We’ve just released a major new version of the Viewbook album and slideshow functionality. With many new features we can say we offer one of the most advanced flash albums available. But this release brings more; a completely new and very easy to use album editor. You can now style and configure your albums and see the changes instantly; 100% what you see is what you get!
The new album design is more refined and intuitive with enhanced text options, more configurability for thumbnails and navigation. For very large displays we added a HD viewing mode; full size viewing without quality loss! The new album also integrates seamlessly with the Viewbook Pages; a new editor lets you customize the albums inside your pages directly. Read more information and FAQ’s here. Login and check it out! Any feedback? Let us know in the comments!
Major new features and improvements:
- Visual styling, see your changes instantly
- HD Resolution for display on large screens
- Choice of (system)fonts
- More thumbnail sizes and thumbnail cropping
- Image alignment (left, center, right)
- New text display
- More navigation options
- Display of filename
- Disable frame margin album
- Disable and enable image transitions
- And some more…
FAQ’s
You can find answers to questions about the new Album release here.
Fantastic! It’s great to see you guys working on improvements. Thank you for your hard work.
Do you happen to have any more information on what “HD images” means or a link where I can read about it?
Comment by Jason — February 9, 2010 @ 12:15 am
Love it! I do love you guys!!!!!!!
Comment by JeffD — February 9, 2010 @ 12:30 am
great changes ! well done !
however where can i find the new text display ?
Comment by w — February 9, 2010 @ 1:51 am
Not all that thrilled with the change without notice. We had an two albums built into our site and the new treatment rendered totally unexpectedly. it added a black surround and placed the image in a different position. We had scheduled an e-blast for tomorrow and that will need to be canceled until we can figure out a solution.
not pleased. :-(
Comment by Robert — February 9, 2010 @ 5:14 am
Thx, nice improvements! One bug I mentioned: If Thumbnails and Options are placed both TOP and set on AUTOHIDE, then in FULLSCREEN the Thumbnails dont show until u “click” in the Top-Area. Could be only a problem in the Firefox-Browser(3.5),too,but i dont think it is.
Another question of interest: when do u want to publish the “shop”-like feature? (u mentioned it in Forum in springtime I think)
Thanks in advance, h.
Comment by husar — February 9, 2010 @ 8:41 am
Thanks for the compliments!
@Robert, we’ll fix the transparency issue today, including all other bugs that come up.
Comment by Rien | Viewbook — February 9, 2010 @ 9:34 am
Everything looks great. But the text under my albums doesn’t show up anymore (txt in settings- description) and also the numbers in the option bar have gone.
Best wishes,
Cornell
Comment by Cornell — February 9, 2010 @ 9:51 am
The text issue is important to me, as it is one of the fundaments of the lay-out of my site – it combines images with poetry. All the poetry and other information texts don’t show up anymore.
But apart from that, the new viewbook looks great.
Best.
Cornell
Comment by Cornell — February 9, 2010 @ 10:21 am
Great update so far love the centre imaging.
However the big improvement which still needs to made so far is the resizing for different screens ie a laptop and the 24inch monitor. its lovely on the big screen but on the laptop the whole site does not fit into a 15inch wide screen.
a resizing improvement would be great! :)
Comment by james — February 9, 2010 @ 11:01 am
Love to see you guys make some desired changes to the way we can see our updates in album view and the HD view. Huge improvement overall. But I do still have one gripe and ever since I joined your service it has been frustrating trying to figure out what some of the options do. You have definitely helped that by giving us a live preview in the album style section but yet some of the options definitely need more detailed explanation and maybe visual samples to what each option does to an album. For example the HD mode and the Frame Album Margin are very vague and could use some specifics as to what is the maximum pixel size that HD will display, is it scaling the image up, is there a longer load time? The Frame Album Margin option took some playing around to actually see it’s effect on an album. I would love to see a page detailing each option with text or pictures as to what they will look like with them on and off. And you mention “And much more…” at the bottom of your updates features list, what is the much more? Definitely a welcome update though. Thanks.
Comment by Michal Pfeil — February 9, 2010 @ 11:55 am
@Michal Your’re right. Thanks for your feedback. We will prepare a page with detailed explanations. It’s not always easy to find the right copy to be fully explainable in such limited space.
For now: HD displays images in HD resolution 1920x1080pixels. If you’ve uploaded your images in, at least, this resolution, your images will be displayed in this size on large screens. We’ve enabled the HD resolution in december 2009.
The Frame margin disables the margins around your Album. So you can embed it in another website without any margins.
Also check our FAQ section:
http://support.viewbook.com/forums/62883/entries/109819-new-album-release-faq
Comment by Rien - Viewbook — February 9, 2010 @ 3:57 pm
could you please help with directions on how to access the old version of the albums?
“If you are still looking for the old version of the Album, no worries. It’s still available under the ‘classic’ mode’.”
Thanks – there are times that version is preferable for me.
Comment by Robert — February 9, 2010 @ 7:37 pm
@ Robert, You can find the classic mode under the Text heading in the editing window, in the ‘version’ selectbox. You can choose ‘New’ and ‘Classic’ here.
The classic text is only available in the Full albums right now, not yet for the albums inside the pages. We’re working on this, will be available soon.
More info is on http://support.viewbook.com/forums/62883/entries/109819-new-album-release-faq
Comment by Alrik — February 9, 2010 @ 9:38 pm
thanx for the update. have to redesign some things, but that will only make my viewbook look better. i think the spacing in the photo-description is pretty big. can i do anywthing about that. or can you?
Comment by maarten — February 10, 2010 @ 2:17 pm
Much better! Well done!
However,I have a little problem I’m not sure bud can be a bug. I create a new album and I have use the Album Style Setting panel (very nice). I drag the new created album to Pages new album and the Setting panel is still visible. In the middle in the Drop album area. Is no way to remove it.
Also, I agree whit James, about the problem resizing for different screen size.
Well the important is that you are improving the site little by little. When I join Viewbook I was also considering Livebooks (I suppose your more direct competence) they have some features, that I like bud I was preferring the look of Viewbook. Elegance and simplicity. The pages and interface look nice, clean and pro! Thanks!
Just one question is Viewbook mirrored as a HTML Site?
Comment by salva — February 10, 2010 @ 2:21 pm
Cool new enhancements! Nice job.
Strange things are happening though. On my opening page, I had a slideshow. Even though I have “Autoplay Slideshow” checked for that album under advanced, the slideshow will not play. Also, suddenly all of my thumbnails for all albums are set to small. I can’t seem to get them to be large again…www.jeffalu.com
Comment by Jeff Alu — February 10, 2010 @ 7:31 pm
It does not work properly!!! Can’t select anything in the drop down menus. Tried refreshing the page and still not working, very, very quirky. Can you please replace this functionality with the old one until you guys work out the bug.
Comment by Kelvin — February 10, 2010 @ 11:57 pm
I agree with Kelvin, I can’t seem to make the drop down menu work properly. My albums font changed and arrows on their own…can’t get them back to classic.It shows up fine in image manager but then doesn’t save correctly. Sent email for help.
Comment by scott — February 11, 2010 @ 12:21 am
@Kelvin @scott What web browser are you using?
Comment by Rien - Viewbook.com — February 11, 2010 @ 9:46 am
I’m attempting to change things in the new Style Album interface. nothing will update. I’ve tried this in multiple browsers. It’s updating in the “live” interface, but my site stays the same.
Comment by jeffalu — February 11, 2010 @ 8:24 pm
I am having the same issue as #20. I’ve tried in Firefox and Chrome and every time I update the styles for an album, it doesn’t save. When I look online or return to the style options, they have returned to the default.
Comment by lgh — February 11, 2010 @ 9:42 pm
hey guys,
why the week end don’t u go fishing
instead doing this bad change?????????
-the button “play” and “full screen” now are on the extreme right
why? its without sense….they were good before inthe middle of the pic, between the two arrows
now its a worst navigation
i dont like
it seems u do like facebook: just complicate what its easy and direct.
the only thing u should change is the download option:
-enable to download a low resolution of the image, for each album, not like now u can just download the original size and the whole album….if someone who look at my gallery like the “x” pic, he must be able to download the one he likes but in low res.
please listen to me
and do the changes i suggest you
Your service is one of the most expensive and most be one of the best.
Satisfy your customer who gives u the money
Edo Alto
Comment by edo alto — February 12, 2010 @ 12:05 am
mmmm….
i checked out better and i understood its not so bad :)
cause now the style chandges i do in album i have to do in pages too….
okay……it works!
but please guys, the best should be if the visitors can download a low res of the image and not the origina l and not the whole
album by default
ok guys????
i know u can do this!!!!!
:)
Comment by edo alto — February 12, 2010 @ 12:31 am
Important:
@jeffalu, @lgh and everybody, If you don’t see the changes in your site, EDIT YOUR ALBUM STYLES INSIDE YOUR SITE. One of the biggest changes is that you can now edit the Albums that appear on your Pages, inside your pages. We’re writing a detailed instruction today with examples to make everything clear.
@edo Thanks, glad you like it after all!
Comment by Rien — February 12, 2010 @ 10:40 am
I am indeed editing the albums directly, not the pages. It still has no effect. All of my albums are now small thumb nails, no matter what size I select within the “style album”, for example.
Comment by Jeff Alu — February 12, 2010 @ 3:42 pm
Just send you an email Jeff, did you receive it?
To edit the Albums on your Pages do one of the following:
1. If your Album is inside an Album Page format, you can edit the Album directly on your Page.
2. If your Album is inside a Collection page, and your Album opens IN your site, you can edit your Album with the new ‘Style album’ button below the thumbnails of your Collection Page.
3. If your Albums open full screen edit your Albums under the ‘Style album’ tab under your Album.
Bottom line: edit your Album on your Pages directly! No need to switch back to the Album itself anymore.
Comment by Rien — February 12, 2010 @ 5:08 pm
Hi Rien, OK, now I see what you mean. I tried to edit the album from within the page, and it did work…but only once! Now, from within the page, when I try to change the thumbnail size, click “close”, and then come back to edit, the thumbnail sizes haven’t updated.
Jeff
Comment by Jeff Alu — February 12, 2010 @ 5:51 pm
Thank you for your response. I am editing in the album mode because I choose for the album to open full screen. All the changes seem to be working except for one, the Background color. All other changes are saved except for background color. Than you.
Comment by lgh — February 12, 2010 @ 7:45 pm
I figured out what was happening to me. The only change that wasn’t saved was the background color but it would only NOT save if I typed in the hex code. If i pick the color with the curser it will save. This was the same for the options bar color as well. My workaround is to type in the hex number and then, as closely, as possible pick the same number or close enough to it with the curser.
Comment by lgh — February 12, 2010 @ 7:51 pm
Hi,
Didn’t know I needed the new changes, but now i have used it, Brilliant! Nice one! Cant wait for the (possible) e-commerce facility (please!)
mattomica
Comment by mattomica — February 14, 2010 @ 3:06 pm
It’s a great update, and I really like the professional clean and slick design of viewbook and also the help customer service is good, BUT right now nothing is working, no albums and no pages are loading on my site, and also not on other viewbook sites that I’ve looked at so it’s nothing on my end, this for several hours now ( and also earlier this week ). I can’t even see my albums while being logged in.
As a commercial photographer I really can’t have prospective clients go to my portfolio on my website, only for them to see a page that isn’t loading !! So, what’s up with that ???
Comment by philip — February 15, 2010 @ 1:42 am
Well, I just checked again and right now everything IS working, but it wasn’t so a couple of hours before and until now.
Comment by philip — February 15, 2010 @ 1:48 am
@philip,
I just checked our response time reports, and did not find any downtime for 15 February. Maybe there was a temporary network issue. If it happens again just send a mail to support@viewbook.com and we’ll take a closer look.
Comment by Rien - Viewbook.com — February 15, 2010 @ 10:26 am
OK thanks Rien , will do, of course I hope it doesn’t happen again, : ) But, as for everything else concerning viewbook, I still think that it really is a great portfolio&website service, and I suppose it can only get better !
Comment by philip — February 15, 2010 @ 12:25 pm
Hey folks, send you a message on Twitter, but more room here.
The LR plugin is broken in LR3, but the fix is easy and works in LR2 also.
Comment by Sean McCormack — February 22, 2010 @ 7:35 pm
Hey Rien,
Must say awesome improvement, In the previous version we used to have an option which says back to overview, which takes us to the home page, but I am afraid I dont see any such thing in the new one, Am I missing some thing?
One more thing which I would like you to address is cant we upload portrait pics the way they are, as the thumbnail show in landscape so most of portrait pics get cropped in the view.
Please do something about this.
Cheers
Lucky
Comment by Lucky — March 3, 2010 @ 5:51 am
Hi again,
is it right that i can only use the HD feature with pictures i have uploaded after Dec.09? Because the “old” ones (uploaded with HD oder higher resolution) don’t show in HD with HD enabled… or is there a trick for it?
Thanks in advance, h.
Comment by husar — March 3, 2010 @ 7:33 pm
Nice, quite nice, just a pitty that Apple dont sign with adobe flash for their I”’. Gonna to test on my Windows OS. Thanks for sharing.
Comment by Sylvaine — March 7, 2010 @ 2:31 pm
hello guys! I like how the new changes look, but I kinda have a problem ..first I thought my changes are not being saved, but they are. my images are not centered :( I have no space above my photos..maybe I’m just silly and didn’t discover what option to check for it to work, but please take a look, I’d really appreciate it, it messes with how my website looks :(
Comment by Oana — March 11, 2010 @ 1:09 am
Hi Oana, I see you have set you ‘Image display’ to ‘original size’ under the advanced tab in your album styling window. This setting always aligns images at the top. If you select ‘default’ it will centre all the way. I already fixed your female portraiture album. If you have any more questions, just mail me at support@viewbook.com! Cheers
Comment by Alrik - Viewbook — March 11, 2010 @ 9:46 am
I have one issue with Titles for pages… with the “menu top” option the title disappears (is not visible). It is set to “visible” under the title tab. I need the menu top option for the look I want and consistency.
Can you fix this?
Thanks
Comment by Matthew Smith — March 16, 2010 @ 8:12 pm
ineed my photo
Comment by jihad — April 6, 2010 @ 3:50 pm
A strange thing occured today. On 8 different PC’s/laptops which have both IE and Firefox installed, I’ve noticed on my homepage, my images from my album now have a strange large white background around it and my images are stuck in the top left corner of this white background???
This wasn’t the case for the last couple of weeks since I joined Viewbook. It looks very odd and I can’t seem to rectify this problem.
Before I commit to Viewbook can you tell me how I or when you will rectify this problem?
Awaiting a quick response.
Kayode
Comment by Kayode — April 20, 2010 @ 12:13 pm
… to add to this, I’ve noticed this happens when I have a custom image set as the main background (i.e a random jpeg file set as the background.
Comment by Kayode — April 20, 2010 @ 2:12 pm
Hey Guys, thank you for the improvements. After playing around with them I have one suggestion: Could you please make it possible to save presets for album styles too? Now when building an album for clients I have to change all settings again and again to make it look like I want…
Oh, and one bug: When changing title or description of a selected image pressing the DEL-Key deletes the picture and not the text. Very annoying!
Thanks
Stefan
Comment by Stefan Simonsen — May 12, 2010 @ 5:15 pm
I’m having the same problems as Matthew Smith: “with the “menu top” option the title disappears (is not visible).” Is there a fix for this?
Thanks
Comment by banquetbear — July 31, 2010 @ 8:23 am
I’m also having the sample problem as two other people, when in the “menu top” option, the title disappears even though the “hide title” checkbox is not ticked.
Is there a way to fix/change this?
Thanks
Comment by Julia Trotti — March 28, 2011 @ 10:51 am