Creating Media Groups

Media Groups are a great way to save, organize, and share select media. Upon registering for an account in LUNA a private Active Media Group is automatically created and named "My First Media Group". As you browse LUNA you can easily add media to your Active Media Group and create as many Media Groups as you like to then embed, link to, playback as a slide show, or use for creating presentations.  

      To create a Media Group:

1. Go to Create in the LUNA main menu and select Media Group.

2. Enter the name of the Media Group you wish to create.

3. Check Yes or No to making the Media Group public.

4. Type in a password if you want to password protect your Media Group.

5. Select a folder from the pull down menu to store your Media Group. If you have not created any folders it will default to My Groups.

6. Check the box if you want to make this group your Active Media Group.

7. Optionally, write a description of the group, up to 50 characters long, which can later be used to search Media Groups.

8. Save your Media Group.

Creating a Folder for Media Groups

Media Groups can be listed individually or saved into a folder. To organize your Media Groups use the Create Folders function.

Your Active Media Group

As soon as you register an account in LUNA , an Active Media Group is created. This first Active Media Group is titled "My First Media Group." As you browse content in a collection you can add this content to your Active Media Group .

Adding media to a Media Group

Checking what is already in your Active Media Group

While browsing LUNA and looking for content to add to your Active Media Group you might want to check to make sure you haven't already added that content. For a quick reference to see what is already in your Active Media Group, open the Active Media Group panel located at the bottom of LUNA.

Changing your Active Media Group

You can easily change which group is your Active Media Group from the Active Media Group pull down menu located at the bottom of the page.

Viewing and Managing Media Groups

By clicking on the title of a Media Group you can view the media in that group as a page of thumbnails.

From this page of thumbnails you can also do the following with your Media Group:

  Edit Media Group properties (name, publicly viewable, password, folder, default, description)

  Manage the Media Group

  Reorder media

  Copy the Media Group

  View the Media Group as a Slide Show

  Export the Media Group

  Export Media Group to PowerPoint

  Add external media (Flickr images) to the Media Group

  Add personal media from My Uploads

Viewing Media Groups as a Slideshow

In addition to viewing the media in a Media Group as a page(s) of thumbnails you can view them as a Slide Show. The Slide Show can be used for immediate playback.

To view a Media Group as a Slide Show:

1. Open the Media Group by clicking on its title.

2. Click on the Slide Show icon. The Media Group will then be presented as a Slide Show.

3. Mouse over an image in the Slide Show to view the paging controls. These controls allow you to move onto the next or previous slide, or view the image in the Detail View.

Editing Media Group Properties

To edit a the properties of a Media Group go to Explore > Media Groups . As you mouse over the Media Group in question select the Edit Media Group Properties icon.

The following Media Group properties can be edited at any time:

• Name (max 50 characters)

• Publicly Viewable

• Password (optional)

• The folder they are saved into (optional)

• Whether this is your Active Media Group

• Description (optional)

Annotations and Media Groups

While viewing an image in the LUNA Workspace or Detail View you will have the option of adding annotations to that image.

When an annotation is saved to a Media Group, you must first open that Media Group then view the image in the LUNA Workspace or Detail View in order to see the annotation. If you are just browsing a collection, find an image you know has an annotation (and it was saved to a Media Group), then view that image in the Detail View you won't see the annotation- the image must first be opened via the Media Group it was saved into.

If the properties of a Media Group change, this will not affect the annotation. For example, if an annotation is saved in the Media Group titled "Portraits" and then you change the Media Group name to "National Gallery Portraits", the annotations will still be associated with that Media Group.

It's important to understand the 3 options for how these annotations can be saved:

• Privately: only the person who created it can see it.

• To a Media Group: in order to view the annotation the image must be opened from the Media Group the annotation was saved into.

• At a collection level: only those with collection level privileges will see this as an option; this option allows the annotation to be viewed by anyone. This option applies to institutional content only, there are no "collection level" saving privileges for annotations made on images from the External Media Search or My Uploads. 

Adding External Media to a Media Group

You can search for images in Flickr using the External Media Search tool and add them to the Active Media Group .

1. Click on the Explore > External Media Search from the LUNA Main Menu, or when in a Media Group click on the Add External Media icon.

2. You'll be taken to the External Media Search page where you simply type in a Keyword search term, or username to search for images.

3. To add a Flickr image to your Default Media Group roll over the image and click on the Add to my Active Media Group icon in the top corner. You’ll know the image has been added when you see the spinning icon and the border around the image flashes.

Learn more about working with External Media in LUNA.

Linking to a Media Group

Creating a unique URL to a Media Group in LUNA is very easy to do and offers an excellent way to creatively share select content with others. If you have restricted content in the Media Group you are sharing, then users will be notified that they might not have access to all images in the Media Group .

1. Click on Explore > Media Groups to see the list of your Media Groups and the public Media Groups. You must be logged in to see your Media Groups.

2. Click on the title of the Media Group you want to create a link to.

3. The Media Group will open.

4. Click on Share This and copy and paste the URL into an email, for example.

5. The links you create in LUNA are dynamic, so if you make changes to a Media Group these changes will also be reflected when a user launches the URL to that Media Group

Embedding a Media Group

Creating an embeddable web widget of a Media Group in LUNA is very easy to do and offers an excellent way to creatively share select content with others. If you have restricted content in the Media Group you are creating an embeddable web widget of, then users will be notified that they might not have access to all images in the Media Group:

1. Click on Explore > Media Groups to see the list of your Media Groups and the public Media Groups. You must be logged in to see your Media Groups.

2. Click on the title of the Media Group you want to create embeddable web widget of. Or, to create an embeddable web widget of to your Active Media Group you can click on its title from the upper right corner beside the LUNA Search box.

3. The Media Group will open.

4. Click on Embed This. You’ll be taken to the Embed This page wherein you’ll have the following options to further customize this web widget of your Media Group:

• Select either JavaScript, or Forum code.

• Select either Object Tag code or I-Frame code (*see note below)

• You can change the width, height and border color of the widget.

• Choose whether or not to include the image display controls.

1. As you customize the web widget you can preview the changes in the preview pane.

2. When you’re finished simply copy the code below the preview pane and paste it into your wiki, website, blog or forum. The code will also include a link back to LUNA so those who you share the web widget with can easily find their way to your original collections.

3. The embeddable web widgets you create in LUNA are dynamic, so if you make changes to a Media Group these changes will also be reflected in the applications you embed them into.