Please help me. SM is making me crazy.

mthibodeau · August 21, 2013

I just recently built my SM page and I started in Legacy but got migrated over to the new version - I figured since I'd eventually have to move anyway and I'm just building my site now, I'd rather do it once rather than start all over. But I felt like I was just starting to get the hang of customizing my old page when I moved, and now nothing is making any sense whatsoever...

I've watched the video tutorials and I've read the help pages - both assume a degree of familiarity that is not fully explained, so I am desperate for answers and help. Here's what I want to do: a front homepage with a slideshow on it, with a link in a nav bar to another page that displays links to all of my galleries. That's it.

I started with the "Ludwig" template, but something was wrong because it didn't populate my page with any of my pictures - it was just blank. So then I started using the "Shadow" template because that's what he used in the tutorial so I figured I could follow along better - that template did populate with my galleries. So right now in my sandbox I have a Shadow template. I added a slideshow, but I want to get rid of all the gallery links on the homepage and move them to another page. Right now my galleries are in different folders/categories, and I can't combine them into one place on one page.

If anyone can point me towards straightforward instructions to get what I want (a front homepage with a slideshow on it, with a link in a nav bar to another page that displays links to all of my galleries. That's it.), I would be so eternally grateful.

Thanks,
Maria

James_F · August 21, 2013

I feel your pain. I was exactly where you were just a few weeks ago. Suggest you play some of these videos - https://www.youtube.com/user/smugmug - the lengthy ones that start will you from scratch. They're long and somewhat disjointed at times, but they will help you understand the fundamentals. I listened to one repeatedly for hours until I finally made some progress. Don't pay any attention to all of the technical posts about CSS coding here on this site and the like at this time. It will not help you. Play the Smugmug YouTube videos until some "lightbulbs" come on. It's what got me going.

steveL · August 21, 2013

Here is something you can try. I am not really an expert at all so don't take this as boiler plate facts.

I chose the Sophie template and at the top of all pages added my name and below that I added a Menu and on the homepage below the site name (logo) and menu I added a slideshow.

On the right side of your screen (you can change it the left side) in customize mode there is a section at the top that has a hierarchy of "Entire Site" and below that are "Home Page", "All Folders", and then "All Galleries".

Below that top section is a section that you will use to add content like slideshow, photos etc.

When you click on "Entire Site" in the top section, you can see a "Logo" item that will be the name of your site. Go down to the content block. click on "Design" and drag a logo block up to the top of the page (remember you are working on the entire site at this time and it is color coded red) click on the wrench symbol and type in your name -- you play around with placement and size later.

Now go down to "Navigation" in the content block and expand it and drag a "Menu" below the logo (your name) that you just added at the top. You can add menu items here (links) and also add the address of where that is located which is easier than you might think.

Now click on "Homepage" in the top section and add a slideshow by going down into the content block and clicking on "Photo" and dragging the slideshow block onto the homepage below your logo and menu. By clicking on the wrench symbol in the slideshow, you can set some options but the one that you want to set is the choice of what is to be displayed in the slideshow. I just chose a gallery that I add photos to pretty regularly.

One of the default items in the Menu will be "Browse" and that should allow you to see or get to all of your galleries. There might be some setting or other that needs to be set with respect to that but don't worry if you can't find or see you photos because they are there something just needs to be pointing to them.

If you get messed up and want to start over -- just do it. Go to "customize site" at the top of your SmugMug page and choose to design a new site. You will always have a "current" and if you want, you can have one or more designs that you are working on or experimenting with. Your photos will be ok during all of this experimentation as long as you don't purposely delete them.

I hope this helps you to get started. Take a look at my site

http://steveandbecky.smugmug.com/

It is a simple site made with the Sophie template and I am pretty ignorant about this stuff.

Just added this: if there is something from the template that you don't want just delete that content block by clicking on the trash can symbol and add what you do want by dragging it out of the content section. You can do this repeatedly if you are just learning and making mistakes.

Ann McRae · August 22, 2013

[QUOTE=mthibodeau;1901258

If anyone can point me towards straightforward instructions to get what I want (a front homepage with a slideshow on it, with a link in a nav bar to another page that displays links to all of my galleries. That's it.), I would be so eternally grateful.

Thanks,
Maria[/QUOTE]

http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/1210651-customization-how-do-i-create-a-unique-home-page

The default navigation menu, with the 'browse' link will point folks to the /browse page. As long as you've added folder &/or gallery or folder/gallery/page content there your galleries will show. But if you'd like to have more links on the nav menu, check this:

http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/1222523-customization-how-do-i-make-a-navigation-menu-

Hope that helps.

mthibodeau · August 22, 2013

Thanks for all of the tips!

I finally figured out something like I want -- I'm not sure how I did it, but I stumbled upon the answer after tinkering with suggestions, so, I'll keep it.

Now I just need to figure out how to change the size of my slideshow -- I tried adjusting pixels and so on, but it's still not filling the screen as I want -- and I need to figure out how to add a clickable link in my nav bar to allow people to contact me. Can we do that?

Thanks,
Maria

ETA: I found the instructions for adding an email contact (contact form, at least, which works for now) in another thread --

This one is actually completely simplified. No CSS required.
1. click customize
2. click customize site
3. select "entire site"
4. select "menu"
5. click the wrench
6. select "links"
7. click the + sign to add a new link.
8. for the name, type what you want the link to say "email the photographer" or "email Smitty" or "email Bob Smith Photos"
9. for "link to" select "contact form"
10. click "done."

DeeRich · October 20, 2013

mthibodeau wrote: »

Thanks for all of the tips!

I finally figured out something like I want -- I'm not sure how I did it, but I stumbled upon the answer after tinkering with suggestions, so, I'll keep it.

Now I just need to figure out how to change the size of my slideshow -- I tried adjusting pixels and so on, but it's still not filling the screen as I want -- and I need to figure out how to add a clickable link in my nav bar to allow people to contact me. Can we do that?

Thanks,
Maria

ETA: I found the instructions for adding an email contact (contact form, at least, which works for now) in another thread --

This one is actually completely simplified. No CSS required.
1. click customize
2. click customize site
3. select "entire site"
4. select "menu"
5. click the wrench
6. select "links"
7. click the + sign to add a new link.
8. for the name, type what you want the link to say "email the photographer" or "email Smitty" or "email Bob Smith Photos"
9. for "link to" select "contact form"
10. click "done."

Mitch, thank you sooooo much for written STEPS!!!!!!

Please help me. SM is making me crazy.

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