First, you must have a FTP account with adangapurathu.in. An email was sent to all the registered users who requested a ftp account. If you have not received your own ftp account and would like one send an email requesting it.

Second, you need to download a free program called JAlbum from download.com or from JAlbum's website

Save the downloaded file in a directory which you know how to access. To make it easy, you may want to save it on your desktop. Double-click the file that you have saved and follow the steps to install the programs on your computer.

You now have all of the tools needed to transfer (upload) pictures from your computer to the server where the family website is currently hosted!

JAlbum is an excellent program with a lot of advanced features for creating great albums - you can explore all these features at your convenience but the following provides BASIC instructions to create an attractive album that can be uploaded for viewing on the web.

First, open the JAlbum program: go to "File"........"New Album Project"......a window will open and you name the album whatever you wish

Click on the green plus sign (+) at the top left of the screen and another window will open which will enable you to choose the directory where you have the pictures stored on your computer that you wish to have viewed on the internet. Select all the pictures that you would like to upload. You can select multiple pictures at one time. If you want to select all the pictures in the directory, just click on the first one and then click "Control" and "A" at the same time and it will automatically select all the files. If you want to select only some of the pictures then click on the first picture you want to select and then keep holding the "Control" key down, as you click on each image that you would like to select.

Once you have all the pictures you want to select then click on "Add" to put the pictures into the album. If the pictures you want to select are in more than one directory, you can select pictures in the first directory as described above and click on "Add" and then click on the green plus sign (+) again and select the pictures that are in any other directory using the process described.

Now select the "skin" option shown on the left middle of the screen - the default skin is "chameleon" which is the skin used for most of the pictures in the photo gallery to date. If you select any other skin, a sample image will appear to show you what the end result will look like.

Once you have selected the skin, then select the "style" option. Again, each choice will show you a sample of what the end result will look like.

Then go to "settings" where the "general" tab will provide you with the option of where you would like to install the files for the album which will be created, on your computer. You can use the default selection or choose some other directory. Just make sure that you remember where you have chosen to save the files.

Then go to the "Images" tab and change the size of the image if you would like to do so. The default size is "720X540" but most of the images shown on the photo galleries on the website are "640X640".

Proceed to the "Chameleon" tab and then select the "Images" tab and on "Text to Display" change it from "bottom" to "top" - this will show any description of the image on the top as opposed to the bottom. Also, remove the tick mark on "Use Label if there is no Comment" by clicking on it. What this means is that if you don't have any comments or description it will not show the name of the image file as it appears on your computer. Both these are matters of personal preference. Next, go to the "Slide Page" and you have the option of changing long how it takes for images to change during the slide show. The default is 3 secs. Most of the albums on the website have either 4 or 5 secs. Again, this is a matter of personal preference. One can make that change while watching the slide show but only if the user knows how to do it.

Once you have made these changes, click "Close"

Now double click on the first image that you see on the program and enter any comments or description of the image and then click on "Next" to do the same for each succeeding image. Once you have entered all the comments/descriptions, click on "OK".

You are almost done - now click on "Make Album" and at this point you can either choose to "view album" you just created on your computer or just click on "Close" if you don't want to view it. Finally, click on "File" and "Save Album Project". Once saved, it will show you at the bottom of the screen precisely where on your computer the files have been saved

Now it is time to upload it on to the server at the hosting company so that it can be viewed on the internet. Go to "Tools" at the top of the screen and then to "Publish". A window will open and if it is the first time you are doing this, you will click on "Add". Don't click on "Create an Account" because this is necessary only if one does not already have a hosting company. The family website does - and so you don't need to create another hosting account especially since it will cost you money to do so.

After clicking on "Add" the cursor will appear on "Server Name". You would enter the server name, username and password that was provided to you in the email authorizing your FTP account. Then click on "Connect" and once you connect to the server it will open up the directory that was assigned to you as part of your FTP account.

You are strongly advised to create sub-directories so that your various photo galleries can be distinguished. You create a sub-directory by clicking on the first yellow folder symbol shown at the top of the window after the connection is established. You then name the directory with some simple logical name because it will be needed in the link address for viewing the pictures. The name for the sub-directory does not need to be the same as the name you gave to the album. Double click on the new sub-directory you just created and then click on "Upload all". This will transfer all the album files to the server. You are now able to view the pictures on the net.

What address does one enter as a link to view the pictures? All addresses will have the primary domain name ie adangapurathu.in. The next part of the address will have the directory name that was assigned to you as part of your FTP account. For example if the ftp directory name assigned to you was "john", then the address would at this point read adangapurathu.in/john/. Suppose you created a sub-directory called vacation2007 after connecting to the server and uploaded the album to that sub-directory, then the address to see the pictures will be www.adangapurathu.in/john/vacation2007/. Note how the sub-directory created was named vacation2007 as opposed to vacation 2007. Both will work but the latter is will be more straightforward than the former - because one does not have to deal with the space between the two words. Also keep in mind that upper case versus lower case letters does matter. The address has to match exactly with the directory and sub-directory, etc in which the album is uploaded on the server.