Albums are containers for slideshow photos and videos. They are the means through which slideshow content is retrieved, metadata (like titles, captions, tags and hyperlinks) is assigned, and they can be bundled together as galleries. SlideShowPro Director allows you to create as many albums as you want.
Albums are accessed through the "Albums" tab in the main navigation. It is here that new albums are created and existing albums are edited. All albums are displayed by default, but you may filter the list through the "Show" utility above the table. You may also click on the "Albums," "Type," "Count," "Modified" and "Created" headers to sort the list by that column's criteria. Clicking on an album title will open that album for editing.
Like publishing a blog entry, albums have a publish status of either "active" or "inactive." All newly created albums are inactive by default. This means that albums are considered unfinished and not included in any galleries. This allows time to upload content and edit metadata before making the album active.
If an album is changed from active to inactive, the album is automatically removed from any gallery containing it. You may toggle the publish status of an album anytime by clicking on the light switch button at the end of an album's row (under the "Actions" column header), or on their "Settings" screen when editing an album.
There are two types of albums you can create: "Custom" and "Smart."
Custom albums are what you upload your images and/or videos to. You can assign them titles, descriptions, and setup metadata defaults for all the content they contain.
Smart albums are aggregators of uploaded content from your Custom albums using rules. They are auto-updating and dynamically populate using criteria defined by you; including date (uploaded / captured), tags, and/or album.
Clicking on an album title from the Albums index leads you to the "Edit" area for that album. The section is broken up into "Settings", "Content" and (when editing a Custom album) "Upload."
Settings is for editing information about the album itself, and all the content it contains. You may assign a title and description, enter a place / date taken, change its publish status, edit which galleries include the album, assign content metadata (see Editing content for more info), and edit the album preview graphic.
Content is where the images and/or videos that are part of an album are displayed. In the case of Custom albums, this would include all uploaded images and/or videos. In the case of Smart albums, this would include the content rule editor and preview window.
Content is also where you may assign a MP3 file to use as the background audio for the album. When assigned, the media player interface in SlideShowPro appears to playback the stream.
Upload only appears in Custom albums, and is where you upload your images/videos through. You may upload as many assets you want in a single batch.
Now that you know all about albums, let's now read about Galleries.