SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.4.8 released

Posted by Todd Dominey on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 12:19 pm

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.

SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.4.7 released

Posted by Todd Dominey on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at 9:49 am

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.

SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.4.6 released

Posted by Todd Dominey on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 9:38 am

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.

SlideShowPro for Flash 1.9.6 released

Posted by Todd Dominey on Friday, May 29, 2009 at 1:38 pm

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.

Say hello (again) to Tim

Posted by Todd Dominey on at 10:42 am

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.

Pan and zoom in SlideShowPro

Posted by Todd Dominey on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 3:48 pm

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!

SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.4.5 released

Posted by Todd Dominey on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 10:55 am

A new point release for SlideShowPro for Lightroom is now available for download in the account center. This release brings the gallery up to date with the latest version of SlideShowPro for Flash (1.9.5), and also includes a little re-organization of Content and Transition parameters (away from the “Images” area and into their own respective panels) so they are easier to locate.

SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.4.4 released

Posted by Todd Dominey on Monday, April 20, 2009 at 2:52 pm

This point release brings the Lightroom version up to date with the latest build of the Flash component (1.9.4). New UI controls have been added for Audio Auto Start as well as Feedback Preloader Text Size. Registered users of SlideShowPro for Lightroom can download this update from the account center.

SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.4.3 released

Posted by Todd Dominey on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 10:58 am

A new point update for SlideShowPro for Lightroom is now available for download. This release, version 1.4.3, updates the gallery so that it uses the latest version of the Flash component (1.9.3), and makes adjustments to the gallery interface to accommodate new / changed parameters. These include the new “Fixed” / “Fixed (if Available)” Caption Appearance options, an independent alpha transparency slider for Caption Header Background Alpha, and the return of “None” as an option for scale.

SlideShowPro for Lightroom users can download this update through the account center.

Full screen / display mode issue, with workaround

Posted by Todd Dominey on Monday, March 23, 2009 at 10:41 am

A few people have been submitting emails and posting forum threads asking about an issue where SlideShowPro’s playback would shift from pause to play (and vice versa) when entering and exiting full screen mode. It was a strange problem, for we were unable to replicate it in every browser we tried, until we used Internet Explorer 7 on Windows Vista.

Turns out the issue is a known bug in Flash Player 10 (that appears to be Vista-only) where the player is firing a KEY_DOWN event when entering / exiting full screen. It also just so happens to fire the same key code the space bar uses, which is what SlideShowPro uses to toggle playback.

As a temporary workaround, you can prevent this from happening by setting SlideShowPro’s OPTIONS/Keyboard Control parameter to “Off”. That will keep the event from firing.

The bug has been open for a few months now, so to help resolve this in a manner that will keep keyboard functionality operable we’ll change to the KEY_UP event in the next point update. It’s pretty much the same as KEY_DOWN, but is completely unaffected by the player bug. Expect to see that point update sometime this week.