SlideShowPro News

11.14.07 | How times change

When I first started working on SlideShowPro about three years ago, I had no idea I'd still be working on it today. Or for that matter, subsequently quitting my full time day job as a Creative Director at Turner (specifically the Super Deluxe video comedy site) to work exclusively on SlideShowPro (and related products). I always thought it would be a fun side project to experiment with, and maybe a few people would use it. Well, times have certainly changed, and as a result there will be a small, but symbolic name change.

If someone asked me 2 years ago what "SlideShowPro" was, I would have replied, "a Flash photo gallery and slideshow component." Which, as you may have noticed, is how I'm using the name in the first paragraph. But today that doesn't hold true anymore. "SlideShowPro" is much more than that. It's rapidly becoming a publishing platform, mainly because of the work Brad and I have been putting into SlideShowPro Director. "SlideShowPro" is also a collection of exporting utilities for Photoshop and iPhoto, not to mention the Adobe Lightroom web engine that'll be released in the coming weeks. Today the name is spread across multiple products and has outgrown its original definition.

So with that, what some people (especially older users) may associate with "SlideShowPro" will be changing to "SlideShowPro for Flash." It's a small change, but a very notable one, for it frees the brand "SlideShowPro" from being just a Flash component for expanded use in all kinds of things. It'll also help clarify how our products work, for new users will be able to choose from "SlideShowPro for Flash" or "SlideShowPro for Lightroom," and instantly understand which version they require.

There will be small tweaks here and there to the site, as well as all the documentation, to incorporate the updated name. May feel a little weird (it's taken me some time to get used to it), but going forward it's the best thing to do.