B.T. - Linking, File Locations, and Publishing

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Batch Thumbs creates thumbnails and the Web Pages work great on your hard drive, but what happens when you want to upload everything to your web site?

This is not a clear cut answer, and it takes some understanding of how your web site is set up.

The best way (in my opinion) is to set up a folder structure that matches the one on your website. Then use the Relative Referencing for linking in the HTML options.

Example 1 - One big folder for all files (images and html)
Example 2 - Separate folders for images and html

Example #1 - You just have one big location to store all your stuff at your website. All images and html files are thrown in together. Or, you have never created sub-folders under your main location and don't know how or don't wish to do so. For this scenario, I would recommend making your image and html file names unique but understandable to you, so that later when you want to update or delete them you can find them easily.

In the Input File Selection screen (the first screen you see when B.T. starts) create a new folder and call it anything you like. Just make sure you can find it later when you're ready to publish to your web site. Let's say you made a folder called C:\Documents\BTFiles. First copy all the image files you want to create thumbnails for into that folder. I call those the Originals. If they don't have unique names, use the Rename Files option to change the file names to something recognizable. For example, I have a digital camera that saves pictures with a name something like DSC00171.jpg. This doesn't mean much, so I rename them to something like FamReunion001.jpg. That way I at least know roughly what the picture is without opening it. Once you're satisfied that the Originals are named appropriately, Select All from the newly created folder and click Next.

In the Output File Options screen, use the same folder for storing the Thumbs: C:\Documents\BTFiles. Use the Output File name option of Qualifier As Prefix with File Name, and use a prefix name that makes sense or keeps the names unique. I like to use T, Thm, ThumbnailOf, Small, Mini, or something that lets me know later that this file is not the Original. Click Next.

Continue with the thumbnail creation process, and choose the Do HTML! option when the thumbs are completed. By default, B.T. will suggest storing the HTML file in the same folder with the thumbs. This is exactly what should happen, but I would suggest choosing a new name for the HTML file that matches the subject of the Originals. For example FamReunion.htm. Again, it makes it easier later to remember what the heck this file is for. Click OK.

The part of the HTML options that are of interest are the linking options. Use the relative reference option, which should have blanks in the location boxes:

The other HTML options don't much matter, you can set them to whatever pleases you. Complete the process by clicking OK, view the Editor window, and click OK to close it also. You can then click OK instead of Do HTML! to go back to opening B.T. screen.

You're done with Batch Thumbs, and now it's time to upload your files to your website. There are various methods to do this, use whatever your web space provider suggests or requires. You basically have to upload all the files in the C:\Documents\BTFiles folder that you created earlier. Then, to reference your file through your browser, it's http://www.yoursite.com/FamReunion.htm, or however you refer to the root folder for your site.

Example #2 - You have a separate folder to store images, and a separate folder to store html (web pages). This makes house keeping a little easier, as far as maintaining your web site. You still need to use unique names for your Original and Thumbnail images to make it easy to identify them. For this example, we'll assume that your web site has a folder structure of:

http://www.mysite.com/yourname/
- html
- images

html is the root folder, and you don't have to use it as part of the URL for opening web pages (this is an assumption for this example, not a fact). images is a folder beneath the html folder. If you used an FTP program to look at your site, when you opened the html folder you would see several files that end with .htm or .html, and also a folder called images. The thing I'm trying to get across here is that 'images' is one folder below 'html'.

On your local hard drive, create a folder structure that matches the one for your website. Using the same name as in Example #1, create a folder called C:\Documents\html and another folder called C:\Documents\html\images. Although there is no 'Documents' folder on your web site, the two new folders have the same relative relationship and the same names. This will enable you to upload the files to the corresponding web folders without making any changes to the web pages generated by B.T.

First copy all the image files you want to create thumbnails for into the C:\Documents\html\images folder. I call those the Originals. If they don't have unique names, use the Rename Files option to change the file names to something recognizable. For example, I have a digital camera that saves pictures with a name something like DSC00171.jpg. This doesn't mean much, so I rename them to something like FamReunion001.jpg. That way I at least know roughly what the picture is without opening it. Once you're satisfied that the Originals are named appropriately, Select All from the newly created images folder and click Next.

In the Output File Options screen, use the same folder for storing the Thumbs: C:\Documents\html\images. Use the Output File name option of Qualifier As Prefix with File Name, and use a prefix name that makes sense or keeps the names unique. I like to use T, Thm, ThumbnailOf, Small, Mini, or something that lets me know later that this file is not the Original. Click Next.

Continue with the thumbnail creation process, and choose the Do HTML! option when the thumbs are completed. By default, B.T. will suggest storing the HTML file in the same folder with the thumbs. We want the HTML file(s) to fo into the C:\Documents\html folder, so in the dialog change to that folder. I would suggest choosing a new name for the HTML file that matches the subject of the Originals. For example FamReunion.htm. Again, it makes it easier later to remember what the heck this file is for. It should look something like:

Click OK.

The part of the HTML options that are of interest are the linking options. Use the relative reference option, which should show the images folder in the location box:

You're done with Batch Thumbs, and now it's time to upload your files to your website. There are various methods to do this, use whatever your web space provider suggests or requires. You have to upload all the files in the C:\Documents\html folder to your web site's correspondinh html folder. Then copy all the contents of the C:\Documents\html\images folder to your web site's corresponding images folder. Then, to reference your file through your browser, it's http://www.yoursite.com/FamReunion.htm, or however you refer to the root folder for your site.

As long as you create a directory structure on your hard drive that matches the one on your web site, you should be fine using Relative references.