With SlidePress fully installed, it's time to build a slideshow. These instructions will show you how.
SlidePress saves and manages slideshows as "galleries." Each gallery is unique, can be edited however you like, and can be embedded more than once in any WordPress blog post or page.
There are two ways to create a gallery. One is through the "SlidePress Gallery Overview" page, which is the first page in the SlidePress plugin area. The second is within the blog post editing interface. Simply click on the green SlideShowPro icon button, and select "Create a new gallery."
Either way, the next screen you'll see is the "Add a new SlidePress Gallery" screen. It contains the inputs shown below.
Slideshow Name: The name of the gallery.
Slideshow XML Source: The URL of the XML data you wish to load, or the ID of the WordPress post containing uploaded media.
Select XML Type: The type of XML data you are loading. Options include:
Default - A static XML file created in a text editor (uploaded to server).
Director - An album or gallery from SlideShowPro Director.
Media RSS - RSS 2.0 media source. (Note for Flickr photostreams: Make sure to have &format=rss_200 at the end of the feed URL so that SSP can correctly process the feed).
OPML - A static XML file created in a text editor that points to multiple XML sources (uploaded to server).
Manual Entry - Gives users the opportunity to create XML data from within the SlidePress interface.
WordPress Gallery - For loading uploaded photos from a WordPress gallery.
Slideshow Size (W x H): width and height of the slideshow in the blog post/page.
Next is the "Optional Style Preset" box. This input allows you to assign a style to the gallery. You can leave this as "default" to use SlideShowPro's default setup, or toggle it open to select a different style (from other galleries you've created). See below:
To customize the gallery's style, click the "Edit preset settings" button. All of the style preset options will appear underneath for you to edit. When you save your gallery, your customized presets will be saved alongside your gallery, should you want to edit them again later, or assign to a different gallery.
As noted above, there are a variety of options for loading content. In this document, we'll cover the two most popular sources: the WordPress Media Gallery, and SlideShowPro Director. For instructions on how to use your own XML markup and content, see Using custom XML markup.
If you select the "Create new gallery" option from the SlidePress button in the post editing interface, the "Slideshow XML Source" field will automatically populate with the ID of the post you are currently editing. Make sure that the "Select XML Type" drop-down displays "WordPress Gallery", as shown below.
Give your gallery a name, the dimensions you want, and an (optional) style preset. When finished, scroll down and click the "Save Gallery" button. A SlidePress tag will be interested into your blog post.
To populate the slideshow with content, click the small photo icon to the right of the "Upload/Insert" label in the post editing interface. WordPress will ask you to select files from your computer. Upload however many images you'd like to include.
When complete, preview/publish your post. You should now see a slideshow with your uploaded content.
SlideShowPro Director is our custom content management/publishing application that makes creating slideshow content a breeze. It also publishes content on demand, at the requisite sizes necessary, for optimal slideshow quality.
Inside SlideShowPro Director, click on either the "Albums" or "Galleries" tab at the top of the interface. Navigate to the album or gallery you wish to load, and click the "Copy" button in its table row. This will copy the XML File Path you need to your clipboard for linking your slideshow to the album or gallery.
Return to WordPress and edit a post. Toggle open the SlidePress button in the post editing interface, and select "Create new gallery". Where "Slideshow XML Source" is displayed (see graphic above), delete the input value and paste your clipboard contents. You should see an absolute URL to your Director installation. Next, select "Director" from the XML Type drop-down directly underneath, then assign whatever dimensions you want. Scroll down a little, and click the "Save Gallery" button.
Preview / publish your post, and you should see a slideshow retrieving content from SlideShowPro Director.