How to Create an Online Photo Album

Want to show off your new baby to your family? Have an audience clamoring for photos of your restored 1953 Ford Mustang? Create an online photo album to display your photographs and images.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Choose the appropriate photos to be displayed. Ideally, you want to keep the number of photographs under 20, unless you are planning to create different categories for each photo (i.e., Hannah as a Newborn, Hannah at 3 Months, etc.). Make sure the photographs are well-lit and the subjects are clear.

1. Read the 'How to Transfer Photographs onto a Computer' (Related eHow's).

2. Once you have transferred your photographs to your computer, create a special folder for them. Name the folder appropriately (carscans) so you will be able to find it later.

If you don't know HTML or how to create a web page, you can take advantage of several online photo album services, many of them free. They give step by step instructions for downloading your photos, creating captions and even guestbooks for visitors to sign.

3. Type 'free online photo album' or 'online photo album' into a search engine. Review the displayed list of sites.

4. Choose a site that best suits your needs. For example, photos of your newborn might fit best at a site called babiesonline.com, while photos of your classic car may find a home on Zing.com.

5. Visit the 'Guide to Free Online Photo Albums' (see related links) for a comparison chart listing what each site offers and their requirements.

If you have a web site or your Internet Service Provider offers you a certain amount of webspace with your account, you may want to create your own photo album. This section requires a knowledge of HTML or a web design application.

6. Contact your ISP and find out how much web space is available; obtain all required passwords and information for transferring to your web site.

7. Read 'How to Find Free Webspace' (see Related eHow's) to learn how to find a free website to display your photographs.

8. Read 'How to Begin a Web Page' (see Related eHow's) to learn how to create a web page.

9. Once you have created a web page, insert a table in the web page (see 'How to Insert a Table in a Web Page', Related eHow's).

10. Create a smaller (thumbnail) version of each photo you wish to display. Thumbnails keep a page small and allow users to choose which photograph they want to see.

11. Link each thumbnail to the larger version of the image.

12. Save the page and preview it in a browser. Click on each photo to check the link.

13. Upload your page to your website. Be sure to upload all of the photos.

Tips & Warnings

• Some web design programs include photo insertion tools. For example, Microsoft FrontPage 2000 has a 'thumbnail' tool that will automatically create a smaller version of a photograph and save it as a new file.

on 2/21/2006 Airtight Interactive has a great, easy-to-use gallery creation tool called SimpleViewer. If you have web space, you're already halfway done. If not, plenty of places offer free web space.