To create
Web Photo Album command in Dreamweaver lets you automatically generate a web
site that showcases an album of images from a given folder. This command uses
JavaScript to call Fireworks, which creates a thumbnail and larger-sized image
for each of the images in the folder. Dreamweaver then creates a web page
containing all the thumbnails, as well as links to the larger images. To use the
create web Photo Album, you must have both Dreamweaver and Fireworks 4 or later
installed on your system.
Before you
begin, place all of the images for your photo album in a single folder. (The
folder is not required to be in a site.) In addition, make sure that the image
filenames end in extensions recognized by the Create Web Photo Album command
(.gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .psd, .tif, or .tiff). Images with unrecognized file
extensions are not included in the photo album.
To create a Web photo album:
1.
In Dreamweaver, choose commands > create Web Photo
album.
2.
In the Photo Album Title text field, enter a title. The
title will be displayed in a gray rectangle at the top of the page containing
the thumbnails. If desired, you can enter up to two lines of additional text to
appear directly beneath the title, in the Subheading Info and Other Info text
fields.
3.
Choose the folder containing source images by clicking
the Browse button next to the source images folder text field. Then choose (or
create) a destination folder in which to place all the exported images and HTML
files by clicking the Browse button next
to the Destination Folder text field. The destination folder should not already
contain a photo album-if it does, and if any new images have the same names as
previously used images, you might overwrite existing thumbnail and image files.
4.
Specify display options for the thumbnail images:
choose a size for the thumbnail images from the Thumbnail Size pop-up menu.
Images are scaled proportionally to create thumbnails that fit within a square
that ha the indicated pixel dimensions. To display the filename of each
original image below the corresponding thumbnail, select show filenames.
Enter the number of columns for
the table that displays the thumbnails.
5.
Choose a format for the thumbnail images from the
Thumbnail Format pop-up menu:
GIF WebSnap 128 creates GIF
thumbnails that use a web adaptive palette of up to 128 colors.
GIF WebSnap 256 creates GIF
thumbnails that use a web adaptive palette of up to 256 colors.
JPEG-Better Quality creates JPEG
thumbnails with relatively higher quality and larger file sizes.
JPEG-Smaller File creates JPEG
thumbnails with relatively lower quality and smaller file sizes.
6.
Choose a format for the large-size images from the
Photo Format pop-up menu. A large size image of the specified format is created
for each of your original images. You may specify a format for the large-size
images that differs from the format you specified for the thumbnails.
Note: The create Web Photo Album
command does not let you use your original image files as the large-size
images, because original image formats other than GIF and JPEG might not
display properly on all browsers. Note that if your original images are JPEG
files, the large-size images generated may have larger file sizes or lower
quality than the original files.
7.
Choose a Scale percentage for the large-size images.
Setting Scale to 100% creates
large-size images the same size as the originals. Note that the scale
percentage is applied to all of the images; if your original images aren’t all
the same size, scaling them by the same percentage may not produce the desired
results.
8.
Select Create Navigation Page for Each Photo to create
an individual web page for each source image, containing navigation links
labeled Back, Home, and Next.
If you select this option, the
thumbnails link to the navigation pages. If you don’t select this option, the
thumbnails link directly to the large-size image.
9.
Click OK to create the HTML and image files for the web
photo album. Fireworks launches (if it’s not already running) and creates the
thumbnails and large-size images. This may take several minutes if you’ve
included a large number of image files page containing the thumbnails.
10.
When a dialog appears that says “Album Created,” click
OK. You may have to wait a few seconds for your photo album page to appear. The
thumbnails are shown in alphabetical order by filename.
Note: Clicking the Cancel button
in the Dreamweaver dialog box after processing has begun does not stop the
process of creating the photo album; it merely prevents Dreamweaver from
displaying the main photo album page.
