Manually alphabetized albums and categories index.

[cgc0202]

Hi,

I use the latest 1.4.8 version with the corresponding Stramm plugin.

In all the versions of CPG I have used, I decided to place the category listing at the bottom of the page, instead of its usual placement at the top.  I also use the default php to place  customized text at the top and near the bottom of the page.  At the top of the page, I included an alphabetized list (A-Z index), to include manually the list of albums and categories, to make it easier for visitors to find albums and categories.  The A-Z index itself was included in the customized "anycontent.php" created for the very top of the page.

[I found the inclusion of the A-Z index necessary because, from my own experience, the process of  finding the correct albums or categories through the category listing to be cumbersome.  Also, the latter procedure requires prior understanding of the categorization of the albums.  This process is not necessarily intuitive as far as visitors or a "passerby" viewer is concerned.]

The other advantage of listing albums and categories, in respective pages for each of the A-Z index, is that I can link other photo albums or categories, even if they are found in other CPG galleries.  I can even include those created in CPG pages found in different domains or subdomains.

Anyway, I have pretested this and it works.  I need to create 26 separate  php pages for the letters A-Z (more if I have other numbers or symbols), where I could manually add the albums and categories. [Note: I am aware of the modules for other automated A-Z listing indicated in the forum but after investigating what they were customized for or  how they work, they do not suit my purpose.]

My main question is this:  How can these php pages be customized so that they will have the page layout of each theme?  Or, at least have the appearance of the default theme I have chosen.

If possible, I wish to include the navigation links at the top and at the bottom of the gallery page.  The only difference is that instead of the thumbnail photos and category listing usually appearing on a CPG page, the one that will appear in that section would be the manually listed albums and categories.

Right now, I could make any of the A-Z index pages (trial test only), but without the other navigations links found in a CPG page as indicated above.  I used php pages in an attempt to include the customized pages for the top and bottom (created from the "anycontent.php"), but the said customized top and bottom sections do not work with the "include" php command script.

I checked the personal page of Abbas Ali (http://www.abbasali.net/) for his gallery, and he was able to create independent pages using at least the color and appearance of his preferred them -- to go along with his photogallery.  At the very least, I hope to achieve something like that for the the various A-Z index pages.

Any suggestions will be welcome.  Thanks.

cgc0202

[Note:  I have created many functional  CPG pages with no problems in regard installation or layouting. The layout has been changed also from the custom layout for the themes I adopted. 

The CPG pages I created work but I am not satisfied with the speed, so none of the CPG websites I have created so far are permanent websites.  I do not wish to include a URL link of any of the website here because I am likely to erase the website in the future, until I find solutions to "speed of page appearance"  problems I encountered with my various experimentations -- once I have included more photos into an album.

I will PM you the URL of the recent page I am experimenting with, if you plan to address the issue presented here.]