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Chapter 10. Common ShutterBug Gotchya's!
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There are times when it may seem like ShutterBug is performing magic tricks without
your consent. There are some features in ShutterBug, as well as in your browsers, that
can create some potential, but temporary, mind boggling situations. We've even been
stumped by a few. This page lists off some common items that might catch you off
guard and how to troubleshoot them. If our answers don't work for you, we'll eat our
shorts!
◢ The Mysterious Navigation Shows Pages in a Group Feature...
So you want the album pages in a Group to show up in the navigation menu when you
are viewing one of those pages? You've clicked on the Navigation tab in the Layout
window. For the album pages, you have selected Pages in Group under the Navigation
shows option. Simple enough. Then you go to the Preview window to view this feature.
Hmmm, the pages aren't showing up in the navigation menu. So you ask yourself, "Is
this a bug or am I going blind???" The good news is that you're not going blind, and
it's not a bug. The bad news is there is one more step required to activate this
feature...The reason the pages aren't showing up is because they are unchecked in
the Navigation options list in the content editor. Go to the Content window. Select
Website from the navigation list and check off the Show boxes beside each page in the
group. Now they will show up in the navigation for a group of albums only.
◢ The WebSite That Will Never Change No Matter What You Do...
Made some changes to your site, then uploaded them, but you can't see any change
when you view it live in your browser? This is not something you did wrong.
Unfortunately, some browsers can't automatically render the changes, and will show
you an older cached version of your site the last time you visited. To wake your
browser up, just give it a refresh. See some changes, but not all of them? This
requires a second refresh. In some cases, it may require a third refresh. Refresh until
you see all of your changes. If it takes more than one refresh, the browser will usually
update your content in this order: text changes first, layout changes, and last, any
images that have been changed or replaced.
If refresh doesn't nip it, then resort to Plan B: Empty your cache and quit the browser.
Then launch the browser again and go to your site.
If emptying your cache doesn't do it, then go to Plan C: Use a different browser, and
send a letter to your browser manufacturer demanding that they fix the very low
hanging bugs in their browser.
◢ Holy Cannoli! Look at The Size of Those Pictures, They're HUGE!!!
If your large display or slideshow display of your photos is showing them at an
enormous size, chances are the Image Processing option is not selected in your
ShutterBug preferences. If you have ShutterBug's image processing turned off, the
photo will be the same size as the original because ShutterBug has not changed it in
any way. Go to ShutterBug Preferences and check your settings under the Photo
Albums tab. If the first option, Photos have been edited by external app, is selected,
this means ShutterBug is not performing any processing on your photos. You will either
have to resize the picture in an external app or select the second option, Enable Image
Processing, to have ShutterBug automatically batch resize your originals to the desired
size.
◢ The Navigation Menu that Lost Its Way...
Did you apply a new theme to your website and noticed part of the navigation menu is
either cut off, covered by another object on the page, or the menu item names are now
wrapping onto multiple lines? This is due to the theme design and requires some minor
tweaking in the Layout editor. It means the page names created in the content editor
are wider than the width of the navigation menu. To fix this, go to the Layout window
and click the Navigation tab. Check the space between menu items and the inside
margin values of the menu items. Chances are these need to be decreased in order
to display your entire menu without adjusting any other part of the theme. If the menu
names are wrapping onto multiple lines, use your mouse to grab the handles on the
navigation menu and pull them out to increase the width, until the names are no longer
wrapping.
◢ The Text Box Disappearing Act...
Well, it doesn't actually disappear, it just may not be visible on your screen sometimes.
If you have clicked on the Text Contents box in the Layout editor, but can't see the box
outline with grab handles, chances are you just need to scroll up in the layout window
to find it. Every theme has a minimum height that the text contents box is set to, but
the amount of text entered is unlimited. The text box will automatically adjust to the
height of the text, BUT the box outline will remain at the minimum height value
specified for that theme. If the text exceeds the minimum height of the box, you won't
be able to see the box outline if you are viewing the page towards the end or bottom of
your text. Double-check to make sure you still have the Text Contents tab selected and
scroll up the window until you see it.
◢ Uhm, That's Not the Background Color of My Background Image...Hello?
Are your background Images displaying or resting on top of a color that is not the
same as the canvas color for your image? If you dropped an image into one of the
image wells for an element's background (in the Layout window), but the element's
background displays a portion that is not in tune with the color of your image's
background, you have to make a couple of quick adjustments. When using
background images, the background color of the element will display another color
beneath your image. Look at the color that is selected in the color well for the
background options. Click on the color well to change it to either transparent, or to
match the color of the background for your image. When using an image for a
background, ShutterBug will insert your image on top of the color selected in the color
well. An alternative solution, is to grab the element's grab handles with your mouse
and resize it to the same size as your image. The size of your image will not change,
the excess background pixels will simply be covered up.
◢ Option to Check Item to Make Visible in Slideshow View Has Left the Building!
When editing slideshows under the Slideshow tab in Layout mode, one of the options
is to turn other elements on and off for the slideshow view on your page. However, this
option is only available for slideshows that are on a different page than your photo
album. If you can't see this option on the interface for the Slideshow tab, it means you
have your photo album set to show slideshow on the same page - in which case,
turning elements on and off is not applicable (otherwise they would disappear from
your normal web page view). Make sense? You can see the change on the interface
by setting your photo album options to Slideshow (different page), then clicking on the
Slideshow tab. You will see the Make Visible options are available. Then click back to
the photo album tab and change the option to Slideshow (same page). Click on the
Slideshow tab again, and you will see the Make Visible options are no longer showing
up on the interface, because they are not applicable to a slideshow on the same page
as a photo album.
◢ Did ShutterBug Just Lose Its Mind?? Where is the new photo I just imported??
Have you replaced a photo with another one, and deleted the old one? But the Group
page in Layout mode is magically displaying the old photo, instead of the new one,
while the photo album page is displaying the new photo correctly. What's up with
that?? You've deleted the old photo, how could ShutterBug possibly still display it?
Sometimes ShutterBug is too smart for its own good; the old photo is still being stored
in ShutterBug's memory bank - what has actually happened is the old photo was being
used on a Group page and has not yet been replaced...well at least in ShutterBug's
mind it has not been fully replaced. Go back to the Content window and select the
Group page from your navigation list. Click the "Select Photo in Album for Thumbnail"
button. When the window slides out, select the new photo, and hit Apply. Now the new
photo will be displayed and all remnants of the old photo are removed from
ShutterBug.
◢ Text Contents Box in Layout Mode Giving You Some Attitude?
If you try clicking inside the text box when in layout mode with the intention of inputting
some text, you'll see that this 'ain't gonna happen. ShutterBug just won't let you.
That's because all content is built in the Content window, and not in the Layout window.
The Layout window is for design purposes only and hence the reason you cannot type
text into the text contents box in the Layout editor. To change, add, and edit text, go
back to the Content window and input the text into the Page Text Contents field.
◢ The SlideShow Viewer that Apparently Does Absolutely Nothing!
In Layout mode, the Slideshow tab contains a component option called "Slideshow
Viewer." The slideshow viewer gives you the option to top align your pictures so that
they all line up at the same top position. This is handy when you have a variety of
portrait and landscape pictures in the same slideshow. It keeps them all aligned at the
same top position to prevent the photos from changing position each time a new slide
is displayed. OK, so you already know all about this and have proceeded to check off
the Top Align Picture checkbox to activate this feature. What's that you say? Nothing is
happening? It appears to have no effect on your slideshow? This feature will not work
if you do not have the Enable Image Processing option turned on in your user
preferences. The Top Align option will then take effect.
◢ The Illusive Draw Objects...Reality or Just a Facade??
Did you just blow off an entire afternoon adding draw objects to several of your photos
in the ImageWell edit window? But the draw objects aren't showing up anywhere, and
now you are really mad at us for wasting your valuable time. Please don't throw eggs
at us, we have a solution for you. The draw objects are a reality. They will always
display on the enlarged or slideshow image. You should be able to see them in the
Preview window when you click on your thumbnail images. To display the draw objects
on your thumbnails, check off the Show Draw Objects option located below the
thumbnail viewer in the ImageWell edit window. This option will make the draw objects
display on your thumbnails as well. If you can't see them in the thumbnail viewer in the
ImageWell edit window, click on the picture inside the thumbnail viewer and they will
appear. Each time you change or delete a draw object, you have to click inside the
thumbnail viewer to see the changes.
◢ The Slideshow Dictatorship
If you have used an earlier version of ShutterBug in the past, you'll know that the page
elements could be edited and freely moved around when in Slideshow mode under the
Layout window. This meant that you could inadvertently mess up the entire layout of
the page in normal view, without knowing that it would affect your normal page view.
Well, that was the past and this is the present. ShutterBug isn't the practical jokster
when it comes to slideshow mode anymore. When in Slideshow mode, with slideshow
set to display on a different page, the other elements showing in slideshow view, are
locked so that you cannot accidentally move them out of place. In the past, moving
them when in slideshow mode was not independent of thumbnail mode - if you moved
them in slideshow mode, they would also move in your regular view. With the current
version, showing these elements in slideshow view means you need to either position
your slideshow around them accordingly, or choose to have them not show up if they
are interfering with the slideshow display. Note that this only applies to slideshows on
a different page; slideshows on the same page mean all elements can be moved and
edited.
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