Before you start to read this guide, try to see following video which explains the fastest way to create a gallery on a web page:
 
 
Let's say you want to upload all your family photos to your Joomla! website, using Phoca Gallery. You will have the following Categories:
  • Birthdays
  • Holidays
  • Pets
  • Sports

You will have subfolders too:

  • Birthdays » Dad, Mum, Jonny, Susie
  • Holidays » Italy » France » Spain
  • Pets » Dog, Cat
  • Sports » Football, Squash, Tennis

Installing
First download Phoca Gallery and install it using the Joomla! Extensions Manager. If you have any problems see this article.

Uploading Images
If you aren't interested in naming every picture then the easiest thing to do is to use FTP or Joomla Media Manager to create the same folder structure as you categories will be. So create the folder Birthdays with the subfolders Dad, Mom etc. Then get your folder of all Dad's photos, make sure that the photos are all oriented the right way, and FTP the folder into joomla/images/phocagallery/Birthdays. Do the same for all the other folders.

Creating Categories and Adding Images
Then you need to tell Phoca Gallery that these images are there. Go to Joomla » Admin » Components » Phoca Gallery » Images, and choose [Multiple Add]. You will see all of the folders you created of the Categories (Birthdays, Holidays etc.). Tick the folders, and then click [Save]. You will see a screen showing the thumbnails being created. If problems occur, see this article

Create a menu link
Finally you need to create Menu links to each Category. Go to Menu » Main Menu » [New]. Choose Phoca Gallery » Phoca Gallery Category List Layout. Give this the title "Photos" and click [Save]

You are finished now. You have one new Menu Item (Photos) with a list of all your categories. The last thing to do is to send the link to Grandma so she can share your happy times.

Changing appearance:

  • If you want to change the appearance (colors) of your Gallery then see themes
  • If you want to hide all the subcategories or change something else, you can change this in the Phoca Gallery parameters (Components » Phoca Gallery » Control Panel » [Parameters])