JAlbum/Glossary
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This is a glossary of the major terms you will encounter when working with jAlbum. The terms are described and a link to the most relevant help page. You can use the 'Search' box on the left to find other pages where the term is also used.
Account profile
The settings required for jAlbum to upload your album to your web site.
Advanced Preferences
Preferences that are, generally, for setting or changing advanced technical options.
Album
An album is a collection of images, videos, folders etc. and support files, such as CSS and JavaScript, that together form a web site. The album is the collection of files in the output directory. The output directory can either be within the project directory or under a nominated 'web' directory
jAlbum>Preferences>Album>Output directory location
Album Preferences
Settings that are related to the albums created from your project files.
Announcements
News and information about updates etc. announced in the jAlbum window.
A menu that provides options that are based on the currently selected item(s), or the position of the cursor within the application's window.
jAlbum>Explore>Contextual Menu
Edit Mode
The mode of operation used to edit a particular file or folder within your project.
Effects
"Effects" are image filters that are applied to all scaled, but not to original, images of an album.
Email Notifications
Emails sent to the email address you used to register your jAlbum account
jAlbum>Website>Settings>E-mail
Explore mode
The mode used to navigate, add, rename and move files and folders within your project.
External Tools
Bundled and downloadable scripts that perform specific functions, such as batch make album and reset jAlbum to factory defaults.
FFMPEG
Is a complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video. It is installed and used by jAlbum the first time a project includes a video file.
Folder
A container for other folders and files, also called a directory. A subfolder is NOT a 'sub-album'
General Preferences
Settings that affect how the application itself works. jAlbum>Preferences>General
Golden Ratio
Imagine a line made up of two segments, A and B, The ratio of A+B to A is the same as the ratio of A to B. This ratio is known as the Golden Ratio, it has been known about for thousands of years and appears often in nature. Used as bounds for a rectangular image of dimensions A and A+B then A = 1.6180339887*B. If B has a value of 5 then A will be 8.090.
jAlbum>Edit>Image Editing>2.4 Crop>Predefined ratio
Image directory
At the root level of a project, this is the directory that contains all of your project files, also known as the 'Project directory', the default location is set in “My Albums location”. The image directory can contain subdirectories.
jAlbum>Settings>General>Image directory
Integrated browser
A built-in web browser (WebView) to make previewing changes to an album, following adjustments to skin settings, more efficient.
Keyboard shortcuts and modifiers
The combination of keystrokes that perform, or modify, menu commands and mouse actions.
Keyboard shortcuts and modifiers
Link
Also known as a shortcut, it points to the file of interest, saving hard disc space by not having multiple copies of the file. A small curved arrow in the lower left of the thumbnail indicates the item is a link to a file. Broken links are indicated by a large red 'X' over the thumbnail, broken links occur if you move the original files.
Main Menu
The bar along the top of the screen (or application window for Windows users) that contains the application’s menus.
My Albums location
This is the default location in which new projects (root image directories) will be added.
jAlbum>Preferences>Album>Projects directory
Output directory
The directory that contains the completed album. The default location is a subdirectory of the image directory called album, it can be changed to any other location. The default is set in jAlbum>Preferences>Album>Output directory location Individual projects output location can be set in jAlbum>Settings>General>Output directory
Pane
A subsection of the application's graphical user interface (GUI) that shows specific information, such as your project’s files and folders.
Preferences
Settings that affect performance and operation rather than style. These settings once set tend not to need changing. jAlbum>Preferences
Preview Mode
Displays the album, if enabled in jAlbum’s General Preferences, using the bundled web browser.
Profile page
On jAlbum.net the page that holds you account settings, messages, albums, and any skins you have released. It is accessed by going to username.jalbum.net
Project
A collection of files and folders stored in the selected image directory.
Project Gallery
The project gallery can display previews of the albums to be made by jAlbum projects in the 'Recent list' or the 'My albums' folder
Publishing
The act of uploading a completed album to a web host so as to make the album available over the internet.
Publish to your jAlbum.net account Publish to your own site
Publishing Preferences
Settings that affect the uploading of your album to a web host.
Recent Projects
A list of the projects that you have recently opened.
Res Folder
A directory that forms part of a skin and which is copied across to the album during the album build process. It can also be used in the project directory were it's files will overwrite or add to the albums res folder.
jAlbum>Where are my files>User Files & Folders
Settings
Allows the user to select a particular setting from choices available or to enter their own data in the appropriate places.
Settings File
A file that contains all of the settings used to for a particular project, the default name is jalbum-settings.jap but any name can be used if “Save Project Settings As…” is used from the File Menu.
jAlbum>Menus>File>Save Project Settings
Sign In/Out
Sign into or out of the application to access more features.
Skin
A selection of files that operate together with jAlbum to generate an album. The skin controls the design of the actual album. Skins can be downloaded and installed or written by the user from scratch.
Skin information
Details about the skin such as author, version, features etc.
jAlbum>Welcome>Skin & Style>Skin info
Skin Selector
The method of loading a skin into jAlbum for making an album
jAlbum>Welcome>Skin & Style>Changing skins
Skin Settings
Each skin has its own settings that affect the look and feel of the generated album as well as specific functions, such as slide shows, album navigation, external links etc.
jAlbum>Welcome>Skin & Style>Skin settings
Slide Images
Images that are, usually, scaled down versions of an original image. The size of the image is defined in Image settings.
jAlbum>Settings>Images>Images bounds
System Console
The window that holds logs of jAlbums operations and any errors. It can also be used to run small snippets of code. Error information can help identify the cause of an error which may produce a warning, or prevent jAlbum from continuing to process project files. The system console can be accessed by pressing the F7 key or from the Tools Menu.
Tagging
Adding metadata such as a star rating, flag or keyword.
Template Pages
Pages that can be added to a project, usually bundled with a skin, to generate specific types of web pages in your album.
Thumbnails
Small images representing a slide, original or hi-res image or other file. The size of the image is defined in Image settings.
jAlbum>Settings>Images>thumbnail bounds
Tools Menu
Main menu item giving access to a variety of functions that supplement jAlbum's operation and capabilities.
User Variables
jAlbum variables that can be modified and variables that the user can define and use within their projects.
Variables
Variables used in the skin code to produce albums. Some skins provide easy access to these variables, such as title, label and filename.
View mode
The different ways of displaying and interacting with projects and their contents. The view modes are Edit, Explore, Preview, Review and Share.
Web location
Web location lets you link to pages published to the web, so you can link to other albums.
jAlbum>Explore>The toolbar>New page>Web location
? Unexplained Events
And finally ;)
App Trolls™
Evil beings who sneak into a user's PC and change obscure settings from their default values. Their visits are usually accompanied by protestations of innocence by the user: "I have no idea how that got changed!!!!"
Code Gnomes™
Malignant creatures who invade a developer's computer and damage his finely crafted code. Jaded skeptics maintain that these are actually just entities to act as fall guys for bad coding that results in weird and/or hard to track down errors. This reveals how little they know.
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