This section walks through the shortest path from a freshly installed FW Gallery to a live, viewable gallery on your site. The whole thing usually takes under 10 minutes.
In your WordPress admin, open FW Gallery → Files. This is where every gallery you create will live.
Click New (or the Add New button). The gallery editor opens with all the fields you'll need on a single form. Title plus at least one uploaded image is enough. Tags group files into virtual galleries; you can add them after the first upload.
Fill in the basics and click Save. Don't worry about getting everything right the first time; every field is editable, and there's no hidden penalty for incomplete records during setup.
Toggle Published to Yes in the publishing panel and save. Multiple files can be published in bulk from the Files list.
Create a WordPress page using the FW Gallery shortcode (or block), choose the layout (Classic, Fancy, Polaroid, Pinterest, Elegant…), and view it. Your uploaded files render in the chosen design.
That's the minimum. Everything from here is layering: more galleries, more layouts, more add-ons. The Common Tasks section links to the next things most users want to do.