Organize photos into sections

A section is an album inside a gallery. The client sees each one as a tab.

Create and reorder sections

• Click Add Section in the left panel.
• To reorder, drag a section by its ≡ grip. On a phone or iPad, open the section’s ⋯ menu and use Move up or Move down.

Section templates are included on every plan. Click Save sections as template under the section list to reuse its names and order. Choose a template when creating a gallery, or manage defaults in Settings → Brand & galleries → Section templates. Learn about section templates.

Select many photos at once

Press on empty space in the grid (the gap beside a photo is fine) and drag. The selection runs in order from the photo nearest where you pressed to the photo under the pointer, across rows, the way Google Photos works.

Hold Shift or ⌘ while dragging to add to what is already selected. That works from anywhere, even if you start on a photo.

Move photos into a section

Either:

• Drag a photo, or a whole selection, onto a section in the left panel. Drop on Photos to take photos out of a section. Every move shows Undo for a few seconds.
• Or select photos and click Move to section on the bar that appears at the bottom. To move a whole set, tick one photo, then Select all on that bar.

Every photo is in one section

Photos you haven’t put in a section are in Photos, the first section. Moving a photo into another section takes it out of Photos, the same way Pixieset works. There’s no “All Photos” list, for you or the client.

The client’s gallery opens on the first section, and each tab shows only its own photos. A search in the client’s gallery still looks through every section.

At the end of a section, clients can choose Next section to open the next set at its first photos. The button shows the next section’s name and follows your section order on both phones and computers. Empty sections and sections hidden from that visitor are skipped. The last section has no Next button; clients can revisit any section using the tabs above the photos. Section navigation does not appear in Favorites or search results.

Set the order

Sort, above the grid, changes the saved order in the current section. Choose Filename A–Z or Date taken to arrange the photos, then drag any photo to fine-tune its position. To move several at once, select them first and drag one of them.

Sorting and dragging save automatically. There is no extra Save step. After a manual move, the menu reads My order. Your arrangement stays the same after refreshing, and clients see it too. On a published gallery, changes appear without publishing again.

Wait for Saving order… to finish before making another move or opening Preview. Finish uploading before sorting or dragging to reorder. If saving fails, FOCL shows an error; check your connection and try again.

Date taken uses the capture times stored in the photos; files without a capture time go last. If two cameras had different clock settings, sorting by date cannot correct that difference. You can still drag photos into the right place afterward.

Shuffle photos into a random order

Open a gallery’s Photos tab, choose the set you want to arrange, then choose Sort → Random above the grid. FOCL shuffles the photos and saves the order automatically. There is no separate Save button for Random.

Wait for Shuffle saved before opening Preview. Preview is unavailable while the order is saving. The saved arrangement stays the same when you reload or when a client opens the gallery; it does not shuffle on every visit. On a published gallery, the new order is visible to clients without publishing again. This does not send them a notification.

• Shuffle again creates and saves another mix.
• Undo in the confirmation bar restores the arrangement from before the latest shuffle. Use it while the bar is available; it is not a permanent order history.
• Photos stay in their sets, the sets keep their order, and videos stay in their existing positions. The shuffle does not change favorites, visibility settings or the files themselves.
• Random needs at least two reorderable photos in a set. Finish uploading before shuffling.
• New uploads are added after existing photos; they do not trigger another shuffle.

The client gallery’s responsive layout can place photos differently on different screen sizes. The saved sequence within each set stays the same.

Thumbnail size

Above the grid, on the right, is a size slider. Drag it, or use − and +, to make thumbnails smaller or larger. The label beside it says how many photos fit across, from 3 to 8. More across means less scrolling while you organize. It only changes your view, and FOCL remembers it on this computer. Your client’s gallery is not affected.

Hide a whole section from the client

Open the section’s ⋯ menu and choose Hide from client. If the section has photos, FOCL asks you to confirm first. The tab and every photo in it disappear from their gallery and their downloads. You still see the section in your list, marked Hidden. Unhide from client puts it back.

If you open the gallery link yourself while signed in, you still see hidden sections, and a note at the bottom says which ones your client can’t see. Photos in a hidden section can’t be downloaded from the gallery page until you unhide it.

This is useful when one gallery does two jobs: deliver a proof set, let the client pick, then hide the proofs when the finals go up.

Keep a section visible but stop downloads

In Settings → Downloads, set the section to View only. Clients can still see its photos. Set it to Allow downloads when they can save them. You can change individual photos too; see Control how clients download photos.