- Numerous adjustable html properties also on the lightbox functionality
- Resize, crop, frame photos
- Make use of pattern images as background Some of the pattern images are included in piQtility or get some optimized pattern images from our webstore within maGalleryCreator you can play with the opacity which can result in subtle effects!
- Add a comment to each individual picture
- Store your own settings in presets (Fig. below)
- Store your project
Click Here For The Tutorial
You can store your photo gallery or slide show as a kind of project, what makes it easy to rework at a later stage. For example you are creating a photo gallery where you edit a lot of "Exif User comment", "highlight" photos, play with the order etc., and you want to continue your project at a later stage.
How can you save your project?
- Save project
This will create a '.mgrprj' project file and a 'photos' folder with all your assets in it.
- Open project
Select your project folder, select your project file and maGalleryCreator will load all you need to build further on your photo gallery or slide show.
Step 2: Choose the destination, where you like to store the photo gallery files
Step 3: Choose your photos
Step 4: Build! Try and justify, until you are satisfied about the result
The template preview
Template preview
The template preview provides a real-time example of how your gallery or slideshow will function. Therefore, an active internet connection is required!
First: 'Build' your gallery with your own selection of photos: apply the "Build!" button and a the resulting page will be shown.
A good practice is select just a couple of pictures to simulate your modifications.
This can be done easily: unselect the "Publish" checkbox in your photos list.
We introduced a new feature: "Fast preview": Check this box if you’d like to generate a quick preview of your adjusted text and color properties. Note:
This will bypass the more time consuming photo processing.
The fast preview is meant for quickly viewing text and color changes.
A good practice is start with a limited number of pictures.
This can be done easily: unselect the "Publish" checkbox in your photos list.
The template properties
Template properties The best way to start: selecting a 'Model' and 'Build!' now you can play with the properties of that template and see what's happening. Enjoy!
The photo selection
Photo selection Choose your photos, they will be loaded in the photo list at the right sight of the application. What you'll see is a preview of the photo, the photo name (where you can sort on: A-z; Z-A) and the 'Exif User Comment' if available in the picture.The 'Exif User Comment' is very interesting one! This field can be edited but will not be stored into the photo itself. You can add individual comment to the picture: type your text and 'tab' outside the field so your comment will be available if you like in the photo gallery/Lightbox.
Under the 'Exif User Comment' text field you will find 2 checkboxes: 'Highlight' and 'Publish'.
Settings Panel:
Can be found under the main menu item: 'maGalleryCreator'.
1. Define the "Application support" folder, to share files between the Moon-App applications.
2. Thick the check box, if you want maGalleryCreator to open the generated html page immediately into your default web browser.
Highlight:
is only applicable on a 'Responsive Grid' template!You can use it to show the photo bigger in the photo gallery.
Publish:
when checked, it will be shown in the photo gallery, when you uncheck the photo will not be loaded in the photo gallery.
CTA (Call to Action):
Enter a CTA and URL to refere to additional sources: More info, store, other photo galleries etc.
Integration with piQtility:
This integration makes it easy to share watermarks and patterns between piQtility and maGalleryCreator. If you have multiple workstations, the best way is to go for a cloud storage solution, for example: iCloud®. As long as it is accessible from Apple's Finder®, it will be accessible for maGalleryCreator, maFileRenamer,...
How to share?
- Go to the application 'Preferences' and 'Choose Library location', if you already configured this in piQtility, you select the same location.
- Back to the main application window, under each 'Photos' tab you'll find the properties to 'Set background pattern image'.
- Next to the 'Choose' button you'll find a drop down menu with the choices:
'default': the default Finder location (last directory you selected)
'watermarks': the shared watermarks folder
'patterns': the shared patterns folder
- Select one of the above options and click the 'Choose' button, you'll thumble directly into the right location and you can load the image you want
Upload new patterns
If you want to upload new patterns or watermarks to that shared location, you can do this easily via the main applicaton menu: 'Window' and the submenu: 'Import'.
The result
The resulting photo gallery or slideshow will be stored in a very structured way. You can pick up the entire folder and upload it to your own website, as long as you do not change the relative location of the html files, the gallery or slideshow should work without any problem. Of course if you relocate the html files you have to change all the file paths that refere to images, css or lightbox script paths within the html file as well. But this is normal behaviour of html.
Tip
If you have to make a photo gallery of hundreds of photos, just load 10 - 20 photos and play with the settings and rebuild. Once you are satisfied about the result, load all the photos you need and build.
3. For the more advanced users:
Password protection
In maGalleryCreator 4.8.0 we introduced basic password protection on the first page of your photo gallery.
While it's not a vault(!), it does provide an extra layer of control over your shared photo galleries.
We make use of PHP to provide this feature. Check with your hosting partner if they support php.
How it works?
Step 1: Select the "Password protection" checkbox in the "Photo Gallery" or "Responsive Grid" tab, under the "Grid" section:
Step 2: Generate your photo gallery using maGalleryCreator. The application will automatically create an additional php file named: MAgcLogin_'yourReference'.php Fig [B] (e.g., MAgcLogin_3569843228689076805.php).
This file will be located in a newly created subfolder: 'MAgcSEC' Fig [A].
Step 3: Copy all the generated files and folders, maintaining their original directory structure, to your web server.
Step 4: Share the URL of the MAgcLogin_'yourReference'.php file with your audience.
Next step: When users attempt to access the shared MAgcLogin_'yourReference'.php, they will be prompted to enter a password.
Important note:
• This feature can only be tested once all the files have been uploaded to the server of your web hosting provider. Ensure proper deployment to verify functionality.
• The password-protected PHP URL references the corresponding HTML file, which can be linked using their shared ID. Fig [B]
A personal touch.
You can fine tune the creation of the gallery or slideshow by adjusting some properties, such as: font size, font type, image size, colors, shown meta data etc...
Of course advanced users can modify the created html and css files at their needs and can use maGalleryCreator as a first step in creating web galleries or slide shows.
maGalleryCreator photo galleries can also be integrated in a "Blocs"® project for example: Tutorial.
Photo Gallery Template 6: How to achieve this result?
Open your photos and set a destination folder for your gallery.
Step 1: Choose a template = 'Model 6'
Step 2: Choose a tab = 'Photos'
Step 3: 'Thumbnail properties'
Step 4: Check 'Fit into' property Fig below
Step 5: Check 'Free space opacity: 100%' Fig below
Step 6: Check file type: 'png' Fig below
Step 7: Build!
Step 8: Apply 'Rounded corners' to the produced thumbnails with piQtility. Attention: keep file type: PNG!
(Step 9: Optional: add a watermark to the lightbox images with piQtility)
Read IPTC data to configure "Call to action" (CTA):
Enter a CTA and URL to refere to additional sources: More info, store, other photo galleries etc.
4. Upgrade options
If you have purchased maGalleryCreator in our webshop, you can enter your current license key as a coupon code. Depending which version you are running with, you will receive a loyal discount.
5. What's new?
version 5.0.0
Major Upgrade, FREE for all current Subscribers!
Refined and enhanced user interface.
'Fast preview' performance.
Live dynamic template preview.
Various improvements across multiple templates to ensure smoother functionality.
version 4.8.0
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 4.X.X users and Subscribers!
New: Added password protection for the first page of your photo gallery to enhance access control.
Fixed an issue that prevented multi-page photo galleries from being created in certain specific scenarios.
GUI Fixes on CTR feature.
version 4.7.3
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 4.X.X users and Subscribers!
Bug fix on Call-to-Action Feature.
version 4.7.2
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 4.X.X users and Subscribers!
Enhanced Call-to-Action Feature:
- Generate Call-to-Action headlines and URLs using the metadata stored in your uploaded images.
version 4.7.1
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 4.X.X users and Subscribers!
Bug fix on light box of "Responsive Grid" templates.
version 4.7.0
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 4.X.X users and Subscribers!
You can now add a CTA button to any or all photos in your gallery.
Use it to link to:
- External websites for more information,
- Your webstore, or
- Additional photo galleries
- ...
Multiple user interface enhancements.
version 4.6.1
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 4.X.X users and Subscribers!
GUI fixes: on store and retrieve presets
Minor GUI optimizations.
version 4.6.0 - Launch of Subscriber license
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 4.X.X users and Subscribers!
First Subscription version.
version 4.5.2
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 4.X.X users
Bug fixes:
- On user interface
- Save and open project function
- Store and retrieve presets
Code optimizations.
version 4.5.1
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 4.X.X users
- Fixes an issue on responsive grid, where pattern image was shown in front of the photo gallery.
version 4.5.0
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 4.X.X users
Photo Gallery/Responsive Design enhancements:
- Improvements on existing templates
- NEW templates
- Improvement on "Fit in" function
- NEW: free space opacity property
- NEW: shadow effect on PNG images/images with transparency See template 6
GUI & code improvements:
- '.JPG' adjustment for a better exchange between piQtility
- Removed file type TIFF, for better web performance
- Improved 'Dark Mode' support
Fixes:
- Highlight property available on ALL 'Responsive Grid' templates
version 4.1.2
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 4.X.X users
- GUI improvements.
- Fixes on store and retrieve presets (Responsive grid).
version 4.1.1
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 4.X.X users
- Fix on application registration.
version 4.1.0
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 4.X.X users
- New slideshow model 5
- GUI bug fixes
version 4.0.0
MAJOR UPGRADE
- Multiple enhancements on existing templates.
- New slideshow templates.
- New Responsive grid templates.
- Multiple code enhancements on application core, prepared for the future.
version 3.7.0
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 3.X.X users
- Thumbnail Orientation Fix: We've resolved an issue that affected the orientation of thumbnail images for some portrait photos.
- Enhanced portrait photo compatibility in slideshow function.
version 3.6.7
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 3.X.X users
- Code enhancements
- JavaScript support on title and description field
version 3.6.6
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 3.X.X users
- Memory usage optimization
- Fix on progress bar
version 3.6.5
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 3.X.X users
- Bug fixing
version 3.6.4
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 3.X.X users
- Bug fix on responsive grid: Fixes an issue when deactivating the photo hoover effect.
version 3.6.2
FREE MAINTENANCE UPDATE for all current 3.X.X users
- Bug fix on responsive grid: Photo browsing in lightbox, when some photos were marked as highlighted, is working great again.
version 3.6.1
FREE UPDATE for all current 3.X.X users
Slideshow enhancements:
Template 1 & 2: smoother fade in / fade out
Template 1 & 2: better photo resizing on non responsive slideshow version
Template 3: better photo scaling
Template 3: bug fix: shows all selected photos now (last photo included)
version 3.6.0
FREE UPDATE for all current 3.X.X users
On general demand: You are be able now to save your photo gallery or slide show as a project, where you can work on at a later stage.
version 3.5.1
FREE UPDATE for all current 3.X.X users
- HTML and CSS code enhancements
- Bug fixes
version 3.5.1
FREE UPDATE for all current 3.X.X users
- HTML and CSS code enhancements
- Bug fixes
version 3.5.0
FREE UPDATE for all current 3.X.X users
- New photo gallery templates
- New slideshow template.
- Set your selected photos manually (drag 'n drop) in the desired order
- Enhancements:
On photo manipulations
On pattern opacity
Lightbox appearance
User interface
- Code optimisation
version 3.4.0
- Performance boost on photo selection
- Progress bar for better user experience
- Photo counter
version 3.3.0
The color of the background layer of the lightbox is fully customizable
version 3.2.0
Improvements to the "Photo Gallery" tab, in terms of thumbnail preview
version 3.1.3
Maintenance update:
- FIX: When using "Photo Gallery" templates in a way that "Show file name" and "Show meta data" is also reflected in the Lightbox
version 3.1.2
Maintenance update:
- GUI Improvements
version 3.1.0
New Maintenance updates:
- Extra options on Slide show creation
- Magnify effect when hoovering over photos in a photo gallery
- Code optimization
Fixes:
- On preset storage of pattern image properties
- On responsive grid photo library and 'light box' in combination with 'Highlight' property
