How to Customize your SmugMug site!

[SmugMug]

(I am reusing some of my wording on a different post)

OK, there are many people on this forum that could really use customization help so I will try and make this as simple as possible. www.moonriverphotography.com was designed by Andy Williams who works for us and he is an advanced user. Here is another example: http://www.photoscapedesign.com/ Everything done on these sites have been done on SmugMug and I can help most people get something fairly similar quickly.

1st: you want to make sure you have a Power or Pro account. Those levels allow customization.

2nd: you need to find where the "Customize" tab is in the "Control Panel". Make sure you are logged into your account and you will see the customize tab in the control panel, click it.

3rd: you will see a customize link inside the customize tab, click it. Don't let this page scare you, it looks intimidating but it is easy.

4th: Inside this page, you put any customization on your site. Mainly if you know how to Copy & Paste, you can get some key customization instantly!! Lets start with a slideshow on your SmugMug homepage, you can do this!!

Try copying this tutorial exactly with your own site: (note we have screen grabs to make it easy) http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/3624147

Did you do it? If not, what went wrong? How should I tweak the tutorial?

5th: now that you are done with that, try putting a Banner & Navbar on your site by copying and pasting this code and coming up with your own links: http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/2160039

Note: if you tell me where and what is confusing about the tutorials I can fix them!


Try these steps first. They are going to do wonders to your site! If you have any problems post back here or PM me directly. I will put you in touch with one of our customization gurus if it gets to be too much for you.


Thanks!!

Markham

[Lexie]

Thanks for the tutorial, Markham. I am one of those people that could use the customization help.

[SmugMug]

Originally Posted by Lexie

Thanks for the tutorial, Markham. I am one of those people that could use the customization help.

Hi Lexie,

I see that you are a Pro user. I am excited to hear what you say when you go and try this.

Your feedback is like gold.

markham

[Hogleg 44]

Hey Markham,
This is nice of you to post this. I may try it.
My SM site is the top one in my sig.
phanfare the bottom one. (Notice...I don't capitalize the P in phanfare any more!)

Questions, since I am very much html challenged!

If you have text in your bio, can you leave it there? Or do you have to remove it?
I notice one starting html tag is offset from the body of the code in the tutorial. I presume both starting and ending html tags should be included in the copy?

Also, do I just add the code to the bottom of what I already have in the Javascript and CSS areas?

[SmugMug]

Originally Posted by Hogleg 44

Questions, since I am very much html challenged!

If you have text in your bio, can you leave it there? Or do you have to remove it?
I notice one starting html tag is offset from the body of the code in the tutorial. I presume both starting and ending html tags should be included in the copy?

Also, do I just add the code to the bottom of what I already have in the Javascript and CSS areas?

I am very HTML challenged as well, so you are in good hands

Where is the offset html tag in the tutorial? I will take a look. Yes, both starting and ending should be included.

As for current text you have put in your bio, YES, keep it there. The additional text we are adding will not be shown to anyone, but it is key to getting your slideshow running for now.

As for your current text in CSS & Javascript fields, those too can stay if you want to keep what you have already done on your site.

NOTE: we are hopefully going to make all these points extremely easy by the push of a button someday, but until then, these hacks aren't really that scary when you look at them.

[SmugMug]

Originally Posted by Hogleg 44

If you have text in your bio, can you leave it there? Or do you have to remove it?

Hey Paul,

Here is a NOTE for those that have wording in their Bio. IF you want to keep that info in your bio, then you need to format your wording like this.

1) Write <html> all your bio text and then </html>

2) Then go through your bio text and enter <p>before the paragraph and then</p> at the end of the paragraph.

That way it will all be formatted correctly.

PS---In this case, Paul you should create your Navbar first and then put all that text you have in your bio in a tab called "About me" or something.

Markham

[Hogleg 44]

Hey Markham, I'm still here!!!
I'll have to save copies of what I have now, just in case, dust off the ole "HeadFirst HTML" book, then work on the html version with 'Text Edit' (Mac) and see what I come up with.
Yeah...the NAV BAR. I'll check that out on the tutorials and DG site again and work on it! I've been meaning to do that anyway.

Now, just to be perfectly clear, in starting, the <html> tag goes only at the very beginning of the text area, and the </html> at the very end, only, and the paragrapg tags in between, right? See...I told you I was very html challenged (i.e.illiterate!)!!!

[kadac00]

OK, I've been wanting to do this for awhile but have been hessitant to muck around in the customization for fear I could screw something up to the point where I couldn't get in to restore it.

Looks like I'll bite the bullet and give it a go this weekend.

[mbjarvis]

Where do you find the Gallery ID for the slide show.

[HutchPhoto]

Thanks Markham
I will be starting on mine right away....



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[photosbysergio]

A good friend of mine helped me customize my site and I am pleased with the way it came out. I still have to add more photos and make a few minor adjustments but so far so good. It's a work in progress. Markham replied promptly to a few questions we had along the way.

http://www.imagesbysergio.com/

[HutchPhoto]

Thats looks great Sergio... Long time no see..



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[photosbysergio]

Thanks Tim! Yeah, it's been a while.

I had a basic idea of the look of my smug site but had no clue how to start! Thank goodness for good friends willing to help out. And the good resources at smugmug. The more we got into it the easier it got.

[Huck]

Guess i should upgrade from the basic account and try this out this week

[HutchPhoto]

Right now I'm trying to change over from GoDaddy to all smugmug...
To This:
www.timhutchphoto.smugmug.com

From This:
www.TimHutchersonPhotography.com

It will be that you type in my web address but go to my smuggy account..!

Next time you have a GTG e-mail me!


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