Quick Start

Create a directory on your computer.
Copy some photos inside this directory, resize them for web display. Warning: the name of directories and files must contain only letters, figures, "-", "_" or ".". No blank space, no accentuated characters.
With a FTP client, copy your directory in the "galleries" directory of your Piwigo installation.
Logon your gallery and go to Administration » Pictures » Thumbnails to create missing thumbnails.
Go to Administration and click on the big Synchronization button.

Congratulations! You have successfuly created the first category of your photo gallery.

Directories and files organization

Category directories are in the Piwigo directory "galleries". Here follows the directory tree of a very small gallery (but using many features) :

.
|-- admin
|-- doc
|-- galleries
|   |-- category-1
|   |   |-- category-1.1
|   |   |   |-- category-1.1.1
|   |   |   |   |-- category-1.1.1.1
|   |   |   |   |   |-- pwg_high
|   |   |   |   |   |   +-- wedding.jpg
|   |   |   |   |   |-- thumbnail
|   |   |   |   |   |   +-- TN-wedding.jpg
|   |   |   |   |   +-- wedding.jpg
|   |   |   |   +-- category-1.1.1.2
|   |   |   +-- category-1.1.2
|   |   |-- category-1.2
|   |   |   |-- pookie.jpg
|   |   |   +-- thumbnail
|   |   |       +-- TN-pookie.jpg
|   |   +-- category-1.3
|   +-- category-2
|       |-- piglet.gif
|       |-- pwg_representative
|       |   +-- video.jpg
|       |-- thumbnail
|       |   +-- TN-piglet.jpg
|       +-- video.avi
|-- include
|-- install
|-- language
|-- template
+-- tool

Each directory under "galleries" produces a category. There is no limit on deepness.
Basically, an element is represented by a file. A file can be a Piwigo element if its extenstion is among file_ext configuration parameter possibilities (see include/config_default.inc.php file). A file can be a picture if its extension is among picture_ext configuration parameter possibilities.
Picture elements must have an associated thumbnail (see section below about thumbnails)
Picture elements can have a high quality file associated. As for wedding.jpg in the example above. No prefix on the high quality picture.
Non picture elements (video, sounds, file texts, what you want...) are by default represented by an icon corresponding to the filename extension. Optionaly, you can associate a thumbnail and a representative file (see video.avi in the example above).
Warning: the name of directories and files must contain only letters, figures, "-", "_" or ".". No blank space, no accentuated characters.
Once files, thumbnails and representatives are correctly placed in the directories, go to : Administration » Categories » Synchronize

Thumbnails

Each photo must have its thumbnail.
Thumbnails are stored in the sub-directory "thumbnail" of the category directory. The thumbnail has the same filename as the corresponding photo, with TN- as prefix.
Advise: use an external module for thumbnails creation.
Even if it is not recommended (image quality, web server resource load), you can use Administration » Pictures » Thumbnails page to create thumbnails.
Give write access on all category directories.