| Template/Template Editor system:
The Template Editor system within Meteor Galleries allows you to easily change the look of your site dramatically. You choose your page layout, colors, and graphics, and the program will generate your template files for you. If you're HTML knowledgable, you can quickly and easily edit the source HTML for the template files, too. You can store multiple templates for easy and fast switching between them, too! |
New template creation |
It's easy to get a new template started with MG v3.0's upgraded Template Editor. You just choose a name for your template and enter it in the text field here. Once you've named your template, you can move on to choosing your layout and style options. |
Layout Options |
On the Layout Options page, you can choose what type of layout you'd like, the type of graphics you want to use, and some other basic details. The rest of the details are available on the Style Options page. |
Style Options |
The Style Options page presents most of your template options because it is responsible for most of the display properties for your Meteor Galleries site. There's a lot here, so don't get lost! |
Graphics Upload |
The final step of making a template using the Template Editor--uploading graphics files. It's as simple as choosing the file you want to upload and clicking a button! |
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| Single-item or Batch Uploading:
Tired of uploading one item at a time? No more! Upload new artwork in batches! You may either FTP your files to the server, OR use Meteor Galleries built-in File Uploader to upload your images and create new image folders. |
Upload options |
Uploading your artwork has never been easier! You can choose to add artwork to your gallery from images already on your server OR you may choose to add artwork by uploading image files directly from your computer to your server via your browser. |
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| Unlimited sketches/additional images per item:
Want to show a full sketch sequence with the main sketch? You can with MG -- as of v2.5, you can even upload the sketches in batches. |
Add sketch images (step 1) |
Step 1: Choose how many sketches you want to add and how you'd like to add them (FTP for images already on the server, Browser for images you need to upload). |
Add sketch images (step 2) |
Step 2 (Browser): Choose your files on your computer and upload them via a simple form. |
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| Screenshots:
Upload screenshots of where your artwork was used quickly and easily through your browser (or you may always FTP the images and add them manually, too -- your choice!). |
Add screenshot (step 1) |
Step 1: To start the add screenshot process, just click the add screenshot link on the page of the item for which you wish to add the screenshot. |
Add screenshot (step 2) |
Step 2: Choose your file to upload. Another simple file upload form. If you wish to use an image already uploaded, you may always set the screenshot image on the 'Edit Item' page. |
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| Detailed Site Configuration capability:
Like having full control of how your site looks and functions? MG allows you to set more options than you can shake a stick at--you can toggle many things on and off with a few clicks in the MG site configuration panel. |
Site config: General options |
On the General Settings page of the Site Configuration panel, you have a slew of options to set (or leave them at their default values). This gives you immense control over how your site looks and functions. |
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| Last Added items options:
MG sports a "last added" page that allows your visitors to check out the last things you added to your gallery (mind you, last added does NOT include items you've just updated things like text or images for). The MG last added page allows you to select either to display items added within the same day as the last item added to your gallery OR items added in a specific date range. As of v2.5, items (and the sections containing them) currently appearing on your last added page are denoted throughout the gallery with "new" image tags. |
Last added page settings (v2.5) |
The Last Added options page allows you to set the date range for your last added page. |
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| Maintenance mode option:
Putting your site in maintenance mode (do NOT log out before re-enabling your gallery!), allows you to hide everything from visitors while you work. Only admins logged in may see your gallery while maintenance mode is on. |
Maintenance mode (v2.5) |
Turn maintenance mode on or off easily! |
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| Administrative features:
Every MG site has an administrative area allowing you to update/edit your news items, view your top 50 items in the gallery, check out your site statistics, and perform database maintenance (optimizing tables and backups). Optimizing your database and backing it up regularly are highly recommended. |
Administration panel (v2.5) |
The Site Administration panel gives you quick access to your statistics, database maintenance routines (including backup and optimization), most viewed items, and PDF copies of the MG documentation. |
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| Artwork Management:
The artwork management area allows you to create and edit new categories, sub-categories (series), sort categories, series, and items, as well as manage all the sketch images or batch-edit items. |
Manage Artwork (v3.0) |
The Manage Artwork page gives you access to all of the important artwork management tools in one place. Visit this page to add categories and series, sort categories, series, and items, and sketch or additional image management. |
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| Past Updates page:
Created for you to share your past updates with those who missed them, the past updates page gathers a list of all dates when new items were added and lists them. These dates are clickable and will display all items added that day. |
Past Updates page (v3.0) |
Let your visitors see your past updates with ease via MG's past updates page. As of v3.0, it is sorted by year. |
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| News:
The news archive page lists all news items in chronological order. As of v3.0, the news archive page has been improved for neatness and to separate news listings by year to keep the page shorter. |
News Archive (v3.0) |
The improved news archive page! This page lets your visitors check out all your past news items sorted by year. The most recent item is placed prominently at the top of the page for easy reading. |
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| Contact form:
Tired of getting spam through your gallery? MG's contact form craftily asks the user to not only perform a simple math calculation, but the calculation is written out in WORD form, making it far more difficult for spambots to complete the form (as of this writing, no spam messages have been received using this form). |
Contact form (v3.0) |
MG's slightly revised contact form. Now self-processing, MG's contact form makes a valiant attempt to keep the spambots at bay! |
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| About page:
Like many other sites, MG allows you to create an "about" page for you to provide information about your gallery. This page also allows you to upload an image via your browser for display. |
About page |
The About page gives you a place to tell your visitors all about you. Simply use the edit link to revise the text and image on this page. |
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| Wishlist:
MG provides you with a wishlist -- you can add new series and sort items within each series. As of now, you cannot sort the order that the series appear, but this may be a possible feature in future versions of MG. |
Wishlist page (v3.0) |
The newly upgraded Wishlist page! This page by default loads showing your visitors all the sections of your wishlist collapsed, and upon clicking 'show' for any of them, automatically expands that section without reloading the whole page. This will allow you to have a much longer wishlist without having to worry about all those images and data loading each time the page is loaded. |
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| Site Search:
Allows you or your visitors to search your site with a few options. Searches will not return items inside hidden sections or items that are themselves hidden unless the visitor is logged in either as the guest or administrator. |
Search page |
Meteor Galleries sites all sport a fairly simple search page and function -- use it to find artwork in your collection, or allow your visitors to use it to find artwork they want to see. |
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| Site Tools:
MG sites are equipped with some handy tools: a thumbnail generator, a general file uploader (for images or user-created template files), an image browser (allows you to see all the images on your site and where they are currently in use), and your Template Editor. |
Site Tools (v3.0) |
MG's Site Tools are probably some of the most useful parts of an MG site. You can upload files, download files, manage files, create new templates, browse all of your uploaded images, and more! There isn't much you cannot do from here. |
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| Other useful features:
You can store lots of useful information about each item you upload, but confidential information like cost and source are kept private to the administrator. This means you can allow folks to have your guest password and see hidden items, without showing them how much you paid for them! Other unique features include the ability to move items to other categories or series or even to COPY items to another category or series (yes, you may have the same item in your gallery more than once if you like, but they will have to be updated independently!).
Items and sections may be hidden--everything from a top-level category right down to an item may be hidden, and anything hidden is not visible to anyone except those logged in.
Thumbnails are automatically generated for all new items, so you don't have to do it yourself--and you get to choose the size of your item thumbnails (and your screenshot thumbnails). Item thumb size and screenshot thumb sizes are independent of one another. |
