SlideShowPro News

04.30.05 | SlideShowPro 1.0.7 Released

A small update created mainly for newer users of the component. The downloadable archive now bundles the new User Guide (see next post down), the iPhoto plugin, plus a working demo of SlideShowPro for reference. The update does squash a couple of small bugs -- one fixing the audio icon in the albums showing up when it shouldn't, and another with the spacing of the text fields in the gallery's screen navigation -- but other than that nothing new.

There is however an important change in 1.0.7 regarding the default size of the component -- it was altered to better fit the default dimensions of new Flash documents. Unfortunately this will cause the width and height of any older version of SSP you update to temporarily reduce in size, but you can set its width and height back to what it formally was quite easily. The download includes a text note on how to do this.

As usual, login to the user section to download.

User Guide now available

A complete User Guide for SlideShowPro is now available. Nearly 50 pages in length, the guide features numerous tutorials and walkthroughs, some completely re-written following weeks of feedback from SlideShowPro users. It was purposely designed with printing in mind, so you can print it out and use it whenever you need additional information when working with SlideShowPro.

A considerable amount of time went into writing and editing this, and while I wish we had something like this back when the component was launched, I believe its even better now because of all the 'real-world' feedback received.

Around here on the site, a number of existing tutorials -- plus the whole Troubleshooting page -- have been moved to the User Guide. The online tutorial section will now be reserved for more advanced tutorials that go beyond general use. Additionally, the "Help Documentation" section has been renamed to "ActionScript Reference," since that's a more accurate description of the content therein.

Thanks to all SSP users for your patience and constructive questioning. I hope the guide is a major help.

04.25.05 | iPhoto plugin update

The SlideShowPro iPhoto plugin has been updated to 1.0.2. This releases changes the default width and height for full size images to better match the default dimensions of thumbnails, plus a new icon. You can download it here.

04.20.05 | New buttons available

Lots of people have been kind enough to post links back to SlideShowPro with their slide shows, so to make it even easier I created a few new buttons to choose from.

04.18.05 | New SlideShowPro icon

SlideShowPro has a new look. I came to the conclusion after producing the new iPhoto plugin that SlideShowPro would really benefit from an icon. Not just any icon, but an icon built to be used at multiple sizes in OS X and XP, work with the existing logotype, and be replicable in some way for the component's icon in Flash. It needed to fit into the existing style of the site, communicate photography and multimedia, but not be too obvious (i.e. a couple of 35mm slides). I was going to produce one myself, but I decided I was too close to the product and everything around it, and really needed a fresh pair of eyes to tackle it.

So with thanks to the brilliant Josh Williams and Firewheel Design, who have produced a number of fantastic operating system icons (both free and through their stock icon biz) we have a winner. Click on the icon to see it on both a white and black background. This identity will slowly work its way around the site and of course be used in all upcoming projects.

Adobe buys Macromedia

In case you didn't hear the shot around the world this morning, Adobe is buying Macromedia. Oh...my...goodness. SlideShowPro for Adobe Flash.

04.17.05 | SlideShowPro iPhoto plugin update

An update to the SlideShowPro iPhoto plugin is now available for download. Version 1.0.1 fixes a unique issue where images of a particular width and height ratio wouldn't downsize to the correct size, implements a minimum width and height of 10 pixels if a lower value is entered in the interface, and automatically includes the title of an image as the default caption. Visit the Desktop Apps and Plugins to download!

04.13.05 | How to debug your Flash movie

Nearly all of the help requests I've received lately have in one way or another related to problems embedding Flash movies into HTML, loading the XML document, and successfully pulling in the images contained therein. And in almost every instance, I've been able to quickly debug the problem by using Safari's Activity window (screenshot) to trace all the activity that's going on. If an XML file wasn't loaded, or couldn't be found, or there was a permissions error on the server, the window would flag the problem and colorize it red to quickly draw attention to it.

Realizing this was something only OS X users could use, I wrote a post over at my blog about this little gem of a developer utility, and if there existed anything similar for Firefox, which of course is cross-platform.

A lot of people wrote in, and the answer is LiveHTTPHeaders. It offers very similar features to Activity, but isn't quite as polished. That said, it accomplishes what it needs too, and makes debugging your content very easy.

New user guide on the way

Things have finally started to calm down a little with the updates to SlideShowPro, so I'm now tackling a complete User Guide. It will be formatted for printing, be PDF based, and come with re-written setup / installation instructions, tips, troubleshooting, and more -- all in one handy document.

I wrote most of the current setup documentation in the wee hours before launching the component, and while it's still a decent walkthrough on how to get it up and running, it could use an update -- especially after all the feedback and questions I've received about things I assumed would be obvious, but were anything but. It will be included with all new purchases and made available separately should current users want it. More soon.

04.09.05 | Picasa plugin?

Thanks to all the people who submitted feedback about the SlideShowPro plugin for iPhoto. It's been received very enthusiastically, with some hilarious emails from some who could barely contain themselves in their excitement.

Since then, the most popular request has been for a Picasa plugin. John Olson decided to try his hand at hacking one together, and has developed a Picasa template for exporting SlideShowPro XML. It's not the complete package the iPhoto plugin offers, and more of a quick and dirty way to export large images and an XML document, but it's worth trying (and contributing to if anyone reading this has experience with Picasa templates). Check it out.

04.07.05 | SlideShowPro iPhoto plug-in released!

I'm pleased to announce that a brand new plug-in for iPhoto 4 and 5 (OS X) is now available for download. Developed especially for SlideShowPro, the plug-in automates the entire process of exporting both full and thumbnail size images, writing photo captions, attaching hyperlinks to images, and exports everything you need -- even the XML document -- for loading into SlideShowPro. The plug-in can handle one or multiple albums, and makes the publishing of albums incredibly fast and easy.

But best of all, it's completely free. So if you have a Mac running OS X with at least iPhoto 4, grab it! Feedback is always welcome. Click here to see a screenshot.

Download SSP_iPhoto.dmg (1.1 MB)

And now for the inevitable question -- will there be a Windows version? If tomorrow Apple decided to release a version of iPhoto for Windows like they did with iTunes, the answer would obviously be yes. But for now, I am looking into alternative solutions that can offer the same functionality -- preferably as a plug-in for a popular photo management application already in use. If anyone has recommendations or thoughts on this, click the feedback link above.

Update: The plug-in is now listed at Macupdate.com. VersionTracker too.

04.02.05 | SlideShowPro 1.0.6 Released

This is purely a patch release to fix a small permalink bug in version 1.0.5. Login to the user section to download.