Originally Posted by Cougar548 And I can understand that you don't want to state any incorrect information or lead anyone on, but COME ON, the latest update from the "first couple threads" was from July of LAST YEAR! I'm sure there are many people in the same boat I am who are patiently waiting to redo their site because they do not want to have to invest more capital to redo the site again to fit the new design.

We'll be supporting both for a long time. So if you want to make changes now to your site, it won't be wasted.

Originally Posted by WinsomeWorks Perhaps I'm not understanding what you want to do (& I don't know why this has gone unanswered for so long) but anyway, I believe you should already be able to do all the things you want, unless you're talking about this capability only in the new design? I haven't looked at the new design for awhile. In the old design, you can pull up a category or sub-category page (or even an All Galleries page) & near the upper left there's an "Arrange" link. Clicking on that will take you to various sorting/arranging options just like arranging photos.... newest, oldest, alphabetically, etc. ( & you can reverse the order) You can go back to the old look temporarily to arrange your galleries, then go back to the new look. I'm pretty hopeful they will eventually have just as handy tools for arranging, etc. that we have with the old look.

To be more specific. An example would be to move images to another gallery. The list of the galleries is presented in order by date created the way I see it. It would be helpful to have it alphabetical or some other way to find a specific gallery in the list. Am I missing something?

Phil

Originally Posted by Andy We'll be supporting both for a long time. So if you want to make changes now to your site, it won't be wasted.

Yes, but then I won't be able to take advantage of your new design/features/layout so I'll have to redo it anyway. Oh well! Looking forward to the change!

Originally Posted by Cougar548 Yes, but then I won't be able to take advantage of your new design/features/layout so I'll have to redo it anyway. Oh well! Looking forward to the change!

Your original point that there hasn't been an update in 8 months is key. There's gotta be SOMETHING SM can tell us. Just placate us!

Originally Posted by afarber Your original point that there hasn't been an update in 8 months is key. There's gotta be SOMETHING SM can tell us. Just placate us!

Yes, I think it would go a long way to provide at a minimum quartery update on the first page of this thread. C'mon guys, throw us a bone or something geesh. Hey, I work in software myself and know major design/structural changes take time bottom line. So I fully expect this to take a while to do things right. But for those of us waiting, wondering how about a simple brief update.

Thanks for any info you can provide. Happy programming.

The 'Shorten This Link' seems to be missing in the new UI Design?

Been so long since I turned on the beta that I completely forgot about it, and racked my brain going thru CSS trying to figure out why my website looked so good in one browser and not the other. Was preparing to send a note to SmugHeros, then remembered this.

When you have been in beta so long that your customer's forget about it, something is not being managed well. I am a software product manager, I should know. Thanks for listening to my gripe.

Originally Posted by cmason Been so long since I turned on the beta that I completely forgot about it, and racked my brain going thru CSS trying to figure out why my website looked so good in one browser and not the other. Was preparing to send a note to SmugHeros, then remembered this. When you have been in beta so long that your customer's forget about it, something is not being managed well. I am a software product manager, I should know. Thanks for listening to my gripe.

We're working on it furiously - promise

Wasn't Gmail in beta for like 5 years? Not comparing, and we love the feedback we're hearing. This will come to fruition and you and all are going to be amazed at what we have in store!

Never did hear any thoughts on the gallery descriptions not being full page width and the new print button taking up all the vertical right side space. Move it up to the .yui3-g div line. It is also blocked in width so there's plenty of right side room. The would give us the full page width for the description.

Originally Posted by Andy We're working on it furiously - promise Wasn't Gmail in beta for like 5 years? Not comparing, and we love the feedback we're hearing. This will come to fruition and you and all are going to be amazed at what we have in store!

I hear you Andy, and I have frustrated customers too. Maybe give the ole Agile method a shot....roll it out in increments!

Originally Posted by cmason I hear you Andy, and I have frustrated customers too. Maybe give the ole Agile method a shot....roll it out in increments!

While I know where you are coming from, certain releases simply don't work well incrementally. This is a major architectural change with many dependancies vs. simply a face lift or a handful of new features which SM has released in the past. For example look at these new cool things you can do or try out our new stretchy themes. Of course this is based on the assumption of a larger infrastructure change which I think this is.

One cool new technology I see SM using which I also recommended is removing pagination. They have recently added this tech to their search feature. Check it our from their main page - similar to what Flickriver offers. This tech could also be extended to SM galleries where there would no longer be a need for 1 thru 12 pages for example. Rather it could scroll dynamically like this gallery: http://prints.artwolfe.com/#s=4&mi=2...0&p=6&a=1&at=0

Thanks for your support, Derek!

By the way a no pagination option is already available in our current Thumbnails style if you check the "Show thumbnails in a single page" checkbox.

Originally Posted by rainforest1155 Thanks for your support, Derek! By the way a no pagination option is already available in our current Thumbnails style if you check the "Show thumbnails in a single page" checkbox.

Eh, sort of. While it does take away the pages, it doesn't give you the full image on the right side. Only a page full of thumbnails.

I too would like to see that idea combined and have a single scrolling "page" on the left and a full screen image on the right.

Originally Posted by Cougar548 Eh, sort of. While it does take away the pages, it doesn't give you the full image on the right side. Only a page full of thumbnails. I too would like to see that idea combined and have a single scrolling "page" on the left and a full screen image on the right.

Yes, a scrolling single (film) strip on the left or right would be ideal with the main image taking center. With widescreen formats dominating the market having the filmstrip on the side seems like a better use of real estate. I really like the option of showing/hiding the thumbs on mouseover so that it is less intrusive in a semi-transparent overlay. Or a clickable show thumbnail option like Ben Hattenbach's site here: http://www.benhattenbach.com/

** Edit: I did try the filmstrip option which is currently available. Unfortunately it doesn't appear to scale/stretch to the screen. Everything is crunched together toward the middle including a smaller main image. It also appears on the top in the least appealing place for me. I would much prefer it on the sides or bottom which keeps the primary image more in focus and make the thumbs less instrusive/more subtle. See examples above from Ben and Art's websites. I also notice the image info isn't available in this mode via mouseover. And the big white arrows aren't vertically centered properly. Lastly it seems to continuously scroll too quickly which can be a bit annoying when trying to simply look at the thumbs already showing. Hopefully we can get an updated version which stretches in this next release.

Here is what mine looks like:



Ben's layout:

Originally Posted by rainforest1155 Thanks for your support, Derek! By the way a no pagination option is already available in our current Thumbnails style if you check the "Show thumbnails in a single page" checkbox.

Sebastian, thanks for showing me this feature. I didn't know it was available. Now if we could combine this scrolling page with larger thumbs and possbily mouseover enlargements (like Smugmug's new search feature) it would be a very cool option. If I had the choice between the two I would pick the filmstrip style in a more refined fashion as described and demonstrated above. But its always nice to have a few good options.

Thanks for listening and keep up the good work.

Originally Posted by onethumb ... - PhotoRank. Our PhotoRank algorithm has continued to evolve over time, and this is yet another one of those evolutions. The thumbs up / thumbs down metaphor is gone, and we instead rely on other signals (many of which we've always used already, some of which are new) to determine how popular a photo is. As usual, we won't disclose specifics and it's always a moving target, but this is a big change. ...

Duh, we need this, just remove the thumbs down and leave the thumbs up or replace both with a
"like" button. My visitors will have to go thru all kinds of gyrations to just like a photo. This is basically
how my popular gallery is populated plus photo comments.

And it's a bad idea to require a log in to leave a comment. Those that don't want it that let them opt-out.

I've been following this for a while, and have it turned on on my site on one of my computers. I followed a link through to another site today, and it is showing up in the new style as well. I remember reading about that before, but I thought that behavior had been changed? It doesn't bother me, but the (Pro) site owner might not like that any customization is not coming through.

Originally Posted by jziegler I've been following this for a while, and have it turned on on my site on one of my computers. I followed a link through to another site today, and it is showing up in the new style as well. I remember reading about that before, but I thought that behavior had been changed? It doesn't bother me, but the (Pro) site owner might not like that any customization is not coming through.

Thanks for point that out, James. I reported it to our QA team.

Originally Posted by Allen Duh, we need this, just remove the thumbs down and leave the thumbs up or replace both with a "like" button. My visitors will have to go thru all kinds of gyrations to just like a photo. This is basically how my popular gallery is populated plus photo comments. And it's a bad idea to require a log in to leave a comment. Those that don't want it that let them opt-out.

I totally, agree. It should be dead simple for anyone wanting to comment or like a photo. If there's a problem with abuse, then leave that to the site owner to tighten up the reigns. One aspect that will encourage people to interact more on my SM website, will be easy interaction.