Yewtah! » Tips

SlideShowPro

Yewtah — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:55:09 +0000

SlideShowPro is exactly that “The” Slide Show Pro
It is intended as a dynamic flash application for displaying photos and videos, on any website.

I have used the heck out of this application. It can be very simple yet completely robust. I have used this product since May of 2007 and have not found another to take its place. I use it on all my sites- somehow or another, in fact this last year I have built a shopping cart to go with it for my flash photography website clients. I use it for flash headers, image portfolio’s, video viewing and for a client proofing area.
It is completely customizable, very flexible and extremely elegant. It comes in three versions:
1) A component used with Adobe Flash.
2) A web engine for Adobe Lightroom.
3) A self-contained standalone form.
Compare each here.
View examples here.
Their support forum and video tutorials are great for the DIY group

On top of that if comes with additional products:
1)SlideShowPro Director; for server side application for uploading and managing your content.
2)SlideShowPro ThumbGrid; for customizable thumbnail navigation.

I am not familiar with the standalone or the Adobe Lightroom versions, but I am quite familiar with the Adobe Flash component. I am also not yet familiar with the ThumbGrid addition. I do use the Director and highly suggest it to any who are looking into SlideShowPro.

This is why I love SlideShowPro: You create the flash file upload it once and never have to open the flash file again. It reads and displays the images and other text dynamically via XML. And if you use SlideShowPro Director like I do you upload any new images, add any variety of titles, tags, captions, hyperlinks, arrange images in albums and then add albums to galleries, add music for your albums, all sorts of cool stuff and abracadabra it all displays dynamically on your website.

Plus if you have Adobe Lightroom and you use SlideShowPro Director, there is a Lightroom plugin that allows for direct export of your images from Lightroom to your Director account which helps with speeding up your workflow.

Ok now for my own plug: If you love what you see from the SlideShowPro website and want to add this elegant robust application to your website but think that you can’t quite do it yourself? I would be glad to help you out. Just request a quote and mention this post or slideshowpro and I would be happy to give you a smoking deal.

My links:
Simple Image gallery click here
Flash header click here
Entire website including the shopping cart I built (for shopping cart login under clients) click here

Anything I missed? Or other applications you would suggest?

Introduction to your new WordPress Blog

Introduction to your new WordPress Blog

Yewtah — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:45:52 +0000

First things to do:
Log in to your admin area using the username and password I sent you.
Goto Settings>>General and change the name of the blog and the tagline to whatever you want. Change the email also. Be sure to save.

Next:
Goto Posts>>Categories>> on the right side change the “uncategorized” category to a category name you will use. This one will be the default category. Add any other categories you may want to categorize your posts with. The max you should have for your custom theme is: 8.
Just fill in the category name, dont worry about the other stuff, and press add category.

Thats the mandatory stuff!

Finally, just browse around the admin area becoming familiar with wordpress.

On to your first post:
Click on Posts, notice the post Hello World!, hover over it and the options will show- just delete it
Goto Posts>>Add New. Add the post title. Then the box below is the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. This is where you type your post. To add images place the cursor where you would like the image added then above the WYSIWYG editor hover over the little icons next to the Upload/Insert text. Find the one that says Add an Image and click.

Once the image uploader has loaded click Select Files.

Choose the images you want to upload and click upload. Once your images have uploaded you add the title, dont worry about the caption or description. On Link URL select File URL(this makes it so if someone clicks on the image in your post it takes them to the actual image). On Alignment choose whatever you want, if it doesn’t matter then just select none. Choose the preferred size. Then click insert into post.

This closes the image uploader and adds the image. If you have more than one image to upload repeat this process, or if you uploaded more than one image, you’ll notice that it only inserts one at a time. So click the upload image icon and when the image uploader is loaded click the tab at the top that says Gallery,

find your next image click show set the options and click Insert into post.
Once all text and images are in order and ready, you’ll notice other boxes below the WYSIWYG editor. Dont worry about those except for the discussion box and the All in on SEO Pack.
The Discussion box simply just select if you want to allow comments or pings for the post. Comments you know. Pings are if someone else blogs about your specific post, it automatically finds that persons blog post and puts it as a comment under your post.
The All in One SEO Pack is for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). You can leave this blank. If not you fill this box out with the intention of getting organic (unpaid for) traffic from search engines. So for a second you trade places with your prospective viewers. Think, if I was searching the internet for this exact information (ie. wedding photography, child photography, photo journalism, whatever your post may be about) what keywords would I be typing and what titles would catch my attention. Then fill that info into these boxes. If done right this has potential to drive alot of organic traffic to your website.

Now you will notice the boxes on the right side. The Publish, Post Tags and Categories.
Here’s the idea behind categories and tags. They are used for archiving your posts. According to how I built your blog theme the categories display on top next to the home button (remember max of 8). These should be determined by the type of photos you take and clientele you are after. The tags are more specific and can span several categories. For Instance, You post about a wedding you did in Hawaii. The category could be Wedding and/or Travel. The tags could include Hawaii, Beach, the camera you used, Outdoors and/or photoshop techniques or actions-whatever. So tags could include posts in different categories, Maybe while in Hawaii you took pictures of a family too. Follow? Just dont have the same tags as you have categories.
Ok on the publish box these are pretty self explanatory. The thing to note here is the ability to post either in the past or in the future. If in the past it places it chronologically in your posts. If in the future, it dosen’t post until that time. Click Publish and your set.

If you get bored or ambitious you can create pages. There might not be much need for them since we will cover most everything within your website.
Questions?
Call or email.

Image in post

Yewtah — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:50:37 +0000

Thumbnail image displays with the use of “Thumbnail For Excerpts” plugin.

SlideShowPro

Utah

Yewtah — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 23:07:26 +0000

It was the 45th state admitted to the Union on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80 percent of Utah’s 2,736,424 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering around Salt Lake City. In contrast, vast expanses of the state are nearly uninhabited, making the population the sixth most urbanized in the U.S. The name “Utah” is derived from the Ute Indian language, meaning “people of the mountains.”

Really?

Yewtah — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:38:05 +0000

The state is a center of transportation, information technology and research, government services and mining as well as a major tourist destination for outdoor recreation. According to U.S. Census Bureau’s population estimates, Utah is currently the fastest growing state in the United States as of 2008.