TTG Pages
TTG Pages is several strides ahead of its progenitors. It takes the best aspects of TTG LR Pages, TTG Auto Index and TTG Stage and builds them into a single web engine that’s more powerful, more flexible and easier to use. Whether you’re a newcomer to Lightroom’s Web module, or a TTG veteran, TTG Pages is the tool you’ve been waiting for to streamline your Lightroom-to-website workflow, and to build a website you can take pride in.
TTG Pages is not an image gallery. TTG Pages is website construction tool, used to create a home in which your galleries can thrive. It creates a Home page, an About page, a Contact page with email submission form, and a self-populating gallery index of your image galleries. The Home and About pages can also be configured to host Flash gallery presentations of your images.
TTG Pages
* The demo is fully function within Lightroom, but will not allow you to export pages. Layouts can be saved as a template in the demo, and applied to the full version later, though.
By installing any purchased or downloaded web engine, plugin or template from The Turning Gate (TTG), You, the user, agree to the End User License Agreement. Make a point to read this document, as it contains important information regarding your purchase and your rights as a user, for which you will be held accountable.
System Requirements
TTG Pages requires Lightroom 2.4 or greater.
The Gallery Index requires a web-server running PHP 5.2 or greater, with Glob() function enabled.
The Form-to-Email script used by the engine’s selection gallery features additionally requires a web server that supports the PHP mail() function. If your server does not support PHP, you may opt to use Form-to-Email Remote instead, which requires only an account with www.formtoemailremote.com.
Windows users should have installed Internet Explorer 7 or above, regardless whether IE is used as the primary browser.
Video Demonstration
Setup
In order for the form submission to reach you, the photographer, the form-to-email script needs to be configured.
First, open the distributed ttg_pages.lrwebengine package. On a PC, this is a folder; double-click as usual and dive right in. On a Mac, Ctrl-click the package and select “Show Package Contents” to open it in a Finder window.
Next, locate FormToEmail.php in the /resources/ folder and open the file in a text-editor. Locate “Step 2″ around line 83, and follow the instructions you find there, setting your email address and, optionally, a continuation address to which users will be redirected after form submission.
Save your changes, and install the web engine as explained in the Installation instructions. Your changes will affect all exported galleries.
Alternatively, you may register for a free account with www.formtoemailremote.com and input your user information in the Form-To-Email Remote section of the gallery options in Lightroom’s Web module.
Creating Your Pages
This is not a slider-by-slider walkthrough, but a brief overview of how to go about using the template. Consider this a Quick Start Manual.
The first step is the most important. Make sure you have at least THREE images selected in your filmstrip. TTG Pages needs these images to populate your pages, and will return errors if it can’t find them. You can arrange the images in the filmstrip according to what page you would like them to appear on your site; the first image will appear on the Home page, the second on the About page, and the third on the Contact page.
With your images selected, begin either with the default settings or one of the included template presets. With one exception, it’s best to simply work your way down through the controls, starting at the top and moving towards the bottom. The only exception is that you might want to first visit the Output Settings pane to set the size of your images.
the Site Info pane
Here your header is configured. Be sure to fill in the HTML <title>; it’s very important for search engines. See my tutorial on Search Engine Optimization for more information on how best to do this.
Work your way through the options for the Identity Plate, Header / Page Settings and Menu Settings. The Menu Items are pre-configured and can be left alone. If you need to add to them or wish to change them, you may do so. But the menu is fully functional without interference if you’re content to leave them be.
the Color Palette pane
Here you will find the content and formatting options for your pages. The first subset of options, Image Matting, controls the properties of images on your page. Next, Global Copy Settings affects the appearance of text and boxes on your Home, About and Contact pages.
From there, we get into options for specific pages. First, Home Page Copy allows you to setup your Home page. Four layouts are available, which affect the position of the image (or slideshow; see below) relative to the text on the page. You can also fill in your paragraphs and section headings. You may edit this text in the control pane, or simply click a paragraph or heading on the page to edit the copy directly.
You can create line-breaks in your text by inserting the HTML <br />. You can also code hyperlinks into your paragraphs using HTML.
Next are the settings for the Gallery Index. These configure the appearance of your auto index grid. The box items you see on this page are generated from your filmstrip and meant only as a visual representation of what the page will look like when populated. This allows you to configure the appearance of the boxes while receiving the visual feedback of having them on-screen. Your exported index will be empty, and will later be populated by the galleries that you install on your site (see below).
The About Page Copy options are identical to the Home Page Copy options.
Finally, the Contact Page copy section allows you to setup your Contact page and form. You can use those line-breaks here to format your address and other contact information if you so desire, or simply write paragraphs and rely on the contact form.
You can also setup Form-to-Email Remote here if you would like to use it.
the Appearance pane
Here you may perform replacement of images with Flash galleries on your Home and About pages. If you have previously used TTG Stage, this section should be familiar to you. The controls are divided into two sets, one for the Home page and one for the About page. The two sets are otherwise identical.
Enable the replacement using the check-box for each page. The image on that page will then be replaced with an empty stage that will later be occupied by your Flash gallery. You may setup the size and appearance of the stage using the provided sliders and color selectors. The Gallery Background color will carry through to your Flash gallery, so be sure to set that correctly here.
Select your Gallery Type — this is the type of Flash gallery you will want to place on the page. The page will then be configured for that gallery, and will display instructions on how to set it up. Flash galleries must be exported separately into folders with specific names (TTG Pages tells you how to name the folders; pay attention to the instructions shown in the preview), and then copied into the root of your TTG Pages folder.
the Image Info pane
Allows you to set the ‘alt’ information for the images on each page, and factors into search engine optimization.
the Output Settings pane
As with other Lightroom web engines, here you set the size of your images, output sharpening, etc. You may also insert code for Google Analytics. See the tutorial.
EXPORT
When you’ve finished working in the panels and feeling pretty good about your pages, go ahead and press the Export button.
Installing Image Galleries
Image galleries must be created using other templates; preferrably other TTG templates. TTG Highslide Gallery Pro is an excellent choice, and will be the first to be updated with pre-built menus for use with TTG Pages. But that’s tangential …
Export your image galleries to folders of their own. Inside the exported folder for TTG Pages, there is a folder named /galleries/. Exported image galleries should be copied into this folder. Any gallery already enabled for use with the auto index and located within this /galleries/ folder will appear in your gallery index when your website is online.
Changelog
- v3.7.2 ( in development )
- Fixed problem with footer nav where link points to galleryindex.html instead of galleryindex.php as it should.
- v3.7.1 ( 2010-06-14 )
- New Javascript slideshow option for the Home page, powered by GalleryView.
- Structural changes to accommodate slideshow.
- Added option to disable right-click.
- Added Font-style option for Menu Settings.
- Footer can now be unstuck from the bottom of the page, allowing it to float just below page content as it used to.
- Support for specifying languages other than English in the tag; if your language is not included and you’d like to see it in an update, let me know!
- v3.6.1 ( unreleased; rolled into v3.7 )
- PHP compatibility fixes.
- CSS tweaks for templating purposes.
- Added new class selectors allowing the individual images on each page to be targeted using custom CSS.
- v3.6 ( 2010-04-19 )
- Added new “Iconic” grid option for gallery index appearance, plus related styling controls.
- Layout and browser compatibility fixes for IE.
- Bug fixes.
- Removed Album URL field from TTG Auto Index options.
- v3.5.1 ( 2010-04-05 )
- Fixed a bug that prevented the gallery index from previewing within LR.
- Update to JQuery 1.4.1.
- v3.5 ( 2010-03-27 )
- Reorganized and updated Header and Footer controls and features to keep step with TTG Highslide Gallery Pro 2.0.
- Added support for variable grid spacing between gallery index items.
- Updated Shadowbox JS to version 3.0.3.
- Lua optimizations.
- Watermark controller now compatible with both LR2 and LR3.
- v3.4.2 ( 2010-03-11 )
- Fixes to Simpleviewer-2 stages on Home and About pages, relating to changing layouts.
- v3.4.1 ( 2010-03-01 )
- Fixes to Simpleviewer-2 stages on Home and About pages.
- Updated Shadowbox JS to version 3.0.1.
- Fixes to Form-to-Email Remote implementation.
- v3.4 ( 2010-01-17 )
- New
border-bottomoptions for the header/identity plate. - New
text-decorationoptions for Hyperlinks and Menu Links. - Bug fix to
galleryindex.php. - Hyperlink target for the “Home” menu item can now be changed; not a feature most people will need to use, but could have some applications for advanced manipulations of your pages.
- Changed handling of Google Analytics. Now requires only your Web Property ID (UA-xxxxxx-x), rather than the entire block of Javascript.
- Because scripts can no longer be cheated into the Google Analytics entry field as before, I’ve added a new Advanced Options control group to the Output Settings control pane. There are three input fields: Add CSS rules in <head>, Add script to <head> and Add script before </body>. CSS rules are visible in preview, while the scripts are only added when the gallery is published (exported, or previewed in browser) to prevent any possible Lightroom tantrums.
- Added a new
#wrapperDIV to the source code that allows for new custom styling possibilities. - Source code for Lightroom’s preview onclick events now prevented from exporting, resulting in cleaner code that IE8 should no longer bitch about.
- v3.3 ( 2010-01-02 )
- Now creates a simple redirect script in your /galleries/ folder so that anyone accessing that location by direct URL will be rerouted to your gallery index page.
- Updated Shadowbox to version 3.0rc1.
- New option to position the identity plate and header beneath the menu.
- Added Heading and Copy font-size sliders for each individual page; no longer one global setting for all.
- New font-size slider for contact form labels.
- Added Text-Transform as an option for menu links.
- v3.2 ( 2009-12-11 )
- Compatibility improvements to the gallery index PHP script.
- Added a favicon.
- Support for embedding Simpleviewer-2 galleries into the Home and About pages.
- Bug fixes.
- v3.1 (2009-09-26)
- Taking a cue from Timothy Armes, font stack presets are now built in, though font stacks remain user editable.
- Implemented Shadowbox support.
- v3.01 (2009-09-11)
- Styling adjustments for consistency with TTG Highslide Gallery.
- Updated templates.
- v3.0 (2009-09-09)
- Initial release; evolved from TTG LR Pages 2.x, hence the 3.0 designation; also incorporates elements of TTG Auto Index and TTG Stage.
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Identity plate is displayed on a weird white-bluish background when in Lightroom. I did not pay much attention because most of the browsers display it on the transparent background anyways. I however checked it in IE – background is there??!!
You’re using IE6. Time for you to upgrade your browser.
You are very right – the one I checked on is IE6!
But how about Lightroom? Any way to make Lightroom see it correctly?
Thanks!
On Windows, Lightroom utilizes your installed version of IE to preview web galleries. So, as I said, time for you to upgrade your browser.
Hi Matt,
thanks a lot for your quick update of TTG pages to release 3.6 and the additional feature included. Great work done!
Unfortunately, I encounter a problem with LR 2.6 (Wintel PC) when I choose “Launch Gallery in Shadowbox”. It makes my LR installation stuck in an endless loading mode, which is to say it stops responding at all.
Probably a bug?
Kind regards
Thomas
That’s an IE bug, and not a bug on my end. For some reason, some Javascript causes IE to seize up in Lightroom’s web preview. Affects only a minority of systems, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m afraid Shadowbox just isn’t going to be an option for you.
Thanks a lot for your quick response. I am not (yet) sure in how far IE affecs LR here. I do have IE somewhere on my Win 7 PC but do not use it, except for some final testing. Even using the LR preview mode opens Opera and not IE.
Does LRs internal preview of the Web pages rely on IE only?
Kind regards
Thomas
For its internal preview, Lightroom uses the default web-browser for your operating system, so IE on LR/Win and Safari on LR/Mac. No way of changing that, unfortunately. And that’s the primary reason there are sometimes differing behaviors between the Windows and Mac versions of the Web module.
I read the response regarding IE. I am on a mac and since I downloaded the update it is doing something similar. Occasionally when I click to change a setting (color, font size, etc.) the screen in LR goes white and stays that way until I restart LR. I am unable to save and loose all my settings. I am not running IE so what could be the problem and how do I fix it?
Lightroom just craps itself once in a while. You can sometimes force the gallery to reload by hitting the square icon in the toolbar, flopping to the Library and then back to Web, or reloading the preview (Cmd-R on a Mac, Ctrl-R on Windows). As with anything on a computer, not a bad idea to constantly save your work as you go.
Hi Matt,
I used TTG Stages to generate a flash based gallery. The entire gallery works except for the thumbnail in the gallery index. In TTG Stage I used the generic name of thumbnail.jpg and put the file in the Gallery Folder. Can you give me insight on the problem?
Thanks,
That depends. Can you give me a link to the gallery?
http://www.pinkthelittleflowershop.com/galleryindex.php
The problem is because you have included a space in your gallery folder name.
md galleryis an invalid web folder name; trymdgalleryormd_galleryinstead.My mistake. That solved the problem. Thanks.
Hi Matt,
1. How can i add a web link within a Paragraph in TTG Pages?
2. Am i right that the easiest way to replace the Home Image with a very simple flash presentation would be to install LR3 beta and monoslideshow-2? I want several images to automatically load one after another, so i played with the LR Flash Gallery but could not force the images to fill the entire Stage or to autostart in TTG Pages…
Thanks,
Tom
1. Code the link into the paragraph text using HTML.
2. Monoslideshow-2 is a good choice for front page slideshows, and supports the things you mention.
Hi Matt,
I would like you to ask for something: Can you please let TTG pages create an additional plain HTML page for the gallery index, like the one which can be seen in Lightroom? Me, and I assume many others, do not use the PHP engine for their dynamic portfolio presenatation as well as we do not use a flash gallery.
It can save a considerable amount of time to have a galley page which then only needs to be adapted to ones own needs, instead of copying images, several resource files from left to right, merging css setting from at least two files etc.
Kind regards
Thomas
Hi Matt,
unfortunately the former problem of TTG pages 3.5.1 (reported last week) “…as soon as the content exceeds the browser window height the entire page content (identity plate, menu bar and copy box) makes a shift to the left” is still there with release 3.6.
Kind regards
Thomas
I’ve tested this in many browsers, and have seen no such problem. I need the URL of the problematic page, and I need to know what browser and version of browser you are witnessing this problem with.
…what I forgot: I see the effect both with Firefox 3.6.3 and Opera 10.51 (IE not yet teste). The effect is visible when the browser is maximized (OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit).
Thomas
The URL reply got lost, so here it is again: http://hintze-photo.com/home_test/
Kind regards
Thomas
It’s not a bug, Thomas. It’s the browser making room for the scroll-bar to appear, and reducing the width of the viewport by the width of the scroll-bar. As a result, the center of the viewport shifts slightly, and content with it. Normal. Browser. Behavior.
Hello again, I know it’s been a pain answering me…I finally configured the email form but when I tested there’s a page that comes up with error in line 89. Also I want a dimin slideshow on the front page…Followed the instructions exporting a folder and placing it in the home folder as “home_dimin” but there’s no slideshow going on. What would you recommend using instead of dimin?Thanks
If you’re following the instructions correctly, then it should just work. If it’s not working as expected, then I will need to see the page to diagnose the issue. Please post a URL.
this is it:
http://wshashinka.com/resources/FormToEmail.php
that happens after filling the form
There should be a slideshow here:
http://wshashinka.com/home_dimin/
… and there isn’t. So that’s why there’s nothing appearing on the front page.
For the Form-to-Email error, you should contact support at http://www.formtoemail.com.
I’m trying to get the “galleries index” link to work. I followed the instructions you have on this site; however, when I click on the “gallery index” button, it just downloads “galleryindex-9.php”. what do I need to do to get the gallery index to work? I also do not need it to auto index. So, how do I get it where I can index myself?
Thanks,
Roy
You’re either running the gallery index from your local desktop, or a web server that does not support PHP. In either case, that’s not going to work. As specified in the system requirements for the gallery, the gallery index requires a PHP-enabled web server to function.
And it’s only an auto index; there is no manual indexing option.
How do you get larger identity plates with logos to fit in the identity plate are?
thanks,
Roy
By enlarging the size of the header using the provided controls in the Site Info pane. You should watch some of my videos for examples. See videos 1-2 and 1-3 on that page.
Hi Matt, is there anyway of controlling the size of the image on the Home page (ttg pages 3.6). It seems to size itself somewhat randomly according to it’s aspect ratio. The image I am using looks quite big when I start with your “whiteout” template but in all other scenarios becomes very reduced? Many thanks Simon
On page images are controlled via the Output Settings control pane, Image Size sliders.
Matt,
I moved servers to Media Temple and changed the php from 4 to 5. I get the gallery index page but without any of the galleries I put into the galleries folder using Coda. Can you think of any other thing I need to do to get this to work? I watched your video and followed everything you did, and I still get nothing.
rfxphotography.com (it’s only a test site at the moment)
Thanks,
Roy
Can you provide me a direct link to one of your galleries as well?
Matt,
Here you go (below). This is the highslide pro template that I want to use for all my galleries. I’ve been tying over and over and still get nothing. can it be a pages upgrade that I’m missing? I really hope this helps.
http://swww.s94676.gridserver.com/
Thanks,
Roy
I have no idea what gallery that is, but it’s not supported by TTG Auto Index. You will need to use TTG XML Maker to enable auto indexing for your galleries.
Matt,
I use TTG simpleviewer 2 1.01 in lightroom, then edit it in svBuilder which i thought was the highslide pro. I downloaded it all from your site. how do i enable auto indexing?
Thanks,
Roy
Matt,
IT WORKS!!! You the man. Thank you for all your help.
Roy
Hi,
I downloaded the TTG Pages demo and installed it fine (Windoes 7 64-bit, Lightroom 2.7 64-bit) but seem to have fallen at the first hurdle!
I have a small collction set and select 3 images then go to the web module and select the TTG pages 3.1 but it keeps coming up with the error about must select 3 images and just uses the first three images in the collection.
The filmstrip at the bottom clearly shows the three images I want selected but TTG just seems to ignore them.
Any ideas?
PS Is there a way to get a slideshow on the front page without using flash? Got to keep it compatible with mobile devices from a certain company!
In the Web module toolbar, set “Use: All Filmstrip Photos” and the engine will use the first three images in your filmstrip, or set “Use: Selected Photos” and actively select three images from your filmstrip. The images will be placed on pages in the order Home, About, Contact.
Regarding the front page, at this time TTG Pages only supports the embedding of Flash slideshows. Otherwise, you must use a static image.
Hi Matt,
now that I am almost finished a problem with IE 7 remains for me. The footer is not displayed properly as in Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera. In IE it is dispalyed not centered as is should, but much to much to the right. Unfortunately the IE 7 compliance link doesn’t help in this matter.
Do you have an idea on how to solve the problem?
To have a look: http://hintze-photo.com/home_test
Kind regards
Thomas
Updating to the latest version should fix the problem for you.
Hi Mat,
what do you mean by the latest version? Internet Explorer 8.x?
No doubt, this IE 8 is capable to do things as I expect it to be. And me personally I never use IE for anything but testing, that’s not a problem for me viewing Web pages. But, unfortunately there a people out there that are using the version 7 who might visit my pages, probably potential clients. So a fix of this “right shift” is highly desirable.
So, any idea how to fix this?
Thomas
I mean the latest version of the web engine, which in the case of TTG Pages is 3.6 and which specifically addresses the IE layout problem you’re talking about.
Hi Matt,
thanks again for your prompt reply. I have made the pages with the latest release 3.6. Fortunately I got aware of TTG pages just a week before the new release was out. So, I played around with 3.5 and made the final page template with 3.6.
Anyway, if anyone has a hint where this error is located, what TTG pages is now making more IE 7 friendly respectively, I could fix it in the stylesheet or html’s directly, cause I am almost finished and won’t like to start out of Lightroom again.
Kind regards
Thomas
You don’t need to begin again. Just save your settings as a template using the Template Browser. TTG Pages 3.6 fully supports templates made with prior versions.
Hi Matt,
Could you tell me if end how is it possible to add a “Menu Item 6″ ?
Best regards,
Michel
Use the Custom Menu Items entry, as shown in video 1-4 on this page.
Another question from a newbie…
Could you tell me if it’s possible to add a second gallery index in the menu?
I would like to have a gallery to show some pictures, and another wich should be a shop.
Thanks for your help!
Michel
Yes. You will need to use TTG Auto Index to create a second menu, then create a menu item to its location.
Thank you
Hi Matt
I am working on an updated website using TTG pages. I would like to be able to control the height of the page to reduce the amount of empty space below the home page slideshow. I would also like to be able to centralize the site on the page in the vertical dimension. I have tried adding css rules (of which I have some, though limited knowledge) and have not been able to achieve what I want. Website is at http://www.nathanweekes.com/test_site/
Nathan
The height of the page is generally dependent upon the amount of content on the page, and the size of the visitor’s browser window. You can possibly use CSS rules to restraint the height of your white box, but the pages weren’t really built for it, and it might introduce other issues to the layout.
As for vertical centering, that has been denied web-designers for years, despite all the clamoring for it. You can try using the CSS
vertical-alignattribute, but it may not work in all browsers, or even at all depending on how it’s used.I am here to support issue brought by Nathan. It is actually very annoying to not be able to control the size of the window and place elements appropriately. On large monitors footer drops down soooo low, that it looks unrelated to the page itself, not talking about general ugliness of the design. Most of people around me are using high res monitors placed vertically – try it yourself. To be honest – this is the only thing that keeps bugging me to change templates in a nearest future. It is just unprofessional…
1. It’s a web page, not a print layout. There are different rules, and some things just cannot be done.
2. It’s a template, and I’ve made it as flexible as possible. There are things that just cannot be implemented within this context due to limitations of what Lightroom does or does not allow, or because some things that work in a “fixed” design situation are not going to work in a “flex” design situation such as what I try to provide with my Lightroom tools.
3. What’s “unprofessional”? The footer? Are you trying to say you prefer the old footer, that stuck to the bottom of the gallery content, or am I just missing your point?
Hi, Im just about to buy ttg pages. and thinking of using it with either slideshowpro or monoslideshow2.
Will monoslideshow2 fit in with pages ok? Will I need to buy TTG stage as well? Will there be better compatibility using monoslideshow2 over slideshowpro?
Just need to make sure i buy enough to make it all work ok..
Thanks, and loving the demo…
Both galleries work well with TTG Pages. My personal preference is Monoslideshow.
You can embed the slideshow on your front page or about page using TTG Pages. You do not need to buy TTG Stage unless you want to use it for your image galleries as well.
thanks for that. Im right in thinking that if i use the shadowbox mode in pages for my image galleries, that just using xml maker will work for slideshowpro. to autofill the gallery indexes? no need for stages in that workflow?
Is there anyway to find out if glob() is enabled on my server, that doesnt involve waiting for my hosting company to answer the question?
Are the chances are it probably is all ok?
Correct; using Shadowbox would remove the need to use TTG Stage.
The best way to determine glob() support is to ask. The only other way is to install the gallery index on your site and see if it works.
Hallo Ben,
It it can help you in your choice,
i had purchased monoslideshow2 but still prefer slideshowpro.
less transitions but very nice with its album page (only one flash design for all the galeries i put in a single ttg page).
moreover, director is fantastic. i change the flash design,export from LR, delete album1 folder, upload 150KB only !
best regards
marc
Thanks Marc… I went with SSP, as it seemed like the tool for the job.
Matt, thanks for your help again.
I bought pages, so my girl friend could build her websites totally on her own and all in Lightoom.
Works like a dream… the whole site built in about 10 mins.
Her Site is http://www.stefbennettphotographycom
This code works if peoples hosting support staff are a bit slow at responding to check if the server is ok with php and glob(). (like mine)
Just open notepad, text edit… paste in….
upload it to your server, then go to the address. If you get A page saying enable… bingo
lol I guess this wont let me type in code….
?php
if( function_exists(‘glob’) )
{
echo ‘Enabled’;
}
else
{
echo ‘Probably Disabled’;
}
?
like that with round the whole lot.
hi matt,
is it possible to change some things in ttg pages :
- set bottom margin to 0px instead of 20px. not sure it is useful in html normal cases (is it ?) but in my case, on a 1024×600px eeepc it adds a vertical scroll bar with chailatte 100px header + 20px +720×480 slideshow, no header
- add “image, no copy” option for home page when we just want a slideshow on home page without any text around it. it is a little tricky to put image up, copy down, delete text,…
- possibility to disable frame around slideshow on gallery and home page separately from about and contact
best regards
marc
Matt, how can I change the size of the photo which appears on the Contact page in TTG pages?
Herb
Image sizes are controlled using the sliders in the Output Settings control pane. The sliders will set sizes uniformly for images on every page.
Great partnering to with other LR sites, which brought me to you. I hope that this works out….
Well, i bought TTG Pages this morning, loaded my saved template from the demo & off I went. A few tweaks & changing my mind 10 times & back, no probs at all. Used the XMK Maker to sort out the thumbnails without mucking everything up like I usually do.
Amazing !! Lovely shiny new site in about 2 hrs.
A huge thanks for all the hard work
Hi Matthew,
Very impressive tools, congrats!
I am trying out both TTG Highslide G Pro and TTG Pages, and need some help – I am setting up Pages now. Have completed the Home page, About, Index, etc – when I upload, I only get 2 folders – “Thumbnails” and “photos” – but no pages (Home, About, Contact) at all – what am I doing wrong?
Tx,
Mike
You’re using the demo version, which does not export. Save your settings as a template to the Template Browser. Remove the demo from your Web Galleries folder and install the purchased version. Load the saved template and export.
Hallo,
I wanted to add something in contact page of chai type in dreamweaver and seen in your code :
Name
Q1. what is the goal of galery title… line in this case ? It creates a anchor in dreamweaver and i don’t know if i can remove it
Q2. how can we change the live validation property to display the red error text on right of input area instead of below. I wanted to extend the length of the form to avoid it expands for error message.
thanks for advises
best regards
marc
Q1: To identify the page from which the email form is sent; a feature requested by many users.
Q2: By researching the live validation script, sorting out the code and making your own modifications. I’m not even going to BEGIN to get into that. Served as is.
Hi,
I’m upgraded to 3.6 an am re-doing the the pages. I’ve saved a new user template but my problem is that it becomes deselected seemly by itself then the changes made can’t be saved to the template and I start all over. I’m being careful not to hit return but can’t figure out why the template won’t stay chosen while I fiddle the boxes and sliders? I use a Wacom tablet for input–could this be the problem?
John
The Template Browser is behaving fine; you’re just not understanding how to use it properly. When you load a template, and then make changes to that template, you are veering away from the template. Lightroom — recognizing that the template is no longer in use, that you are taking things in another direction and doing something different — loses focus on that template.
If you want to update the template with your new settings, then you need to right-click (Win) or Ctrl-click (Mac) on the template name and choose to Update Template with Current Settings.
Do not click the template, as that will load the settings already saved; right-click the template name without left-clicking on it first.
Hi,
I’m doing a web site with elegance and pages. Everything work… For the moment.
I have 6 questions:
1/ how to create a warning before the web site ? (eg: “+ 18 years old: enter” “- 18 years old: leave”). I suppose in my small head that with your “advanced options” it’s possible to do that, but I don’t know how.
2/ logic following question: What the use of the 3 “advanced options” ? I found nothing about that.
3/ When a web site is done with pages for example, I export the folder on the hard disk. But if I want to modify the site, how I can recuperate the folder in Lightroom ? Or do I have to create a template for each gallery ?
4/ Your contact page is great with FormToEmail that work well. But if I don’t want to use it and just put simply a link in a paragraph, how can I do ?
5/ What the use of album title and description in “info for TTG Auto index” ?
6/ How to use “Mega Tags in Head”. I suppose I have to enter keywords as, for example: “photos;france;paris;seine…” but in “author” I just write my name ? and “description” what the difference with keywords ?
Thank’s for the answer,
Jean-Philippe
1. It’s up to you to decide how you want to do this. The easiest way would simply be to make your Home page the warning. Alternatively, you could design a separate splash page outside of Lightroom, or find some Javascript to display a modal warning. That’s really all the advice I can give you on the matter.
2. The Advanced Options are intended for those with some web-design experience and should require no explanation whatsoever. If you don’t understand their use, then they are obviously not for you.
3. Save a template for each gallery that can be recalled, modified and exported again at a later time. You cannot recall previously exported content back into the Web module.
4. Use HTML. There are HTML tutorials available all over the Internet.
5. See video 01-01 on this page.
6. See video 01-02 on that same page.
Today I installed the new pages so that my father can create a new home page. We checked the box to prepare the homepage for a flash gallery, selected monoslideshow 2.0 and exported it to a folder. I then used the MMSXML module to export a slideshow and put it into a folder named “home_monoslideshow” in the exported page folder. When I upload to the site it doesn’t work, I just get a blank frame where the slideshow should be. I then tried to move a “monoslideshow” folder from a place where it is working on the website into the page folder, renamed the folder home_monoslideshow and reloaded the page. That results in an error 1009 message being displayed where the slideshow should load.
The URL you’ve provided, http://annis-cornett-photos.com/, shows Monoslideshow to be functioning properly. If that is not the location where you are experiencing the problem, then you need to provide me that URL or I can’t help you.
Hi Matt –
We just purchased and installed TTG Pages and Highslide Gallery Pro. I had already created templates in TTG Stage. Do I have to recreate the design configurations from scratch or can TTG Pages get them from TTG Stage?
Thanks, Sandy
http://lr.theturninggate.net/2009/10/tutorial-porting-settings-between-web-engines/
Thanks, that did help me to avoid redoing some of the settings.
Now, I’m trying to use Simpleviewer2 as the flash gallery for the home page in Pages and I’m having trouble with the folder structure. My ftp upload settings for Pages had “put in subfolder” unchecked, and the site went up correctly, inside of my “public_html” folder. Then I tried to upload the Simpleviewer2 gallery with no luck. Am I supposed to be putting it into a folder called “simpleviewer”, like I did successfully in TTG Stage, or where? This new version can be seen on the bluesky domain.
Thanks.
Yes, the Simpleviewer gallery should be in a sub-folder. TTG Pages provides instructions for how to name this folder when you setup your stage. The instructions appear in the web preview.
Ahh, thanks. I had changed the text color to match the background color cuz I didn’t want any text on the page…. so the instructions were invisible.
Another question… I thought that the thumbnail and main image appearance was determined by Simpleviewer, not TTGStage or Pages. Both the sites on bluesky and walker domains use the same Simpleviewer template/gallery, but bluesky is created in Pages, and walker in Stages. We prefer the current appearance on the walker domain. Since we’re now going to be using Highslide e-commerce, I’m redoing the TTGStage site in Pages. So I have to go back and configure the Pages appearance settings to match the Stage settings? Argh.
Just to let you know that I have successfully upgraded to the new versions of TTG Pages and Highslide Gallery Pro. Took a little work but the results look great! Love the iconic index.
Note to users: in my old version I had SlideShowPro running a series of images on my home page. Even though the text said to click in the gallery index I found out that many users thought this was the gallery and never got to the real thing! So be careful; I’ve now taken the slide show off the home page so there is no confusion.
johnagon.com
I have TTG pages 3.5.1. How to upgrade to the newesrt version? do I need to buy it again?
txs.
never mind
Upgrades are fully explained in the EULA.
hi, I have TTG pages and TTG highslide gallery, is there any way to include RSS in my web? so I can let my clients know when I add new stuff.
txs
what would be the reasons why the icons in the gallery are not visible in my website? I am using the new TTG pages 3.6. I can see them in LR2.6 but not when I upload it to the web.
Assuming you are referring to the gallery index page, the icons displayed in Lightroom only provide a preview of the page design. Once published to the web, your gallery index will be populated by your actual image galleries — not by the icons you had selected in Lightroom. This is explained in the TTG Pages demonstration video. Please watch that video for more information.
yeap. I know LR shows the pics we have in LR and that we have to load the galleries in the galleries folder. I have done that, actually in my web I can see the name of the album, but not the icon (picture), that area is white or blank (since but background is white)
what engine are you using for image galleries?
i am using highslide gallery 2.0
I just deleted everything I had on my web, changed the colors (put the default colors) in the iconic menu in LR, and loaded everything again. I cant see the pictures yet. I’m using windows.
Have you tried putting the gallery index online?
Hi Matt,
I just purchased TTG Pages to build a site for a friend.. Everything was working fine and I was very happy with the working of the formtoemail device. I fine tuned everything to “speak French”. Made several tries with my email adress and then decided to swith the PHP file with the new one where I gave the site owner’s adress..
Strangely the first try and all the following ones failed and I got that message in stade: “Fatal error: Cannot redeclare recursive_array_check_blank() (previously declared in /homez.358/rucno/www/resources/FormToEmail.php:130) in /homez.358/rucno/www/resources/FormToEmail.php on line 344″
Can you be of some help.
Thanks a lot.
Jean Claude
You should contact support at http://www.formtoemail.com.
Using Pages 3.6 on LR3 Beta and when trying to select a photo for the About and Contact pages, there is a massive freakout when I try to switch from “All Filmstrip Photos” to “Selected Photos” on the bottom toolbar. The age says ERROR and there is a very long list of code. Oddly though, I am able to use “Selected Photos” when in the Gallery screen. Any ideas????
You need to have as least three images selected at all times when using TTG Pages, as documented above.
Hi TTG:
MY TTG Pages 3.6 crashes Lightroom 3 64bits on Win7 64bits, when selecting ShadowBox for Galleries. Firefox as primary browser
Need help. Thx
Shadowbox does that on some Windows machines. Don’t use Shadowbox.
Matthew,
I’m close but I’m struggling and I need help with a menu navigation problem. I’m building my photo card website around TTG Pages 3.2, TTG Highslide Pro 2.1 and AutoIndex. I want two galleries, one for my “special occasion” cards and one for “recipe” cards. I’ve built all my galleries with TTG Highslide Pro. If you look at my website homepage (www.williphoto.com/card_demo), you’ll see I’ve renamed Gallery Index as “Special Occasions” and added a menu item called “recipes.” So far, so good. My “special occasion” galleries are in the \galleries folder and the “recipes” galleries in the autoindex_recipes folder. All menu items, including the “special occasions” work fine except the “recipes” item. It’s lost. I can go directly to the autoindex_recipes address (www.williphotos.com/card_demo/autoindex_recipes) and it works as it should. I know my issue is path problem (I’ve used both absolute and relative addressing) but I can’t figure out what it should be. That’s where I need help. I’m also concerned about the menu paths I should be using in my autoindex_recipes to get back to menu items on my home path. When mouse over menu items for “home,” Special Occasions, Contact etc, the address shown it in my root directory.
That’s where I am. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks to your video tutorials, I’ve gotten this far. I think they’re excellent. Thanks,
Bill
From Home, About, Contact and Gallery Index (Special Occasions):
autoindex_recipes/
From Special Occasions galleries:
../../autoindex_recipes/
From Recipe galleries:
../
I am rebuilding my website with ttg pages 3.7 with the new galleryview slideshow so iphone/ipad users can see it. I don’t currently own an iphone or ipad but while my website on an ipad at a computer store I noticed the iconic grid option wasn’t showing up. If I change the title animation to always on or never show titles will that help?
Looking at your site on my iPad, I see no problem with your gallery index. The iconic layout looks and functions very well. The only problem is the titles, which still work in a way. Set them to always on.
Of course, the point is moot if you intend to continue using Simpleviewer for your galleries, as they cannot be viewed on an iPad anyway.
Thanks, I will be changing the galleries as part of the rebuilding process. I was researching how to redirect traffic to different webpage but do not see the need now with the updated ttg pages. Eventually I will have to buy the iphone to see how the images look when I make changes. I will continue to watch for updated ttg products. Thanks for the great work.
hallo,
I don’t find the video about how creating the idplate in cs3 with brushes…. anymore.
can you give me the link ?
best regards
marc
http://lr.theturninggate.net/2009/07/creating-graphical-identity-plates-in-photoshop/
Hi Matt,
I’m trying to make the telephone number in the contact form non compulsory like the site address. It should be possible but I have been unable to locate the place where to make that change…
At present if I don’t fill the telephone text area, FormToEmail returns a warning when I haven’t such a problem with the site text area…
I would appreciate if you don’t use your recurrent answer “address your request to FormToEmail”. May I remind you the following extract of your help page :
The file contains instructions for implementing Form-to-Email in your webpages; ignore the instructions. The TTG web engine handles all form implementation for you
That’s the answer I use when the issue is a Form-to-Email issue, and the author there has indicated that I should push such requests to him.
In your case, though, the issue is nothing to do with Form-to-Email. Within the webengine package, there is a file called
inputvalidation.htmlwhich controls submission of the required fields. You should be able to remove the Telephone field from being require by deleting the third validation check in that file.My Apologize Matt !
I appreciate very much the accuracy of your reply which helped me to resolve my problem.
I’ll put back the link “Powered by TTG” on my site (;~)). I should have known that Matt Kloskowski like Jeff Schewe or Martin Evening could not be wrong in supporting you…
Congratulations
Hi Matt:
Thanks for your great job, my site looks fantastic now thanks to TTG Pages.
I have two feature requests:
-An option to change favicon.ico directly in the web engine and not manually later. There is something I am doing wrong because sometimes the my new favicon appears and sometimes the standard TTG favicon
-An option to add a scanned signature in Contact page
And some doubts, i need your help:
- In the contact/about paragraphs, i want to add hyperlinks. How can I do that? I add a link to TTG but it is not clickable
- Can I add bullet points in the contact/about paragraphs? Can I format the text with bold, cursive, underlined, etc?
Plase, keep up the good work
Sorry I forgot.
An option to password protect the galleries subdir would be great!!!
There are several articles here on the site which address this issue. You can find them using the search bar.
You should be able to replace the favicon.ico file with one of your choosing, either in the exported folders or do it on the front end, by replacing it within the lrwebengine package. There’s not really a good way of managing that from within Lightroom.
Lightroom will accept some HTML in text input, and will refuse to process some. You should be able to use hyperlinks by entering anchor tags along with your text. You can experiment with other HTML tags to see what it likes and what it doesn’t. The bullet points you may need to add post-export by editing the pages manually.
Matthew,
I’m currently using TTG Pages 3.2 and I’ve created several user templates based on that version. I like the new slideshow feature in your just released 3.71 version and I’d like to use it. I was wondering if there is a way to use my 3.2 user templates (so I don’t have to rework them) for the new version. Is there?
Thanks,
Bill
Templates from earlier versions should continue to work with the new 3.7.1 update. Just be sure to run through the settings with an eye out for changes, and then you will just need to make adjustments to utilize the new features.
Last nite I finally bought TTG Pages and Highslide Pro. Couple of questions:
1. I tried typing “” in my home page text description but it does not give a line break, just appears as “” what m i missing?
2. I want 480px wide by 180px high iconic index . But my galleries’ thumbnails I want 150×150. Gallery Index seems to be pulling the 150×150 thumbnails form galleries, is there a work around?
Thanks
For line breaks, use <br />.
Regarding the iconic index, see the demonstration video on the TTG Pages product page.
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