SlideShowPro News

02.23.10  |  SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.4.9.3 released

This point update brings the Lightroom version of the SlideShowPro player up to date with the Flash version. This update includes parameter additions like new “Always Auto” playback setting, drop shadow controls for navigation elements, caption and gallery text, as well as all the other changes noted in the Flash version’s release notes (available here). The templates that come with the plugin have also been updated to reflect parameter name changes and settings.

This download is free for all users of SlideShowPro for Lightroom and can be downloaded through the Account Center.

01.29.10  |  SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.4.9.1 released

A point update for SlideShowPro for Lightroom has been released today. Version 1.4.9.1 brings the extension up to the latest version of the SlideShowPro player, and (should) resolve a problem with some user’s galleries where the player would sometimes fail to initialize correctly when refreshed in the browser. Users of SlideShowPro for Lightroom can download this free update from the account center

10.26.09  |  Lightroom to Director Plugin updated to 1.0.4

A new version of the Lightroom to Director Plugin, which allows you to upload imagery from your Lightroom library directly to your Director install, has been released. This updated fixes an issue related to Director 1.4, where the albums list would sometimes appear blank when trying to export. Upgrading to the new version of the plugin should fix that issue. The update can be downloaded from the Director product page.

08.27.09  |  New “corporate” licensing options

This isn’t exactly news for existing users, but news nonetheless. Historically, our desktop products — including SlideShowPro for Flash, SlideShowPro for Lightroom and SlideShowPro ThumbGrid — have been sold as “single user” products where the licensee is the user. Based on feedback from our corporate customers, we’re now offering “Corporate” licenses for all of the above products. With these licenses, the licensee is the business entity, and allows licensees to manage themselves which employees receive and use products that are purchased. For more information, see our licensing page or contact us.

08.24.09  |  SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.4.8 released

A new point update for SlideShowPro for Lightroom is now available in the account center. This release, version 1.4.8, updates the Lightroom gallery to the latest version of the Flash component (1.9.7), in addition to a new “Popup/Type” parameter. This parameter brings back the ability to popup a larger version of a clicked slideshow image in a separate browser window. By selecting “Image”, just the image is loaded, as opposed to “SWF” which loads larger images inside of a SWF (along with a loading animation, text, captions, etc). Special thanks to our Lightroom support specialist Tim for coming up with this idea based on user feedback.

This update is free for all SlideShowPro for Lightroom users. Please refer to the updating instructions if necessary. If you’d like to read more about what’s in this update, see the version history.

08.04.09  |  SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.4.7 released

A small maintenance release for SlideShowPro for Lightroom has been released. This version, 1.4.7, includes revised vertical sizing of the header element, plus improved range calculation of the vertical scroll bar in the browser (if necessary). SlideShowPro for Lightroom user can download this update through the account center.

06.02.09  |  SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.4.6 released

The 1.4.6 version of SlideShowPro for Lightroom is now available for download in the account center. This release includes the new pan and zoom functionality we talked about last week.

Also updated is a small change to how the gallery title and description in the Header element is populated. The values are now read from the gallery element in images.xml instead of param.xml. This allows gallery titles and descriptions from SlideShowPro Director to appear as expected.

05.29.09  |  SlideShowPro for Flash 1.9.6 released

The 1.9.6 version of SlideShowPro for Flash is now available for download through the account center. As announced yesterday, this release includes pan and zoom (a.k.a. “Ken Burns”) for slowly scaling / moving photos in your slideshows.

If you are a SlideShowPro Director user, and intend to use pan and zoom, you should update to the Director 1.3.6 version that was also released today. It includes enhanced functionality when loading slideshow content that has focal points assigned to them when using pan and zoom.

If you haven’t updated component instances in Flash before, we recommend viewing this updating video which demonstrates how.

Also, if you are a “Standalone” user of SlideShowPro, we have now made that version a separate download from the Flash Extension. Too many people were confused by the presence of the Standalone files in the same archive, so we made it separate. It’s now linked separately on the SlideShowPro for Flash product download page in the account center.

The Lightroom version of SlideShowPro will be updated to this release early next week. SlideShowPro Director Hosting subscribers can also expect their accounts to be updated to the latest version of Director soon.

05.29.09  |  Say hello (again) to Tim

Today we’re pleased to announce that Tim McFadden, someone who’s historically been quite active in our community forums, will now be helping us (and you) with product support on a daily basis. Tim will be focusing mainly on SlideShowPro for Lightroom as well as the Lightroom to Director plugin.

We still plan on acquiring an additional hand to provide support for SlideShowPro for Flash and SlideShowPro Director, and hope to have someone filling that role soon.

05.27.09  |  Pan and zoom in SlideShowPro

Pan and zoom, also known as the “Ken Burns” effect, is something that a number of SlideShowPro users have requested over time. Today we’re pleased to announce that the next point update (1.9.6) will include support for it. Below is a preview.

Pan and zoom is independent of transitions, and actually works with all transition styles (with the exception of “Push”). You’ll be able to control the direction (“In”, “Out”, “In and Out” and “Random”), whether the panning/zooming completes before moving on to the next piece of content (while in auto-playback), and the minimum and maximum zoom scale that should be used when zooming in and/or out.

If you are loading content from SlideShowPro Director, there’s an extra bonus. Focal points (see left) assigned to images will be adhered to while panning/zooming. For example, if a subject in a photo is at the far left of the frame, and a focal point has been applied to the subject in Director, SlideShowPro will pan/zoom in a manner that will ensure that area stays in view. That way, your pan/zoom doesn’t focus on an empty area of the image and zoom the subject out of the frame.

These focal points will also be respected in full screen mode, so regardless of whether you view the slideshow in the HTML document or in full screen mode, the pan/zoom effect will always look good.

We’re now testing out a few more things, and should be able to release the SlideShowPro for Flash update tomorrow. More news then!