toxaphene wrote:Do you understand what I want????
Not to a great extent, no.
You're complaining that you're not a professional CSS programmer. That's also true of most of the people who have taken the time to learn enough to put together CSS's of their own, but let's ignore that for a moment.
On EVERY gallery edit page, there's a drop-down which allows you to select from a range of different CSS's without you having to learn a single line of HTML code or even understand what a CSS is. A combo box control next to the words "Style Sheet". You can't GET much more of a "user friendly simple function key" than that.
Now it could be argued, and not without grounds, that there aren't enough built-in style sheets available (and not enough diversity amongst those present) for those who have no wish to learn ANYTHING about CSS. Certainly there are far, far fewer than at SmugMug for example. However with SmugMug you're bound to their predefined formats which aren't entirely to my taste. PBase provides you with much more flexibility. It also provides an entire forum on css's, a (relatively) easy "how to" page even for those unfamiliar with CSS's, and a whole bunch of members who are willing to share their experiences and own CSS's if you ask them nicely.
However none of this, not one iota, has to do with the user interface which offers you the simplicity of clicking on a drop-down to select a completely different style for your gallery.
toxaphene wrote:You can see actually many people don't know how to make their own stylesheet or "personal style" album, but just use a very simple black and white or the stylesheet available currently
Hmm… d'ya think that one of the reasons for this might not be fear of CSS but rather the fact that many photos are enhanced by a simple black background, and that what ain't broken doesn't need to be fixed? That's why most of mine still use the standard black_and_white one, not because CSS holds untold terrors. And I doubt that I'm the only one in that boat.
Admittedly I dabbled for a while with black_standard, but abandoned it when I found that users often couldn't see the size controls when viewing the images in IE6. That's another reason that I haven't bothered with changing the CSS since then. However if I WANT to, I can change it in any way that I want.
toxaphene wrote:simple function key for addition of background photos
Well, you can change the background COLOUR by entering a simple colour name or RGB code into a text box in the gallery properties; again I'm not sure how much simpler that can be. Granted, PBase doesn't offer the option of putting a background image up, probably for the same reason that Porsche dealers don't sell flame decals to stick on the side of their cars; yes, it's
possible to put them on a 911, but why on earth would anyone want to unless they were heavily into the word "uglification"?
Similarly:
toxaphene wrote:or even add background music...
I think that the ability to do that was killed off when javascript support was. (There may be a few clever types who can still make it work, but they're probably keeping their secrets to themselves.) However the inability to do that is doubtless welcomed by every Internet user who has ever slammed a browser window shut while muttering "son of a {bleep}!" because the page author has decided to push unwelcome and uninvited sound through their speakers. It's a lovely experience when it happens while someone's browsing at lunchtime in an otherwise quiet office.
{Personal soapbox} If PBase DOES decide to implement this in the next incarnation of the site, I DO hope that they make it OFF by default with the end user (that is, the person sitting on the other end of the browser, not the gallery owner) needing to click to turn it on if they wish to. Failure to do so may lead to an unknown number of casual Internet users placing pBase on their personal blacklist. This is an instance of "just because something's technically possible, it doesn't mean that it should be done". {\Personal soapbox}
toxaphene wrote:For your reference ,one of quite famous Hong Kong album for your reference...
http://www.fotop.net
Oh. Uh, yeah, that's one attractive site there. Love the Google ads on the front page, which looks like it was designed with the 1996 version of FrontPage. And the random images; all three of them that show up when you select a category. Or, more precisely,
sometimes show up. That's when you don't briefly see an outline of three images which then shrink down to nothing, which is what I'm getting in Firefox at the moment. (Red x's in IE6.) I must also check out the "self protraits" (sic) category. Very professionally put together. In Forum posts you expect typos. On a website which asks you to pay cashy-money for services, you expect the site admin to use a spell checker. And to understand what the word "Unique" means, because it's used in a rather "unique" way when describing the site's features:
fotop.net wrote:Unique Features:
* Mirroring disk array for maximum protection of your photos from disk failure.
I know that we have occasional red X issues, but has anyone actually LOST a photo on pBase?
fotop.net wrote: * Experience software developer listen to your suggestions, comments, encourgement and help requests.
I wonder whether he listens when people "encourge" him to use a spell checker.
Granted, this is an issue on pBase. But that's another thread in another Forum. And anyway, in relation to fotop the above is a claim, not a fact.
fotop.net wrote: * Enable/Disable "direct link" of images from other website
Does that sound in any way familiar?
fotop.net wrote: * Support "Movie clips" upload
True, pBase doesn't support this, and although there are some who wish that it would my bet is that there are more who are glad that it doesn’t. As in, "we don't need another You Tube".
fotop.net wrote: * Send album to friend through email
* Member profile page
* Member favourite list
* Member latest update list
Do any of those sound familiar?
fotop.net wrote: * Album/photo category
Granted, categorisation is something that pBase could do with… though it does raise the question of whether the categories should be predefined (which would facilitate searching) or user definable (which would maximise flexibility). The one thing that I think that most of us agree on is that there should be category flags for nudity or other adult content which would eliminate a lot of the angst about what users see when they visit, but there's no indication of whether fotop is doing that either.
fotop.net wrote: * Album/photo voting
They have VOTING??? How "unique!"
fotop.net wrote: * Improve brightness, contrast and color of photos in 1 second.
Aaaaand would this be via a colour calibrated workspace, or via the "throw a bucket of pixels at it and hope that it looks OK on most monitors" method? (Bonus points for those who remember what Deke McClelland had to say about the Brightness / Contrast command in Photoshop CS2.)
fotop.net wrote: * Password protected/hidden album.
* bookmark photographers / friends.
* Show off pictures in categories.
* Vote/Rating on pictures in categories.
* Background music for albums.
* Private Messages between members.
Except for categorisation and the accursed background music, how many of these "unique" features exist on pBase?
Actually I think that pBase's method of having links which aren't dependent on gallery location has some advantages over that one, particularly when images move between galleries.
fotop.net wrote: * Email notify you when someone sign your guestbook or comment on your photos.
Aaaand so it goes on. It's not that I'm setting out to bag fotop.net as such; I'm sure that many of the people who use it enjoy doing so, but I also think that there's remarkably little to learn from it.
toxaphene wrote:I guess this is no the only person who want to urge pbase make a better interface with user friendly function key
Once again, I ain't a professional CSS programmer
And once again, you can't get much more of a "user friendly function key" than a combo box and a couple of text boxes.
pBase is not without faults, but with a couple of niggling exceptions and nothing all that huge, the user interface isn't one of them.
Last edited by akmc_in_au on Sat Jan 26, 2008 5:20 am, edited 2 times in total.