Stitchboard Support message #1
General information
June 3, 2011 at 12:43:40 AM
 
Maybe I should start at the beginning.  What exactly is the Stitchboard Showcase?

It's a venue that allows you to show and share your work with others.  If you have a web site, blog, online store, or whatever, and want to show people what you do, in an enjoyable forum, this is what you're looking for.  You can also add an optional premium link and some short promotional text to your showcase.  This way, when your showcase is complete, the viewer can click on the final image and be brought directly to you!

So let's go through your basic options.  Again, you create your own show in a matter of just a few minutes (like as little as 3 or 4!)

The steps involved are:
1. Upload up to 20 images.  They'll automatically be resized down to fit on the screen if they're too large.  We currently accept .jpg, .gif, and .png images.  More formats will be added later.

2. Once your images are uploaded, you'll see a screen that shows a small thumbnail image of what you just uploaded.  Simply use your mouse to drag and drop your images into the order in which you want them to appear in your final show.

3. After sorting your images, you'll come to a screen that shows you the images in the order you just created, and you can type in a description for each one.  These descriptions will be shown at the bottom of each photo in your show.

4. After giving your images descriptions, you'll come to a page which allows you to preview about 35 30-second clips of music.  Pick one that you feel is right for your show.  There's purposely a wide variety of genres of music.  Or, you can tell it you don't want music.  Keep in mind that the system will do an amazing thing.  Once you choose your music from the 30-second clips, it will remember your choice, and will later cut a longer version to exactly fit the length of your show.  For example, if you have 15 images and select 10 seconds per image (which will be discussed later), the system will cut a 150-second (or 2 minute-30 second) version of the song you selected.

5. After selecting your music, you are brought to a page that lets you enter some additional information.  On this page you enter a name for your showcase, a brief description, some search keywords, your desired length of time between pictures, how you want your images to transition from one to another, an optional copyright notice you want displayed, whether you want the system to create a title page (and what information you want placed on that title page), and whether you want music to start at the title page or not.

Then you have the chance to optionally pay a nominal charge to have the system allow you to enter some promotional information, as well as a link to your web site.

6. Once you complete this page of information, you will be brought to a "Preview" page.  By pressing the "Preview" button, you'll see a preliminary demo of how your showcase will look.  Depending on the length and the music you chose, you may or may not hear music during your preview.  As time goes on, more and more music will be pre-cut, and more and more previews will have music.  Either way, your final showcase WILL have music if you chose it.

7. Before submitting it for final publishing, there are a few things.  At this point, you can go back to any step of the showcase creation, and make changes.  This means that you can go all the way back to the upload page and add more images (up to 20 total).  You can delete images if you decide you don't want some.  You can re-sort them, change descriptions, change your music, and change any of the other information you entered.

And not just now!  Let's say you want to take a few more pictures and include them in this showcase.  Simply go do it whenever you want.  Today, tomorrow, whatever.  When you come back to your showcase home page, the "Showcase Status" will show you that you have a showcase in progress, and allow you to click on the "Continue Editing" button.  Click on this button and it'll take you to the last page you were working on.  Click on the "Upload Images" link at the top of the page and upload your new images.  Re-sort if you want, enter descriptions for your new images, and that's it.  Go to the preview page and you'll immediately see your new images included in your show!

An important point regarding working on a showcase over a period of time is that once you begin creating a showcase, you have 30 days (to the second) to complete it and submit it for publishing.  If you don't complete it in time, it will automatically be deleted and you'll have to start over.  (Sorry.)

8. When you're happy with the show, simply click on the "I'm happy With My Showcase" button at the top of the preview page and it will be submitted for publishing.  This normally takes us less than a day to process.  When your show has been published, you'll receive an email, giving some additional information and links.

And that's it!  Show your work free of charge, or, if you wish, pay a nominal charge to place a promotional paragraph and link to your web site.  Either way, it's fun, fast, and impressive, especially when set to music!

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