Saturday, October 4, 2008

LRG Complete Advanced User's Guide is Here!

Thank you to everyone who has been patient while we write the Advanced User's Guide for the LRG Complete Web Gallery that plugs into Adobe Lightroom. This Advanced Guide has been in the making for over four months during the development of LRG Complete and the writing of the Basic User's Guide. With over 300 pages, this Advanced Guide covers a lot of material.

First, I want you to know that we have made a decision that LRG Complete and the accompanying Basic User's Guide have been and will remain free. That has been the concept from the start.

Below is a list of the contents in the Advanced User's Guide. With all of the additional time and experimenting to develop these techniques and How To's we have set a price for the Advanced User's Guide of $24.99. This gives you a lifetime download link so that you get every new edition for free, for life. In addition, we use Vibralogix LinkLokIPN for PayPal to provide you with this Advanced User's Guide. Know that 1/2 of the proceeds will go to Lightroom Galleries to support Joe's work on LRG Complete.

To purchase this guide, use the Buy Now button on the side bar. You will be taken to PayPal where you will receive an instant email containing a download link. Let me know if you have any problems.

The Advanced User's Guide is in the same type of PDF format that the Basic User's Guide is. The PDF can be printed and is formatted for 8 1/2 x 11 paper. The index has been totally redone to allow for main and subtopics. This makes finding information in the index MUCH easier!

Now for a partial list of what's included. The table of contents is 6 pages long, so this is only some of what is included.

  • The same Installation and Setup information to help you get ready
  • Information on how to setup a test web site before you go live
  • How to determine if PHP is properly installed on your web site, including a test page you can create and upload to your web site
  • Best Practices Workflows to keep your use of LRG Complete efficient
  • Other items like conventions, definitions, etc.


Advanced Shell Features
  • a discussion on search engine optimization and integration of SEO with LRG Complete
  • how to use and setup site traffic tools like Google Analytics and StatCounter
  • Setting up CoolIris
  • Exhaustive use of the MP3 player
  • Various ways to use the Adobe Identity Plate
  • Over half a dozen ways to setup the Heading of your web site with examples
  • Hiding the Site Name and Description the proper way
  • HTML in the Shell
  • Creative modes of Navigation
  • Many, many ways of using the Side Menu including adding pages, sorting properly to leave room for later expansion and pages to use for E-Commerce


Advance Page Features
  • Hyperlinks, Underlines, Blockquotes, Paragraphs: all in the Body Text
  • A new way to use the Adobe Watermark
  • Adding multiple lines and special HTML in Image Captions and Titles
  • Slideshows and Image Positioning
  • Sorting Image Order for Pages
  • Creative Pages
  • Advanced password usage


Advanced Gallery Features
  • Many of the same HTML tags that are used in Pages work in Galleries
  • The best methods of using galleries for additional navigation: Image Links
  • E-Commerce galleries that show customers your Order Process: an Example
  • Linking Images to Pages: over 10 pages on Image Links for Pages and Galleries
  • Creative use of Image Frames
  • Using Free Downloads to your advantage

NOTE: Digital Image Downloading will be in the next version of the Advanced User's Guide, which you will receive a link to if you purchase this version. We are using the setup of our web site to create a hands on guide for using Digital Image Downloading. Already we have had to insert some custom code for SMTP emailing with DID, but the update will show you how.

Advanced Contact Pages
  • The importance of Emails
  • How to setup professional email messages and their content
  • How to use SMTP email with LRG Complete


Example Web Sites
  • many non-photography examples of E-Commerce web sites


A whole new troubleshooting section sorted by Web Gallery type was included in this Guide. All of the known issues and troubleshooting items we have uncovered over time are added here with solutions should the be available.

An appendix with over 20 worksheets and planning tools to help you create a cohesive web site for use with LRG Complete. See all the settings necessary as you plan each page and keep an overview of how your site will work. These worksheets and planning tools include items like:

  • Site Information Worksheet
  • Base Site Structure Worksheet
  • Gallery Structure Worksheet
  • Store Structure Worksheet
  • Web Site Category Planning Tool
  • Contact Email Planning Tool
  • About Me Planning Tool
  • About My Product Planning Tool
  • Blank Page Planning Tool
  • Blank Gallery Planning Tool
  • Gallery With Page Links Planning Tool
  • Text Identity Worksheet
  • Web Site Color Planning Tool
  • Mail.php Settings Worksheet
  • Google Checkout Shipping Worksheet
  • PayPal Shipping Worksheet
  • Google Checkout Tax Worksheet
  • PayPal Tax Worksheet


Note that the Shipping and Tax worksheets include both US and International rates.

This guide is not only how to use LRG Complete, but how to setup a sucessful web site using LRG Complete and Adobe Lightroom.

Thank you again for all your support of our efforts! We will be working to continue to develop high quality user's guides and web galleries for use with Lightroom!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

9 comments:

Outdoor Images said...

Several have been kind enough to leave a donation. For those that have, send me an email and I will reply with a link to the Advanced User's Guide.

Thanks for the support!

Anonymous said...

Do donations given directly to Joe count? ;-)

Anonymous said...

Wow! I really like all the examples. this also answered some of the questions I had. Thanks for putting this together! Brian.

Outdoor Images said...

Thank you, Brian!

Outdoor Images said...

Sorry! Only the donations received here count for a FREE Advanced User's Guide, but thanks for supporting Lightroom Galleries as well!

Remember, because Joe has decided that the Template remains free, I have agreed to support his efforts by donating half of the proceeds here to his development.

Thank you to everyone who has made purchases so far!

Anonymous said...

I am looking forward to using this as Kevin Ramos' web site has all the functionality I am looking for.
I did the paypal purchase for the advanced version and I guess I have to wait till the transaction is verified.

Outdoor Images said...

Yes, the immediate download system, which by the way, is the same as the one used by LRG Complete, waits for payments to be verified before the link will allow a download.

Remember, once that occurs, the link you receive in the email is good for the life of the book. The link never expires!

Thanks again for your support!

eperdos said...

can anyone point me to some sites constructed with lightroom galleries? except kevin ramos` site, that I already saw. thanks!

Outdoor Images said...

You can see the Demo sites at Lightroom Galleries web site, see LR Galleries Demos. Also, check out the Forums at Lightroom Galleries as there are many people who have listed their live site and test site.