Customizable Invoice Numbers and Online Gallery PayPal Support

We have a lot of customers who have been asking why the blog has been quiet lately. The blog's focus has been on new features and products. The development team has been working diligently on getting them released and they expect them to be available in the next few weeks. A lot of the updates over the last few weeks have been in preparation for those new features. Hopefully you will be excited as we are about the new features when they are announced.

Last night’s update added some exciting new features. The first feature is primarily for international users, QuickBooks users, and new StudioCloud studios. You can now change the invoice number so that it matches with your current studios invoice number allowing you to continue using the same invoice numbering system you have always been using. It will make the transition to StudioCloud just that much easier.

To learn more about editing Invoice Numbers click on the following link:
http://studiocloud.com/support/?View=entry&EntryID=91

Those of you who are detail oriented will also have noticed that the developers added a few visual items to speed up your processes. The title bar when you edit an invoice now contains the invoice date as well as the invoice number.

StudioCloud is also pleased to announce that the Online Gallery now has the capability of accepting credit cards through PayPal. This new feature gives your clients a simple and efficient way to purchase those must have images. This new PayPal capability is an option that can be turned on or off on a per album basis.

To learn more about Online Gallery’s new PayPal capability click on the following link:
http://studiocloud.com/support/?View=entry&EntryID=93

StudioCloud, It's just that Easy

Send Custom Emails

Do you want your emails to your clients to have a little bit more personalized feel? Well now you can! The development team recently implemented the ability to use your own email address to send emails to customers. This includes sending invoices, reminders, and Online Gallery invitations. We believe that this will decrease the probability that emails will be marked as spam or glanced over. For instructions on setting up your own email accounts see our support article at http://studiocloud.com/support/?View=entry&EntryID=61

You can use your own emails to send reminders, email customers directly from StudioCloud Basic and Professional Suites, send invoices, and even more features will be available in the upcoming CRM.

Updates to the Online Gallery

The developers have been working hard to make the StudioCloud Online Gallery even better. Recently they have introduced several new features, variable slideshow speed, the ability to save favorites, and additional confirmations for your customers.

Back on April 9th Tara blogged about the ability to set the slideshow speed. Well the developers have taken this feature one step further. Previously you could select slow, medium or fast speeds. Now you can select a custom speed and specify the number of seconds that each picture is viewed in the slideshow.

The StudioCloud Online Gallery has had a place for your customers to place their favorites for quite some time. But they could never save their favorites so they could come back and view them later or share them with their friends and family. Well now they can! Your customers can select a group of favorites and save them so that they can come back and view them later or they can share their favorites with Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa. Also after you upload the pictures to an online gallery you, the photographer, can login and create a group of favorites for your customers to see.

The final addition helps to provide your customers with a sense of security. After they have placed an order a popup message will be displayed that tells them what invoice number their order was assigned. This will help them to know what to reference if they have any questions for you. Secondly, a simple email is sent to your customers that gives them a summary of what they purchase. These two additions will make them feel more comfortable with their purchase.

These are three of great new features that have been added to an already incredible product. And just think you haven't had to pay any additional money to take advantage of them.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Online Gallery & Workflow Updates

You now have the option of adding music to your Online Galleries and can set the slideshow speed.

A new version of the beta Workflow Manager has also been released that has most bugs fixed. Please let us know if you run into any problems.


StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Edit Online Albums

You can now edit your online albums that are already published. This means you can add pictures, delete pictures, and change the settings without having to republish the entire album. You cannot watermark or change the size of the pics that are already published but you can choose those options for the new pics you are adding to the album.

To edit your albums just click on the edit icon next to the album you want to modify. Let us know if you have any questions.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Adobe Air 1.0

Adobe has officially released The Adobe® AIR™ runtime 1.0. This means that StudioCloud's Online Gallery is now compatible with the Leopard operating system. For any of you who have not been able to try out the Online Gallery due to this compatibility issue please let us know and we can extend your trial. Other minor bugs have also been resolved due to this AIR release.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Packages Have Arrived

We have listened to your requests for a better way to handle packages and it is now available.

Under Point of Sale you will see a tab that says Packages. Here you can create customized packages that you can offer to your customers from your Online Gallery and make invoicing simplified in your Basic/Professional Suite.

Your customers will be able to view a customized description (for example: how many poses they are allowed for each package) and also a detailed breakdown of what the package includes. Then when they select a package it will automatically populate what images are included in that package and they can select the images to go with each print in the package.

The packages will automatically be added to your “All Products” price list but make sure to add them to the other Price Lists you would like them included on.

We look forward to your feedback!

New PSG (Previously In-Studio Gallery) Features

You can now export contacts to csv – for mailing lists in the PSG. This use to only be in the Offline Reader.

You can also select payment options for albums in the online gallery. Select either credit card or in-studio accepted payments or both.

Online and In-Studio Gallery Updates

The new In-Studio gallery does the following:

1. Supports Ordered images when uploading
2. Redesigned publish page to get more space
3. You can now get a personalized studiocloud.net url for your online gallery. Go to
the support section of the In-Studio gallery to select your url.
4. You can open an album by double clicking on it. StudioCloud albums have the extension .scq

The new Online Gallery does the following:
1. Has a favorites tab/folder (can order directly from favorites)
2. Has shopping cart tab/folder
3. Has an improved look and feel

The new Online Gallery is only available on the studiocloud.net personalized url. The studiocloud.com/OnlineGallery.php url will no longer be used. Instead, customers can either select a personalized url or they will get an auto generated url which will be their login name.

Let us know if you have any questions. Also if you do not currently subscribe to the Online Gallery but would like to try out the new version, let us know and we will set you up with another trial run.

Gallery Update

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and fun New Year. Just a little update for the In-Studio and Online Gallery. Some of you may have occasionally experienced a problem when uploading albums. It would ask you to retry and then it would freeze and you would have to repost the album. This problem is now resolved so make sure you upgrade to the latest and greatest Gallery. It should ask you if you would like to update and install the newest version. A few people have received an error or misconfiguration when trying to update. If this happens, just uninstall your In-Studio Gallery (on a PC) or drag the application in the trash (Macs) and download it from the website at http://studiocloud.com/preview.html

Please let me know if you have any questions about getting updated or need help with anything else. Thanks!

New Image Size for Online Gallery

The Online Gallery will now give you the option of optimizing for extra large images. When posting images to your Online Gallery these are new size options:

Optimize small = 300x300
Optimize medium = 400x400
Optimize large = 500x500
Optimize extra large = 800x800

There is also a new email button so you can resend an email to a customer without reposting their gallery.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Customized Welcome Page

You can now choose your own background for your Online Gallery welcome page. The default will still be the brushed metal but you have the option of uploading any background that you like. Just go into your Settings in the Basic Suite and upload an image. This is the background your customers will see when accessing their pictures online. Make sure you have also personalized your customers welcome message. This will help everyone to have a more customized feel to welcome their customers to their galleries.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Selling Your Work Beyond the Client

Your work is your best friend when it comes to referrals. I was recently talking with Peggy from Florida and she suggested something we should all be doing. As she photographs for weddings she photographs guests and tells them how to log into the gallery to see not only the bride and grooms photos but their own photos as well. She says she has great results in moving these people to paying customers.

To help, StudioCloud now provides three ways to publish an album online, allowing you to select the option that works best for the particular client and album you are publishing:

1. You can list the album with no password, allowing anyone who visits your site to see the album
2. You can list the album on your site, but require a password of your choosing to view the photos.
3. You can publish the album online for your client, but it will not be listed on your website. An email is sent directly to the customer with a link to access the online gallery. No one will be able to view the gallery without the link contained in the email sent to the customer. This allows you to provide secure online proofing for photos that are more sensitive in nature.

A great marketing process outlined by Peggy, backed up by great tools to make it happen.

Scott Astin

StudioCloud Development Team