• Jul
  • 17

I'm Mac in the saddle again

My Macbook Pro is back from the service center (and there is much rejoicing) with a new Logic Board. I hadn't mentioned it previously, but I had been experiencing some unusual behavior for about two weeks leading up to Saturday's meltdown. The system had been running hotter than usual, and my battery life had been inexplicably brief. Both of those issues now seem to be remedied.

What's more, the spam seems to have been staved off. Hopefully it will be awhile before I see it again. As a preventative measure for the future, I've enabled Defensio on The Turning Gate. This is a learning system, so if you leave a comment and it fails to show up, it's probably been marked as spam by the system. I'm moderating these and trying to train Defensio to recognize legitimate comments more often; if your message seems to have been flagged as spam, check back later and I will likely have scolded Defensio and put up your comment.

I'm now catching up on my inbox and some of the work I've fallen behind on, and should have things back to usual soon. Thanks for your patience.

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Cre8tv Artist
18 July 08 / link / feed

Hi Matthew:
I am new to website design so please forgive me if I ask some basic questions. I have been setting up a web photo gallery using the Shadowbox Gallery 2.6 template.
I was wondering if there is a way to place the Title text on the top of each image and then place the Caption text at the bottom of each thumbnail image? Each title and caption has different info. Right now of have both Titles and Captions clumped together at the bottom of each photo. Also, can the titles or captions be included and viewed when each image is enlarged?

2nd, I want to be able to have access to the Slideshow I created for my website. I have been getting error messages that tell me that at the URL- agwpg://localhost:1035/index.html “access is denied”. When in the Slideshow module, I can view it fine and so I exported it to a .pdf file, but when I go to preview it in the Web module or in a browser, I get a blank slideshow screen in Firefox 3.1 and I get a scripts error in IE7 and the Web module. I have disabled script debugging but still get the scripts error message.
Please tell me what I am doing wrong.
Thank you for your help.
Cre8tv

Cre8tv Artist
18 July 08 / link / feed

Hi Matthew:

BTW, I have checked the Piclens text box and the Piclens Logo box but don’t know the path to launch the Piclens browser. I have launched the PicLens addon to my browser and the 3D Slideshow works great when I click on the Piclens icon in corner of my browser, but the “Start Slideshow” button on my website page still takes me to a black slideshow screen and then it freezes. I can’t click anything.

Cre8tv Artist
18 July 08 / link / feed

Sorry to bother you again, but I have actually answered some of my own questions. I fiddled around and after exporting it, I found my Slideshow and I also have the PicLens program and all is working just fine. It’s pretty cool BTW. Too bad most people don’t even know about PicLens.

Anyway, now I have 3 different problems.

I exported my Shadowbox Web Photo gallery to use in my FrontPage 3 program. But it doesn’t work. I tried it and I get the images but the thumbnails don’t enlarge or anything. And the photos have both the “file info” & the Title and Captions texts all placed one on top of the other, so you can’t read it. Are these 2 programs compatible? Or do I have to use Lightroom for all my webpages?

I already have created and have a website up and running using FrontPage3. It has some photo galleries and such, but it’s not nearly as much fun as the Shadowbox Gallery in Lightroom. But I’m a bit confused. What do I put in the FTP subfolder, exactly? Do I put my webhost or do I put my personal website/domain? Or is it something else?

Also still trying to figure out how to separate the Title Text from the Caption Text? Is it at all possible?
Looking forward to hearing from you.

Matthew
18 July 08 / link / feed

@Cre8tv:

I don’t recommend using FrontPage for anything, ever. I code all of my websites and gallery templates completely by hand, using standards compliant XHTML and CSS. My markup is light and clean, and nothing FrontPage touches can say the same. It produces improperly coded pages, and apparently doesn’t get along well with web standards compliant documents. If you need to make changes to an exported LR gallery, I recommend using Dreamweaver’s code view, or (better) a text-editor.

Regarding your text placement issues, there’s one place for text above an enlarged image, and one place for text for each thumbnail using the Annotations options. In both locations, space is limited. You can adjust the text content or IPTC source using the Image Settings pane in the Web module. You cannot place text beneath an enlarged image; this is a limitation of Shadowbox.

Regarding the Slideshow module, I’ve never used it. My work is focused on the Web module, and I am unqualified to help you getting Slideshow module content onto the web. Sorry. You might try posting your slideshow questions to www.lightroomforums.net.

I’m not sure what you’re asking in reference to your FTP subfolder question. Can you clarify what you’re looking for there?

Cheers,
Matthew

Cre8tv Artist
19 July 08 / link / feed

Thank you Matthew for responding so quickly to my questions.
I have uploaded my web photo gallery. Now I have to check and see if it transferred correctly. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks again for your help.

Cre8tv Artist
20 July 08 / link / feed

Hi Matthew:

You suggested I get a “text editor”. I’ve been researching it but I am not sure which one to get and use.
I want to get a simple WYSIWYG type that actually shows the page and image right in the editing box. I am not qualified to start fiddling with codes and such. I liked FrontPage3 ‘cause I could cut and paste saved text and images, but you are right, it is a problematic software program. Other than paying big bucks for Dreamweaver, can you please recommend a text editor (FREE if possible) that is definitely compatible with the Lightroom templates, especially Shadowbox?
I appreciate your help.

Dan
20 July 08 / link / feed

Hi Cre8tv Artist,
By text editor I think Matthew meant literally editing the text code using something like the Windows-native program Notepad or TextEdit on OSX. If you want a more html-leaning editor for Windows you could try NoteTab or EditPlus (never used ‘em myself though). If you want to see your code graphically and textually, there are probably a few options out there – not sure about free. I don’t use Windows much these days, so I’m not really familiar with the current options, but one free program I came across was Alleycode – maybe worth a shot.

Good luck!

And Matthew, congrats on the swift MBP repair. Never fun to be “system down”, but with a new logic board you should hopefully be set for awhile – Go AppleCare! :)

Matthew
20 July 08 / link / feed

Thanks, Dan! I'm definitely pleased to have my MBP back online again, and with the new logic board its running better than before. AppleCare is a pricey add-on, but one that has proven itself very worthwhile.

@Cre8tv:

Any text-editor will do, but the entire point of using a text-editor is that it is NOT a WYSIWYG editor. For Mac, I like Coda. It’s great and allows you to preview your page while you code, though it does not have WYSIWYG capabilities. For Windows, I’m not sure what to recommend; try some of Dan's recommendations.

You might take a look at NVu, a free WYSIWYG web editor. It’s not what I’d use, but it beats the pants off FrontPage.

Matthew
22 July 08 / link / feed

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