate via "try now", but when I enter my email address, SM recognizes me and wants me to log in to my existing account. (Only option). Could someone point me to how to buy a second account? Thank you kindly.

As far as I know you will need to use a 2nd email address.

The chat function may not be up but support is available. Instead of using chat, send an email.

From the help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93368:

SmugMug's Support Heroes are standing by 365 days a year. You'll get a friendly reply, usually within hours. Try us:

help@smugmug.com

Point us to your SmugMug homepage or include an order number so we can put your questions, gushes and gripes in context.

Here's a link to the form - http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/emails/new.