FastGallery for Windows

FastGallery allows Windows users to create photo galleries for publication on the web. Click here to download the installer.

Photos can simply be dragged onto the FastGallery window. The web gallery will then be ready to go. Once you’ve configured the application with settings to FTP to your web space, you can publish new galleries in just a few button presses.

How to install

Download the FastGallery.zip file. Open the zip file, then click on the “setup” file. The installation process will then begin.

Application layout

• Top left: Image Preview. This shows the image currently selected in the Gallery Images panel.
• Bottom left: Gallery Images. This shows all the images currently in the gallery being created.
• Top right: Gallery Settings. This shows settings of the current gallery that can be changed. These include image size, number of thumbnails, thumbnail size and picture quality.
• Bottom right: Gallery Preview Browser. This shows the gallery as it will look to your visitors on the web. It is interactive, in that you can navigate through the site by clicking on thumbnails, and with ‘forward’ and ‘back’ buttons.

Selecting the gallery images

You supply a list of images on your local hard drive. These are resized to resolutions suitable for web viewing, and a front page of “thumbnail” index images is produced.

To build a new gallery simply drag the files onto the Gallery Images panel. You can drag from a picture viewing application or from Windows Explorer.

Alternatively, on the toolbar under the Gallery Images panel click Add, and locate the files on your hard drive using the file dialog.

Building the gallery

The gallery will be built automatically. A progress bar in the Gallery Preview Browser panel will indicate the progress. When the gallery is built you can view it in the preview panel. To view it in a browser, click View in Browser.

Changing the order of pictures

You can change the order of pictures in the gallery by dragging the rows in the Gallery Images panel.

Rotating pictures

Photographs that were taken in “portrait” position (with the camera on its side) can be corrected to appear the right way up in the web gallery. Simply click on the image in the Gallery Images panel or the Gallery Preview Browser panel. Then click Rotate Left or Rotate Right in the Gallery Images toolbar.

Changing the gallery settings

The gallery settings can be changed in the Gallery Settings panel. When settings are changed the gallery is automatically rebuilt.

• Name: this is the name used for the base directory name when the gallery is published. It is recommended that it doesn’t contain spaces.
• Title: this is the title given on the front page of the gallery.
• Thumbnail size: this is the approximate width in pixels that the thumbnails (small preview images) will have on your front page. Defaults to 120.
• Thumbnails per line: this is the number of thumbnails that will be shown on each row on the front page. Defaults to 5.
• Max image width: this is the width in pixels that the full size images will be constrained to. Defaults to 1024.
• Jpeg quality: this is the jpeg quality percentage that the resized images will be saved to. Defaults to 80.

Publishing the gallery

The Publish button on the main toolbar will allow you to copy the files that make up the gallery to another location.

If your Internet supplier has given you an FTP address and password to upload to your home pages, you can copy the created gallery directly to your website from the program.

To copy to your website via FTP follow these steps:

1. Select the FTP tab on the Publish dialog.
2. Click Add New on the toolbar.
3. Specify the site URL, e.g., “homepages.demon.co.uk”.
4. Specify the initial directory, e.g. “docroot”. This is the directory that acts as the “root” for your HTML content.
5. Specify the user name you use to upload.
6. Specify the password you use to upload.
7. Specify the internet URL that your homepages can be found under. This usually starts “http:///”.

To copy to some location on your hard drive, or another device, follow these steps:

1. Select the Copy Files tab on the Publish dialog.
2. Type the name of the base directory in the Directory text box, or use the Browse button to locate it on your hard drive.
3. Select the Copy button.

The files will be copied to a directory in the specified location, and a web browser open pointing at the index page.

Saving and loading gallery setup files

If FastGallery is closed, the gallery setup is automatically recalled the next time it is opened. However, if you wish to save the setup, this can be done from the main toolbar or the File menu.

Support and feedback

For any support or feedback contact Jim Blackler on jimblackler@gmail.com