In this posting, we are providing a step-by-step tutorial for using the Journal feature to easily publish photos, text, etc using Apple's iPhoto iOS App for iPads/iPhones. However, if you don't have an iOS device, or just want to keep using iWeb to make all of your site changes, you are going to need to set up hosting with an entirely new company & reupload/move your website to their servers (yes you can cancel your subscription with Apple and keep your site). Apple inexplicably recommends GoDaddy for this, but we can certainly provide support and other recommendations- just give us a call if you need any help.
We believe this will meet the requirements of photographers, designers, and artists working within the entertainment / advertising / commercial film & television businesses who have been searching for a replacement to the ever-popular Apple iWeb photo publishing/sharing software previously provided with MobileMe. In transitioning to iCloud, subscribers are informed that as of June 2012 Apple will be sunsetting iWeb.
All you’ll need is an Apple mobile device, the $5 iPhoto App and an iCloud account. In fact, as of this writing you cannot create or edit your journal on a computer or via iCloud’s website - only on iOS meaning only on your iPad or iPhone. The app autosaves everything as you create & edit, in real time; however, any edits you make to individual photos in the iPhoto app reflect in your published Journal online.
For an example website with three separate Journals, click here.
The greatest benefit of the Journal feature is that you can create multiple Journals, and choose which Journals are visible from your main website. Meaning, you have the option to set visibility i.e. share a single Journal with a client, or a homepage that contains all of your visible Journals.
If you've worked with iWeb previously this feature needs no further explanation. But if you're unfamiliar, here is an example. One of our cWTF newsletter contributors also works as a Set Designer. Often she will prep 2 jobs simultaneously for different clients, e.g. one for a Home Depot commercial and one for Lowe's. Part of the collaboration between client, director, and designer requires a dialogue regarding the different set decoration elements- the designer will upload (previously using iWeb) pictures of sofas, chairs, and tables for the client's and photographer's review. Obviously it's in the designer's best interest to treat all clients as if they're the only client (especially if they are competitors), so the "Add to Home Page" feature is crucial in controlling who sees your Journals by setting each one as public or private so they don't link to one another. We will illustrate this below under the PUBLISH section of the tutorial.
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A homepage containing three publicly shared Journals
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Preamble:
It works best if you have a game plan / layout for your website first, at least w/r/t architecture and navigation (i.e. number of pages, page titles/categories, etc). However if you want to design on the fly as you go, that works too; it’s a little extra work moving pictures around between the pages, but it is doable.
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| The plan for our Journal website, main page and sub-pages |
For demonstration purposes, we’re going to use screenshots from the iPhoto iPad app, but basic principles and screens would translate to the iPhone version of the app.
To create a basic online Journal (“website”):
- Launch iPhoto
- Tap Albums
- Select a photo for the landing page of your Journal
- Click the Share icon
then tap Journal
- Tap Selected to use the photo you just selected as the Home page pic
- Name your new Journal - we’ve called it “Thomas’ iWeb Replacement”
- Choose your style from the scrolling list - we’ve chosen Dark
- Tap Create Journal, then Show
STRUCTURE:
Now we’re going to add other pages to the Journal:- Click Edit in the top right
- Tap the + sign and tap Page
- When you click the button in the top center (which says “Page 1” to start) you will see a list of pages in your site. You may also double-tap the name, or page title, and rename them. [You can also select a page from the list and either Remove or Combine it, or tap Show Page to jump to that page in your site.]
- Keep repeating steps 1-3 for as many pages as you want in your Journal. For this example, we’ve created a Home page and 3 sub-pages:
Now that your architecture is setup, it’s time to add images to your Journal. We’re going to start by importing the photos we want into each subpage:
- Click Journals in the top left and return to your Albums / Photos / Events
- Select the image you want to import into a single subpage of your Journal - alternatively you can select an entire album, or group of photos
- To select multiple photos, navigate into an album, click the gear in the bottom right, and tap “Select multiple” then choose the pics you want (on the iPhone you’ll have to press the EDIT button first to make the gear appear)
- Once you’ve selected your pics, tap Share then tap Journal, then Selected
- Tap Journal to display a list of Journals, and select the title of your newly created Journal
- Then tap Page to choose the subpage on which to display your selected photos (Automatic will add them to the selected Journal's home page)
- Tap Add to Journal
- Follow the above steps for each subpage in your Journal
- Go to any page on your Journal
- Tap Edit, then +, then Text to create a text box
- Double click in the text box to add text
- There are other pre-defined elements that you can add to your site to give it a scrapbook feel, like notes, memories, etc
- Go to any page on your Journal
- From here, you can tap any photo, text block, header, or other element to select it, and drag the corner handles to resize, drag to move it around and add captions to any of the photos by tapping Add Caption
- Tap a text box and from the pop up menu choose how you’d like to display the text (in a grid or full-width) or delete it
- Grid mode will justify the text in the box to the width of the text box’s borders
- You can also tap once to select an element, then choose further options from the pop-up submenu - for example, tap an element and choose Remove from the menu to clear it from your page (this will not erase any photos from your device’s library) or tap a photo and choose Edit to apply further enhancements
- The enhancements will appear in icon menus across the bottom of the screen in Edit mode - click the ? icon at the top to see further details about the additional photo editing features like exposure, brushes, effects, rotation, etc
- Add placeholders by choosing Space from the + menu to create a blank space which you can organize and drag your photos, headers, and text boxes around to allow for the layout you desire
- From any page, tap Share, tap iCloud
- Slide Publish to iCloud to the On position
- Tap Tell a Friend to compose an email with the link to your Journal’s home page already in the body of the message
- Tap View in Safai to view your site live (or preview it if you haven’t shared the link yet)
- Tap Copy Link to copy the direct URL to the clipboard, where you can Paste it into any new email message or document
- Use Goo.gl or bit.ly or any other link shortener if you want a direct link that’s not so long and ugly
- Slide Add to Home Page to On if you want to make the Journal visible from the main “master” page of your iCloud Journals website, which also means visitors to that individual Journal will be able to jump to other Journals stored in your iCloud
BONUS:
- To select a Cover thumbnail for a Journal to be displayed on the Main Journals page:
- Navigate into the journal and find the picture you want to select for the thumbnail cover.
- Tap Edit in top right corner
- Tap on the photo you want to set as the cover, the tap Edit (the one that pops up, not the button in top right)
- Then tap the gear
- You'll see the option to set as key photo.
- Ability to edit from iPhoto on an actual computer (...maybe in iPhoto 12?)
- Ability to edit the Main Journals “master” homepage content & layout
- Add your own in the comments section!
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