Quote:
Originally posted by john0pr0n0
Right now i am using an auto gallery maker then editing them in dreamweaver.. do people usualy build them by hand ? Could you suggest another program that might include some of the features you mentioned?
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That's what I'd been thinking when I wrote "pages actually look like they're created by some cheap(-ish) program with no creative input"... LOL
I spend sometimes a lot of time on gallery templates (up to 2 ½ hours incl. graphics), but sometimes I get a simple idea and have a new template ready in 15 minutes... And the simple ones often work better than the more elaborate templates, though the more graphical ones tend to get listed more.
It's with TGP galleries the same as GreenGuy is preaching about Free Sites: built one template/day until you have 30 to rotate! Now - that's
way too extreme for TGPs!! I know people who have one or two templates which are really working for them and they stick with them for up to a year, but most submitters probably have something like 5-6 good templates and try the odd new one from time to time.
As to software: I really, really hate learning my way around new programs (which usually have an update before I got a hang of them, so I have to start anew), hence I'm still doing most stuff with really old software: HotDog 3.0 from 1995 (don't laugh or I'll shoot you! It's at least better than NotePad), PaintShop 7 (now: that's fairly recent, latest is version is 8), and and older version of ThumbsPlus, which makes really great html thumbnail tables with decent (and small file size) thumbs, and I use it for all my image/content management, too. To insert ThumbsPlus tables into my templates I have a custom written VB script, which requires only 2 steps (unless I want to add new recip links), so once the images are there it's only 5 steps:
1 create thumb table with ThumbsPlus
2 rename all thumbs (again with ThumbsPlus) to fit my VB scripts
3 run script 1 to correct ThumbsPlus table (rename thumbnail names, format table to my requirements, like add width to table cells)
4 run script 2 to replace image links/names/size across all galleries
5 uplaod all files
- - - and start submitting...