Website Tip of the Day for March 30, 2010
Why Are There Two Photo Galleries on the Website?
Are you not sure what to do with your Troop photos? Troop 186 would like copies of any and all photos taken at any campout, activity night or other Troop event. And you have two ways to get these photos onto the Troop website: 1) upload them one-at-a-time via the >Photo Gallery>Upload Photos page; or 2) email them to the Webmaster by following the instructions on the bottom of the >Home>Photos and Videos page. Option #2 is the preferred method. So why two photo galleries?
The >Photo Gallery web
page is provided as a component of the website’s built-in structure, but it has
several limitations, including: photos must be uploaded one file at a time;
photos from each event are stored in a single gallery so we’re not sure who took
which photos; you can’t upload videos; there is no way to download the photos in
mass; there is no way to link to photos stored in an external web photo gallery;
and it would take hundreds of hours to transfer our Troop photos from our former
Google Picasa photo gallery to the new Troop website.
Given these limitations, we made the decision to stick with the
Picasa photo gallery as the official photo gallery of Troop 186!
Not only does it address all of the limitations mentioned above, but the
Picasa photo gallery will serve as a permanent archive of photos from years past
that will not have to be maintained in any way and can be easily accessible from
any website utilized by the Troop long into the future.
We will always accept photos uploaded to the
>Photo Gallery page. But
every photo uploaded here will eventually be copied back to a Picasa album and
featured in its entirety on the
>Home>Photos and Videos page.
Only a small number of “highlight” photos that have been selected by our Troop
Historian will remain in the Photo Gallery page.
Why will photos be in two places?
Photos from the most recent events are automatically linked to the
website’s Home page, dressing up the website for members of the public looking
for information on Troop 186. This
too is a built-in feature of the website that we can’t change.
So if you’re checking out the
>Photo Gallery and notice some of the pictures you’ve uploaded are gone, be
assured they are safe and sound in the
>Home>Photos and Videos web page.
Would you like to download all of the photos or videos in a Troop 186
Picasa gallery for your own keeping?
You’ll need to install the Picasa photo management software on your computer
(it’s free from Google at
http://picasa.google.com/). Once
you have Picasa installed, simply go to the
>Home>Photos and Videos page and
click on the link below any photo gallery that you’d like to copy and it will
take you to that gallery’s Picasa site, where you’ll see thumbnails of all the
photos in the gallery (on this page you can also: 1) view a full-screen
slideshow of the photo gallery; 2) make a collage of the photo gallery; and 3)
make a movie of the photo gallery).
Next, click on the “Download” button and select “Download To Picasa” from the
drop-down menu. A window will open
up confirming that you want to download the photos to Picasa (note a warning
page may open saying a website is attempting to start a program on your
computer…you must respond “Allow” to this warning in order for the download to
work). Press the “Download” button
and all of the pictures in the photo album will be downloaded to your Picasa
photo library for your permanent keeping.
Please note that photos are stored in a “medium” resolution on the
Troop’s Picasa photo gallery, resulting in most photos being slightly compressed
when uploaded. You will only be able
to download this same “medium” resolution, so there may be a slight loss of
clarity from the original photo or video that is barely noticeable.
And finally, if you've uploaded Troop photos to your own online photo gallery, simply email the publically accessible link for the photo gallery to the Webmaster and your photo gallery will be copied to the Troop's Picasa photo library and linked to the >Home>Photos and Videos page.