Members UstadKhanAli Posted October 6, 2011 Members Share Posted October 6, 2011 Hey, I was wondering if anyone knew a good software for Mac that they could recommend for creating slide shows for a website, preferably Javascript. I'm not interested in outputting the slide show as a video currently. I liked Visual Slide Show, but it keeps cutting off either the top/bottom or the right/left sides no matter what setting we use -- even if all the photos (currently 1054 x 700 pixels) are the same size. Thanks. iMac, Dreamweaver, OS10.6.7 in case that matters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted October 10, 2011 Members Share Posted October 10, 2011 I'm not sure about the Mac software, but my first guess for what you want would steer me to jQuery to develop the slideshow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 10, 2011 Members Share Posted October 10, 2011 You might take a look at DWUser's Easy Rotator, which is a free, jQuery driven system with some attractive themes/layouts/options. Basic implementations are free to use -- but there are also some extra options you can try out for free and pay a modest license-per-website to use on an actual website. I haven't done any kind of thorough search of jQuery oriented solutions, but I noticed Galleriffic when I was kicking around. It does a nice, straightforward thing. But one thing that seems the case: despite maturing toolsets in the form of javascript frameworks like jQuery and 'plugins' that offer some popular features like crossfades and simple Ken Burns stuff, if you want gee whiz galleries (and that's a two-edged sword, of course, you don't want people saying, Oh, the photos were all right -- but, damn, the gallery interface totally rocked! ), it's likely you'll end up wanting to use Flash. On the Flash side I've been using DWUsers XML Flash Slideshow (not free but two versions, one ~$25 and the other ~$45, for either standalone or Dreamweaver plug in versions; Mac version requiresOSX 10.4 or higher with Intel CPU; unlike the Easy Rotator, there are no site licenses to buy) and it offers a lot of the moderately fancy interface control stuff, as well as number of transitions that can be tinkered on an individual basis -- and one of its increasingly important features is the ability to generate non-Flash mobile-friendly versions that are loaded automatically when Flash isn't present. Those presentations are considerably more basic, but I figure iOS users are used to getting a poor-second-cousin treatment. [FWIW, I've never installed Flash on my Flash-ready Android, so, you know, it's not like I'm a Flash lover. and now that Adobe owns it... well... not an Adobe fan, here.] http://www.dwuser.com/flashslideshow/ I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, to see what non-Flash options folks come up with. Also, for those in the Wordpress world, it looks like the NexGen gallery is the 800 pound gorilla, but I'm curious if anyone has found any meaningful alternatives or good plugins that extend it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scarecrowbob Posted October 10, 2011 Members Share Posted October 10, 2011 For about the last 10 sites I did through the summer, I was using s3Slider, but on the theme I'm working on today I switched to this: http://jquery.malsup.com/cycle/ I personally avoid flash/xml based solutions, but they can be way prettier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 11, 2011 Members Share Posted October 11, 2011 For about the last 10 sites I did through the summer, I was using s3Slider, but on the theme I'm working on today I switched to this:http://jquery.malsup.com/cycle/I personally avoid flash/xml based solutions, but they can be way prettier.That's pretty nice. Funny thing is, I prefer simple fades, possibly in combination with some tasteful Ken Burns stuff (depending)... but when I go 'shopping,' just like everyone else, my eyes are drawn to any novel transitions. Have you been designing your own UI/navigation for it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scarecrowbob Posted October 11, 2011 Members Share Posted October 11, 2011 No, I'm not working out nav for it. I am of the "keep it super simple" design school- fades or slides are all I try to use. This is what I'm using it for (note, I do not endorse this page design; I am merely charged with turning it form PSD to template ) : http://burntables.com/ Check out how I've dumped the img's opacity to 0 and then applied the pic as a background to the slider's li, allowing me to take a rect. image and round its corners in browsers gt ie8. Tonight I have to re-theme a slideshow. Originally, I was told to use this: http://www.htmldrive.net/items/demo/570/Number-slideshow-simple-and-practical-numbers-image-slideshow-jQuery-plugin It was giving me nutty problems, so tonight I will be diving into this: http://slidesjs.com/ And I will be creating a differnt nave theme for it. Verrah nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 11, 2011 Members Share Posted October 11, 2011 I've had my share of those. The good side is, sometimes, if you give it to them exactly as they spec it, all is well. But all too often, they don't really have much idea about what's going to translate well to the screen -- or, one of my favorites, they don't realize that webpages don't automatically zoom to fill different sized screens. I've had clients who designed things as bitmaps or vectors on 27" screens, gave them to me to implement and then can't understand why they don't look right on a 12" laptop. Thanks for those slideshow resources. It's certainly a whole new world when it comes to semi-pre-fab stuff. It hasn't even been a decade since I was designing a catalog system, with a bunch of galleries and message board using from-scratch ASP scripting and thinking, man, why don't they make libraries of this stuff... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted October 11, 2011 Members Share Posted October 11, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted October 11, 2011 Author Members Share Posted October 11, 2011 Thanks for the suggestions. We are also trying out SimpleViewer right now, and it seems to be working well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.