After much gnashing of teeth and installing the "bridge" software many times, we now have a robust, well supported media gallery!  Gallery2 is a widely used product for uploading, managing, and sharing your pictures.  It can even store audio and video.

Here's how I have it set up:

• Each user gets his/her own Photo Album.
• You can add photos there, or create more albums in order to group photos by topic.
• You have total control over how your albums are organized.
• I have also created "archive" albums for alumni photos (reunions and other events, school era photos, etc.). Anyone who wishes to upload into one of those collections should create the album in their personal area, add their photos, and then message me to move them.  It's a very easy process.

Uploading takes on an interesting twist.  There are 2 or more methods listed on the tabs, each with benefits and limitations.  While the From Web Browser option works fine, you can only upload a few photos at a time, and each file must be selected individually!

If you have authority to install programs and registry updates to your computer, you may opt for the Gallery Remote or the Windows Publishing Wizard.  It has the look and feel of a regular windows application, and you can run either a regular program installed on your PC, or you can choose the Java Webstart version, which is slower but requires no installation.

For most users, I recommend the Upload Applet, which can be found if you:
1.  Click Your Album in the top/right corner.  
2.  If you want to upload the photos into a new ablum, create it first, open it by clicking it, then start the next step.
3.  From there, you can click the Add A Photo link, the Edit link in the bottom/left corner, or Add an Item in the left sidebar.  It's your choice!
4.  Once you click one of the above links, two tabs appear.  Click Upload Applet and follow the directions.  The display will look a bit..."off".  Just overlook that for now!  Just drag the photo file(s) into the left window pane.
5.  Now, click the Upload button at the bottom of the right pane.
6.  Click the Your Album link to see you photos!

If you see a bunch of photos you want to snatch from someone else's albums, use the Shopping Cart!  It collects the pictures until you "check out," and then you just select the action to download a .zip file.  So easy, it's scary!

Enjoy!!