MY PHOTO ALBUM 4.2 HELP

CONTENTS I. GETTING STARTED

   Need some help? If you do, read on. Various subjects have help available using the menu above. If this is your first time using My Photo Album keep reading, or you can dive right into creating a new album by selecting "New" from the "File" menu or the "Action" menu!
   My Photo Album is an application which allows you to index all of your photographs into an attractive graphic interface. It started in July of 1999 with version 1.0 which did nothing but display photos I took at Woodstock 99, and is now a fully customizable photo album for any occasion! Forget those bulky, dusty photo albums kicking around in your closet, and those loose photos kicking around in boxes... My Photo Album solves all of those problems.
   Use the menu at the top of this window to select the next topic, 'Creating Photo Albums' to learn how to get started creating your own albums!


II. CREATING NEW ALBUMS

   Creating new photo albums is a breeze! It can take a while, though, if you have a lot of pictures to organize. The more time and effort you put into it the better your album will be! Just follow the simple instructions in the Wizard or read below for more information on each step.

GETTING STARTED
   First, you'll need some pictures. They'll need to be in PICT, JPEG, or TIFF format or you won't be able to use them. Where they are is very important, because My Photo Album saves only the information on where they are. Find a permanent place for them, be it a CD, a Zip Disk, a CompactFlash card, or your 'Pictures' folder in your home directory.
   If you want your photo albums to be on a CD, see the Frequently Asked Questions before getting started, and if you want to change the file names of the photos now is the time to do so.
   Now that you've got all your pictures in order, choose 'New Album...' from the 'File' menu or the 'Actions' menu. You'll be presented with the "New Photo Album Wizard." This will bring you through the photo album creation process step-by-step in case it's your first time.

STEP ONE
   In this window you'll be prompted to enter a name for your photo album and a brief description. The name of the photo album will appear all over the place, so try to keep them short and to the point. The description, however, will only appear when you choose 'About My Photo Album...' from the Apple menu or on the title page of the web page.
   Please note that if you are running My Photo Album on a monitor with a resolution smaller than 800x600 you will not be able to see the custom background selection menu. Otherwise, in this step it will also ask you what background you want for your photo album. You can select between the 'Default (Aqua)' and the 'Classic' backgrounds, as well as whatever images are in your 'Backgrounds' folder inside your 'Support' folder. (If you have an image you wish to add to this list you can click the 'Add Image' button to select an image file. The file will then be copied to your 'Backgrounds' folder. Note that if you want this album to have a custom cover as well you'll have to place a cover image with the same name in the Covers folder.) The background will appear in the thumbnail photo album to the right. New backgrounds can be downloaded from the My Photo Album web page.
   When you're done in this window, go ahead and click 'Next.' You will now be prompted to save your photo album. Name it and save it where you would like, and then proceed on to the next step.

STEP TWO
   Before beginning step two, make sure your photos aren't using long file names supported in Mac OS X (32+ letters), because My Photo Album will not recognize them and problems will arise.
   If you have a large amount of photos and a small amount of time, you can click the 'Select Folder' button and pick a folder with your images in it. It will then add all of the images in that folder to your photo album. Captioning is done automatically when you click this button, however, by using the image's file name. If you use this option it is recommended that you name all of your image files appropriately first: number (if they are in sequence) and then a caption. (Example: You could rename "AUT-002.JPG" to "02 Day 2 In Rome.jpg" or "Man Gets Kicked In The Groin.jpg" ...Remember, 32 characters or less!)
   If you don't want to rename your files or would just rather arrange and caption them yourself (it's more fun that way!), then you can start filling in the fields in the bottom half of this window.
   It should also be noted at this time that if your images are going to be stored on a CD they should either already be on the CD or they should be located in a prepared blank CD image in the Finder (the Finder prepares blank CDs for you when you insert them). Again, see the Frequently Asked Questions section for information on how to do this.
   The fields:

   1) The first field is the title for the left page. This title will appear above the two images on the left page. You can type whatever you want here, or you can leave it blank.
   2) The second is the image that will go on the top half of the left page. Click the 'Choose...' button to select an image. Be patient with extremely large files. When you've chosen an image it will appear in the thumbnail photo album on the right, so you know you're doing it right.
   3) The third field is the caption field. Enter a brief caption for the image you selected.

...Repeat for the following three sets. If you want to leave a space blank, delete the text that says "about this photo" and don't select any image files.
   Once you've filled out all of the fields, click on the 'Save This Page' button at the right of the window. The page has been added to your photo album, and you'll get a message telling you of this.
   If you want to add another page, repeat this process. You can add as many pages as you wish.

STEP THREE
   Just like setting up an iMac there is no step three! "There's no step three! [Jeff Goldblum chuckles like an idiot...]" Congratulations, you just created your first photo album!


III. VIEWING PHOTO ALBUMS

   Viewing photo albums requires just a little common sense. Just like in real life, you turn the pages and look at the photos.

OPENING AN ALBUM
   If the album you wish to view resides in your 'Albums' folder inside your 'Support' folder (and it probably does) then all you have to do is select that album from the Albums Menu which resides in the lower-left corner of the screen.
   If there's a photo album you'd like to view that is not in this list, use the open command (select 'Open Photo Album...' from the 'Actions' menu) and select the photo album you'd like to open.

BROWSING ALBUMS
   Once you've opened the album, it's simple to navigate. To read the caption for a photograph, hover your mouse over it. To enlarge a picture all you have to do is click on it. If you want to go to the next page, click the page flap in the upper right hand corner of the album. If you want to go back a page, click the page flap in the upper left hand corner of the album.
   If you want to skip directly to a page, you can use the Pages Menu, which is the menu in the middle at the bottom of the screen. In the popup menu it will say the page numbers and the page captions of the various pages in your photo album. Just select the page you want to see!

MORE INFORMATION
   To view the author's comments, choose 'About My Photo Album...' from the Apple menu or the page selection menu, and you'll be presented with the 'About My Photo Album' screen and the information about the album the author gave when they created it.


IV. VIEWING SLIDE SHOWS

   Slide shows are great because a group of people can huddle around the computer (or if you're fortunate enough,, the TV screen) and watch your photographs one-by-one with the caption at the bottom of each photo.
   My Photo Album makes presenting your photos in this way a snap! All you have to do is select a photo album, and choose "Present As Slide Show..." from the "Actions" menu. You'll be presented with the "Present Slide Show" window. You can leave it just the way it is, or you can change the settings if you wish.

SETTINGS
   The "Interval Between Photographs" setting is how long of a delay there is between pictures. The default setting is 7 seconds but you can make it however long you wish.
   The "Photograph Scaling Effect" is exactly what you think it is. "Proportional" keeps the original aspect ratios of the images, whereas "Fill Screen" will stretch the images to cover the entire screen area.
   Finally, we have the "Background Color," only seen when images are proportioned, it is the color of the background behind the image.

   Now just hit the "Start" button and sit back and watch your slide show!


V. EDITING EXISTING PHOTO ALBUMS

   Editing albums is easy too! There's a few different methods to edit your photo album below with instructions on how to perform each task.

EDITING CAPTIONS
   Click on the image in your photo album that has a caption you wish to change. While viewing the full-size image, control-click on the image to bring up a contextual menu, and select "Edit Caption" (or press Apple/Command-1). Type in your new caption in the resulting dialog and click "Save." That's it! You'll notice the changes immediately.

EDITING FILE LOCATIONS
   Click on the image in your photo album that has a caption you wish to change. While viewing the full-size image, control-click on the image to bring up a contextual menu, and select "Edit Location" (or press Apple/Command-2). The resulting dialog will display the current image and the current path to the image. Click the "Choose..." button to select a new image file, and click "Save" to save your changes. This is especially useful if you move or rename your image files.

APPENDING ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS
   Want to add a new batch of photographs to your album? To add pictures to an album select 'Append To Album...' from the 'Actions' or 'File' menu and select the album you wish to add pictures to. Then you'll be presented with the typical photograph selection and captioning screen. Just follow the same steps you followed when you created the album. It's that easy.

   If you want to take a stab at modifying your photo album with a text program, go for it. Use BBEdit or SimpleText to see the album data. It's pretty self-explanatory, there's even comments in the file. I offer no support for this, though. Always work with a copy and keep one for back-up!


VI. CREATING CUSTOM COVERS & BACKGROUNDS

   Making your photo albums with custom covers and backgrounds is a great way to make it more interesting for your viewers (and yourself!). It's simple, all you'll need is an art program capable of editing pict files and the templates that reside in the 'Backgrounds' folder and the 'Covers' folder. Open the file 'Background Template' (available at the My Photo Album web page or in your 'My Photo Album/Support/Backgrounds' folder) and the file 'Cover Template' (in the '/Support/Covers/' folder) in your art program. Then just modify it however you want and save them under different names in the same locations. It's as easy as that.
   PLEASE NOTE: The cover MUST have the same exact file name as the background image!

And remember to send a copy of it with your name and a title for your creation to backgrounds@x-industries.org and I'll be more than happy to put it up (or a link to it) on the web page.


VII. EXPORTING PHOTO ALBUMS

   Exporting your photo album to be viewed on the web is extremely easy! My Photo Album allows you to quickly make a web page out of your photo album right from the "Actions" menu. Just select 'Export As Web Page...' and pick from the presented options.

LAYOUT
   There are four web page layouts: Classic, Traditional, Slide Show and Flash. Classic will display your photos almost identical to how you see them from within My Photo Album using HTML and small images. Traditional will allow a viewer to see all of the photos all at once, four per row, on one page. The slide show presents each picture individually with next and back links in a progressive manner, and Flash displays your photos using Macromedia Flashİ technology.

OPTIONS
   If you choose to export your photo album in the slide show or traditional styles you'll be able to edit the background color (or select a background pattern) and change the text color. This is done by using the two popup menus at the top.
   For the rest of the options, the default settings are the best, but you can edit them if you wish to experiment. The third option is for creating thumbnail photographs. This option will create much smaller image files in addition to the larger ones to speed up download times off the internet, so people will be able to quickly browse your album. If you have not registered the program the thumbnails will reflect this, registering will remove this reminder. The fourth option will scale your full-size photographs to make them more appropriate for web storage and downloading speeds. Some people have minimal web storage and huge photographs, so this is a good one to turn on. The fifth option gives you the ability to add ".jpg" to your file names in case the extensions do not already exist. Files without extensions may not work on a web server. The 'Extra Description' field will append text to the album's description on the web page.

   There are two options at the bottom of the tab for people who have experience with HTML and need or wish to add code to their pages. the extras will be placed within the HEAD tags, and the tags will be placed inside the tag itself.

EXPORT
   In the third step, Export, all you have to do is hit the 'Start' button and sit back for a minute or two while My Photo Album does it's business. You'll have a web-ready album in no time. Clicking on the "View Web Page" button when it's been exported will open your web browser and point it towards the file on your hard drive. If your "file:" protocol is directed to another application this won't work (see Apple's Internet control panel for this).

NOTES
   Please note that file names with apostrophes (') will give you headaches when exporting them to HTML, avoid using file names with apostrophes. I'm working on a way around this.


VIII. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

   This section contains questions that are frequently asked about My Photo Album, just in case you couldn't find what you were looking for in the other Help topics. In this FAQ you'll find answers on all your questions about web pages, CDs, and even a few things other help topics have already covered.

Q) When I open a certain album, the pictures aren't there! Where'd they go?
A) My Photo Album saves only the locations of the image files. If you move the files around in the Finder, the images will be lost by My Photo Album. To prevent this, find a permanent place to store your photos! In Mac OS X, your 'Pictures' folder inside your 'Home' folder is the ideal place for your files.

Q) I changed my hard drive's name or I changed my user name and now My Photo Album can't find my picture files! what do I do?
A) BareBones offers a free version of their powerful text editor called BBEdit Lite that allows you to search and replace text in an entire folder of documents. Using BBEdit, do a search with the 'Multi-File Search' button enabled and your Albums folder selected. For the search string type in "MyOldHardDriveName:Users:MyOldUserName:Pictures:" (insert your actual old names) and "MyNewHardDriveName:Users:MyNewUserName:Pictures:" as the replace string, and hit "Replace All". Note that the same thing can be done (painstakingly) with SimpleText.

Q) I want My Photo Album to load a specific album automatically at startup... how do I do that?
A) In the Preferences you can select a default photo album, just click the "Choose..." button and select your album!

Q) I want to create a photo album to share with friends and family on a CD (CD/RW or Zip Disk), and they all have Macs... what do I have do to do this?
A) For now, the best way is to export your albums as web pages, and then putting the web pages on a CD. If you'd like, you can copy the entire My Photo Album folder to a blank CD in the Finder (or a Zip Disk), as well as your photos. After copying the application, launch it from the new disk and proceed to creating your photo albums, saving them in the Albums folder on the disk.

Q) What do I do with an album background or table I created or downloaded?
A) When creating your photo album, in the first step of the Wizard, select 'Add Image' and locate the new album background. To add a new table image, open the preferences dialog and select 'Other' while selecting a table.

Q) I made a cool background and cover for My Photo Album and I'd like to share it with the world. How do I do that?
A) Just send a copy of it with your name and a title for it to backgrounds@x-industries.org and I'll be more than happy to put it up (or a link to it) on the web page.

Q) How do you print a photo album?
A) There is no support for printing from within My Photo Album, but you can export your photo album to HTML (see 'Exporting Photo Albums') and print it page by page from within your web browser. Just make sure you have the 'Print Backgrounds' option checked in the print dialog.

Q) Speaking of web browsers, my photo album looks strange after I've exported it to HTML... what's the deal?
A) Various browsers work with tables and HTML in various ways. The pages created by My Photo Album look fine in Internet Explorer 5. On some Windows machines the pages will look a little mis-aligned.

Q) Where can I find the latest version of My Photo Album?
A) You can find the latest version of My Photo Album either at the My Photo Album web page, VersionTracker, Tucows, Download.com or by selecting "Get Mac OS X Software..." from the Apple menu under Mac OS X. If you're having trouble downloading it, select an alternate server or email me and let me know.

Q) I payed for My Photo Album and got my registration code but it's not working! What's wrong?
A) After you enter your registration number click the 'Unlock' button to register the program, then click the 'Save' button to save your preferences. If you registered version 2.1 to version 3.0.2 you should have received a new code in your email.

Q) I would really like a copy of My Photo Album on a CD (or disk), is that possible?
A) You can contact me via email if you would like to have a disk mailed to you with the application on it (Yes, this will cost extra).

Q) What is a site/family license? Why would I want it?
A) A site is a location (building, office, home) where there are two or more computers running My Photo Album that are all administered by one person. Of course I wouldn't expect you to pay $50 to run My Photo Album on two computers, but in this case the "Site" license allows you to share your My Photo Album registration code with your family. As long as YOU, the registered user, enter the code for your family memberwithout giving it to them.

Q) I want to put your program on a CD (or some other kind of media), do I need special permission?
A) No, as long as you are distributing the full package (which includes an unregistered copy of the application, the "Data" folder and it's contents, the "Support" folder and it's contents, and the Read Me file). You have permission to put it on a CD as long as you send me an email to make me aware of it.

IX. VERSION HISTORY & FUTURE PLANS

   My Photo Album 1.0 was released in July of 1999 after I got back from Woodstock 99 with my first Kodak Photo CD full of photographs. But after finding that Kodak Photo CDs don't work on Macs I decided I needed a nice application to display them in. My Photo Album was the result. Scroll to the bottom for the latest updates...

MAJOR VERSION UPDATES
• Version 1.0: Initial build
• Version 1.5: Added HTML exporting, added ability to make a folder of images into a photo album.
• Version 1.6: Added support for monitors smaller than 800x600. (Requested)
• Version 2.0: Huge speed improvements, added the ability to have different backgrounds for different albums, added ability to append to albums, updated album format use the updater to update your albums.
• Version 2.1: Carbonized for Mac OS X (Authors Note: Runs a lot smoother under OS X... and rarely ever has picture handling problems. Good work, Apple), vastly improved upon the web page export feature by adding two new layouts and fixing the old code, added a Support folder for plug-ins and backgrounds and such, made creating photo albums a LOT easier and a lot more fun than before, made huge alterations to these help section, price increase (free upgrade).
• Version 2.2: Added ability to proportion photographs correctly, fixed a bug not allowing the default startup album to be set and another bug that would render My Photo Album useless if the default file is moved, added a dialog for first-time users, added the ability to add background images for photo albums through the application itself, made full blown images fit the screen if they are too large, added an 'Albums Menu' (thanks for the idea, Jeff!) so browsing different photo albums is a snap, fixed the 'Select Folder' option so that all the images in a folder are added, fixed the 'Classic' HTML export option so that it looks great in every browser, added proportioning of enlarged images when in full screen mode.
• Version 3.0: Slide shows! You can now view your photo albums as slide shows, picture handling GREATLY improved (no nasty redraw bugs or on-screen drawing), captions smoother and easier to read, cosmetic enhancements, bug fixes, Classic version.
• Version 3.0.2: Fixed a bug in the 'Select Folder' feature, fixed a bug in the slide show feature.
• Version 3.5: Responded to many requests: Export feature now has many improvements including scaling, thumbnails, and an interface upgrade; Photo albums now have editing capabilities (see the help on editing photo albums for more information on these features), price increase, registration methods have changed. If you registered before version 2.1 (If you only paid $3) you'll have to re-register for the upgrade.
• Version 4.0: Major interface overhaul, albums now have covers and rest on tables, bugs fixed and portions of the program have been rewritten for speed improvments.
• Version 4.2: Major runtime updates (bug fixes!) and the added ability to export your photo albums as Flash web pages!

FUTURE PLANS
• Picture rotation, deletion and other such editing capabilities.

Something you'd like to see My Photo Album to do? Just email support@x-industries.org!

Special thanks to those who helped in the development of My Photo Album so far: Guyren, Paul, Cedric, Hank, Mark, Dan, Larry, Jeff, Eric, Tod, Dirk, and of course, the registered users.


X. REGISTRATION

   My Photo Album can be registered for a mere $10 (USD). That's a very small amount of money considering the work put into the program, and also considering what you would pay if you bought a photo album in a store. You can register My Photo Album online with Kagi shareware registration by clicking here, or by using the enclosed Register program in the 'Support' folder.
   A single user license costs $10 and a site/family license costs $50 (see the FAQ for more info on this). There's also an option to leave a tip to encourage the future of My Photo Album. To encourage the growth and development of My Photo Album in the future (i.e. more options, more editing capabilities, and more cool add-ons and features) please consider adding a tip onto your payment.

   After receiving your registration code, open the preferences dialog (click the 'Preferences' button in the main window) and click the 'Registration' tab. Now just enter your registration code and hit the 'Unlock' button. It's that simple. You'll now be able to access the 'Traditional' and 'Slideshow' HTML exporting options, "Please Register My Photo Album" won't appear on your thumbnails, and you'll never see that floating window again!
   Please note that once receiving your registration code that it is yours and yours alone. $10 isn't much to ask out of anybody... that's a decent tip on a $50 check at a restaurant. If you can pay $10 for someone to serve your family food you can pay $10 for a very decent program.
   All registration processes are handled by Kagi Shareware to insure security.

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