Making your own templates

If you are familiar with editing web pages, you can make your own web page and thumbnail index templates. Templates are just web pages that contain special codes that are recognized by The Panorama Factory.

The following sections explain the special codes you’ll need to place in your template web pages. For the templates to be recognized by The Panorama Factory, you must place them in the templates folder inside the folder on your computer that contains The Panorama Factory application. On Windows, this is normally:

C:\Program Files\Smoky City Design\The Panorama Factory\templates

On Mac, the templates folder is in The Panorama Factory’s Resources folder. Assuming you installed PFactory.app into /Applications, the easiest way to open this folder is:

1. Open a Finder window.

2. Choose the "Go to folder" command from Finder's "Go" menu. A dialog box will appear for you to type the folder name.

3. Enter "/Applications/PFactory.app/Contents/Resources/templates" into the dialog box and click the "Go" button.

At startup, The Panorama Factory searches this folder for all .HTML files that appear to be valid templates. If you create new templates or modify existing ones, you must exit and restart The Panorama Factory application for it to recognize the changes.

Creating a web page template
Creating a thumbnail index template

Creating a web page template

To create a web page template, start by creating an ordinary web page. You can use a text editor or your favorite web page editor. To follow the instructions in this section, you need to be familiar with web page creation. It is beyond the scope of this user’s guide to instruct you on web page creation.

For the web page to be recognized by The Panorama Factory as a valid template, it must appear in the templates folder inside the The Panorama Factory application folder. The file name must end with a .HTML or .HTM extension.

The web page template must also contain the following special “hidden tag” (HTML comment):

The hidden tag may appear anywhere within the HTML file, but it is probably best to put it between <head> and </head>.

You place special codes within the web page. The Panorama Factory replaces these special codes when it inserts the image into the template.

=image=Place this code where you want the image to appear within the web page.

=title=Place this code where you want the image’s title text to appear within the web page.

=description=Place this code where you want the image’s description text to appear within the web page.

You must give your web page template a “friendly name” that will be appear in the Template for new web pages dropdown list on the Save Image As dialog box. Put this name between <title> and </title>. The Panorama Factory will replace this with the image’s title text when it inserts the image into the template.

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Creating a thumbnail index template

To create a thumbnail index template, start by creating an ordinary web page. You can use a text editor or your favorite web page editor. To follow the instructions in this section, you need to be familiar with web page creation. It is beyond the scope of this user’s guide to instruct you on web page creation.

The thumbnail index template must also contain the following special “hidden tag” (HTML comment):

<!—thumbtemplate width=“...” height=“...” method=“...” insert=“...” file=“...” -->

The hidden tag may appear anywhere within the HTML file, but it is probably best to put it between <head> and </head>. The thumbtemplate tag contains attributes. Just as in ordinary HTML tags, the attributes may be quoted with single or double quotes or may be unquoted if they are simple strings. Note that the parameters should not include any greater-than-signs (>) or two hypens (--) because this have special meaning inside HTML comments.

width=The default maximum thumbnail width. This will be displayed in the Thumbnail index properties dialog box when you select the template. Default if omitted: 120.

height=The default maximum thumbnail height. This will be displayed in the Thumbnail index properties dialog box when you select the template. Default if omitted: 80.

method=
The default method to use for creating thumbnail images. This will be displayed in the Thumbnail index properties dialog box when you select the template. Must be one of these strings:
“scale to fit” “scale to fit height and crop” “scale to fit width and crop”Default if omitted: “scale to fit height and crop”.

insert=
The default position for inserting new thumbnail images. This will be displayed in the Thumbnail index properties dialog box when you select the template. Must be one of these strings:
“ insert newest thumbnail first” “ insert newest thumbnail last”Default if omitted: “insert newest thumbnail first”.

file=
The name of a supporting file to be copied into the destination directory when the thumbnail index page is created. This may be, for example, a JPG file or another HTML file. You may include as many file= attributes as necessary. Default if omitted: none.

You must include an HTML <DIV>...</ DIV > to indicate where to insert the thumbnails within the web page. The ID=“” attribute of this DIV tag must be the name “thumbnails”. If this DIV does not appear within the HTML file, it won’t be recognized as a valid thumbnail index template.

The interior of the <DIV>...</ DIV > must contain a single example of the HTML code you want to use for each thumbnail. It will normally contain an <img ...> for the thumbnail image, an <a>...</a> for the hyperlink to the web page and a placeholder for the image’s title text. You place special codes within the thumbnail’s HTML code. The Panorama Factory replaces these special codes when it inserts the image into the template.

=thumb=Place this code where you want the name of the thumbnail image file to appear within the web page. You will normally use this in the SRC=“” attribute of an HTML <img ...> tag.

=page=Place this code where you want the name of the web page file to appear within the web page. You will normally use this in the HREF=“” attribute of an HTML <a ...> tag.

=title=Place this code where you want the image’s title text to appear within the web page. You will normally use this as ordinary text, outside of HTML markup.

=description=Place this code where you want the image’s description text to appear within the web page. Because the description text is usually relatively long, you may wish to omit this from your thumbnail index template.

Three other substitutions are performed inside the thumbnail’s <img ...> tag.

width=“...”
If the width attribute appears within the thumbnail’s <img ...>, the value is updated with the actual width of the thumbnail image file.

height=“...”
If the height attribute appears within the thumbnail’s <img ...>, the value is updated with the actual width of the thumbnail image file.

alt=“...”
If the alt attribute appears within the thumbnail’s <img ...>, the value is updated with the image’s title text.

You must give your web page template a “friendly name” that will be appear in the Template for new index dropdown list on the Thumbnail index properties dialog box. Put this name between <title> and </title>. The Panorama Factory will replace this with the title you enter as the Title for new index when it creates the thumbnail index file.

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