Here are a few important tips when using the web site.
Listing Price: When you input the price of your property, please delete the default "0.00 €" from the box first. Else your price will not show correctly. Enter your amount without any punctuation (no decimals or Euro symbols please).
So for example, a price of €595,995.00 should be entered as 595995
Postal Code & Maps: If you have a valid code, please use it. Vistitors to the web site can click on the icon to produce a new screen with a map of Spain and the exact location of the property - using the "Map-It" web site.
Some town names may not be found by this independant map web site, therefore including the Postal Code in the correct field will increase the chance of the town being correctly located.
This is very important if you use 'accents' in the spelling of town names. Map-It does not recognise Spanish keyboard accents when spelling town names, and will result in 'location not found'.
To avoid this we suggest using normal English spelling, and include the postal code if you can.
Its always worth checking this after you have uploaded each property, by clicking on the "view this property" hyperlink and then selecting the icon to ensure the correct map is retrieved.
Logo: Please ensure your company logo is no wider than 280 pixels (use the photo-resizer below if necessary). If its larger, then it will be deleted without notice.
Opening Date. By default, the system adds the date that you entered each property record.
If you don't want this to be displayed against the listing, then once you have entered the text details of the property, clicked on Finish, and then click on the blue hyperlink to upload photo's, you will be on the 'View Listings (Details of Your Property)' page.
Here there is a Display Options hyperlink, which enables you to turn on/off certain features for this specific property. One of those is the Opening Date. Just untick the box, click submit, then continue to upload your property photo's as normal.
Photo's. Please ensure that each uploaded image is no larger than 30kb in size, and in JPG (jpeg) format. PDF files should also be under 50kb.
The uploading of very large files will tend to cause the upload process to stop/fail, or using the wrong format - such as images saved as Bitmaps (.bmp). If this occurs, please read the rest of this section.
Images shown on the site are displayed in a frame 300 x 225 pixels. If your property images are larger than this frame size (but still under 30kb) then the system will automatically re-size downwards your image to fit the frame - that's fine.
If your image is smaller than 300x225 pixels then it will NOT be enlarged to fit the frame.
If you find that after entering the property details, you move on to upload the property image (clicking the upload hyperlink) and the password login screen re-appears, then there will be a problem with the settings on your PC. Try the following in turn, which should cure the problem. [Note, this issue has only ocurred with one agent]
1. Do a hard refresh of the SPG page - press Ctrl+Shift+click the Refresh button whilst on the SPG page, all at the same time.
2. Delete temporary files - TOOLS>INTERNET OPTIONS, General tab - Temporary Internet Files section - click 'delete files' button.
3. PRIVACY SETTINGS: Go to TOOLS>INTERNET OPTIONS, then click the Privacy tab. The slider should say Medium or Medium High. (If its medium high, try changing to medium).
4. Popup Blocker - At the bottom of the Privacy screen is a Popup Blocker section. Tick the "Block Popups" box and then click Settings to the right. On the 'Popup Blocker Settings' screen that comes up, type www.spanishpropertygateway.com in the "Address of web site to allow" box, then click ADD.
5. Still on the main Privacy tab screen, click on the "Advanced..." button. This brings up "Advanced Privacy Settings" box. Its probably all greyed out. If so, click in the "Override automatic cookie handling" tick box, ensure the Accept is ticked for First-party cookies, and Prompt for third-party cookies, and that the "Always allow session cookies" box is ticked. Then click OK to get out.
After trying each of the above, it may be worthwhile re-booting your PC.
Image Resize Software. If you find that your images from your digital camera are larger than 30kb, or the physical size is less than 300x225 pixels, then you will need to rescale the images. You can use Adobe Elements, Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop or other applications to achieve this
There are also TWO very easy to use FREE pieces of software.
Just unzip the downloaded files, double click on the "photoresizer.exe" file and follow the installation instructions.
This enables the physical size of the image to be adjusted (for resizing upwards) or reducing the image quality by percentage (when reducing large kb files) or a combination of both. We have tried it ourselves and it does do the job required.
Since this is third party software and Spanish Property Gateway has no link or association with the software manufacturers, we cannot be held liable should any loss result from using this piece of software.
This is another excellent application, which can also convert multiple images in one go, with various dimension and quality adjustments. More features than the 'photo resizer'.
icon to produce a new screen with a map of Spain and the exact location of the property - using the "Map-It" web site.