Introducing the new Homestead Photo Gallery
We’ve just released a new product we think you’ll like a lot. Here’s Kramer, the product designer who led the team, to tell you about it – Rochelle.
As anyone who has built a website can tell you, one of the more challenging tasks is figuring out how to effectively convey lots of information in a small amount of space, without making the page seem crammed full of extraneous stuff. I like to call this space “screen real estate”, and it’s a very valuable resource.
Large images, when viewed at their full resolution, tend to monopolize this space. Their sheer size also makes them hard to organize in groups.
A good photo gallery can solve both those problems. It can save you valuable screen space by displaying small “thumbnails” of your images (more on those later) instead of your full-size images. And those thumbnails are a lot easier to organize into groups you can use to showcase your business, products, family pictures, etc., while still providing a way to view the original images. It’s a good solution to a common problem that can also add a little flair to your website.
So we’ve added one to SiteBuilder! You’ll find the new Photo Gallery element where the outdated Photo Album element used to be, under the View Add Images and Files Elements icon in the menu above your page.
The old Photo Album element only allowed you to display one photo at a time in a limited fashion. Along with a host of other new features, the new Photo Gallery can exhibit tons of images on a single page; in a sense, Photo Gallery is what Photo Album wanted to be when it grew up.
If you already have a Photo Album element on your page, it will still be there, functioning as it always has, but you’ll need to add any new or additional photo groupings with the new Photo Gallery element.
Here’s how the new element works. Once you’ve put one on your page, you add images to it by simply clicking on the ‘plus’ icon in the editor on the right side of your screen. You can easily add a caption to any photo while you’re at it.
Keep the experience of your site visitors in mind when you consider the size of the images you are trying to upload: large images (anything larger than roughly 1 megabyte) can take a long time to load for anyone visiting your site via a slower Internet connection.
You’ll notice that the image you’ve added appears as a small, cropped version of itself. That’s the thumbnail I mentioned earlier. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, a thumbnail is a small piece of an image that represent the whole image that may be too large to display on a page, particularly when arranged in a group with other images.
This thumbnailing process not only preserves valuable space on your web page, but it ensures that the thumbnail will have a high resolution for ease of viewing. It can also add a little mystique to your website, as visitors won’t know what the entire image looks like until they click on it.
In the Photo Gallery element, thumbnails are formed by “center-cropping”, meaning that the center of your image is found and then a small area is taken around that center to form its thumbnail. When your visitor clicks on a thumbnail, the original full-size image will be displayed in a window superimposed on your page.
Adding additional photos to your gallery is as easy as clicking the ‘plus’ icon and selecting another image.
Once you have added multiple images to your gallery, you can modify the spacing between the images as well as the size of the thumbnails to ensure that your photo gallery will fit whatever space you need to fill on your page.
The thumbnailed images are automatically laid out in the Photo Gallery element in a grid format. You can customize the dimensions of your grid by simply clicking on a corner of its border and dragging it. The grid will automatically realign itself within the dimensions of your border. The examples below show the same grid shaped in two different ways by this method:
Once you have finished adding images to your photo gallery, check it out in your browser, or preview it in SiteBuilder.
When your visitors are viewing a full size image, they can use the right arrow key on their keyboards or click on the right side of the image to move to the next image in the gallery; the left arrow key or clicking on the left side takes them to the previous image. Please note: you won’t be able to test that effect while in SiteBuilder’s preview mode; it’s only available to visitors to your published site.
This makes it easier for the people who visit your website, because they no longer have to close each image’s window before they go to the next one. Now they can peruse your images as if they were sitting on your couch, flipping through an actual photo album!
Another nice feature of our Photo Gallery element is that your visitors can see the full-sized images even if they have popups blocked in their browsers. This is because the images are not opening in a new window, but rather within the same browser window. This simple difference provides a more intimate, integrated experience that can really delight visitors to your site.
Photo galleries are often best placed on a page where they are the primary focus of that page, and it’s a good idea to ensure that your images somehow relate to one another. If the first image in your gallery is of your beautiful workspace, and the next one is a picture of the Loch Ness monster, you may confuse your visitors more than they’re willing to take.
I’m really excited about our addition of the Photo Gallery element to SiteBuilder. I hope you’ll have a lot of fun with it in your own websites. Enjoy!
April 23, 2008 at 2:32 am
Can hardly wait to try, will let you know how it works. Beth
April 23, 2008 at 4:56 am
Lets get some more new functions like this so I can use sitebuilder again, maybe??
What you need is:
advanced features, php pages, drop down menu bars like pro websites (spry), custom footers and headers (css) so you can change your design with one click and not have to change 400 pages (using dreamweaver is easy). file manager, get php scripts (free, good ones)
Look into joomla.org and create a test site so you can download the software and login to backend and take a look at the features.
I suggest you contact them and see about using this free software.
April 23, 2008 at 4:59 am
What is Kramer last name??
April 23, 2008 at 1:53 pm
You have no idea how excited I am that you guys have finally updated this feature! Way to go guys, keep it coming!
Also, I agree with Sergio… more advanced features are needed. I find that I cannot use Site Builder for all things, especially with my client’s sites. So again I repeat…keep it coming, you haven’t lost a customer yet, I’m rooting for you guys!
April 23, 2008 at 2:27 pm
THANKS!!! Homestead, this is great, exactly what i have been waiting for as my website is image based. Much appreciated
Cheers
Parys
April 23, 2008 at 2:31 pm
This should prove to be very helpful for my site particularally as I need to post many pictures. Thanks for being semi proactive.
April 23, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Love the idea! Any possibility of a batch uploader?
April 23, 2008 at 3:33 pm
After reading Sergio’s world Beers comments and viewing his web site that he developed by Dream Weaver Sergio Beers needs to come back to Homestead.
It’s MHO it’s disingenuous to come to the Blog and make comments how wonderful some other Host is and tell Homestead “what all they need”
Sergio’s web site in my opinion is indicative of the above comments.
April 23, 2008 at 4:35 pm
I’m so excited to use this feature…THANKS so much for adding this! Now all we need is drop down menus!
April 23, 2008 at 6:15 pm
How about making a batch upload.
April 24, 2008 at 1:37 am
My first reaction to this useful new facility is disappointment that it is not more versatile.
One point I feel, is how much better if the back ground to the enlargements was selectable - ie., image, colour etc. to match individual websites.
Ian
April 24, 2008 at 5:14 am
Great. I was waiting for that. I have more than 120 photos on my site. Now it will be easy to create albums. Thank-you. Since my visitors are french speaking (like me) is it possible to have french navigation element(Next, Prev. Close: Suiv. Préc. Fermez)?
April 25, 2008 at 7:54 am
Finally Homestead has something new and useful. But then it does not work properly, no automatic thumbnails for me. I tell custumer service and they tell me they have “solved” it. BUT still the thumbnail photos does not show every photo link is broken, except when you click on the broken photo link (who would do that except the one who is creating the website) then yes, the full photo comes up sometimes instead of the page and just like a photo in the browser (English is not my first language so it is hard sometimes to really explain things out)
My page where I tried the “photo gallery”:
http://www.operaduetsphotos.com/Concert/Cura2008_0419.html
Does it look right for you?
April 25, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Working with it now. Seems like a good feature. However, when I preview the gallary, it works fine. Actually shows the effects, the text I put in and the ability to browse all the pictures. The problem is that when I do publish it, the spacing is always small no matter what choice I make and all images are regular thumbnails with links to the image itself. Just like a regular thumbnail and no gallary. Probably something on my end but has anyone else see this? Thanks, J
April 26, 2008 at 6:42 pm
This is a good feature, but how about people who prefer the simple picture album. A simple site may still require flipping images. Not all image based sites want to be interactive. We need to consider the diverse audiences that different sites cater to. In a quest to be cutting edge we should not forget that some basic technologies are foundations and will always be required.
April 27, 2008 at 12:32 am
Sounds great. I can’t wait to try out the new photo options!
April 27, 2008 at 1:21 am
How come i don’t see the thumbnails in my browser? All i see is een cross. When i click on it the original picture is shown????
April 27, 2008 at 8:11 am
Sounds great, but is there any easy way to convert the photo page we already have to the new format? Or do we have to re-upload each of those pictures again, this time with the plus symbol?
April 27, 2008 at 6:30 pm
I like this new way to display photos and/or pictures. It is easy to use and works in Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. I like that it stays on the same page and displays quick.
Here are my suggestions to improve this new feature Photo Gallery:
1. Next to “PREV” and “NEXT” put a symbol for visiting patrons to click on because it is not easily noticeable until you more your mouse over the area. “PREV” could be the symbol “” symbol. Placed strategically close to the popup “PREV” and “NEXT” would solve this. How about placing a “PREV” and “NEXT” at the bottom near the “CLOSE” option?
2. Time to buy more space! This feature is really cool but it will easily use up the remaining storage space I have purchased at Homestead. Any chance of allowing external links to photos or pictures for the new Photo Gallery feature? It would really expand my usage of the new feature.
3. The most obvious clickable feature is the photo or picture itself. Aside from clicking “PREV” or “NEXT” or “CLOSE” clicking any place on the picture or photo should allow some action of choice such as “CLOSE” or “PREV” or “NEXT”. Also a loop around choice would be most useful instead of just not seeing “NEXT” or “PREV” and leaving the picture viewer in a dead end.
4. The caption option needs to be greater than 300 characters and a choice of font point size is necessary. The current font point size is too small for any screen size greater than 1024×768.
I love this new Photo Gallery feature but with just a few more simple options it could be the most used feature in Homestead Site Builder.
April 28, 2008 at 3:16 am
Always happy to have access to something new. If it can be further modified/improved to provide versatility within font size, also spacing between pics to be (1, 2, 3, etc) - similar to that found in ‘Navigation’ facility.
Motivates me to see the end product of new concepts being promoted by Homestead for their customers. Just how we like it. Keep them coming and can’t wait to see some of the ‘Wish List’ items mentioned in other posts coming to fruition…. coz I know you guys can do it!
Many Thanks to ALL Homestead staff.
April 29, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I am in love with the photo gallery option. I built a website for my photography business and I too have alot of photos on my site. This new feature is something that shows me that homestead stays true to their word. When they update so do we.
Thanks alot homestead!! As others mentioned before keep up the good work!!
April 29, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Ron and Borghild,
We’re sorry for the problem you had where your images were being displayed as broken. As you’ve probably noticed, we have fixed the problem for you!
I’d like to take a second to say thank you for all of your wonderful suggestions on where to go next with the element. You really have some great ideas and we are paying careful attention to them. We will certainly consider your suggestions when revising our Photo Gallery element. Keep the comments coming!
Thanks!
Kramer
April 29, 2008 at 8:52 pm
YEAH!! Finally a photo gallery! I love Homestead’s Sitebuilder. It’s so easy to use and creates great looking websites. I have my own, plus I’m the webmaster for our Church’s site. I just started my Website and was starting to add my photos. All the sudden, there it was, a Photo Gallery!! I was so excited. Keep up the good work!
May 1, 2008 at 6:29 am
I LOVE THE PHOTO GALLERY! I swear you designed that just for me. For my business and for the money (so inexpensive) Homestead is, without a doubt, unbeatable! Someone out there was listening and I appreciate it. You get a big kiss on the forhead!
THANKS!
May 1, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Thanks for adding the photo gallery, but why did you remove the photo album? Why don’t I have a choice of which one I want to use where? For my site, the “old” photo album is more useful than the photo gallery (especially since there are no captions on the thumbnails). The only feature that I found lacking in photo album was the ability to remove a photo.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favor of adding new features. But why is it that “upgrades” remove existing useful features?
May 2, 2008 at 2:31 pm
I really like the new Photo Gallery but I, like some others above have mentioned, would like the ability to upload more than one picture at a time. That is very annoying to have to add them one at a time.
Also, it would be very helpful if there were a visible link between the thumbnail pictures and the picture file list in the properties window. If I want to enter or edit a caption, it is hard to determine which picture is selected unless you have very descriptive names for the picture files. If I click on a thumbnail, the corresponding file name should be highlighted and vice versa.
May 4, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I am having the same problem people mentioned. In the preview pane, looks great, but when published, it opens each pic individually. NOt in gallery style.. Can anyone help me fix this?
May 5, 2008 at 2:23 pm
very gooooooood.
May 9, 2008 at 10:52 am
Jessica, it’s probably your Java settings…
ENABLING JAVASCRIPT
Internet Explorer:
1. Open the Internet Explorer Web browser.
2. Click the ‘Tools’ menu.
3. Select ‘Internet Options’. (The ‘Internet Options’ dialog box will appear.)
4. Click the ‘Advanced’ tab.
5. Check the following boxes, which appear under the ‘Microsoft VM’ heading:
Java console enabled
Java logging enabled
JIT compiler for virtual machines enabled
6. Click ‘OK’.
7. Close all open browser windows and restart your computer before you login to you account again.
Netscape:
1. Open the Netscape Web browser.
2. Click the ‘Edit’ menu.
3. Select ‘Preferences’. (The ‘Preferences’ dialog box will appear.)
4. Click the term ‘Advanced’.
5. Check the following boxes:
Enable Java
Enable JavaScript
Enable JavaScript for Mail and News
6. Click ‘OK’.
7. Close all open browser windows and restart your computer before you log in to your account again.
Mozilla Firefox:
1. Launch Mozilla Firefox.
2 From the ‘Tools’ menu, click on ‘Options’.
3. From the Options window, click on ‘Web Features’ (left-hand side).
4. In the Web Features window, make sure you check the ‘Enable Java’ and ‘Enable JavaScript’ checkboxes.
May 10, 2008 at 4:08 am
I must say the new photo gallery is certainly an improvement over the previous one. But After reading some of the comments about the pros and cons and trouble using it. I have another option to display your photo’s.
you can view a display here: http://www.ssheatingcooling.com/Services2.html
If any one is interested in this option contact me through my other web site.
http://rogerphilpot.com/contact.html