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) are 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," "Images," "Modified" and "Created" headers to sort the list by that column's criteria. Clicking on an album title will open that album for editing.
New albums are inactive by default. This means that albums are considered unfinished and not included in any custom or smart gallery. This allows time to upload content and edit metadata before making the album active for inclusion elsewhere. If an album is changed from active to inactive, the album is automatically removed from any gallery containing it.
Inactive albums are noted with a modified icon next to their title. You can toggle the active / inactive state of an album anytime by clicking on the light switch button at the end of that album's row (under the "Actions" column header).
Clicking an album title from most pages within Director loads the "Edit album" section for that particular album. This section is broken up into five sub-areas: "Summary," "Content," "Audio," "Upload" and "Settings."
"Summary" provides a top-level overview of the album you are editing. It includes inputs to set an album's title and description, copy the album's XML File Path, recent content, the album preview graphic, as well as historical information. It's also here that the active/inactive state of an album can be modified.
"Content" is where all the album's images and videos are sorted, edited and managed. The order of content is the order in which they appear in a slideshow when the album is requested. Order may be changed manually by dragging content with the mouse, or automatically by "File name" or "Date." Selecting an automatic option will hand sorting control of all album content (existing and future) over to Director.
To edit a photo or video, click on it. An edit bar will appear at the bottom of your browser window. It includes controls to make the asset active/inactive, rotate it left/right, copy/move it another album, add tags, or delete. To edit more than one asset at the same time, hold down the Command (Mac) or CTRL key (Windows) and click on the file name of the first content piece. Continue holding the key down and click on other file names to add them to the selection. If you'd rather select a range of content all at once, release the Command/CTRL key, press and hold the Shift key, and select the last piece of content within the range you want. To cancel your selection, click the "Clear selection" button or press the ESC key.
The "Audio" section is where you can assign an MP3 file to be used as background audio for that particular album. When the album is requested by SlideShowPro, a Media Player interface will appear and playback the assigned MP3.
"Upload" is where all album assets (photos, videos, MP3s) are added. You can upload more than one asset at the same time, and assign tags as part of the upload process. You can read more about uploading in the Content uploading and importing chapter.
"Settings" is where content metadata defaults are applied. This allows you to create global values for titles, links, and captions that are applied to all existing (and future) content. To edit a setting, click the "Edit" button next to it. If you choose to edit all titles and captions, a dialog will appear with an editor for constructing values using data from Director (like Album name, Tags, etc), or IPTC / EXIF metadata if the asset is an image.
Now that you know all about albums, let's now read about Galleries.
