The Turning Gate

TTG GridNav Gallery

Current version 1.0

TTG GridNav Gallery employs FlashLoaded.com’s new gridNavigation gallery component.

TTG GridNav Gallery is free, but gridNavigation is not. The gridNavigation component must be purchased from www.FlashLoaded.com for $44.95 in order to use the Web module plugin.

Furthermore, users will need to produce their own XML-ready SWF file using Adobe Flash with the gridNavigation Flash component.

Installation

In order to use TTG GridNav Gallery, users are required to purchase gridNavigation from www.flashloaded.com for $44.95 USD.

Once purchased, use the component with Adobe Flash to create an SWF file called gridnav.swf. Copy the file into the gallery folder. You may now continue installation according to the Installation instructions.

Requirements

Adobe Lightroom 1.0 or above.

Adobe Flash

FlashLoaded.com’s gridNavigation Flash component

General Usage Tips

Read the Manual

There’s nothing plug’n play about gridNavigation or TTG GridNav Gallery. Before purchasing or using the gallery, be sure to check out the Userguide to make sure you’re capable of setting this up.

Gallery Creation

In general, I’ve found that the gallery works best when employed with photos of like orientation and aspect ratio, and when the SWF file’s dimensions also match the images’ aspect ratio.

I use a Canon EOS DSLR, which shoots images at a 6×4 aspect ratio. Keeping that in mind, I might create my gallery SWF file at 600×400 or 800×533 for a gallery of landscape-oriented images. My images and thumbnails would retain their 6×4 aspect ratio, and I would configure the gallery to have an equal number of rows and columns.

For a portrait oriented gallery, I’d keep the 4×6 aspect ratio, but maybe go double-wide on the SWF to maintain a horizontal gallery layout in web-browsers.

If you want your full-size image to occupy the entirety of the gallery, set the minimum thumbnail size to zero.

Changing SWF Files

By default, the gallery uses a file called gridnav.swf. If you’ve produced a number of SWF files for different sized galleries, however, it’s easy to change the file the gallery uses.

First, copy the SWF you want to use into the gallery archive. Next, open the gallery.xml file in the gallery archive, and replace file specified in the >mainSWF< attribute with the name of the file you want to use. Relaunch Lightroom, and set the same filename for the SWF Filename option in the Site Info pane of the Web module.

Changelog

v1.0 (2008-01-26)

Initial release.

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