Matrix 9.5 Users Manual

Page & Titles

Page & Titles / Page Limit

• Limit page width to: If selected, the width of the album page will be limited to the chosen number of pixels. If fixed widths are assigned to all of the page elements (title bar, thumbnail table, etc.), this setting will have no effect, as the page will be a fixed width. If percentage widths are chosen for one or more page elements, however, the page width adjusts to the size of the viewport. In these circumstances, this setting establishes a maximum width for the page layout. Note that the skin automatically calculates and applies a minimum width for the layout, to prevent layout distortion when the viewport is narrowed. This value is computed during album creation, and may be viewed by opening the system console before making the album (Tools, System console).

Page & Titles / Tab Title

• Browser tab title: The text that will appear in the tab of the browser. If left blank, the album title, project name, or raw folder name is displayed.

Page & Titles / Title Bar

• Show album title bar: If selected, a title bar will be displayed on index pages.
• Album title: Determines whether the jAlbum project title will be displayed on all pages, on just the top level page, or not at all.
• Album description: Determines whether the jAlbum project description will be displayed on all pages, on just the top level page, or not at all.
• Folder info in title bar: Determines whether a folder's title, comment, both, or neither will be displayed in the title bar.
• Show folder name if no folder title entered: If selected, the raw folder name will be displayed in the title bar if display of the folder title has been chosen, but no folder title has been entered.
• Variable width, % of viewport width: The width of the title bar as a percentage of the viewport.
• Fixed width: The width of the title bar may be a fixed number of pixels.
• Fixed width, px: The width of the title bar as a fixed number of pixels.

Navigation / Navigation Links

Navigation / Navigation Links / Links Above Thumbnail Table

• Previous|Up|Next: Displays clickable navigation boxes above the thumbnail table for the previous and next index pages if there is more than one index page at the current folder level, and a clickable button to take the visitor up to the folder level above the current folder, or, at the top level, to the location specified under Album > Settings > Pages > Link to homepage > Address (URL). Multiple index pages occur if the user limits the number of thumbnails appearing on each index page via the jAlbum "columns" and "rows" settings under Album > Settings > Pages, and there are more images at the current folder level than that limit. Setting the number of rows to zero places all thumbnails on one index page, regardless of how many images there are.
• Numbered link list: Displays a clickable numbered link list ("Go To Page 1 2 3 4," for example) above the thumbnail table if there is more than one index page at the current folder level.
• Page X of Y: Displays the current index page number ("Page 2 of 4," for example) above the thumbnail table if there is more than one index page at the current folder level.
• Jump link to main index page: Displays a clickable button above the thumbnail table that returns the site visitor directly to the top level index page from any lower folder level.
• Links to external pages: Displays one or more clickable boxes above the thumbnail table that take the site visitor to any external web site.

Navigation / Navigation Links / Links Below Thumbnail Table

• Previous|Up|Next: Displays clickable navigation boxes below the thumbnail table for the previous and next index pages if there is more than one index page at the current folder level, and a clickable button to take the visitor up to the folder level above the current folder, or, at the top level, to the location specified under Album > Settings > Pages > Link to homepage > Address (URL). Multiple index pages occur if the user limits the number of thumbnails appearing on each index page via the jAlbum "columns" and "rows" settings under Album > Settings > Pages, and there are more images at the current folder level than that limit. Setting the number of rows to zero places all thumbnails on one index page, regardless of how many images there are.
• Numbered link list: Displays a clickable numbered link list ("Go To Page 1 2 3 4," for example) below the thumbnail table if there is more than one index page at the current folder level.
• Page X of Y: Displays the current index page number ("Page 2 of 4," for example) below the thumbnail table if there is more than one index page at the current folder level.
• Jump link to main index page: Displays a clickable button below the thumbnail table that returns the site visitor directly to the top level index page from any lower folder level.
• Links to external pages: Displays one or more clickable boxes below the thumbnail table that take the site visitor to any external web site.

Navigation / Navigation Links / Text Folder Links

• Include text folder links: If selected, a list of text links to the folders on the page is displayed above the thumbnail table.
• Cross index pages: If selected, the list of text links to the folders will include all folders on the current level, even if the current level's thumbnails are spread across multiple index pages (e.g., index.html, index2.html, etc.) because the user has chosen to limit the number of rows and columns on each page. If not selected, the list of text links will include only the folders whose thumbnails actually appear on the current index page.
• Fixed width: The width of the text folder links list may be either a percentage of the width of the viewport, or a fixed number of pixels.
• Variable width, % of viewport width: The width of the text folder links list as a percentage of the viewport.
• Fixed width, px: The width of the text folder links list as a fixed number of pixels.
• Separator: The separator character or characters to be used between items in the text folder links list.

Navigation / Navigation Links / Link Contents

• Open uplink from top level in: If the user has chosen to include Prev|Up|Next links, and has specified a homepage URL in the jAlbum settings, the target may be opened in the same window (recommended), in the parent window (if the album is being displayed in an iframe), or in a new window.
• Links below thumbnail table if more than: If you have chosen to display any navigation links below the thumbnail table, you can show these links only if there are more than the specified number of rows of thumbnails on a given page.
• Limit numbered link list to: If selected, the numbered link list will be limited to the specified number of entries. For example, if there are 12 index pages, the limit is set to 7, and the site visitor is currently at page 6, the numbered link list will read:

  Go to Page 1 … 4 5 6 7 8 … 12

  The first and last index pages are always included in the list.
• Label for jump link to main index: The text that will appear in the button containing the jump link to the main index page.
• First link to external page: The target URL for the first external link button. This would normally be an absolute URL. Label is the text that will appear in the button. Open in determines whether the target will be opened in same window (recommended), in the parent window (if the album is being displayed in an iframe), or in a new window.
• Second link to external page: The target URL for the second external link button. This would normally be an absolute URL. Label is the text that will appear in the button. Open in determines whether the target will be opened in same window (recommended), in the parent window (if the album is being displayed in an iframe), or in a new window.
• Third link to external page: The target URL for the third external link button. This would normally be an absolute URL. Label is the text that will appear in the button. Open in determines whether the target will be opened in same window (recommended), in the parent window (if the album is being displayed in an iframe), or in a new window.
• Links to external pages on top level index page only: If selected, links to external pages will appear on the top level index page, but not on the index pages of any folders below that level.

Navigation / Navigation Box Layout

Navigation / Navigation Box Layout / Navigation Box Table

• Variable width, % of viewport width: The width of the navigation table as a percentage of the viewport.
• Fixed width: The width of the navigation table may be a fixed number of pixels.
• Fixed width, px: The width of the navigation table as a fixed number of pixels.
• Cell spacing: The number of pixels between adjacent boxes in the navigation table.

Navigation / Breadcrumbs

Navigation / Breadcrumbs / General

• Type: The type of breadcrumb trail to be displayed: none, text links, or clickable boxes. A breadcrumb trail displays a clickable link for each folder level above the current folder.
• Position: The position of the breadcrumb trail: above the title bar, below the title bar, above the thumbnail table, below the thumbnail table, or in the page footer.
• Include current folder in breadcrumb trail: If selected, the current folder will be listed in the breadcrumb trail (though it will not be a clickable link, since the visitor is already on that page).
• Include uplink from top level in breadcrumb trail: If selected, the uplink from the top level will be listed in the breadcrumb trail.
• Include first link to external page in breadcrumb trail: If selected, the first link to an external page will be listed in the breadcrumb trail.
• Include second link to external page in breadcrumb trail: If selected, the second link to an external page will be listed in the breadcrumb trail.
• Include third link to external page in breadcrumb trail: If selected, the third link to an external page will be listed in the breadcrumb trail.
• Alternate label for top level: A label may be specified for the top level index page. If left blank, the jAlbum album title will be displayed. If no album title has been entered, the jAlbum project name will be displayed.

Navigation / Breadcrumbs / Text Type Format

• Alignment: The alignment of the breadcrumb trail: left-justified, centered, or right-justified.
• Separator: The separator character or characters to be used between breadcrumb trail items.

Navigation / Breadcrumbs / Box Type Format

• Box width: The width, in pixels, of each box in the breadcrumb trail.
• Cell spacing: The number of pixels between adjacent boxes in the breadcrumb trail.

Captions / Thumbnails

Captions / Thumbnails / Position

• Caption position: Determines whether thumbnail captions (if any) are placed below, above, to the right of, or to the left of the thumbnail images.
• Caption alignment: If the captions are placed to the right or left of the thumbnails, the text may be left-aligned, centered, or right-aligned. The alignment is best if it is the opposite of the caption position, e.g., caption to the right of the thumbnails and text left-aligned. (If the captions are placed below or above the thumbnails, the text is always centered.)
• Minimum caption width: If the captions are placed to the right or left of the thumbnails, a minimum width for the caption area must be specified. This prevents the caption from being displaced by a narrowed browser window, or having the text wrapped too much, as the caption is squeezed into a progressively tighter space. If the entire thumbnail table is set to a fixed width (see Thumbnails / Thumbnail Table), this setting is ignored.

Captions / Thumbnails / Folder Thumbnails

• Caption: Determines whether a folder's title, comment, both, or neither will be displayed below a folder thumbnail.
• Show folder name if no folder title entered: If selected, the raw folder name will be displayed below a folder thumbnail if display of the folder title has been chosen, but no folder title has been entered.
• Show folder icon: If selected, a small folder icon will be overlayed on the folder thumbnail.
• Show count of files in folder: If selected, a count of the images in a folder will be displayed below the folder thumbnail.
• Show "New" icon for folders added in the last X days: If selected, a small "New" icon will be overlayed on the folder thumbnail if that folder's file date is within the specified number of days, relative to the date of album creation.
• Tooltip popup: Determines whether a folder's title, comment, both, or neither will be displayed as the tooltip popup (i.e., on mouseover) for a folder thumbnail.
• Show folder name if no folder title entered: If selected, the raw folder name will be displayed in the tooltip popup if display of the folder title has been chosen, but no folder title has been entered.

Captions / Thumbnails / Image Thumbnails

• Caption: Determines whether an image's title, comment, both, or neither will be displayed below an image thumbnail.
• Show file name if no file title entered: If selected, the raw file name (without the file extension) will be displayed below an image thumbnail if display of the image title has been chosen, but no image title has been entered.
• Show video icon on video thumbnails: If selected, a small video icon will be overlayed on thumbnails for videos added to the album project, to thumbnails that link to external videos, and to thumbnails that link to hosted videos (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.). This replaces the standard jAlbum "film" icon, which applies only to videos added to the album project. If choosing this option after making an album with the regular jAlbum film icon, it may be necessary to delete the "thumbs" subdirectory of the output directory to force jAlbum to regenerate the thumbnails.
• Show "New" icon for images added in the last X days: If selected, a small "New" icon will be overlayed on the image thumbnail if that image's file date is within the specified number of days, relative to the date of album creation.
• Tooltip popup: Determines whether an image's title, comment, both, or neither will be displayed as the tooltip popup (i.e., on mouseover) for an image thumbnail.
• Show file name if no image title entered: If selected, the raw file name (without the file extension) will be displayed in the tooltip popup if display of the image title has been chosen, but no image title has been entered.

Captions / Enlarged Image Caption

Captions / Enlarged Image Caption / Caption Area

• Caption area position: Determines whether the caption will be displayed below the enlarged image, above it, in a panel to the left of it, or in a panel to the right of it.
• Keep caption clear of control bar, if positioned together: If the user has chosen to place both the caption and the control bar either above or below the image, and if this option is selected, the position of the caption is adjusted to avoid having it obscured by the control bar.

  The situation is more complex if the user has chosen to place both the caption and the control bar in a side panel. If the control bar is placed at the top of that side panel, the caption is always kept clear of the control bar, regardless of this setting. If the control bar is placed at the bottom of that side panel, the caption cannot be kept clear of the control bar if it is so long that it disappears beneath the control bar, regardless of this setting. If the user has chosen to display buttons at the bottom of that side panel, those are always kept clear of the control bar, regardless of this setting. If the user has chosen to display a Google Maps link or download icon for the image, and has chosen to place the control bar at the bottom of that panel, this setting controls whether the icons appear on the same line as the control bar, or above it. If the width of the side panel is large enough to accommodate the icons and the control bar, not choosing to keep clear of the control bar might be the best choice.

• Caption area width: The width of the caption area, in pixels, if the caption is placed in the left or right panel. (If the caption is placed below or above the image, the caption area width is simply the width of the enlarged image).

Captions / Enlarged Image Caption / Title and Comment

• Title and comment: Determines whether an image's title, comment, both, or neither will be displayed in the caption area of the enlarged image.
• Show file name if no file title entered: If selected, the raw file name (without the file extension) will be displayed in the caption area if display of the image title has been chosen, but no image title has been entered.
• Title and comment alignment: The alignment of the title and comment: left-justified, centered, or right-justified.
• Include image text file with comment: If selected, a text file with the same base name as the image file will be read in, and its contents appended to the existing comment. For example, if an image called mydog.jpg is included in the album project, a file called mydog.txt, if placed in the same directory as the image file, will be used for additional comment text. If jAlbum is set to copy image files into the album project, the text file should be copied into the album project's image directory. If jAlbum is set to link to image files, the text file should be in the same directory as the original image file.

  There is an addon extension to jAlbum to simplify this task. Download and install this file (double-clicking the downloaded file should install it to the proper location, in the "ext" subdirectory of your jAlbum configuration directory). Then, you can right-click on a thumbnail in the main jAlbum editing window, and choose "JTextPad [image].txt," which will create a properly-named text file, and open the jAlbum editor so you can enter your text.

Captions / Enlarged Image Caption / Image Counter

• Image counter position: The position to display an image counter (e.g., "Image 3 of 15"). The counter reflects the number of images on a given index page, not the number in the entire folder, which might span several index pages. The choices available in the drop-down box depend upon the position chosen for the caption area, above.
• Image counter alignment: The alignment of the image counter: centered, left-justified, or right-justified.
• Relative to title and comment: If the image counter is placed in the caption area, it may be either above the title and comment, or below.
• Insert space between image counter and title/comment: If the image counter is placed above or below the title and comment, blank space (roughly one line's worth) may be inserted to separate it from the rest of the caption.

Captions / Enlarged Image Caption / Download Icon

• Include download icon for images: If selected, displays a small download icon in the caption area of enlarged images. This will generally open the displayed image (either the slide image, if anything other than "Link to originals" has been selected in jAlbum, or the original, if "Link to originals" has been selected) in a new browser tab or window on the visitor's computer, at which point the visitor can right-click the image and save it. It's not possible to force a "save" dialog box to appear without employing server-side scripting, which is not included in the skin.
• Include download icon for videos: If selected, displays a small download icon in the caption area of videos. The effect will depend upon the configuration of the site visitor's computer. It may yield a "save" dialog, or it may simply launch a player and play the video. In the latter case, in order to save the video, the visitor will need to right-click on the download icon and choose "save target as …." The exact wording of the choice will depend upon the browser being used.
• Download original or hi-res image, if available: If selected, the download icon will download the original or hi-res image rather than the slide image, if either is included in the album. If both are present, the original takes precedence. Originals may be included by choosing "Link to originals via scaled images" in the jAlbum settings, or by right-clicking on a thumbnail in the main jAlbum window and choosing "Include original." Hi-res images may be included by choosing "Link to hi-res via scaled images" in the jAlbum settings.
• These options may also be selected on a per-folder or per-image basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Download and Google Maps.

Captions / Enlarged Image Caption / Google Maps

• Include link to Google maps if GPS coordinates present: If selected, and if GPS coordinates are available in the EXIF data of the image file, a globe icon is displayed in the caption area which, if clicked, opens a new browser tab or window to the Google maps site, centered on the GPS coordinates.
• Map type: The type of Google map to display: roadmap, satellite, hybrid, terrain, or earth.
• Zoom level: The initial zoom level for the Google map. Note that some map types, like terrain, may not be available at high zoom levels.
• These options may also be selected on a per-folder or per-image basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Download and Google Maps.

Captions / Metadata

Captions / Metadata / Metadata Display

• Show metadata: If selected, metadata (EXIF, IPTC, etc.) may be displayed in the caption area.
• Insert space between title/comment and metadata info/link: If selected, blank space (roughly one line's worth) is inserted after the title and comment, to separate them from the metadata.
• Metadata alignment: The alignment of the metadata: centered, left-justified, or right-justified.
• Metadata location: Metadata may be displayed either directly in the caption area, or as a clickable link in the caption area. If displayed as a link, the metadata aren't visible until the site visitor clicks on the link. Displaying the metadata via a link works best with a caption placed in one of the side panels of the enlarged image.
• Metadata link alignment: If the user chooses to display a link to the metadata, the alignment of that link: centered, left-justified, or right-justified.
• Metadata link label: If the user chooses to display a link to the metadata, the text used as that link.
• Persistent state: If selected, causes the display or non-display of the metadata to be persistent from one image to the next, with the "Photo Info" link acting as a toggle. If the site visitor clicks on the "Photo Info" link to reveal the metadata, the metadata are shown on each subsequent image, unless the site visitor clicks the "Photo Info" link again, to hide the metadata.

Captions / Metadata / EXIF Info

• Camera, Date, ISO, etc: If selected, each of the chosen standard EXIF fields will be included in the displayed metadata, labeled as indicated. Labels may be left blank.

Captions / Metadata / Custom Metadata

• Metadata tag: The name of any available metadata tag may be entered (e.g., Iptc.Credit), up to a total of 12 such tags. The names of the metadata tags contained in an image file may be determined by right-clicking a thumbnail in the main jAlbum editing window and selecting List metadata.
• Metadata label: The text to be displayed as the label for each metadata tag entered (e.g., Photographer). This may be left blank.

Captions / Button Layout

Captions / Button Layout / Enlarged Image Caption Buttons

• Alignment: The alignment of the buttons displayed in the caption area: centered, left-justified, or right-justified.
• Horizontal spacing: The number of pixels between buttons that are next to each other.
• Vertical spacing: The number of pixels between buttons that are above and below each other.
• Text padding: The number of pixels between the text in a button and the border of the button.
• Size: The size of the buttons. If "auto" is chosen, each button will be as large as necessary to accommodate the text. If "fixed" is chosen, each button will be the same size, regardless of the text to be displayed. This setting is ignored if graphic buttons are used instead of text buttons (available only with the Custom style).
• Width: If a fixed size is chosen, the width of each button, in pixels. This setting is ignored if graphic buttons are used instead of text buttons (available only with the Custom style).
• Height: If a fixed size is chosen, the height of each button, in pixels. This setting is ignored if graphic buttons are used instead of text buttons (available only with the Custom style).
• Insert space between title/comment and buttons: If selected, blank space (roughly one line's worth) is inserted above the buttons, to separate them from the other caption items.

Captions / Open and Print Buttons

Captions / Open and Print Buttons / Open Image in New Window

• Include "Open in new window" button: If selected, displays a button in the caption area of each enlarged image that opens the image in a new browser tab or window. This applies only to regular images - the button will not appear in the caption area of a video or of an expander that is opening an external site.
• Open original or hi-res image, if available: If selected, the button will open the original or hi-res image rather than the slide image, if either is included in the album. If both are present, the original takes precedence. Originals may be included by choosing "Link to originals via scaled images" in the jAlbum settings, or by right-clicking on a thumbnail in the main jAlbum window and choosing "Include original." Hi-res images may be included by choosing "Link to hi-res via scaled images" in the jAlbum settings.
• Button text: The text to be displayed in the "Open in new window" button. If a graphic button is chosen, this text is used for the tooltip on the button (available only with the Custom style).
• These options may also be selected on a per-folder or per-image basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Buttons.

Captions / Open and Print Buttons / Print

• Include "Print image" button: If selected, displays a button in the caption area of each enlarged image that triggers a print dialog box. This applies only to regular images - the button will not appear in the caption area of a video or of an expander that is opening an external site.
• Print original or hi-res image, if available: If selected, the button will print the original or hi-res image rather than the slide image, if either is included in the album. If both are present, the original takes precedence. Originals may be included by choosing "Link to originals via scaled images" in the jAlbum settings, or by right-clicking on a thumbnail in the main jAlbum window and choosing "Include original." Hi-res images may be included by choosing "Link to hi-res via scaled images" in the jAlbum settings.
• Button text: The text to be displayed in the "Print image" button. If a graphic button is chosen, this text is used for the tooltip on the button (available only with the Custom style).
• Include title and comment when printing: If selected, the title and comment are printed in addition to the image. Other caption area items (image counter, metadata, buttons) are never included in the print.
• These options may also be selected on a per-folder or per-image basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Buttons.

Captions / External Link Buttons

Captions / External Link Buttons / First External Link

• Include external link button: If selected, displays a button in the caption area of each enlarged image that opens another web site.
• Link: The URL of the site to be opened. Normally specified as an absolute URL (e.g., http://www.example.com).
• Button text: The text to be displayed in the external link button. If a graphic button is chosen, this text is used for the tooltip on the button (available only with the Custom style).
• Open in: The external link may be opened in the same browser tab or window as the current page, in the parent tab or window (if the album is being viewed in an iframe), or in a new browser tab or window.
• These options may also be selected on a per-folder or per-image basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Buttons.

Captions / External Link Buttons / Second External Link

• Include external link button: If selected, displays a second button in the caption area of each enlarged image that opens another web site.
• Link: The URL of the site to be opened. Normally specified as an absolute URL (e.g., http://www.example.com).
• Button text: The text to be displayed in the external link button. If a graphic button is chosen, this text is used for the tooltip on the button (available only with the Custom style).
• Open in: The external link may be opened in the same browser tab or window as the current page, in the parent tab or window (if the album is being viewed in an iframe), or in a new browser tab or window.
• These options may also be selected on a per-folder or per-image basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Buttons.

Captions / External Link Buttons / Third External Link

• Include external link button: If selected, displays a third button in the caption area of each enlarged image that opens another web site.
• Link: The URL of the site to be opened. Normally specified as an absolute URL (e.g., http://www.example.com).
• Button text: The text to be displayed in the external link button. If a graphic button is chosen, this text is used for the tooltip on the button (available only with the Custom style).
• Open in: The external link may be opened in the same browser tab or window as the current page, in the parent tab or window (if the album is being viewed in an iframe), or in a new browser tab or window.
• These options may also be selected on a per-folder or per-image basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Buttons.

Captions / Misc Buttons

Captions / Misc Buttons / Mailto

• Include mailto button: If selected, displays a button in the caption area of each enlarged image that opens a new message in the site visitor's email client program. If the visitor is a webmail user, and has never configured an email client program, the link will fail.
• Include link to image in message: If selected, the email message will include a direct link to the image in the album from which the mailto button was clicked.
• Address: The email address to which the message will be sent (e.g., me@example.com). Normally, the address of the site creator.
• Subject: The subject line of the email message. This may be left blank.
• Button text: The text to be displayed in the mailto button. If a graphic button is chosen, this text is used for the tooltip on the button (available only with the Custom style).
• These options may also be selected on a per-folder or per-image basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Buttons.

Captions / Misc Buttons / Copy Link

• Include "Copy link" button: If selected, displays a button in the caption area of each enlarged image that opens a prompt window that contains a link directly to this enlarged image, ready for copying to the clipboard.
• Button text: The text to be displayed in the "Copy link" button. If a graphic button is chosen, this text is used for the tooltip on the button (available only with the Custom style).
• Prompt text: The text to be displayed in the prompt window.
• These options may also be selected on a per-folder or per-image basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Buttons.

Captions / Misc Buttons / Send Link

• Include "Send link" button: If selected, displays a button in the caption area of each enlarged image that opens a new message in the site visitor's email client program that contains, in the message body, a link directly to this enlarged image. If the visitor is a webmail user, and has never configured an email client program, the link will fail.
• Subject: The subject line of the email message. This may be left blank.
• Button text: The text to be displayed in the "Send link" button. If a graphic button is chosen, this text is used for the tooltip on the button (available only with the Custom style).
• These options may also be selected on a per-folder or per-image basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Buttons.

Captions / Misc Buttons / Custom Button

• Include custom button: If selected, displays a button in the caption area of each enlarged image whose content can be set by the user.
• Button text: The text to be displayed in the custom button. If a graphic button is chosen, this text is used for the tooltip on the button (available only with the Custom style).
• Button action: The action to be performed when the button is clicked. This string is applied to the onclick attribute of the button, and would normally consist of a call to a user-defined Javascript function. The definition of the function would normally be inserted into the <head> section of the page by means of an htmlhead.inc file. See Misc / Display.
• These options may also be selected on a per-folder or per-image basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Buttons.

Thumbnails

Thumbnails / Thumbnail Table

• Variable width, % of viewport width: The width of the thumbnail table as a percentage of the viewport.
• Fixed width: The width of the thumbnail table may be a fixed number of pixels.
• Force minimum width: If selected, the thumbnail table width will be fixed, and will be automatically set to the minimum possible value without causing the thumbnail images to extend beyond their containers. This value is computed during album creation, and may be viewed by opening the system console before making the album (Tools, System console).
• Fixed width, px: The width of the thumbnail table as a fixed number of pixels.
• Cell spacing: The number of pixels between adjacent boxes in the thumbnail table.
• Center last row of thumbnails: If selected, the last row of thumbnails on any index page will be centered, even if it has fewer images than the other rows. If not selected, the thumbnail table behaves like a normal HTML table, with unused cells at the right side of the last row.

Thumbnails / Thumbnail Borders

• Drop-shadow width: The width of the drop-shadow applied to each thumbnail. Setting this value to zero eliminates the drop-shadow entirely.
• Drop-shadow opacity: The opacity of the drop-shadow applied to each thumbnail. A larger value produces a darker shadow.
• Shadow shift on hover: If selected, the drop-shadow will shift from southeast to southwest when the visitor's mouse hovers on the thumbnail.
• Hover border for IE8: This provides a fall-back option for IE8, which is not CSS3-compliant. If the drop-shadow width is greater than zero, shadow shift on hover is selected, and the thumbnail border type is set to "none," a visitor with a CSS3-compliant browser will see a visible indication when his mouse hovers on the thumbnail. Under these conditions, however, a visitor using IE8 will see only a cursor change when hovering on the thumbnail. Selecting this option causes a two-pixel border to become visible around the thumbnail when an IE8 visitor hovers on the thumbnail.
• Thumbnail border type: The type of border on each thumbnail image - none, line, or beveled. A line border is normally visible only when the site visitor hovers on a thumbnail. A beveled border will be visible at all times. When the site visitor hovers on a thumbnail, the bevel colors invert. For preset styles, the line borders have predetermined colors and the beveled borders are in two shades of gray. In the Custom style, any colors may be chosen.
• Thumbnail border width: The width of the border on each thumbnail image. If a beveled border has been selected, a value larger than the default setting will provide a better result.
• Thumbnail border padding: The padding applied between each thumbnail image and its border.
• Thumbnail border corner radius: The corner rounding applied to a border around a thumbnail. If a border is applied to a thumbnail with no drop-shadow and no padding, this rounding will also affect the thumbnail image. However, there is a known, long-standing bug in Webkit browsers (Chrome and Safari) that causes the rounding to be applied incorrectly in such a case - the border is rounded, but the square corners of the image may intrude into the border. This is not an issue if a drop-shadow is also used, or if sufficient border padding is applied.

Thumbnails / Thumbnail Filters

• Fixed shape: If selected, thumbnails are cropped to match the thumbnail image bounds chosen in jAlbum. If those bounds are square (e.g., 160x160), the thumbnails will all be square. If those bounds are not square, but are, for example, in a 2:1 ratio (e.g., 160x80), the thumbnails will all be cropped to that 2:1 ratio. If not selected, each thumbnail is rendered in the aspect ratio of the original image.
• Grayscale: If selected, thumbnails are rendered in grayscale, rather than color.
• Zoom: Thumbnails may be extracted from a portion of the original image rather than the whole image, zooming in on the center. A value of zero results in no zooming.
• Corner rounding: Thumbnail images may have their corners rounded, with the radius of the rounding expressed in pixels. Any border placed around such a thumbnail will also have its corners rounded, with the radius adjusted to achieve a concentric appearance (i.e., the border will have a larger radius than the image itself).

Thumbnails / Thumbnail Boxes

• Top and bottom padding: The space between the thumbnail image and the top and bottom edges of the containing box may be adjusted. Making this value larger gives the thumbnail images more "breathing room" in their boxes. Making it smaller can help when attempting to create a tightly-spaced thumbnail table (with square-cropped thumbnails, for example).
• Force minimum height: If selected, the height of the thumbnail boxes may be forced to a size larger than the size computed by the skin. The computed size takes into account the size of the thumbnail image and its borders, whether or not titles and comments will be shown, the font size chosen, and so on. However, if titles or comments are long enough to cause line-wrapping, one row of thumbnails may end up with boxes that are taller than other rows. Making the minimum height larger can restore uniformity.
• Top-align thumbnails: If selected, thumbnails are top-aligned, rather than being centered in their boxes. This setting produces a more uniform layout if the thumbnail boxes are made transparent.

Thumbnails / Thumbnail Click

• Disable Firefox mousewheel click: If selected, disables the mousewheel click in Firefox, which would allow a site visitor to open the enlarged image without its proper expander box.

Box Style

Box Style / Box Corners

• Thumbnail box corner radius: The corners of the thumbnail boxes may be rounded.
• Title bar corner radius: The corners of the title bar may be rounded.
• Navigation box corner radius: The corners of the navigation boxes may be rounded.
• Breadcrumb box corner radius: The corners of the breadcrumb boxes may be rounded.
• Apply thumbnail box corner radius to the title bar, navigation, and breadcrumb boxes: If selected, applies the same corner rounding to all boxes on the index page. If not selected, different boxes may have different corner rounding applied to them.

Box Style / Box Borders

• Thumbnail box border style: A border may be placed on the outside edge of the thumbnail boxes on the index page. For preset styles, the border colors are fixed, and range from white, through various shades of gray (for the beveled border style), to black. If the Custom style is selected, border colors may be any color. The style may be solid, or any one of a number of other styles. With a very narrow border, the differences between styles may not be readily apparent. For example, the double and beveled borders need to be at least 4px wide. The appearance of the groove, ridge, inset, and outset border types are heavily dependent upon the browser, and often do not render well in IE or Chrome.
• Thumbnail box border width: The width of the border applied to the thumbnail boxes. Setting the width to zero eliminates the border.
• Title bar border style: The style of the border applied to the title bar.
• Title bar border width: The width of the border applied to the title bar. Setting the width to zero eliminates the border.
• Navigation box border style: The style of the border applied to navigation boxes.
• Navigation box border width: The width of the border applied to the navigation boxes. Setting the width to zero eliminates the border.
• Breadcrumb box border style: The style of the border applied to breadcrumb boxes.
• Breadcrumb box border width: The width of the border applied to the breadcrumb boxes. Setting the width to zero eliminates the border.
• Apply thumbnail box border size and style to titlebar, navigation, and breadcrumb boxes: If selected, applies the same border to all boxes on the index page. If not selected, different boxes may have different styling applied to them.

Expander

Expander / Expander Action

• "Loading …" color: During transitions, when an image is being loaded, a loading icon appears, consisting of the word "Loading …" and a small spinner icon. It can be either white lettering on a black background or vice-versa. This can be difficult to observe when previewing an album locally, or even when viewing the album on a fast connection to a fast server, because the images load too quickly. To see the loading icon, generate a small test album with a few images, open the output directory, go to the slides subdirectory, and delete one or more of those images. Then, when the thumbnail for that image is clicked, the loading icon will appear and will persist until it is clicked again, since the image it's trying to load is not available.
• Loading spinner only, no text: If selected, only the small spinner is shown during transitions.
• Large spinner: If selected, only a large spinner is shown during transitions.
• Expander mode: If zoom in/out is selected, when a thumbnail is clicked, the image expands from the thumbnail. If fade in/out is selected, when a thumbnail is clicked, the thumbnail disappears, and the enlarged image gradually fades in, already in its final position. If the skin detects videos in a given folder of the album, including the top level, it applies the fade in/out expander mode for that folder regardless of this setting, to avoid a problem with recent releases of IE9 and IE10.
• Thumbnail bounce: If selected, the thumbnail shrinks slightly before beginning to expand. Applicable only to the zoom in/out expander mode.
• Cross-fade: If selected, moving from one enlarged image to the next causes the images to cross-fade. If not selected, moving to the next image causes the current image to shrink back to its thumbnail state, followed by the next thumbnail expanding to the full image.
• Zoom or fade in/out duration: The speed of the zoom or fade effect, in milliseconds. A lower setting produces a faster transition.
• Dimming duration: The speed of the appearance of the background dimming effect, in milliseconds. A lower setting produces a faster transition.
• Cross-fade duration: The speed of the cross-fade effect between images, in milliseconds. A lower setting produces a faster transition.
• Images to preload: When an index page is loaded, the Highslide JS script preloads the first five enlarged images, quietly, in the background. The number of images to preload may be changed. Once the site visitor expands a thumbnail, however, this preloading is aborted. From that point on, Highslide JS preloads only the image immediately following the currently-enlarged image.
• Automatically expand first image when page is loaded: If selected, the first thumbnail will automatically open when the page is loaded.

Expander / Expander Characteristics

• Dimming opacity: The darkness of the background dimming effect. A higher setting produces a darker background.
• Minimum top/bottom margin: The default margins between an enlarged image and the top and bottom edges of the viewport (15 pixels) usually work very well. On occasion, and only in some browsers, transitions between images with very different aspect ratios might produce unwanted scroll bars (sometimes only temporarily, during the transition). Increasing the margins can overcome this problem. Choosing a value lower than the default 15px is not encouraged. Because of rounding errors in various browsers, very small values may produce undesirable results. Cross-browser and cross-platform testing is recommended if smaller margins are selected.
• Minimum right/left margin: The default margins between an enlarged image and the right and left edges of the viewport (15 pixels) usually work very well. On occasion, and only in some browsers, transitions between images with very different aspect ratios might produce unwanted scroll bars (sometimes only temporarily, during the transition). Increasing the margins can overcome this problem. Choosing a value lower than the default 15px is not encouraged. Because of rounding errors in various browsers, very small values may produce undesirable results. Cross-browser and cross-platform testing is recommended if smaller margins are selected.
• Minimum width: The width below which the enlarged image will not be reduced, regardless of how narrow the viewport becomes. Applies only to images that are, in fact, wider than the specified minimum width.
• Pad to minimum width: If selected, images that are narrower than the minimum width specified above will be displayed in an expander that is the minimum width. This prevents the caption accompanying a very narrow image from being compacted into a narrow vertical space. This option should not be chosen if a caption separation greater than zero pixels has been chosen (see Enlarged Images / Main Image).
• Allow space for popup widget and status bars: If selected, the margin between the enlarged image and the bottom edge of the viewport is increased by enough pixels to allow the jAlbum widget bar and/or the popup status bar found in various browsers to be displayed without interfering with the image. The positions of other elements, such as a thumbstrip, are also adjusted accordingly.
• Disable expander dragging: If selected, all dragging of the expander is disabled. Also, the "move" icon is automatically excluded from the graphic control bar. This option should not be used if a resize handle is chosen for display of external sites opening in an expander. The site visitor would then be able to resize the expander window but not reposition it, which would often prove frustrating. It should also not be combined with a dimming opacity of zero and multiple popups allowed, for much the same reason. The skin does not lock out these combinations, but they should generally be avoided.

Enlarged Images / Main Image

Enlarged Images / Main Image / Enlarged Image Layout

• Image positioning: If "center" is selected, the enlarged image will be centered in the viewport. If "auto" is selected, the enlarged image will be anchored to the location of the thumbnail from which it has expanded.
• Image border width: The width of the border that is placed around the enlarged image. In preset styles, this border will be the same color as the background of the image and its drop-shadow. In the Custom style, the border can be any color.
• Drop-shadow width: The width of the drop-shadow applied to each enlarged image. This filter is applied only to scaled images. If "Link to originals" has been selected in the jAlbum settings, no drop-shadow will be generated. Setting this value to zero eliminates the drop-shadow entirely. Applying drop-shadows to transparent PNG images produces odd effects. Drop-shadows should never be applied to GIF images - doing so produces blank images.
• Drop-shadow opacity: The opacity of the drop-shadow applied to each enlarged image. A larger value produces a darker shadow.
• Caption separation: The number of pixels separating the image from any caption material, including captions, image counters, control bars placed above or below the image, and thumbstrips positioned within the expander. Not available if the caption is placed in the right or left panel.
• Caption border width: The width of the border that is placed around caption material, including captions, image counters, control bars placed above or below the image, and thumbstrips positioned within the expander. In preset styles, this border will be the same color as the background of the caption area, and therefore has little visible effect, other than providing additional space between the caption and its enclosing box. In the Custom style, the border can be any color. Not available if the caption is placed in the right or left panel.
• Box corner radius: The corner rounding applied to the box containing the image and to any caption material. However, there is a known, long-standing bug in Webkit browsers (Chrome and Safari) that causes the rounding to be applied incorrectly if the box has rounded corners, the image is shown with a border, and the image is shown without a drop-shadow. In such a case, the box and border are rounded, but the square corners of the image may intrude into the border. This is not an issue if a drop-shadow is also used, or if no border is used on the image. A similar problem occurs in Webkit browsers when videos are included in the album. The corner rounding will not be visible unless a border is applied to the enlarged image (i.e., the frame in which the video is shown). If you wish to use rounded corners, and your album consists only of still images, use a drop-shadow, or choose an image border width that is at least close to the box corner radius (e.g., a 5px border with 7px of radius). If your album project includes videos, always use an image border width that is close to the box corner radius to avoid the Webkit bug.
• Block right-click/save: If selected, site visitors will not be able to right-click on the enlarged image and save it. A knowledgeable visitor, however, will still be able to save the image by other means - this cannot be prevented.
• Allow image size reduction to fit viewport: If not selected, the basic functionality of the Highslide JS expander is overridden, and slide images are shown in their actual size, without regard to the size of the viewport. This may result in the site visitor being presented with images that are larger than the viewport, with scroll bars.

Enlarged Images / Main Image / Watermark

• Text: A watermark can be applied to the enlarged images. Enter the desired text here. This filter is applied only to scaled images. If "Link to originals" has been selected in the jAlbum settings, no watermark will be generated. The watermark text is parsed by the jAlbum engine, so jAlbum variables may be used. However, the filter doesn't recognize the newer "curly brace" style of variable. So, for example, the watermark text could be entered as This is $label, which would produce a watermark with the name of the image file without its file extension.
• Font: Any font installed on the user's PC may be selected.
• Size: The size of the watermark, in pixels.
• Style: The style of the watermark - plain, bold, italic, or both bold and italic.
• Location: The watermark may be placed left, center, or right, and top, center, or bottom.
• Strength: The opacity of the watermark. A higher value produces a darker, more visible watermark.
• Angle: The angle of the watermark. Zero degrees is horizontal, 90 degrees is vertical from top to bottom, 45 degrees is diagonal from upper left to lower right, -45 degrees is diagonal from lower left to upper right, and -90 degrees is vertical from bottom to top.

Enlarged Images / Main Image / Corners

• Corner rounding: Enlarged images may have their corners rounded, with the radius of the rounding expressed in pixels. A value of zero results in no corner rounding. This filter is applied only to scaled images. If "Link to originals" has been selected in the jAlbum settings, no corner rounding will be performed.

Enlarged Images / Thumbstrip

Enlarged Images / Thumbstrip / Thumbstrip

• Thumbstrip position: A scrollable, clickable thumbnail strip may be displayed with the enlarged image, in a number of different positions around the edge of the viewport, or within the frame of the enlarged image. If this last option is chosen, its position must be opposite the location of the caption area, and the choices presented in the drop-down box are altered. So, for example, if the caption is to be displayed below the image, the thumbstrip cannot also be shown within the expander and below the image - only the "expander above image" choice is available.
• Horizontal thumbstrip height: If a horizontal thumbstrip is selected, its height may be adjusted. This value, however, should not be set greater than the vertical image bounds for thumbnails chosen in the jAlbum settings. Doing so will result in an unpleasant appearance of the thumbnails in the thumbstrip.
• Vertical thumbstrip width: If a vertical thumbstrip is selected, its width may be adjusted. This value, however, should not be set greater than the horizontal image bounds for thumbnails chosen in the jAlbum settings. Doing so will result in an unpleasant appearance of the thumbnails in the thumbstrip.
• Thumbstrip spacing: The spacing between adjacent thumbnails in the thumbstrip may be adjusted.
• Limit width of thumbstrip to % of viewport: If a horizontal thumbstrip is selected, its width may be restricted to a percentage of the width of the viewport.
• Marker arrow size: The size of the marker arrow that points to the current image in the thumbstrip.
• Center image relative to viewport: If selected, and if a vertical thumbstrip has been selected, the enlarged image will be centered within the viewport without regard to the presence of the thumbstrip (it will not overlay the thumbstrip under any circumstances, however). If not selected, the enlarged image will be centered between the thumbstrip and the opposite edge of the viewport.

Enlarged Images / Thumbstrip / Thumbstrip Thumbnails

• Thumbnail border type: The type of border applied to thumbnails in a thumbstrip - line, beveled, or drop-shadow. If a beveled border is selected, the bevel colors invert when the site visitor hovers on a thumbnail. If a drop-shadow border is selected, the drop-shadow shifts from the southeast corner to the southwest corner when the site visitor hovers on a thumbnail. For preset styles, the line borders have predetermined colors and the beveled borders are in two shades of gray. In the Custom style, any colors may be chosen.
• Shadow shift on hover: If selected, and if a drop-shadow border is selected, the drop-shadow will shift from southeast to southwest when the site visitor hovers on the thumbnail.
• Thumbnail border width: The width of the border applied to thumbnails in a thumbstrip. Setting this value to zero eliminates the border. For a line border, a small value produces the best result (perhaps 2px). For a beveled border, a slightly larger value is more effective (perhaps 4px). For a drop-shadow border, a still larger value is more effective (perhaps 7px).
• Thumbnail padding: The amount of additional padding applied between each thumbstrip thumbnail image and its border (line and beveled borders only).
• Corner rounding: Thumbstrip thumbnails may have their corners rounded, with the radius of the rounding expressed in pixels. A value of zero results in no corner rounding.

Enlarged Images / Video & Pano

Enlarged Images / Video & Pano / Video

• Use native dimensions if available: If selected, the window in which the video is displayed will have the same size as the video's native dimensions. If the native dimensions can't be determined, the width and height settings below are used to size the window. If the size is specified on a per-image basis, those settings take precedence. There is a bug in jAlbum. If you provide your own placeholder image for a video (a THM file), rather than letting jAlbum produce one, the dimensions of that image are reported as the native size of the video. No native video dimensions are available if you are linking to a hosted video (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.), or to an external video (i.e., one that is not added to the album project, but is only linked from a thumbnail image).
• Width: The width of the expander window in which the video will be shown. The Highslide JS expander cannot automatically adjust the size of its popup when displaying videos. Therefore, the user must specify the dimensions of the window. The actual size of the video may be used, or the window may be made larger or smaller than that.
• Height: The width of the expander window in which the video will be shown. This value should be chosen to maintain the aspect ratio of the video. If it is not, the video won't be distorted, but empty space will appear within the window.
• Autoplay: If selected, the video will begin playing automatically. This applies only to videos added to the album project, videos hosted on YouTube or Vimeo, or external videos. It has no effect on a video hosted elsewhere. This should always be selected if the video is an SWF that does not have its own built-in controls - otherwise, the site visitor will have no way of playing the video.
• Loop: If selected, the video will play repeatedly. This applies only to videos added to the album project, videos hosted on YouTube or Vimeo, or external videos. It has no effect on a video hosted elsewhere. This should probably be selected if the video is an SWF that does not have its own built-in controls - otherwise, the site visitor will have no way of playing the video again when it finishes.
• Initial volume: If the JW Player is being used to display the video (for FLV, MOV, and MP4 files), the initial sound volume may be specified. This has no effect on SWF files or videos hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
• These options may also be specified on a per-folder or per-image basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Video, Pano, & Filters.

Enlarged Images / Video & Pano / Panoramic

• Display as panoramic: If selected, images will be displayed as panoramics. This setting should not be chosen for ordinary images - it is suitable only for true panoramics. Choosing this setting for ordinary images disables the automatic image-sizing feature of the skin. If a flat horizontal panoramic is included in an album, it would normally be displayed as large as possible within the viewport, without scroll bars, like any other image. But if the image is displayed as a panoramic, it is shown in its full actual height regardless of the viewport size, and the width is automatically adjusted to match the viewport. A horizontal scroll bar is then used to allow the site visitor to pan back and forth to see the entire image. This may also be specified on a per-folder or per-image basis. It is suggested that filters be disabled for panoramic images. See Image or Folder Settings / Video, Pano, & Filters.

  To prevent jAlbum from scaling panoramic images, and reducing their width, the image bounds for the album project should be set with a large horizontal dimension, e.g., 20000x700. Non-panoramic images that are also included in the project won't be adversely affected by this setting.

  It is possible to specify different image bounds for one image, which will override the bounds set for the project as a whole. Open the image for editing within jAlbum, choose the Variables tab on the lower right, and enter specific values for maxImageWidth and maxImageHeight.

Controls

Controls / General

• Control bar type: Two types of control bar are available. The graphic type displays icons for next/previous/play/pause/close. The text type consists of clickable buttons with text.
• Loop images: If selected, causes the slide show's "previous," and "next" buttons to connect the first and last images on the page in a continuous loop.
• Enable full-size expander: The display size of the enlarged image is normally restricted to the size of the viewport. If selected, this option provides the visitor with a link on the control bar that displays the image in its full size, regardless of the size of the viewport.
• Click image for "next." If selected, clicking on the enlarged image takes the visitor to the next image. If not selected, clicking on the enlarged image closes it, and returns the visitor to the index page of thumbnails.

Controls / Slide Show

• Enable slide show: If selected, the visitor may view an automated slide show. The slide show is automatically placed into "pause" mode if the next object being opened is a video, a panoramic image, or a thumbnail that links to an external web site.
• Autostart slide show: If selected, the automated slide show begins when the visitor clicks the thumbnail for a regular image (not a video, panoramic, or external site).
• Slide show interval: The number of seconds allotted to each enlarged image.

Controls / Graphic Control Bar

• Control bar location: The graphic control bar can be positioned in a variety of positions. The list of options changes in response to other settings, like the choice of caption area location.
• Location relative to: The control bar can be positioned relative to the image or relative to the viewport. If the latter is chosen, the control bar will always appear in the same position regardless of the size or aspect ratio of the enlarged image.
• Control bar style/color: A number of different graphic control bar styles and colors are available. Note: the "transparent, black border" style of control bar will be almost invisible against a dimmed background or a dark body color. It should be used only with little or no background dimming and with a style that has light body color.
• Control bar opacity: The opacity of the control bar can be adjusted. A higher value produces a more visible control bar. If the control bar is placed above or below the image, the opacity will be forced to 100% to avoid a bug in IE8.
• Control bar inset from edges: The control bar can be inset a fixed number of pixels from the edges of the image, the viewport, or the caption area.
• Display "move" icon: If selected, and the control bar is placed relative to the image, a "move" icon is displayed in the control bar. The visitor may use this to move the enlarged image. Clicking and dragging on the image also works, regardless of this setting.
• Hide control bar on mouseout: If selected, and the control bar is placed relative to the image, the control bar disappears when the visitor's mouse leaves the image area.
• Anchor control bar: If selected, and the control bar is placed relative to the image, the expander attempts to keep the control bar in a fixed position within the viewport as the visitor moves from one image to the next. If all images are roughly the same aspect ratio this works well, but if they vary, the effect is generally undesirable.

Controls / Text Control Bar

• Control bar location: The text control bar can be positioned in a variety of positions.
• Control bar style/color: A number of different text control bar styles and colors are available.
• Control bar shape: The control bar buttons can have rounded end caps, or can be squared off.
• Group Prev/Play/Next: If selected, the previous, play, and next buttons are kept together, but separated from the close button. If not selected, the buttons are evenly spaced.

Fonts / Album Font

Fonts / Album Font

• Font: The font that will be used in the album. While all available fonts on the user's computer are displayed, users should remember that web pages don't actually include the fonts. They contain only instructions to the site visitor's browser about what font to use. If the site visitor's computer doesn't have the specified font, a fallback font will be displayed, instead.
• Fallback font family: The fallback font family to display if the site visitor's computer doesn't have the specified font installed.

Fonts / Title Bar / Album

Fonts / Title Bar / Album / Album Title

• Size: The font size of the album title displayed in the title bar.
• First letter size: The font size of the first letter of the album title displayed in the title bar.
• Letter spacing: The spacing between letters of the album title displayed in the title bar.
• Weight: The font weight of the album title displayed in the title bar: bold or normal.
• Style: The font style of the album title displayed in the title bar: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of the album title displayed in the title bar: normal or small-caps.
• Link weight: The font weight of any links that are embedded in the album title displayed in the title bar: bold or normal.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of any links that are embedded in the album title displayed in the title bar: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Title Bar / Album / Album Description

• Size: The font size of the album description displayed in the title bar.
• First letter size: The font size of the first letter of the album description displayed in the title bar.
• Letter spacing: The spacing between letters of the album description displayed in the title bar.
• Weight: The font weight of the album description displayed in the title bar: bold or normal.
• Style: The font style of the album description displayed in the title bar: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of the album description displayed in the title bar: normal or small-caps.
• Link weight: The font weight of any links that are embedded in the album description displayed in the title bar: bold or normal.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of any links that are embedded in the album description displayed in the title bar: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Title Bar / Folders

Fonts / Title Bar / Folders / Folder Title

• Size: The font size of the folder title displayed in the title bar.
• First letter size: The font size of the first letter of the folder title displayed in the title bar.
• Letter spacing: The spacing between letters of the folder title displayed in the title bar.
• Weight: The font weight of the folder title displayed in the title bar: bold or normal.
• Style: The font style of the folder title displayed in the title bar: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of the folder title displayed in the title bar: normal or small-caps.
• Link weight: The font weight of any links that are embedded in the folder title displayed in the title bar: bold or normal.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of any links that are embedded in the folder title displayed in the title bar: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Title Bar / Folders / Folder Comment

• Size: The font size of the folder comment displayed in the title bar.
• First letter size: The font size of the first letter of the folder comment displayed in the title bar.
• Letter spacing: The spacing between letters of the folder comment displayed in the title bar.
• Weight: The font weight of the folder comment displayed in the title bar: bold or normal.
• Style: The font style of the folder comment displayed in the title bar: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of the folder comment displayed in the title bar: normal or small-caps.
• Link weight: The font weight of any links that are embedded in the folder comment displayed in the title bar: bold or normal.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of any links that are embedded in the folder comment displayed in the title bar: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Navigation

Fonts / Navigation / Navigation Links

• Size: The font size of the navigation link boxes.
• Weight: The font weight of the navigation link boxes: normal or bold.
• Style: The font style of the navigation link boxes: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of the navigation link boxes: normal or small-caps.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of the links that are embedded in the navigation link boxes: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Navigation / Text Folder Links

• Size: The font size of the text folder links.
• Weight: The font weight of the text folder links: normal or bold.
• Style: The font style of the text folder links: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of the text folder links: normal or small-caps.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of the links that are embedded in the text folder links: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Navigation / Breadcrumbs

• Size: The font size of the breadcrumb trail.
• Weight: The font weight of the breadcrumb trail: bold or normal.
• Style: The font style of the breadcrumb trail: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of the breadcrumb trail: normal or small-caps.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of the links that are embedded in the breadcrumb trail: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Thumbnails

Fonts / Thumbnails / Title

• Size: The font size of a file or folder title displayed under a thumbnail.
• Weight: The font weight of a file or folder title displayed under a thumbnail: bold or normal.
• Style: The font style of a file or folder title displayed under a thumbnail: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of a file or folder title displayed under a thumbnail: normal or small-caps.
• Link weight: The font weight of any links that are embedded in a file or folder title displayed under a thumbnail: bold or normal.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of any links that are embedded in a file or folder title displayed under a thumbnail: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Thumbnails / Comment

• Size: The font size of a file or folder comment displayed under a thumbnail.
• Weight: The font weight of a file or folder comment displayed under a thumbnail: normal or bold.
• Style: The font style of a file or folder comment displayed under a thumbnail: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of a file or folder comment displayed under a thumbnail: normal or small-caps.
• Link weight: The font weight of any links that are embedded in a file or folder comment displayed under a thumbnail: bold or normal.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of any links that are embedded in a file or folder comment displayed under a thumbnail: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Thumbnails / File Count

• Size: The font size of a file count displayed under a folder thumbnail.
• Weight: The font weight of a file count displayed under a folder thumbnail: normal or bold.
• Style: The font style of a file count displayed under a folder thumbnail: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of a file count displayed under a folder thumbnail: normal or small-caps.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Thumbnails / "New" Overlay

• Size: The font size of the "new" overlay on a thumbnail.
• Weight: The font weight of the "new" overlay on a thumbnail: normal or bold.
• Style: The font style of the "new" overlay on a thumbnail: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of the "new" overlay on a thumbnail: normal or small-caps.

Fonts / Enlarged Images

Fonts / Enlarged Images / Title

• Size: The font size of a file title displayed with an enlarged image.
• Weight: The font weight of a file title displayed with an enlarged image: bold or normal.
• Style: The font style of a file title displayed with an enlarged image: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of a file title displayed with an enlarged image: normal or small-caps.
• Link weight: The font weight of any links that are embedded in a file title displayed with an enlarged image: bold or normal.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of any links that are embedded in a file title displayed with an enlarged image: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Enlarged Images / Comment

• Size: The font size of a file comment displayed with an enlarged image.
• Weight: The font weight of a file comment displayed with an enlarged image: normal or bold.
• Style: The font style of a file comment displayed with an enlarged image: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of a file comment displayed with an enlarged image: normal or small-caps.
• Link weight: The font weight of any links that are embedded in a file comment displayed with an enlarged image: bold or normal.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of any links that are embedded in a file comment displayed with an enlarged image: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Enlarged Images / Image Counter

• Size: The font size of an image counter displayed with an enlarged image.
• Weight: The font weight of an image counter displayed with an enlarged image: normal or bold.
• Style: The font style of an image counter displayed with an enlarged image: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of an image counter displayed with an enlarged image: normal or small-caps.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Metadata

Fonts / Metadata / Metadata Info

• Size: The font size of metadata info displayed with an enlarged image.
• Weight: The font weight of metadata info displayed with an enlarged image: normal or bold.
• Style: The font style of metadata info displayed with an enlarged image: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of metadata info displayed with an enlarged image: normal or small-caps.
• Label weight: The font weight of the labels on metadata info displayed with an enlarged image: bold or normal.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Metadata / Metadata Link

• Size: The font size of a link to metadata info displayed with an enlarged image.
• Weight: The font weight of a link to metadata info displayed with an enlarged image: normal or bold.
• Style: The font style of a link to metadata info displayed with an enlarged image: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of a link to metadata info displayed with an enlarged image: normal or small-caps.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of a link to metadata info displayed with an enlarged image: underline or none.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Buttons

Fonts / Buttons / Caption Buttons

• Size: The font size of buttons displayed in the caption area of an enlarged image.
• Weight: The font weight of buttons displayed in the caption area of an enlarged image: normal or bold.
• Style: The font style of buttons displayed in the caption area of an enlarged image: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of buttons displayed in the caption area of an enlarged image: normal or small-caps.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Buttons / Text Control Bar

• Weight: The font weight of the text control bar: bold or normal.
• Style: The font style of the text control bar: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of the text control bar: normal or small-caps.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Miscellany

Fonts / Miscellany / Copyright

• Size: The font size of the copyright line.
• Weight: The font weight of the copyright line: normal or bold.
• Style: The font style of the copyright line: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of the copyright line: normal or small-caps.
• Link weight: The font weight of any links that are embedded in the copyright line: bold or normal.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of any links that are embedded in the copyright line: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Miscellany / Infotxt

• Size: The font size of text from a topinfo.txt or bottominfo.txt file placed on an index page.
• Weight: The font weight of text from a topinfo.txt or bottominfo.txt file placed on an index page: normal or bold.
• Style: The font style of text from a topinfo.txt or bottominfo.txt file placed on an index page: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of text from a topinfo.txt or bottominfo.txt file placed on an index page: normal or small-caps.
• Link weight: The font weight of any links that are embedded in text from a topinfo.txt or bottominfo.txt file placed on an index page: bold or normal.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of any links that are embedded in text from a topinfo.txt or bottominfo.txt file placed on an index page: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Fonts / Miscellany / Credits

• Size: The font size of the credits line.
• Weight: The font weight of the credits line: normal or bold.
• Style: The font style of the credits line: normal or italic.
• Variant: The font variant of the credits line: normal or small-caps.
• Link weight: The font weight of any links that are embedded in the credits line: bold or normal.
• Link decoration: The font decoration of any links that are embedded in the credits line: none or underline.
• Text shadow: The number of pixels between the text and its shadow. Choose zero for no text shadow.

Text / General

Text / General / Index Page Text

• Previous: The text that appears in the navigation box for the previous page.
• Up: The text that appears in the navigation box for the level above the current page.
• Next: The text that appears in the navigation box for the next page.
• New: The text that appears as an overlay on the thumbnail for a new image or folder.
• Page X of Y: The text that appears when "Page X of Y" is displayed. In the album, %X is automatically replaced by the current index page number, and %Y is replaced by the total number of index pages.
• Go to page: The text that appears when a numbered link list is displayed. In the album, %X is automatically replaced by the list of the available index page numbers.
• Folder file count: The text that appears when a folder file count is displayed below a folder thumbnail. In the album, %X is automatically replaced by the actual count.
• Credits: The text that appears when credits are displayed on the index page. In the album, %X is automatically replaced by "jAlbum 9.6, Matrix 6.4.0" (using the current version numbers, of course).

Text / General / Enlarged Image Text

• Image counter: The text that appears when an image counter is displayed with an enlarged image. In the album, %X is automatically replaced by the current image number, and %Y is replaced by the total number of images on the page.
• Loading …: The text that is displayed in the "Loading …" icon.
• Cancel loading …: The popup tooltip that is displayed when the site visitor moves his mouse over the "Loading …" icon.
• Click image for "close" tooltip: The popup tooltip that is displayed when the site visitor moves his mouse over an enlarged image, and clicking the image will close it.
• Click image for "next" tooltip: The popup tooltip that is displayed when the site visitor moves his mouse over an enlarged image, and clicking the image will go to the next image.
• Download icon tooltip: The popup tooltip that is displayed when the site visitor moves his mouse over a download icon.
• Google maps tooltip: The popup tooltip that is displayed when the site visitor moves his mouse over a globe icon.
• Flash warning: The text that is displayed if the site visitor's computer doesn't have the minimum Flash version required to view a video.

Text / General / Underscore Display

• Display underscores in folder and file names as spaces: If selected, underscores in folder and file names that appear as captions or tooltips are displayed as spaces. This applies only to the actual raw folder and file names. User-entered titles and comments are not affected. The folder and file names themselves are not changed.

Text / Control Bars

Text / Control Bars / Control Bar Tooltips

• Previous: The popup tooltip that is displayed when the site visitor moves his mouse over the "previous" icon or button on the graphic or text control bar.
• Play: The popup tooltip that is displayed when the site visitor moves his mouse over the "play" icon or button on the graphic or text control bar.
• Pause: The popup tooltip that is displayed when the site visitor moves his mouse over the "pause" icon or button on the graphic or text control bar.
• Next: The popup tooltip that is displayed when the site visitor moves his mouse over the "next" icon or button on the graphic or text control bar.
• Move: The popup tooltip that is displayed when the site visitor moves his mouse over the "move" icon on the graphic control bar.
• Expand: The popup tooltip that is displayed when the site visitor moves his mouse over the "full expand" icon or button on the graphic or text control bar.
• Close: The popup tooltip that is displayed when the site visitor moves his mouse over the "close" icon or button on the graphic or text control bar.

Text / Control Bars / Text Control Bar Labels

• Previous: The label that is displayed on the "previous" button on the text control bar.
• Play: The label that is displayed on the "play" button on the text control bar.
• Pause: The label that is displayed on the "pause" button on the text control bar.
• Next: The label that is displayed on the "next" button on the text control bar.
• Full Expand: The label that is displayed on the "full expand" button on the text control bar.
• Close: The label that is displayed on the "close" button on the text control bar.

Text / Warnings

Text / Warnings / Warnings

• Obsolete browser: The text that is displayed if the site visitor is using a version of Internet Explorer older than IE8, which may not display all parts of the album correctly.
• Javascript: The text that is displayed if the site visitor's browser does not have Javascript enabled (the album will not work without Javascript).

Music

Music / Settings

• Control bar position: The location of the music control bar. The "hidden" option is not recommended, because it leaves the site visitor with no way to turn off the music, or to control its volume, other than physically adjusting his speakers.
• Initial volume: The initial volume setting of the music.
• Loop through play list: If selected, the music will loop through the play list continuously until the visitor leaves the page.
• Autostart: If selected, the music will begin playing automatically upon page loading.
• These options may be specified on a per-folder basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Music.

Music / Tracks

• Track one: The first music track for the page. Click "Add" to add a music file to the project. Only MP3 files may be used. Click "Remove" to delete one from the project. The file name field cannot be edited. To change a music track, remove the existing track, and add a new one.
• Track two: The second music track for the page.
• Track three: The third music track for the page.
• Track four: The fourth music track for the page.
• Track five: The fifth music track for the page.
• These options may be specified on a per-folder basis. See Image or Folder Settings / Music.

Misc / Display

Misc / Display / Favicon

• Favicon location: Provide the absolute address of the favicon file for the website. Normally, the favicion file would be stored at the root of your domain, for example, http://example.com/favicon.ico. The file should never be added to the jAlbum project itself, and should be uploaded to your web host independently of the album. Note that if you host your album at jalbum.net, a favicon with the default name, i.e., http://yourname.jalbum.net/favicon.ico, will be overridden by the default jAlbum favicon (Dor). To use your own favicon with jalbum.net hosting, it must be given a different name, like mydog.ico.

Misc / Display / Copyright

• Copyright notice (all pages): This text will appear near the bottom of each index page.
• Limit copyright to width of: If the copyright notice is long, it can be limited to the width of the title bar, or to the width of the thumbnail table. If it exceeds that width, it will line-wrap.

Misc / Display / External Files Scope

• Scope of header.inc: If a text file named header.inc is present at the top level of the image directory, and the chosen scope is global, its contents will be placed at the top of each index page in the album, unless another header.inc file is present in any subfolder. A header.inc file in a subfolder overrides the global, top-level file. If the scope is local, the contents of a header.inc file in any folder, including the top level, will be placed at the top of only the index page or pages for that folder. The material in this file has virtually no styling applied to it. CSS tags may be placed in the file itself, or the common.css "mx-headerinc" class may be edited.
• Scope of footer.inc: If a text file named footer.inc is present at the top level of the image directory, and the chosen scope is global, its contents will be placed at the bottom of each index page in the album, unless another footer.inc file is present in any subfolder. A footer.inc file in a subfolder overrides the global, top-level file. If the scope is local, the contents of a header.inc file in any folder, including the top level, will be placed at the bottom of only the index page or pages for that folder. The material in this file has virtually no styling applied to it. CSS tags may be placed in the file itself, or the common.css "mx-footerinc" class may be edited.
• Scope of topinfo.txt: If a text file named topinfo.txt is present at the top level of the image directory, and the chosen scope is global, its contents will be placed above the thumbnail table of each index page in the album, unless another topinfo.txt file is present in any subfolder. A topinfo.txt file in a subfolder overrides the global, top-level file. If the scope is local, the contents of a topinfo.txt file in any folder, including the top level, will be placed above the thumbnail table of only the index page or pages for that folder. The material in this file is centered, and is styled in accordance with the color scheme of the album. The styling may be overridden by providing CSS tags within the file.
• Scope of bottominfo.txt: If a text file named bottominfo.txt is present at the top level of the image directory, and the chosen scope is global, its contents will be placed below the thumbnail table of each index page in the album, unless another bottominfo.txt file is present in any subfolder. A bottominfo.txt file in a subfolder overrides the global, top-level file. If the scope is local, the contents of a bottominfo.txt file in any folder, including the top level, will be placed below the thumbnail table of only the index page or pages for that folder. The material in this file is centered, and is styled in accordance with the color scheme of the album. The styling may be overridden by providing CSS tags within the file.
• Scope of htmlhead.inc: If a text file named htmlhead.inc is present at the top level of the image directory, and the chosen scope is global, its contents will be placed before the closing </head> tag of each index page in the album, unless another htmlhead.inc file is present in any subfolder. A htmlhead.inc file in a subfolder overrides the global, top-level file. If the scope is local, the contents of a htmlhead.inc file in any folder, including the top level, will be placed before the closing </head> tag of only the index page or pages for that folder.

Misc / Display / Infotxt

• Variable width, % of viewport width: The width of the material in the topinfo.txt and bottominfo.txt files as a percentage of the viewport.
• Fixed width: The width of the infotxt material may be a fixed number of pixels.
• Fixed width, px: The width of the infotxt material as a fixed number of pixels.

Misc / Display / Credits

• Show jAlbum and Matrix credits on index pages: If selected, a credits line, e.g., "Generated by jAlbum 10.1, Matrix 6.7.0," will be shown at the bottom of the index page, with embedded links to the jAlbum and Matrix demo sites.
• Show credits on main index page only: If selected, the credits line will be shown on the top-level index page, but not on the index pages for folders.

Misc / Internal

Misc / Internal / Meta Tags

• Meta "description" tag: The entered text will be inserted into every page as a meta "description" tag. This is used by most search engines to describe a site when it is listed in search results. Therefore, the text should be a simple description of the site contents.
• Meta "robots" tag: The chosen tag will be inserted into every page. A meta "robots" tag may be used to tell search engine robots not to index the page (noindex), not to follow any links on the page (nofollow), or both.

Misc / Internal / Google Analytics

• Google Analytics code: The entire Google Analytics code snippet should be copied and pasted into this field.

Misc / Internal / URL Encoding

• Encode my URL's: If selected, user-provided links are URL-encoded. The main jAlbum setting under Album > Settings > Advanced > Naming applies only to links generated by the jAlbum core program. To ensure page validation, this skin option applies URL-encoding to links that you enter, such as a home page link address, button links to external sites, etc. If you URL-encode your own links, this skin option should be de-selected; otherwise, links will be double-encoded, which might break the links.

Misc / Internal / Embedding

• Album URL: If the full URL to the published album is entered here, it is inserted into the code returned by jAlbum when Album > Embed is selected. If this is left blank, the user's jalbum.net address for the album project is returned (for example, http://username.jalbum.net/mydog). When Album > Embed is selected, the skin automatically inserts a suggested width and height for the iframe, based on the minimum width at which the album can be viewed without horizontal scroll bars.

Misc / Internal / Internet Explorer Accommodation

• Warn if IE version less than: Determines the minimum acceptable version of Internet Explorer for a site visitor. If the site visitor is using a lower version, a warning is prominently displayed on the page. See Browser Support.
• IE8 emulation: There is one situation in which IE10 and IE9 can produce some display issues, and the only known workaround is to force the page to emulate IE8. The problem involves opening external websites in an expander window. IE10 and IE9 ignore the DOCTYPE of the external site. So, if the external site is written in "quirks" mode, for example, IE10 and IE9 will open it in IE10- or IE9-compatible mode, and the display may be garbled. The only way to determine which pages may suffer from this problem is to experiment. Note that this does not apply to external sites that are opened outside of an expander window. Choosing IE8 emulation eliminates this problem, but also makes it impossible for IE10 and IE9 to display any CSS3 attributes, including rounded box corners, shadows on text, drop-shadows on logo images, and automatically resized background images.

  If you embed your album in an iframe or as an object, and you have found it necessary to choose IE8 emulation, it is also necessary for the calling page to implement the same option, by including this line as the first tag in the <head> section of the page (its position is critically important):

  <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE8">

  Note that IE is very stubborn about using cached versions of web pages. After making this change and generating a new version of the album, it is not sufficient to refresh the browser cache - not even using CTRL-F5 will always be effective. It is usually necessary to delete all IE temporary Internet files, close the browser, reopen it, and visit the page again.

• IE image flush: There is a Javascript bug in Internet Explorer (IE8 only) that causes it to remember an image size, even if the size of the image has changed. If one views an image in an album with IE8, but then changes that image in some way without changing the file name, IE8 will display the new image with the remembered size of the replaced image, resulting in distortion. This can occur even with a simple change, such as a change in the jAlbum image bounds, or a different crop being applied to an image.

  This afflicts only IE8 on the PC which was used to view the image the first time. IE8's memory of the image size cannot be erased by clearing the browser cache, or by rebooting the computer. The only fix is to select this "image flush" option, make the album, and view the changed image or images again. The option should then be de-selected, and the album rebuilt.

  This option should not be left turned on in a published album. Doing so will result in large numbers of messages in the server error log. Site visitors will not see the errors, but the error logs will become very large.

  To avoid having site visitors experience this problem, if the user has published an album already, and wishes to change an image, the image should be deleted from the album, and the new image added with a different file name.

Custom Style / Index Page Colors

Custom Style / Index Page Colors / Create a custom style

• Create a custom style based on an existing style: The user can select one of the preset Matrix styles as the starting point for creating a custom style. This resets all color settings, including those on the following Enlarged Image Colors tab, to those of the preset style selected. After changing drop-shadow colors, making the album, and previewing, it is often necessary to refresh the browser cache to see the change.

Custom Style / Index Page Colors / Invert color scheme

• Invert color scheme: Each time this button is clicked, the entire color scheme is inverted, with all body and box colors swapped. You should not click this button after clicking "Make boxless," below, as this will produce some undesirable effects, including a transparent page body, which simply appears as white in most browsers. If you want to create a boxless style with colors inverted from the starting point, click "Invert color scheme" first, then click "Make Boxless."

Custom Style / Index Page Colors / Make boxless

• Make boxless: When this button is clicked, a boxless style is created. The thumbnail, title bar, navigation, and breadcrumb boxes are all set to be transparent. The body text and hover text colors are copied to the four box types, since this text will now be viewed against the body color. The body color is copied to the folder and image thumbnail border colors, and the thumbnail box color is copied to the folder and image thumbnail hover border colors, to preserve the "border invisible until you hover on the thumbnail" configuration. The enlarged image colors are left as they were, but their automatic coordination with the box colors is turned off. There is no "undo" capability for "Make boxless." Before using this button, save the project file. If the results are not what you wanted, close the project without saving it and re-open it.

  If you wish to create a partially-boxless index page, de-select the "Apply to all boxes" checkbox after clicking "Make boxless." You can then, for example, leave the thumbnail boxes transparent, but choose opaque or semi-transparent colors for the title bar and navigation boxes.

Custom Style / Index Page Colors / Body

• Body: The color of the page body.
• Text: The color of any text that appears against the page body (e.g., breadcrumbs, infotxt, copyright, credits).
• Text link hover: The color of any link text that appears against the page body, when the visitor hovers his mouse on it.

Custom Style / Index Page Colors / Thumbnail Borders

• Folder: The color of folder thumbnail borders (normally, the same as the thumbnail box color).
• Image: The color of image thumbnail borders (normally, the same as the thumbnail box color).
• Folder hover: The color of folder thumbnail borders when the visitor hovers his mouse on the thumbnail.
• Image hover: The color of image thumbnail borders when the visitor hovers his mouse on the thumbnail.

Custom Style / Index Page Colors / Thumbnail Surrounds

• Use thumbnail surround: If selected, the area surrounding a thumbnail may be given a different color than the thumbnail box. The width of the surround is governed by the width of the thumbnail drop-shadow plus the width of the thumbnail border and the number of pixels of padding applied between the thumbnail and its border. This option will have no effect if no drop-shadow is chosen for the enlarged image. However, it is possible to choose a drop-shadow, but set its opacity to 0%, which renders the shadow invisible. If a thumbnail surround is used, the thumbnail border corner radius is applied to the surround.
• Folder surround: The color of the surround for folder thumbnails.
• Image surround: The color of the surround for image thumbnails.

Custom Style / Index Page Colors / Thumbnail Beveled Borders

• Folder thumbnails N/W: The color of the north and west sides of a beveled folder thumbnail border.
• Folder thumbnails S/E: The color of the south and east sides of a beveled folder thumbnail border.
• Image thumbnails N/W: The color of the north and west sides of a beveled image thumbnail border.
• Image thumbnails S/E: The color of the south and east sides of a beveled image thumbnail border.

Custom Style / Index Page Colors / Thumbnail Boxes

• Box: The color of the thumbnail boxes.
• Text: The color of any text that appears against the thumbnail boxes (e.g., captions).
• Text link hover: The color of any link text that appears against the thumbnail boxes, when the visitor hovers his mouse on it.
• Border: The color of the border around the edge of the thumbnail boxes.
• Beveled N/W: The color of the north and west sides of a beveled thumbnail box border.
• Beveled S/E: The color of the south and east sides of a beveled thumbnail box border.
• Apply to all boxes: If selected, the colors chosen for the thumbnail boxes are applied to the title bar, the navigation boxes, and the breadcrumb boxes.

Custom Style / Index Page Colors / Title Bar

• Box: The color of the title bar.
• Text: The color of any text that appears against the title bar (e.g., album title, folder title, folder description).
• Text link hover: The color of any link text that appears against the title bar, when the visitor hovers his mouse on it.
• Border: The color of the border around the edge of the title bar.
• Beveled N/W: The color of the north and west sides of a beveled title bar border.
• Beveled S/E: The color of the south and east sides of a beveled title bar border.

Custom Style / Index Page Colors / Navigation Boxes

• Box: The color of the navigation boxes.
• Text: The color of any text that appears against the navigation boxes.
• Text link hover: The color of any link text that appears against the navigation boxes, when the visitor hovers his mouse on it. By definition, most text in a navigation box is link text.
• Border: The color of the border around the edge of the navigation boxes.
• Beveled N/W: The color of the north and west sides of a beveled navigation box border.
• Beveled S/E: The color of the south and east sides of a beveled navigation box border.

Custom Style / Index Page Colors / Breadcrumb Boxes

• Box: The color of the breadcrumb boxes.
• Text: The color of any text that appears against the breadcrumb boxes.
• Text link hover: The color of any link text that appears against the breadcrumb boxes, when the visitor hovers his mouse on it. By definition, most text in a breadcrumb box is link text.
• Border: The color of the border around the edge of the breadcrumb boxes.
• Beveled N/W: The color of the north and west sides of a beveled breadcrumb box border.
• Beveled S/E: The color of the south and east sides of a beveled breadcrumb box border.

Custom Style / Overlays

Custom Style / Overlays / Folder Thumbnail Overlay

• Position: Determines the position of the folder icon overlay.
• Inset: Determines the number of pixels the folder icon overlay is inset from the corner of the thumbnail image.
• Style: Determines which of two folder icon overlays is used, a dark version or a light version. If the style is changed, the background color should also be changed. A dark icon on a black background, for example, will be almost invisible.
• Size: Determines the size of the folder icon overlay.
• Opacity: The opacity of the folder overlay. Choosing a value less than 100 makes the folder icon and its background color semi-opaque, allowing the thumbnail image to show through.
• Background color: The background color for the icon that is overlayed on a folder thumbnail. Choosing a semi- or fully-transparent color affects only the background color - the folder icon remains opaque unless a lower opacity is chosen, above.

Custom Style / Overlays / Video Thumbnail Overlay

• Position: Determines the position of the video icon overlay.
• Inset: Determines the number of pixels the video icon overlay is inset from the corner of the thumbnail image.
• Style: Determines which of two video icon overlays is used, a dark version or a light version. If the style is changed, the background color should also be changed. A dark icon on a black background, for example, will be almost invisible.
• Size: Determines the size of the video icon overlay.
• Opacity: The opacity of the video overlay. Choosing a value less than 100 makes the video icon and its background color semi-opaque, allowing the thumbnail image to show through.
• Background color: The background color for the icon that is overlayed on a video thumbnail. Choosing a semi- or fully-transparent color affects only the background color - the video icon remains opaque unless a lower opacity is chosen, above.

Custom Style / Overlays / "New" Thumbnail Overlay

• Position: Determines the position of the "new" indicator overlay.
• Inset: Determines the number of pixels the "new" indicator overlay is inset from the corner of the thumbnail image.
• Text color: The text color for the "new" indicator that is overlayed on a thumbnail.
• Background color: The background color for the "new" indicator that is overlayed on a thumbnail.

Custom Style / Overlays / Music Control Bar

• Icon color: The color for the control icons (play, pause, volume, etc.) displayed in the music control bar.
• Background color: The background color for the music control bar.
• Match index page colors: If selected, the icon and background colors for the music control bar are matched to the index page colors: the thumbnail box text color and thumbnail box color, respectively, or, if the boxless style is chosen, the body color and body text color.

Custom Style / Enlarged Image Colors

Custom Style / Enlarged Image Colors / Caption and Image

• Caption background: The color of the caption area.
• Caption text: The color of any text that appears in the caption area.
• Caption link hover: The color of any link text that appears in the caption area, when the visitor hovers his mouse on it.
• Caption border: The color of the caption border, if there is one.
• Image background: The color of the image background (visible only if a drop-shadow is applied).
• Image border: The color of the image border, if there is one.
• Match index page colors: If selected, the colors are automatically set to match the thumbnail colors on the index page.

Custom Style / Enlarged Image Colors / Image Counter and Metadata

• Image counter text: The color of the image counter text.
• Metadata text: The color of the metadata text.
• Metadata link text: If the metadata are displayed via a clickable link in the caption area, rather than displayed all the time, this is the color of that clickable link.
• Metadata link hover: The color of the clickable link to the metadata, when a visitor hovers his mouse on it.
• Match caption colors: If selected, the image counter and metadata colors are automatically set to match the caption text colors.

Custom Style / Enlarged Image Colors / Text Type Control Bar

• Text: The color of the text in a text control bar button.
• Hover text: The color of the text in a text control bar button, when the visitor hovers his mouse on it.
• Disabled text: The color of text in a text control bar button when that button is disabled.
• Coordinate with control bar style: If selected, the text colors are automatically set to coordinate with the chosen style of text control bar.

Custom Style / Enlarged Image Colors / Thumbstrip

• Thumbnail background: The color of the background on thumbnails in a thumbstrip.
• Thumbnail border: The color of the border on thumbnails in a thumbstrip.
• Match index page colors: If selected, the colors are automatically set to match the thumbnail colors on the index page.
• Thumbnail hover border: The color of the hover border on thumbnails in a thumbstrip.

Custom Style / Enlarged Image Colors / Thumbstrip Beveled Borders

• Thumbnail N/W borders: The color of the north and west borders on a thumbstrip thumbnail, when beveled borders are selected.
• Thumbnail S/E borders: The color of the south and east borders on a thumbstrip thumbnail, when beveled borders are selected.

Custom Style / Enlarged Image Colors / Thumbstrip Arrow

• Marker arrow in expander: The color of the thumbstrip marker arrow when a thumbstrip is displayed in the expander.
• Marker arrow on page: The color of the thumbstrip marker arrow when a thumbstrip is displayed on the page.

Custom Style / Enlarged Image Colors / Dimming

• Dimming background: The color of the background dimming effect.

Custom Style / Background Images

Custom Style / Background Images / Body Background

• Add / Remove: Click Add to select a background image for the body of each index page. Click Remove to remove the image. This can be a large image, or a small texture pattern or gradient image that is then repeated over the page.
• File: This field displays the name of the chosen file, but cannot be directly edited. To change a background image, remove the existing one and add a new one.
• Repeat: Determines whether the background image is repeated both horizontally and vertically (repeat), repeated only horizontally (repeat-x), repeated only vertically (repeat-y), or not repeated (no repeat).
• Position: The starting position of the image. If a repeat is selected, the starting position of the first copy of the image.
• Body margins: The default body margins, expressed in pixels at the top, right, bottom, and left, in that order, can be changed to provide space for a background image that needs to be kept clear of material on the page. For example, a background image that looks like the edge of a spiral-bound notebook might require a larger margin at the left.
• Attachment: Determines whether the background image scrolls with the page, or remains fixed.
• Auto-size image: If selected, the background image is automatically set to no-repeat, centered, and fixed, and in CSS3-compliant browsers, the image is resized for the browser window, preserving its aspect ratio (which may lead to the image being cropped, but not distorted). In non-CSS3-compliant browsers like IE8, no resizing occurs.

Custom Style / Background Images / Dimming Background

• Add / Remove: Click Add to select a dimming background image to display behind an enlarged image. Click Remove to remove the image. This can be a large image, or a small texture pattern or gradient image that is then repeated over the page. The selected image is used in place of the normal solid color dimming effect.
• File: This field displays the name of the chosen file, but cannot be directly edited. To change a background image, remove the existing one and add a new one.
• Repeat: Determines whether the background image is repeated both horizontally and vertically (repeat), repeated only horizontally (repeat-x), repeated only vertically (repeat-y), or not repeated (no repeat).
• Position: The starting position of the image. If a repeat is selected, the starting position of the first copy of the image.

Custom Style / Background Images / Boxes Backgrounds / Title bar

• Add / Remove: Click Add to select a background image to display in the title bar. Click Remove to remove the image. This can be a large image, or a small texture pattern or gradient image that is then repeated over the title bar.
• File: This field displays the name of the chosen file, but cannot be directly edited. To change a background image, remove the existing one and add a new one.
• Repeat: Determines whether the background image is repeated both horizontally and vertically (repeat), repeated only horizontally (repeat-x), repeated only vertically (repeat-y), or not repeated (no repeat).
• Position: The starting position of the image. If a repeat is selected, the starting position of the first copy of the image.

Custom Style / Background Images / Boxes Backgrounds / Breadcrumb box

• Add / Remove: Click Add to select a background image to display in breadcrumb boxes. Click Remove to remove the image. This can be a large image, or a small texture pattern or gradient image that is then repeated over the box.
• File: This field displays the name of the chosen file, but cannot be directly edited. To change a background image, remove the existing one and add a new one.
• Repeat: Determines whether the background image is repeated both horizontally and vertically (repeat), repeated only horizontally (repeat-x), repeated only vertically (repeat-y), or not repeated (no repeat).
• Position: The starting position of the image. If a repeat is selected, the starting position of the first copy of the image.

Custom Style / Background Images / Boxes Backgrounds / Navigation box

• Add / Remove: Click Add to select a background image to display in navigation boxes. Click Remove to remove the image. This can be a large image, or a small texture pattern or gradient image that is then repeated over the box.
• File: This field displays the name of the chosen file, but cannot be directly edited. To change a background image, remove the existing one and add a new one.
• Repeat: Determines whether the background image is repeated both horizontally and vertically (repeat), repeated only horizontally (repeat-x), repeated only vertically (repeat-y), or not repeated (no repeat).
• Position: The starting position of the image. If a repeat is selected, the starting position of the first copy of the image.

Custom Style / Background Images / Boxes Backgrounds / Thumbnail box

• Add / Remove: Click Add to select a background image to display in thumbnail boxes. Click Remove to remove the image. This can be a large image, or a small texture pattern or gradient image that is then repeated over the box.
• File: This field displays the name of the chosen file, but cannot be directly edited. To change a background image, remove the existing one and add a new one.
• Repeat: Determines whether the background image is repeated both horizontally and vertically (repeat), repeated only horizontally (repeat-x), repeated only vertically (repeat-y), or not repeated (no repeat).
• Position: The starting position of the image. If a repeat is selected, the starting position of the first copy of the image.

Custom Style / Logo

Custom Style / Logo / Logo

• Add / Remove: Click Add to select a logo image to display on each index page. Click Remove to remove the image.
• File: This field displays the name of the chosen file, but cannot be directly edited. To change a logo image, remove the existing one and add a new one.
• Position: Determines whether the logo image is displayed within the title bar (at left, center, right, or both left and right) or above the title bar (left, center, or right).
• Image padding: How many pixels of padding to provide around the image, at top, right, bottom, and left, in that order.
• Drop-shadow width: The width of the drop-shadow applied to the logo image. Choose a setting of zero to apply no drop-shadow. If the logo is also a link to an external site, hovering on the logo shifts the drop-shadow from the southeast corner to the southwest corner. Larger image padding values should be chosen if the drop-shadow value is more than a few pixels. If a transparent PNG file is used for the logo, a drop-shadow may not be suitable unless the logo is rectangular, or unless the logo is circular, and corner rounding is applied.
• Drop-shadow opacity: The opacity of the drop-shadow applied to the logo image. A larger value produces a darker shadow.
• Corner rounding: A logo image may have its corners rounded, with the radius of the rounding expressed in pixels. This is most useful when a drop-shadow is applied to a circular logo image. Without corner rounding, the drop-shadow appears behind a square box around the logo. With corner rounding, the drop-shadow may be made to conform to the circular logo.
• Logo image bounds: The image bounds to be applied to the logo image. Selecting "original" causes the specified logo image file to be used unchanged in the album. Image bounds may be chosen from the drop-down menu, or any image bounds may be entered.
• Logo on top level index page only: If selected, the logo will be displayed only on the top level index page, and not on the index pages for folders.
• Link to external site: If a URL is provided, the logo can also be a clickable link.
• Tooltip: If the logo is a clickable link, this is the tooltip text displayed when the visitor hovers on the logo.
• Open in: If the logo is a clickable link, the target may be opened in same window (recommended), in the parent window (if the album is being displayed in an iframe), or in a new window.

Custom Style / Enlarged Image Buttons

Custom Style / Enlarged Image Buttons / Button Style

• Use default browser button style: If selected, browser button styling will be determined by browser defaults. Support for custom button style varies between browsers, more so than is the case for most elements of page design. If the user chooses to apply custom styling, it is strongly recommended that the results be previewed in a variety of browsers.
• Button background: The background color for buttons.
• Button hover: The background color for a button, when the visitor hovers his mouse over it.
• Button text: The text color for buttons.
• Button border: The border color for buttons.
• Border width: The width of the border for buttons.
• Corner radius: The amount of corner rounding for buttons.
• Monochrome border: If selected, button borders will be a solid color. If not selected, different browsers automatically apply different two-tone border patterns to buttons.

Custom Style / Enlarged Image Buttons / Background Image

• Add / Remove: Click Add to select a background image to display in each button. Click Remove to remove the image. This can be a large image, or a small texture pattern or gradient image that is then repeated over the button.
• File: This field displays the name of the chosen file, but cannot be directly edited. To change a background image, remove the existing one and add a new one.
• Repeat: Determines whether the background image is repeated both horizontally and vertically (repeat), repeated only horizontally (repeat-x), repeated only vertically (repeat-y), or not repeated (no repeat).
• Position: The starting position of the image. If a repeat is selected, the starting position of the first copy of the image.

Custom Style / Enlarged Image Buttons / Button Graphics

• Add/Remove: Click Add to select an image to use for the corresponding button ("Print Image," "Open Image," etc.) in place of the default text button. Click Remove to remove the image.
• File: This field displays the name of the chosen file, but cannot be directly edited. To change a button graphic image, remove the existing one and add a new one.

About

About / Matrix Information

• Matrix: The version number currently installed.
• Matrix Release Notes: A link to the release notes.
• Matrix Users Manual: A link to this users manual.
• Matrix Home Page: A link to the Matrix demonstration page.
• Matrix Support Forum: A link to the jAlbum forum section for Matrix support.
• Matrix License: A link to the Matrix licensing terms.
• Highslide JS information and licensing: A link to the Highslide JS site.
• JW Player information and licensing: A link to the JW Player (Longtail Video) site.

Image or Folder Settings

Image or Folder Settings / Download and Google Maps

Image or Folder Settings / Download Icon

• The settings on this tab have the same functions as those described in Captions / Enlarged Image Caption / Download Icon, above.
• These settings apply only to the folder or image whose name is shown in the upper left corner of the window and, if set for a folder, to the sub-folders below that folder, unless another override is present for a sub-folder or for an individual image. The user may navigate to the next folder or image using the arrows at the bottom of the window.
• These settings override those supplied at the album level in the main Matrix settings tabs. Settings for individual images override those for the album and for individual folders, and folder settings override those for the album. If no download icon is specified at the album level, it may be specified for an individual folder or image. If a download icon is specified at the album level, a different option for downloading an original or hi-res image may be specified for an individual folder or image. If a download icon is specified at the album level, it may be eliminated for an individual folder or image by choosing "Override for this image/folder," and then not including the download icon.

Image or Folder Settings / Google Maps

• The settings on this tab have the same functions as those described in Captions / Enlarged Image Caption / Google Maps, above.
• These settings apply only to the folder or image whose name is shown in the upper left corner of the window and, if set for a folder, to the sub-folders below that folder, unless another override is present for a sub-folder or for an individual image. The user may navigate to the next folder or image using the arrows at the bottom of the window.
• These settings override those supplied at the album level in the main Matrix settings tabs. Settings for individual images override those for the album and for individual folders, and folder settings override those for the album. If no Google Maps link is specified at the album level, it may be specified for an individual folder or image. If a Google Maps link is specified at the album level, different options for the map may be specified for an individual folder or image. If a Google Maps link is specified at the album level, it may be eliminated for an individual folder or image by choosing "Override for this image/folder," and then not including the Google Maps link.

Image or Folder Settings / Buttons

Image or Folder Settings / Buttons

• The settings on this tab have the same functions as those described in Captions / Enlarged Image Buttons, above.
• These settings apply only to the folder or image whose name is shown in the upper left corner of the window and, if set for a folder, to the sub-folders below that folder, unless another override is present for a sub-folder or for an individual image. The user may navigate to the next folder or image using the arrows at the bottom of the window.
• These settings override those supplied at the album level in the main Matrix settings tabs. Settings for individual images override those for the album and for individual folders, and folder settings override those for the album. If no buttons are specified at the album level, buttons may be specified for an individual folder or image. If buttons are specified at the album level, different buttons may be specified for an individual folder or image. If buttons are specified at the album level, a button may be eliminated for an individual folder or image by choosing "Override for this folder/image," and then not including the button.

Image or Folder Settings / Video, Pano, & Filters

Image or Folder Settings / Video, Pano, & Filters

• Most of the settings on this tab have the same functions as those described in Enlarged Images / Video & Pano, above.
• These settings apply only to the folder or image whose name is shown in the upper left corner of the window and, if set for a folder, to the sub-folders below that folder, unless another override is present for a sub-folder or for an individual image. The user may navigate to the next folder or image using the arrows at the bottom of the window.
• These settings override those supplied at the album level in the main Matrix settings tabs. Settings for individual images override those for the album and for individual folders, and folder settings override those for the album.
• Video host URL: This setting, available only a per-image basis, connects an image in the album to the URL for a YouTube, Vimeo, or other hosted video, or external video file. A full URL is required.
• Filters: Drop-shadows and corner rounding are applied to enlarged images by means of a jAlbum filter. The filter adds the chosen effects to the scaled images that are used in the album. This setting allows the user to exclude individual objects from being processed by these filters, even if drop-shadows and/or corner rounding have been selected for the project in the main Matrix settings. The effect of choosing this settings depends upon the type of album object to which it is applied:
  • When applied to a regular image (JPG, PNG, or GIF), that image won't have a drop-shadow and/or corner rounding applied. This is particularly useful if the project contains some GIF's or PNG's. Applying filters to non-JPG images sometimes has some undesirable results, particularly if the images are partially transparent.
  • When applied to the image for an SWF or for a video hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, etc., this setting has no effect, because the enlarged image is not actually used for anything.
  • When applied to the image for an FLV, MOV, or MP4 video, this setting affects the preview image shown in the video frame that is displayed while the video is loading, or while the player is waiting for the site visitor to click the "play" button. The video frame itself will still be shown with a drop-shadow if drop-shadows have been chosen for the project. If this setting is not chosen, however, the preview image may be shown with its own drop-shadow, resulting in an odd effect in which there are two concentric drop-shadows. Drop-shadows are never applied to the preview images for FLV, MOV, or MP4 videos that are included in the album project (i.e. not external videos). In those cases, this setting applies only to corner rounding.
  • When applied to a panoramic image (i.e., one which the user has told Matrix to treat as a panoramic), no drop-shadow or corner rounding is applied to the image. This generally improves the display of panoramic images. However, to maintain a consistent appearance in the album, the drop-shadow area is not simply eliminated: it is replaced by a simple border of the same color as the drop-shadow background used for the other images in the album. Because of the limitations of this technique, it is suggested that if this option is chosen, no enlarged image border be selected in the main Matrix settings. For example, if the JPG images are shown with a 15px gray-background drop-shadow, and a 5px red border outside that, the panoramic will be displayed with only a 15px gray border (there is no easy way to apply two borders to an image). Also, because a graphic control bar placed relative to the image can't be altered for a single image, this setting might result in some unwanted displacement of the control bar. It is suggested that either a text control bar be used, or a graphic control bar placed relative to the viewport, rather than to the image.
  • When applied to a thumbnail that is used as a link to an external page, this setting has no effect, because the enlarged image is not actually used for anything.

Image or Folder Settings / Thumbnail Link

Image or Folder Settings / Thumbnail Links

• The settings on this tab have no analog in the main Matrix settings tabs.
• These settings apply only to the image whose name is shown in the upper left corner of the window. The user may navigate to the next image using the arrows at the bottom of the window.
• Direct URL from thumbnail: If a URL is entered, clicking on this thumbnail will take the visitor to the site specified, rather than opening the image in a popup expander window. The URL may be relative or absolute. Open in determines whether the target will be opened in same window (recommended), in the parent window (if the album is being displayed in an iframe), or in a new window.
• Open in expander: If selected, the external site will be opened in an expander window, rather than in a browser tab or window. In addition, if the site is not being opened in an expander window, its thumbnail is not part of the slide show. Clicking "next" on the previous image does not proceed to this thumbnail - it is skipped over.

  Note that some websites employ an "iframe breakout" script, so that the site can't be viewed in an iframe. If you link to such a site, it will not be opened in an expander window regardless of the setting in Matrix - it will always open in the current browser tab or window. An iframe breakout script cannot be defeated.

• Width: The initial width of the expander window.
• Height: The initial height of the expander window.

Image or Folder Settings / Music

Image or Folder Settings / Music

• The settings on this tab have the same functions as those described in Music, above.
• These settings apply only to the folder whose name is shown in the upper left corner of the window; unlike other folder overrides, these do not apply to sub-folders below this folder. The user may navigate to the next folder using the arrows at the bottom of the window.
• These settings override those supplied at the album level in the main Matrix settings tabs. If no music tracks are specified at the album level, music tracks may be specified for individual folders. If music tracks are specified at the album level, different music tracks may be specified for individual folders. If music tracks are specified at the album level, music may be eliminated for individual folders by choosing "Override for this folder," and then not adding any tracks.

Tips / Version Updating

New versions of Matrix are published with some regularity. These new versions generally include new features, improvements, and bug fixes. The jAlbum application will let you know when a new version is available, and users are encouraged to download and install the new version.

• Because of the way the Matrix user interface is constructed, it is best to install a new version of the skin with the jAlbum application closed, i.e., not running. Save the Matrix.jaskin file to your computer, close jAlbum, launch the Matrix.jaskin file to do the installation, then launch jAlbum again.
• If you have an album project that was created with an older version of Matrix and you're happy with it, and don't intend to add any images to it or make any other changes to it, there's no reason to make the album again with the latest version of the skin. However, if you intend to change that album project in any way, it should be reprocessed with the newest version.
• Before re-making an existing album with a new version of the skin, read the release notes, and create a small test album to see the effect of newly-introduced features. These new features are sometimes enabled by default in a new version, and will be applied to your existing album project unless you choose to turn them off. The time to discover this is not after you've rebuilt an entire 10,000-image album.
• There is no need to invoke Make All in jAlbum. This forces jAlbum to reprocess all of the images, rather than just generating new HTML and CSS files. This is almost never required. Just click Make Album, and let jAlbum decide what needs to be updated.
• However, if your album project contains folders (subdirectories), it is very important that all subdirectories be processed with the new version of the skin. All of the pages in an album share the same Javascript and CSS files, and having a page of HTML generated with an older version of the skin using a CSS file created with the newest version could produce catastrophically bad results. Under Album > Settings > Advanced > General, be sure to check Process subdirectories and Include subdirectories in index pages. Be sure not to check Process only updated subdirectories. An updated subdirectory is one that has had images added to it, or removed from it. Other settings changes, or the use of a new version of the skin, does not cause jAlbum to regard subdirectories as being "updated."
• For an active album project, one that you make changes to periodically, it is recommended that you stay abreast of new skin versions. Generally, the process of updating an album by one or two skin versions is easy, and takes very little time. Trying to jump over many versions, however, could require considerable effort. Stay current to avoid problems.

Tips / Master Album

With almost any skin, it's possible to create folders and subfolders, and produce a multilevel album. But in most cases, all levels must use the same skin, and usually the same style of that skin, as well. Matrix, however, can be used to create a master index of other albums; each album may use a different style of the Matrix skin, or a different skin entirely.

• Create each of the other albums, and upload them to the website. They can be arranged in a uniform heirarchical directory structure (for example, with each individual album residing in a subdirectory under the location of the master index), or can be placed in any location on the website, or even on other websites.
• Create an album project for the master index, and add an image to it for each sub-album. This might be one of the images from that album, or a screenshot of the main index page of that album.
• If this album project consists solely of thumbnails that will link to other albums, there's no need to generate the scaled-down images that would be needed in a normal album project. Under Album > Settings > Pages, choose "Link to originals," and uncheck the "Copy originals" box.
• Edit each thumbnail, choose the Matrix tab in the lower right corner, and click "Click for Image or Folder Settings."
• Open the Thumbnail Link tab, and enter the URL for the sub-album. The URL can be relative if you are keeping your albums in a heirarchical structure on your website, or absolute.
• Do not choose to open the link in an expander. Doing so would almost certainly produce very confusing navigation for the visitor.
• Exit from the editing mode, and make the album. jAlbum may warn you about linking to images that are not part of the album, but that's not a problem. These thumbnails are not going to link to larger images - they're going to link to other web pages.
• Be aware that a local preview of the master album will fail in several circumstances:
  • You have chosen a uniform directory structure and you use relative URL's to link to the sub-albums, and the sub-albums are laid out in that structure on the website, but are not structured that way on your computer.
  • You are using absolute URL's to link to the sub-albums, but you have not yet uploaded the sub-albums to the website.
  • You are using Internet Explorer, which has some perverse "security" mechanisms that make it difficult to open local pages.
• Ideally, each sub-album should provide a means by which the site visitor can return to the master index. Most skins provide a way of entering an uplink from the main level. If you have chosen a heirarchical directory structure for your individual albums, the uplink would be ../index.html; otherwise, an absolute URL is required, such as http://example.com/master.

Tips / Adding Video Files

Matrix supports the display of videos in FLV, MOV (H.264 codec), MP4 (H.264 codec), and SWF formats. jAlbum will convert most video formats to MP4, so they will play in Matrix, but the SWF format cannot be converted in this manner. Matrix provides native support for SWF files.

• If you add an FLV, MOV, or MP4 video to the album project, or any other video format that jAlbum is able to convert to an MP4, jAlbum will extract a still image from the video to use as a thumbnail and as a placeholder in the expander window while the video is loading and at the end of the video. In its image editing mode, jAlbum gives you the ability to move through the video and choose the frame you want to use for this purpose.
• If you add an SWF video to the album project, or if you want to use an image other than the one available from the jAlbum core program (an unrelated image, for example), you will have to create a THM file for the video.
  • You can use a video editing program to extract a single frame, take a screenshot, or choose any other still image to represent the video in the album. This should be a full-sized JPG image, rather than a thumbnail.
  • Rename the still image with the same base name as the video file, but with a THM extension. For example, if the video file is mydog.mp4, name the still image mydog.thm.
  • Place the THM file in the same directory as the video file before adding the video to the album project.
  • The video file may now be added to the album project in exactly the same manner as a JPG image file would be added. At the same time, add the THM file to the album project - it will not appear as a separate object in the main jAlbum window, but it will be used to represent the video file you have added.
• Choose the settings for showing the video - the size of the popup expander window, whether to start the video automatically, and so on. If this is the only video in the album, or if you want the same settings for all videos, choose the settings under Enlarged Images / Video & Pano, above. If you want to apply different settings for each video, do so under Image or Folder Settings / Video, Pano, & Filters, above.
• It is recommended that filters be disabled for videos. Drop-shadows are automatically disabled for the placeholder images for FLV, MOV, MP4, and any other jAlbum-convertible video format, but corner rounding is not, so manually disabling it may be required (if corner rounding has been chosen for the regular images in the album project). See Image or Folder Settings / Video, Pano, & Filters, above.
• The Highslide JS script provides good image-to-image transitions, but isn't really equipped to do the same for videos. If the album contains mostly videos, setting the cross-fade duration to zero milliseconds produces better results (see Album > Settings > Matrix > Expander > Expander Action).
• It is possible to place a graphic control bar on videos, but because the video player has its own navigation controls, it's often better to use a graphic control bar positioned elsewhere (in the caption area, or relative to the viewport), or to use the text control bar. Further, if a video is viewed on a non-Flash device, the graphic control bar may not be visible or accessible at all. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the text type control bar be used for albums that include videos.
• No player controls are provided for SWF files, so if navigation within the video is desired (play, pause, etc.), the controls must be built into the SWF file itself.
• The JW Player will stream videos - a video will begin playing before the entire file is downloaded. However, the video files must be properly encoded, with the index at the beginning of the file, rather than at the end. If jAlbum has converted the video, the index will be in the proper location, but many converter applications place the index at the end of the file. So if you are not using jAlbum to do any video conversion, it may be necessary to employ another application, like MP4 FastStart, to reposition the file's internal index.
• Depending upon the speed of the host server and upon the quality of the connection between that server and the site visitor, Internet Explorer may experience display problems when transitioning from one video to the next. At random times, for example, a video may open in a page by itself, rather than in an expander window, leaving the site visitor with no way to return to the album other than using the browser's "back" button. This can generally be cured by going to Album > Settings > Matrix > Expander > Expander Action, choosing "zoom in/out" as the expander mode, checking "Cross-fade between images," and setting the cross-fade duration to 0ms (zero milliseconds).

Tips / External Videos

Matrix supports the display of externally-hosted videos in FLV, MOV (H.264 codec), MP4 (H.264 codec), and SWF formats.

• jAlbum does not have a way of extracting a still image from a video to use to create a thumbnail for it, or to use as a placeholder in the expander window while the video is loading and at the end of the video. And because an externally-hosted video is not actually added to the album project, the generic movie icon cannot be used.
• You can use a video editing program to extract a single frame, take a screenshot, or choose any other still image to represent the video in the album. This should be a full-sized JPG image, rather than a thumbnail.
• Add the image file that represents the video to the album project.
• Because the video must be connected to a single image, you cannot use album-level settings for it. You must choose the settings for this video under Image or Folder Settings / Video, Pano, & Filters, above. Enter the absolute URL for the video, e.g., http://example.com/mydog.mp4.
• It is recommended that filters be disabled for videos. See Image or Folder Settings / Video, Pano, & Filters, above.
• The Highslide JS script provides good image-to-image transitions, but isn't really equipped to do the same for videos. If the album contains mostly videos, setting the cross-fade duration to zero milliseconds produces better results (see Album > Settings > Matrix > Expander > Expander Action).
• It is possible to place a graphic control bar on videos, but because the video player has its own navigation controls, it's often better to use a graphic control bar positioned elsewhere (in the caption area, or relative to the viewport), or to use the text control bar. Further, if a video is viewed on a non-Flash device, the graphic control bar may not be visible or accessible at all. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the text type control bar be used for albums that include videos.
• Because of Flash security restrictions, local preview of the video is not possible. The video will play only when the album is viewed from the website.

Tips / Hosted Videos (e.g., YouTube)

Matrix supports the display of videos hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, or any other video host that provides a player that can be embedded.

• jAlbum does not have a way of extracting a still image from a video to use to create a thumbnail for it.
• You can use a video editing program to extract a single frame, take a screenshot, or choose any other still image to represent the video in the album. This should be a full-sized JPG image, rather than a thumbnail.
• Add the image file that represents the video to the album project.
• Because the video must be connected to a single image, you cannot use album-level settings. You must choose the settings for this video under Image or Folder Settings / Video, Pano, & Filters, above. Enter the absolute URL for the video. For a YouTube video, the skin will accept any of the following URL formats:
  • http://www.youtube.com/v/Bj-7LxpF9dA
  • http://www.youtube.com/embed/Bj-7LxpF9dA
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj-7LxpF9dA
  For a Vimeo video, the skin will accept either of the following URL formats:
  • http://player.vimeo.com/video/12345678
  • http://vimeo.com/12345678
  For any other video host, the entered URL should be in whatever form that host requires for embedding its player script.

  The settings chosen for "Autostart" and "Loop" under Enlarged Images / Video & Pano, above, will be applied to YouTube and Vimeo videos, unless you choose to override them under Image or Folder Settings / Video, Pano, & Filters, above. For other hosts, the skin can't guess how to specify those parameters, so the URL you provide must include them. For example:

  • http://www.snotr.com/embed/8965?autoplay
• It is recommended that filters be disabled for videos. See Image or Folder Settings / Video, Pano, & Filters, above.
• The Highslide JS script provides good image-to-image transitions, but isn't really equipped to do the same for videos. If the album contains mostly videos, setting the cross-fade duration to zero milliseconds produces better results (see Album > Settings > Matrix > Expander > Expander Action).
• It is possible to place a graphic control bar on videos, but because the video player has its own navigation controls, it's often better to use a graphic control bar positioned elsewhere (in the caption area, or relative to the viewport), or to use the text control bar. Further, if a video is viewed on a non-Flash device, the graphic control bar may not be visible or accessible at all. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the text type control bar be used for albums that include videos.

Tips / jAlbum Variables and HTML Tags

jAlbum variables may be used in a number of different contexts, and the skin will pass those variables to the jAlbum engine to be evaluated before they are placed in the completed album. For example, a print button placed in the caption area of an image would normally have fixed text, like Print Image. If that text were defined as Print ${fileTitle}, however, each print button would contain the jAlbum Title assigned to that image by the user. The buttons on a series of images would then display, for example, Print Sparky, Print Fido, and Print Rover. The jAlbum documentation should be consulted for a list of the variables. Almost all user-provided text strings - titles, comments, button texts, and so on - are passed to the jAlbum engine for evaluation.

HTML tags may be used in most user-provided strings, as well, and will be passed to the finished album. HTML tags are stripped out in contexts in which they would not function properly, for example, when the string is used as a popup tooltip. If you use a < or > character in a text string, it is assumed to be part of an HTML tag, and may produce errors if it isn't. If you want to use one of those characters as simple text, use its HTML entity code, instead. Similarly, the & character is a reserved character in HTML, and its HTML entity code should be used, instead.

• for <, use &lt;
• for >, use &gt;
• for &, use &amp;

Tips / Color Transparency

Many of the color fields in Matrix, primarily those in the Custom settings for the index page, now support the selection of semi- or fully-transparent colors. For a discussion of how to specify these colors, please see this thread from the jAlbum forum: Semi-transparent colors.

Tips / Demo Albums

I'm often asked how one of the albums on the Matrix demonstration site was produced. Rather than describe the settings, I have bundled the project files and background image files into a zip package that you can download. Save this file to your PC or Mac, and unzip it. To copy the settings from one of the demo albums, start a new jAlbum project, give it a name, choose the Matrix skin, and add your images. Then choose File, Import, Settings from Album Project, and navigate to the project file whose settings you want to copy. For projects that make use of background images, background textures, logos, or music, you will need to add the background images from the zip package (the saved settings would be pointing to locations on my hard drive, rather than yours), or provide your own music tracks.

• standard.jap: The standard album, using default settings.
• music.jap: An album with text shadows, an automated slideshow, and a music track. You will need to add your own music tracks under Album > Settings > Matrix > Music.
• bodythumbstrip.jap: An album with text shadows, beveled box borders, borders on the enlarged image and caption, a vertical thumbstrip displayed on the right, an enlarged thumbstrip marker arrow, and beveled borders on the thumbstrip.
• expanderthumbstrip.jap: An album with a thumbstrip contained within the expander, drop-shadow borders on the thumbstrip, and a control bar on the body of the page.
• sidepanel.jap: An album with square-cropped thumbnails, transparent boxes, a background texture on the index page, captions in the side panel of the enlarged images, and photo data (metadata) in a clickable link in the caption. To add the body background texture, go to Album > Settings > Matrix > Custom Style > Background Images > Body Background, click "Add," and navigate to demoalbums/images/beige107.jpg.
• semitransparency.jap: An album with semi-transparent boxes and a background image on the index page. To add the body background image, go to Album > Settings > Matrix > Custom Style > Background Images > Body Background, click "Add," and navigate to demoalbums/images/clouds.jpg.
• beveledthumbs.jap: An album with text shadows, a logo in the title bar, a drop-shadow on the logo image that conforms to the round shape of the logo, thumbnail captions to the right of the thumbnails, beveled thumbnail borders, a print button icon in the expander caption, and a background texture used as the dimming background. To add the logo, go to Album > Settings > Matrix > Custom Style > Logo, click "Add," and navigate to demoalbums/images/bmw_logo_60.png. To add the dimming background texture, go to Album > Settings > Matrix > Custom Style > Background Images > Dimming Background, click "Add," and navigate to demoalbums/images/red004dark.jpg. To add the print button logo, go to Album > Settings > Matrix > Custom Style > Enlarged Image Buttons > Button Graphics > Print Image, click "Add," and navigate to demoalbums/images/printButton.jpg.
• videos.jap: Included in the zip package, but in this album, the important settings are "per-image" settings, which are not saved in the project file. Post a question in the jAlbum forum if you have a specific question about this album.
• backgroundimage.jap: An album with text shadows, logos in the title bar, double box borders, a background image on the index page, and metadata displayed in the enlarged image caption. To add the title bar logo, go to Album > Settings > Matrix > Custom Style > Logo, click "Add," and navigate to demoalbums/images/mapleleaf50.png. To add the background image, go to Album > Settings > Matrix > Custom Style > Background Images > Body Background, click "Add," and navigate to demoalbums/images/natfl143.gif.
• rounded.jap: An album with text shadows, rounded images and borders, an image counter, and a background texture in the index page boxes. To add the background texture, go to Album > Settings > Matrix > Custom Style > Background Images > Boxes Backgrounds > Title bar, click "Add," and navigate to demoalbums/images/lgrey042a.gif. Repeat for Navigation box and Thumbnail box.
• tightspaced.jap: An album with text shadows, a boxless index page, square-cropped, tightly-spaced thumbnails, and thumbnail surrounds.
• stylesamples.jap: An album with text shadows and non-square thumbnail image bounds in order to create shorter thumbnail boxes (possible because all of the images are in landscape mode).

Browser Support

Matrix produces albums that display properly in most browsers.

• Standards compliance: Matrix produces valid HTML5 and CSS3 code. However, no attempt is made to ensure that user-provided code (in external files or in titles, comments, etc.) is valid. Because HTML5 and CSS3 are technically draft specifications, the W3C validators sometimes report errors on things like the text-shadow attribute when there is, in fact, no error present.
• CSS3 effects: Matrix makes use of a number of CSS3 classes to produce drop-shadows, text shadows, and corner rounding. If a non-CSS3-compliant browser like IE8 is used, these effects will not be visible. The page layout will be otherwise unaffected.
• Internet Explorer: Support for Internet Explorer is version-dependent.
  • IE10: Matrix is tested in IE10, and all skin features are supported.
  • IE9: Matrix is tested in IE9, and all skin features are supported except for shadows on text, a CSS3 feature that was not implemented in IE9.
  • IE8: Matrix is tested in IE8, and all skin features are supported except for those features that require CSS3 compliance, including rounded box corners, shadows on text, drop-shadows on thumbnails and logo images, rounded corners on thumbnails, and automatically resized background images.
  • IE7 and IE6: Matrix does not support IE7 or IE6. Site visitors using those browsers are presented with a warning banner, and the pages will not display properly.

  Windows update KB2817183, dated April 10, 2013, introduced a deep-seated bug into the Javascript engine of IE10 and IE9. The skin coding was altered to avoid the worst of the manifestations of this bug, but it may still produce problems. In particular, albums with a mix of still images and videos that also include a thumbstrip may exhibit random failures when moving from one object to the next, in which an image will open by itself in the browser window without any navigation, captions, etc. The only known solutions to this problem are to use a different browser or to uninstall the troublesome Windows update (if automatic updates are still enabled, however, it will reinstall itself).

• Firefox: Matrix is tested in the latest released version of Firefox, and all skin features are supported. Earlier versions of Firefox were also standards-compliant, and all skin features are believed to be supported for those versions (with the possible exception of features that require CSS3 compliance - much older versions of Firefox did not support CSS3).
• Chrome: Matrix is tested in the latest released version of Chrome, and all skin features are supported. Earlier versions of Chrome were also standards-compliant, and all skin features are believed to be supported for those versions (with the possible exception of features that require CSS3 compliance - much older versions of Chrome did not support CSS3).
• Safari: Matrix is tested in the latest released version of Safari for Windows, and all skin features are supported. Earlier versions of Safari were also standards-compliant, and all skin features are believed to be supported for those versions (with the possible exception of features that require CSS3 compliance - much older versions of Safari did not support CSS3).
• Other Browsers: Matrix is not tested in any other browsers. Support for skin features is unknown.
• Mobile Devices: Matrix is not tested on any mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, Android, etc.). There are a number of known problems with the underlying Highslide JS Javascript on mobile devices. The Matrix skin is not recommended for developing albums that are intended for viewing on such devices.
• Javascript: Proper display of a Matrix album is dependent upon a browser that has Javascript enabled. In a browser that has Javascript disabled, a warning message is shown, and clicking on a thumbnail simply opens the full-sized image in the browser window, with no navigation support and no captions.
• Flash:
  • If an album contains only still images and links to external web pages, Flash is not required.
  • If an album includes FLV or SWF videos, Flash is necessary, and if it's not installed, the visitor will see an empty expander with a warning message when attempting to view those videos.
  • If an album includes MOV or MP4 videos, Flash-enabled browsers will use Flash to play the video. HTML5-compliant browsers that do not have Flash installed may play the video, but the nature of the results will be browser-dependent. In particular, the behavior of the full-screen option varies considerably among browsers.
  • If an album includes music, Flash is required to hear the music. If Flash is not installed, no errors occur - there's just no music, and no music player controls are displayed.