Installing and using Imagefield can seem daunting at first. However once you've got your head around it you can see how flexible it really is!

Instructions

Installation

1. Download the following modules: CCK, Imagefield, Filefield, Imagecache, Imageapi and Views.
2. Go to /admin/build/modules, and enable (at a miniumum): Content, FileField, ImageField, ImageAPI (plus either GD2 or ImageMagick, your choice), ImageCache, ImageCache UI, Views, Views UI

Configuration

1. The first step is to set up your image sizes. Typically you'll want a thumbnail (around 100px square) for gallery views, a medium version (max 600px square) for a slightly larger view, and then you'll want to reduce the maximum size. ImageCache has excellent documentation, so I won't repeat it here.



2. Next up you need to make a content type to hold your image. Go to /admin/content/types and click 'Add content type'. Give your content type a name like Image, and set the comment and workflow settings to your needs.



3. Click on 'Manage Fields' in the /admin/content/types menu. Add a new field, with a sensible title, and pick File>Image as the type. Click save. Fill in the next form however suits you - you'll want to check the 'Required' box to make sure people are prompted to enter an image if they forget.

   

4. You'll probably want to move your imagefield up to display just under the title



5. Finally, personally I don't need a little label telling me my image is an image. Click on the 'Display fields' tab, and select 'Label: hidden'. You can also select which imagecache preset shows up in teaser and node views here.

   

That's it for making the node type. You're now free to upload a load of images. Go to Create Content>Image, and upload away. If your site has the default front page, you'll see your images getting scaled and imported.

Output

1. That might be fine for most sites. To show some of the flexibility of Views though, here's how to make a rudimentary gallery
2. Go to /admin/build/views, click 'Add', give your new view a name and description, and make sure the View Type is 'Node'.

   

3. Set up your view as shown



4. Make a page for our view, give it a path, and tada!



5. Now this is in views you can add filters, sort criteria, extra fields, and galleries usign taxonomy.

hope that's a good intro guide - while it may take a lot logner to set up, the whole system is a lot more flexible than Image module, in my opinion. Good luck!