In your sea of galleries, make an island for each event you shoot.

Our Event Management tools help simplify browsing and buying so your visitors don't get lost. Let them view their galleries all on one page and easily tag their favorites.

Create your event

Check out the Pros tab in your Control Panel and you'll see Events there.

Clicking Manage, then New Event will take you to a page where you can enter details about the occasion. Give it a name, a short description, a date, and a location. Your clients will see this information, so make it clear and informative.

We'll automatically incorporate your event name into the Event URL, but you can change it to something you like better. Keep it simple and descriptive so your guests can remember the link without a breaking a sweat.

Example: A gallery name like the above example will show the Event URL of Croquet-on-the-Lawn. The link becomes: http://nickname.smugmug.com/event/Croquet-on-the-Lawn

Customize your Event Settings

Dress up your Event page with a beautiful Slideshow. You can feature any gallery on your site, or pull up photos tagged with any keyword of your choice.

Typically, only people you set as Participants can pick and choose Favorite photos. Guest Registration allows you to make this feature available to others.

• Required: Anyone viewing the Event is prompted to register. After they enter their info, they'll receive an email with a special link. Clicking it will allow them to browse the galleries and tag Favorites.

• Suggested: Anyone viewing the Event is prompted to register, but they can decline and continue to browse the Event as a guest. The Event homepage will show a "Register to Pick Favorites" link, which they can click and register to use.

• Optional: Visitors won't be prompted to register unless they click the "Register to Pick Favorites" link at the top. Once they do, they'll get a personalized Event page and the ability to tag Favorites. However, they can decline and continue to browse the Event as a guest.

• Off: Only people you set as Participants can tag Favorites. Everyone else sees the general version of the Event.

Tip: For more detailed information about Participants, look below.

Events are unlisted by default. You can make it public or add a viewing password if you want to secure it further.

Check the Passworded Gallery Access box if you want to unlock all the galleries in the Event the first time the visitor enters the correct password.

Note: If you've opted to leave the event unlisted, we'll add a code to the end of the URL as a security measure. This way people won't accidentally stumble on your private event pages.

Gotcha: Only public galleries can be Featured on your homepage.

After you've set up the basics, click Add to select the Galleries that pertain to the event, but don't sweat it. You can create Events in the past, present and the future, so don't be afraid to get started early. If you've got a gig next month, make the event now and ask your clients to not only save the date, but the URL, too.

Share it

After you Save your event, we'll generate a permanent link for general sharing. Find that at the bottom of this page under Other Guests.

Your recipients will see the Guest Event page like a Sharegroup, meaning they get the Event details and all the galleries you selected. Click that link yourself and you can preview how the Event will look to them.

All guests viewing this general event page can see photos, buy prints, and share the event with others.

Start playing Favorites

Participants are key clients who can tag Favorites from the Event. The bride. Groom. Parents.

First, add them to your Participants and Registered Guests list. We give you space to enter a name, email addresses and notes so that you can easily identify them.

Tip: When you enter their information, we do NOT instantly generate their unique Event links. You will need to hit the Save button at the bottom of the page to "solidify" the process and update all the changes you've made to the page.

More about Participants, Registered Guests and Favorites

Once you've added a Participant, click their name to edit their info at any time. Click the red 'X' to flag it for deletion. They'll be permanently removed when you save the page.

When you add your Participants and save the page, notice that their personal page URL contains their name as well as the Event name. They can feel warm and fuzzy knowing they're looking in the right spot. The code at the end ensures that their page and their Favorites are safe from prying eyes.

Example: If you've created an Event for a party, you'll add the guest of honor's name and email address to your Participant list. When you save the page, we'll generate a unique, permanent link that you can share with her. Her Personal Page will look just like the general Event page, but with an additional My Favorites gallery where we'll store the photos she likes best. As she browses the Event galleries, she'll also see a special heart icon under each photo. Clicking those will place a virtual copy of that image in her Favorites folder.

Want to see her selections? You can come back to your Event Management page at any time and click the View Favorites link next to her name.

Registered Guests are people who find your Event and sign up. Once they do, they get a special Event link to pick and choose Favorites. They work just like Participants so they'll show up in the same list, but with a blue icon.

Remember that you can control who registers in your Event Settings, detailed above. You can require it of every guest browsing your Event, only people who want to use Favorites, or you can turn off registration altogether and name your own Participants.

You can always remove Participants or Registered Guests from your list.

Publicize

Now go ahead and click the little envelope to create a handy Share message. If you want, you can also send your Participants and Guests a second email that includes the general Event link (without the option to pick or view Favorites). This allows them to easily share the event with their friends.

The macros at the bottom are just shortcuts to save you time. You're free to modify the default wording, but copy and paste one of those macros to keep names and info consistent. You can even save your changes as a template for later use, or send a test message to yourself to see how it'll look to your guests.

Send those off and let your viewers have their fun!

Anything else I should know?

Just keep these tips in mind:

• Communication is key. If you haven't already added a Customer Contact Email in the Pros tab of your Control Panel, we suggest you do this so your clients can reach you. However, if you don't have an email entered there, we won't expose your contact information in the Share emails sent to your Participants and Registered Guests.

• Every person in your Participants and Registered Guests list can see all of the galleries you assign to the event as well as any comments left on the images. In contrast, each person's Favorites gallery is unique and visible only to him or herself. They can see their own Favorites gallery because they are using the special links that you gave them.

• All the Favorites galleries are Unlisted and stored under the Event Favorites category. Please do not delete or change this location, otherwise your Participants and Registered Guests can't pick Favorites!

• Each click of a heart will collect the photo from its location into the one Favorites gallery. Don't worry: We link back to the original in the photo caption field so you (and your Participants/Guests) can always find the source.

• If you remove a person from your Participants and Registered Guests list, their Favorites folder will still remain in your Event Favorites category. This is just in case they still want to view their selections, but you can delete the gallery if you wish.

• Don't forget to check your Events Management page periodically to add or remove galleries and view your Participants' and Registered Guests' picks.