Is there any way to segregate video and photos in gallery?

[Teetime]

I desire to create galleries of photos, and for each gallery have a video slideshow that I create using ProShow Producer or Vegas. Unfortunately, visitors to my site find it confusing when a gallery contains both photos and videos.

1. For many people, it isn't obvious that one or more of the thumbs are in fact videos.
2. For some who come to the gallery looking specifically for a video slideshow, they click on the Slideshow option instead of clicking on the thumb of the slideshow video.

After all this time, SmugMug's support for video still seems like a bit of an afterthought. Hopefully this will improve in the not too distant future, but for now, have any of you come up with a workaround for visually partitioning videos and photos in a gallery. Maybe there is a way to put the photos in a parent gallery, and the videos in a sub gallery under that parent? Any ideas?

PS - One thought of an easy way for SM to resolve this within the current gallery structure would be to add a new Gallery style called "SmugMug Tabbed Partitions" that would create a photo tab and a video tab within the gallery. Even better would be to make the tabbed partitions user definable. I could imagine lots of tab structures that would be useful even in a photo-only gallery. For example, for pictures of a city I might want to create a panos tab to house a set of panographic imates.

/jerry

[phototristan]

I desire to create galleries of photos, and for each gallery have a video slideshow that I create using ProShow Producer or Vegas. Unfortunately, visitors to my site find it confusing when a gallery contains both photos and videos.

1. For many people, it isn't obvious that one or more of the thumbs are in fact videos.
2. For some who come to the gallery looking specifically for a video slideshow, they click on the Slideshow option instead of clicking on the thumb of the slideshow video.

After all this time, SmugMug's support for video still seems like a bit of an afterthought. Hopefully this will improve in the not too distant future, but for now, have any of you come up with a workaround for visually partitioning videos and photos in a gallery. Maybe there is a way to put the photos in a parent gallery, and the videos in a sub gallery under that parent? Any ideas?

PS - One thought of an easy way for SM to resolve this within the current gallery structure would be to add a new Gallery style called "SmugMug Tabbed Partitions" that would create a photo tab and a video tab within the gallery. Even better would be to make the tabbed partitions user definable. I could imagine lots of tab structures that would be useful even in a photo-only gallery. For example, for pictures of a city I might want to create a panos tab to house a set of panographic imates.

/jerry

Hi Jerry,

We don't currently have a way way in our interface to do this. I wish I had a better answer for you on that.
;)

That's a great suggestion though! You may want to also post it here as well: http://feedback.smugmug.com/forums/17723-smugmug

[Teetime]

Well, it must not be that great of a suggestion... I made it several months ago on the feedback site but haven't received any votes yet :scratch. If anyone else sees this as a good idea I would appreciate the votes here (http://feedback.smugmug.com/forums/17723-smugmug/suggestions/936023-provide-gallery-style-that-provides-visual-separat?ref=title).

By the way, I think the feedback site (with a limited number of votes to spend) is a great idea.

Hi Jerry,

We don't currently have a way way in our interface to do this. I wish I had a better answer for you on that.
;)

That's a great suggestion though! You may want to also post it here as well: http://feedback.smugmug.com/forums/17723-smugmug

[Teetime]

Tristan, there are two problems with the suggestion application that need to be addressed:

1. On my PC, if I sign in using the Facebook login, the suggestion app opens in a tiny window that can't be resized. I am using IE8.

2. This may be me just not able to figure out the interface, but if I put "video" in the search criteria I am rewarded with a list of ten suggestions, a few of which have been implemented. How do I scroll through the list of all suggestions which include video? I am sure there are other video-related suggestions I would like to cast my vote for, but I need some help finding them.

[phototristan]

Hi,

If you type in any search term, the site will automatically update to display any suggestions that use that term.

Regarding your other question, could you give it a try with a different web browser such as Firefox?

[lifeinfocus]

I desire to create galleries of photos, and for each gallery have a video slideshow that I create using ProShow Producer or Vegas. Unfortunately, visitors to my site find it confusing when a gallery contains both photos and videos.

1. For many people, it isn't obvious that one or more of the thumbs are in fact videos.
2. For some who come to the gallery looking specifically for a video slideshow, they click on the Slideshow option instead of clicking on the thumb of the slideshow video.

After all this time, SmugMug's support for video still seems like a bit of an afterthought. Hopefully this will improve in the not too distant future, but for now, have any of you come up with a workaround for visually partitioning videos and photos in a gallery. Maybe there is a way to put the photos in a parent gallery, and the videos in a sub gallery under that parent? Any ideas?

PS - One thought of an easy way for SM to resolve this within the current gallery structure would be to add a new Gallery style called "SmugMug Tabbed Partitions" that would create a photo tab and a video tab within the gallery. Even better would be to make the tabbed partitions user definable. I could imagine lots of tab structures that would be useful even in a photo-only gallery. For example, for pictures of a city I might want to create a panos tab to house a set of panographic imates.

/jerry

I make photos and videos more obvious to my clients by using the "Replace Video Preview Image" with a jpeg image of PowerPoint slide I create. Depending on the content and the intended user's experience, I may say something like " This VIDEO is of..... Please be patient for it to load.... Move cursor to top of screen to hide play bar..."

This makes it obvious to the viewer that this a video and what they need to do make it start, and what do with that DARN play bar that stays on the bottom of the screen unless you move it to the top.

I know this is not exactly what you are looking for but it seems to help my customers.

Take care,

Phil

[SamirD]

Before SM started putting the 'play' overlay on top of photos, it was really hard to tell what was a video and what wasn't. But I also have benefit of my filenames--my Sony cameras photos start with DSC and videos with MOV, so videos are always at the end of the gallery since I sort by filename. But you can always use the arrange feature and just move the video to either the beginning or end.

[Teetime]

Yep, I do move them to the beginning. I also send instructions in my share notice that there is a video slideshow not to be confused with the slideshow in the menu, etc. I just wish someone at SM would think this through a little more - many of my clients and family/friends have found it confusing.

Before SM started putting the 'play' overlay on top of photos, it was really hard to tell what was a video and what wasn't. But I also have benefit of my filenames--my Sony cameras photos start with DSC and videos with MOV, so videos are always at the end of the gallery since I sort by filename. But you can always use the arrange feature and just move the video to either the beginning or end.

[Teetime]

Phil, that is a good idea to use until SM comes up with a better solution. Thanks.

I make photos and videos more obvious to my clients by using the "Replace Video Preview Image" with a jpeg image of PowerPoint slide I create. Depending on the content and the intended user's experience, I may say something like " This VIDEO is of..... Please be patient for it to load.... Move cursor to top of screen to hide play bar..."

This makes it obvious to the viewer that this a video and what they need to do make it start, and what do with that DARN play bar that stays on the bottom of the screen unless you move it to the top.

I know this is not exactly what you are looking for but it seems to help my customers.

Take care,

Phil

[Teetime]

Tristen, I just tried this again and I still only see ten entries when I type "video" in the search box. At the top of the screen it says "Vote for one of these - 10 matches, or Create new idea"

Hi,

If you type in any search term, the site will automatically update to display any suggestions that use that term.

[SamirD]

Here's a link to the suggstions to make videos play in the slideshow:
http://feedback.smugmug.com/forums/17723-smugmug/suggestions/314392-play-videos-when-in-slideshow-mode?ref=title

[Teetime]

I saw that one, but it seems to me to be a step in the wrong direction. I would definitely prefer to provide some visual separation between photos and video, and definitely not have videos play in the slide show, unless it was something the viewer could opt into when starting a photo slideshow.

There are lots of ways SM could provide visual separation. One might be to add a filter drop down at the top of the gallery with these options:

-photos only (slideshow enabled)
-videos only (play all button enabled)
-photos and videos (slideshow enabled with option to include videos)

Another (my preference) would be a new gallery style that placed videos in a separate panel that contained a scrolling list of video thumbs similar to what YouTube does.

Here's a link to the suggstions to make videos play in the slideshow:
http://feedback.smugmug.com/forums/17723-smugmug/suggestions/314392-play-videos-when-in-slideshow-mode?ref=title

[SamirD]

Hmm...what you're looking for is pretty advanced. There's a chance it could be done with some heavy customization, but something tells me it can't. I guess you'll have to add a feature request and get enough votes to make it happen.

[Teetime]

Yep, done that already. Unfortunately there is a problem with the suggestion system that prevents me from seeing more than 10 suggestions when I do a search on video (see previous comments). This makes it less likely I will garner a large number of votes.

But, check HERE if you want to view my suggestion (http://feedback.smugmug.com/forums/17723-smugmug/suggestions/936023-provide-gallery-style-that-provides-visual-separat?ref=title), and hopefully cast a vote!

Hmm...what you're looking for is pretty advanced. There's a chance it could be done with some heavy customization, but something tells me it can't. I guess you'll have to add a feature request and get enough votes to make it happen.

[SiriusPhotog]

On a completely unrelated matter....
I wanted to go to the feedback site and vote but it keeps asking me to log in using FaceBook and asking me to allow it to access my Facebook info.
Is there no other option. I have no desire to log in with my FaceBook account and give more of my personal info to people I don't know.

Facebook is just taking over the world it seems. :dunno

[SamirD]

Facebook is just taking over the world it seems. :dunnoThat's the whole idea. :huh