Thanks for the well-wishing, and the enthusiasm for my work. The blog is running from a template that I hope to abandon in favor of something more custom and more functional, (like everything else) when I find the time. :-/

Questions!

1a. I have no idea. Limits have classically been set by operating systems. DOS limited filenames to eight characters, and I think Windows XP used to begin choking around 60 characters. These days, I’m uncertain of the practical limitations, but I try to keep them terse, but informative. In general, I tend to include date, name, one or two keywords and a sequence number. Ex: 20090625_Campagna_Matthew_Venice_Italy_001.jpg. That’s preference, though, and you probably would be safe pushing a little further, if you wanted to use three to four keywords, for example.

1b. Capitalization sometimes matters. Some systems recognize lower-case and capital letters as the same character, while others see them differently. In general, though, the most important thing is to maintain consistency. If you’re attempting to link to a file on the internet, the filenames should match exactly in regard to capitalization. For folder names on the web, I keep them lower-case always; for filenames, I’m less picky.

1c. I think hyphens ( – ) are fairly legal, but Lightroom’s Web module will replace them with underscores ( _ ) nonetheless. Therefore, I’ve been weening myself from using them. Otherwise, I think no other characters are universally valid.

2a. That’s something could be done manually, but from a templating standpoint, and in keeping things as hassle free as possible for users, it’s a little too complicated. Identical Highslide galleries can share resources easily enough, but it gets weird when you have Highslide galleries attempting to share resources with the Auto Index, as each has separate dependencies and requires different styling.

2b. Not entirely sure what that’s about, but I could take a guess. The ID plate centering is relative to the width of the browser window. If you jump from a page without a scrollbar to a page with the scrollbar, the width of the page shifts slightly to accommodate the scroll bar, and everything would therefore get bumped over. Is that what’s happening?

2c. Whatever Lightroom agrees to process as input, so you can experiment. The only other limitation is the fact that whatever you put there will be squashed between the Contact link on the right, and the other menu items on the left. It would be a bad place for a paragraph, for instance.

2d. That gets sketchy. I’m going to say no. I had attempted to include a Custom Paragraphs area for HTML input, but Lightroom didn’t like that idea. You’d have to add paragraphs and bullets in post.

3a – 3b. See comments above about my blog.

And now I’m off to find more boxes that I can pack. Moving is a nightmare.

Cheers,
Matt

I have some questions after you move (congrats on the diploma, my condolences to the new neighborhood).

Some questions about your post:

1a. File Name – Taken to the extreme, would a 100-200 letter file name be detrimental? If it’s only a link, adding to search, never typed in? Just asking…

1b. File Name – You taught me how to name my files (that was an eye opener), but what about capitalization? Does that matter?

1c. File Name – What is legal besides a-z, _, and numbers? Anything?

Some questions about shared fields in your products:

2a. Is there any way to load and save a preference file so that the SHARED Highslide gallery header, footer and menu data easily matches the Auto Gallery menu one? I seem to be constantly trying to match up values from other pages/galleries.

2B. I have also noticed a slight shift in the styled identity plate location when switching between Highslide gallery 1.01 and auto Index 2.01, both in the center position.

2C. What kind of HTML mojo can we do with the custom menu? This could be a biggie…

2D. Can a hard return be programmed into the paragraphs? I often need more structured space to explain. Bullets? Ok, Ok, I want more than one paragraph in a paragraph!

And a last request (or two) about your website:

3A. Please replace the random post area on the right of the website. I’d rather know about the LATEST POSTS instead! It wasn’t until I did a RSS subscribe did I find out about all your good and juicy posts!

3B. Rather than a blog format, you might consider more of a bulletin board format. You could have sections for each product, and a separate section for Shared Fields, and how to use them. More importantly, experienced users can share with newbies, leaving you… free to update!

Well, other than all that your doing OK. LOL.
Mark

P.S. Unpack ALL your boxes after the move. You don’t want to be saying 20 years later \Those boxes? I don’t remember\ I still have a couple!