Shozam Community

Shozam version 1.4.39 update is released

Razvan Neagu — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:57:00 GMT

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Shozam version 1.4.39 update is now available for free download.

Download free latest version update to Shozam (updates all editions)

2010.01.05 - Version 1.4.39

IMPROVEMENTS

Full compatibility with Windows 7
More license flexibility for Express, Advanced and Business editions

Download free latest version update to Shozam (updates all editions)

Shozam on Windows 7

Razvan Neagu — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 05:15:00 GMT

We have released a new version of Shozam that runs on Windows 7. For the most part this version (v.1.0.7) works the same as before; however, it does generate all files when the gallery is generated. You can download it from:

http://community.shozam.com/files/folders/programs/entry4841.aspx

Shozam version 1.3.37 update is released

Razvan Neagu — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:34:00 GMT

Shozam version 1.3.37 update is now available for free download.

Download free latest version update to Shozam (updates all editions)

2009.08.24 - Version 1.3.37

IMPROVEMENTS

Introduce a prompt to generate gallery when moving from Step 5 to Step 6 after changing gallery name or location.
Shozam upgrades now will activate automatically, without requiring Helpdesk to manually provide a new activation key.

FIXES

Fixed an issue where Shozam would generate unnecessarily all gallery files, even with "generate modified files only" checked in Step 5.
Fixed an issue where Step 5 will not remember edits in various user interface text boxes after click Back and then Next buttons.
Fixed an activation issue where entering an invalid key would prompt a message "activation successful" even though activation actually would have failed.

Download free latest version update to Shozam (updates all editions)

Moving Your Shozam Gallery to a New Computer

Shozam Guru — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:20:00 GMT

Here's a question we get a lot. "How can I move my Shozam gallery from one computer to another?" Just follow these steps and read the recommendations below.

Install the latest version of Shozam on your new computer by downloading the free trial from www.shozam.com. The program will run in trial mode until you activate it.

Activate your Shozam edition on your new computer by sending us the following information via the Shozam Help Desk:

Order ID (or email address provided at the time of purchase)
Hardware Number as it appears in the Activation tab in Step 1 of Shozam on your new computer. Copy and paste the number to avoid errrors

NOTE: New activations may automatially disable previously activated hardware numbers.

Move the "My Shozam Galleries" and "My Shozam Themes" folder from "My Documents" on your old computer to the new computer.

Keep the original source images you used to create your gallery in the same relative location. For example, if your images were in "D:/Photos," then make them available in the same location on your new computer.This will ensure that the link Shozam keeps for each image, to the original source, remains intact. This is required if you ask Shozam to re-process images in your gallery, like when you change the image compression level or the image watermark.

Write down the settings from the Preset tab in Step 6 of Shozam on your old computer. You will need to enter those presets on your new computer, test and save them to ensure Shozam uploads to the correct location from your new computer.

That's it.

Add Zoom to Your Shozam Gallery

Shozam Guru — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:34:00 GMT

Wow your clients, impress your viewers! Add zoom and pan to your Shozam gallery.

Zoomify Express is a free application available at www.zoomify.com. Just download and install the application, drag your images onto the Zoomify converter, and follow these instructions for incorporating zoom into your Shozam gallery. Add it so your clients can see lots of image details, or add it just for fun.

See it in action on a Shozam example gallery.
View a demo on the Zoomify website.
Get step-by-step instructions for adding Zoomify to your Shozam gallery in this recent forum post.

Any other ideas how Zoomify can be used on your Shozam gallery?

Adding a Share Button to Your Shozam Gallery

Shozam Guru — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:43:00 GMT

Here’s a nifty tool on the web that lets you add a Share button to your Shozam website by using the HTML tab in Step 5: Manage Gallery. This tab is available in the Business and BusinessPlus Editions.

Why would you want to add a Share button? It makes it easy to promote your site and get more traffic. With the click of the Share button, your viewers can send a web page link via email, post it on social network sites, or even bookmark the page in a Favorites list. The website, www.addthis.com, lets you generate the button code easily, it’s free and there’s no registration. Here’s a one-minute short video on how to create and use your Share button.

Simply go to www.addthis.com and select the “Website” radio button. Select the button style you want, and then click on the big orange “Get Your Button.” Copy the resulting code. This button code is pasted in the HTML tab in Step 5, Manage Gallery. Choose whether you want to add the Share button to the top or bottom (we suggest the bottom) of your gallery pages, and enter the button code into that HTML field.

Shozam will place the Share button directly against the gallery frame. If you want to give the button a bit of breathing room, add a line break before the button code that you paste into the HTML field (add the break after the code if you are placing the button at the top of your pages). The code for a line break is simply:

Here’s how the Share button looks on a Shozam Gallery, placed below the gallery window, with a line break included:

Add a Share button and promote your Shozam gallery to the world!

The Info Page: How Shozam Optimizes Your Gallery for Search Engines

Shozam Guru — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:07:00 GMT

Shozam was designed with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind, using standard HTML that is fully searchable for easy indexing. Additionally, pages are cross-linked, so search engines are led from page to page. SEO considerations were also important for limiting Flash animation (not parse-able by search engines). The Flash Intro animation adds just enough “sizzle” to your gallery without impeding search engines.

In addition to parsing a website’s content for indexing, search engines also crawl your website’s HTML code looking for metatags that also tell them about your site. Shozam optimizes your gallery for this search engine operation as well. Shozam takes your gallery title, captions and descriptions, and uses them as metatags in your Shozam site’s HTML code.

Additionally, the Shozam Business and BusinessPlus Editions include a “Tag” tab in Step 5, Manage Gallery, which lets you enter additional keyword and description metatags directly into your website code (more about this is an upcoming post). Adding keywords to the content of your Info Page, as discussed in previous posts, provides even more information for search engine indexing.

This wraps up our blog series on the Info page; I hope you found it helpful. For your convenience, here’s a list of links to all the Info page posts.

The Info Page: Finalizing and Incorporating Your Keyword List

Shozam Guru — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:48:00 GMT

After brainstorming and using online tools to generate a comprehensive keyword list, now it’s time to narrow your list and incorporate the selected terms into your Info Page.

The first step is to go through your list and pare it down to those terms that most closely match the “subject” and “theme” of your site. Get rid of all the words that are not relevant, or that you don’t have content to support. Create a mix of a few broad terms along with targeted keywords. Broad terms won’t do much for ranking or help drive qualified traffic to your site, but they help describe your site to a search engine. Targeted terms are typically easier to rank higher, and they strengthen the context of broad terms.

Your final list should include 5-7 highly targeted keywords. Keep your list short. Too many keywords dilute the theme of your Info Page. Weave these keywords throughout your Info Page content. Make sure you include:

Your name: include your Company name several times if you’re a business or organization, or the name of your website if it is a personal site.
Your location: if you’re a business, use your physical address, or at least a geographic location. This is critical for local search ranking. Consider including a reference to your location in your body copy as well.
Your industry or interests: your keywords should already include a variety of terms related to your industry. If this is a personal website, your terms should include your site’s theme.
Misspellings: include misspellings common to your industry or name. How do you do this without including misspellings or grammatical errors in your content? At the bottom of your Info Page, create a list of such words and terms, under a heading called, “Filed under,” “Keywords,” “Tags,” or something similar. That way, keywords are included on your page, but not in your content.
Synonyms: some similar terms may be part of your keyword list, but if they don’t make sense in your content, you can include them at the bottom of your page, similar to “Misspellings” above. Also, try using expressions like, “…not to be confused with…,” or “…also known as…” for synonyms.

Just remember, your website exists for your audience – your content is for them. Don’t include irrelevant keywords just because you think they might draw traffic, or repeat keywords over and over (called “keyword stuffing,” highly frowned upon by search engines). Just add your relevant keywords strategically to your Info Page content.

This is not “set it and forget it.” Hopefully you will keep your site fresh, with new content as your site and your audience change over time. Keep an eye out for new, possibly more relevant keywords as you move forward.

And finally, did you know Shozam automatically helps you with search engine optimization as well? Find out more in the next blog post.

The Info Page: Using Keyword Research Tools

Shozam Guru — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:12:00 GMT

Now that you have your initial brainstormed list of keyworks, the next step in keyword research is to employ a tool designed to help you generate additional keywords and determine which terms are likely to bring qualified traffic to your site. Here are some of my favorite keyword research tools available online, for anyone.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool
This free tool from Google is great. You don’t have to be an AdWords customer to use it. Just go to the site and enter your keywords into the field provided. Click “Get keyword ideas.” Google will list keywords related to your terms, including helpful information like competition and search volume. Keep in mind, this is AdWords data (paid search), but you can extend the information to search activity in general. This tool gives you great keyword suggestions and relevant information on the popularity of those keywords.

Google Search-based Keyword Tool
Currently in Beta, this free Google tool generates keywords matched to a website URL that you enter. Google will parse the site and return a list of keywords from the site’s content, along with user search data for each keyword. This will tell you what terms your competitors are using on their websites and how popular those terms are with searchers. You are looking for terms not in your keyword list that have a high monthly search volume. Again this information is geared toward AdWords advertisers, but is relevant for anyone doing keyword research.

MSN Keyword Research Tool
A free tool from Microsoft AdCenter Labs, just enter your keyword into the input field, and MSN will return a list of similar terms.

Wordtracker
A well known subscription-based tool, Wordtracker offers a free 7-day trial. Google offers such great free tools, that I don’t think it’s worth it to spend money on a paid tool. But, you might want to use the free trial for your initial keyword research.

SEO Tool Set Traffic Checker
Also free, this tool lets you enter a keyword, and it will return estimated daily search activity across the major search engines.

These tools make it easy (and addictive) to do your own keyword research. Experiment to see which ones work best for you. We will wrap up this keyword discussion with additional tips and tricks in the next blog post.

The Info Page: Researching Keywords

Shozam Guru — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:46:00 GMT

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is assuming you already know which terms, or keywords, your visitors would search on to find your website. It is all too easy for website owners to use jargon or familiar terms that visitors may not know or use, when searching for a site. If your gallery is for your business, most likely your customer doesn’t work in your industry, so when writing content for your Info Page, step outside of your “sandbox” and think like your customer. Hopefully, the previous blog post helped in that regard. If your gallery is for personal use, use keywords that make it easy for family and friends to find you, in case they don’t remember your URL.

Another error is thinking that you need to rank high for broad terms (one- or two-word terms). Ranking is how high a search engine lists you in search results it returns for a specific term. If you’re a photographer, it’s going to be difficult (if not impossible) to rank highly for the broad term “photography.” You are much better off using very targeted keywords. You want to choose combinations of words that are very specific and super relevant that you will incorporate into the content of your website’s Info Page.

Brainstorm: The first step in keyword research is to brainstorm. Create a list of all potential keywords related to you and what you offer. List all the words you think a visitor would use to find you. This includes all phrases: broad (one- and two-word terms) and targeted (multi-word terms). Keep in mind the search intent listed in the previous blog (navigational, informational, and transactional). You want to come out of this process with a list of keywords that cover everything you want to communicate with your website. For more brainstorming ideas, ask friends, colleagues and customers what search terms they would use to find you.

Competitors: For business websites, check out what your competitors are doing. Go to the website of a competitor and take a look at their meta keyword tag. Go to their homepage and click on “View” in your browser’s navigation bar. Select “Source” or “Page Source” (wording may differ slightly depending on which browser you use). This will show you the HTML code for that webpage. Near the top of the page, look for a code string that begins: <meta name="keywords"

If they have done any search engine optimization, you will see a list of keywords that follows that string. Are there keywords that you can use? How can you expand on their list?

Thesaurus: Try an online thesaurus to help you identify related keywords you may have missed.

Now that you have an initial list of keywords, it’s time to enlist the help of a keyword research tool: the subject of the next post.

The Info Page: Build Traffic by Telling Search Engines All about You

Shozam Guru — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:48:00 GMT

Another important benefit of creating an Info Page: search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines match website content with a user’s search intent. SEO is the art of crafting your website pages so that search engines match your website content to users who are searching for what you offer.

Here’s how it works, in a nut shell. Search engines, like Google and Yahoo, send out software programs, called spiders or bots, to parse the text on web pages so they can be properly indexed, or categorized. Search engines then decide which sites are relevant to certain terms, called keywords. So, when someone searches for a particular keyword or phrase, the search engine can return relevant answers to the search query.

Creating a content-rich Info Page with the right keywords is the best opportunity for you to describe and promote your Shozam website to search engines. The flexibility of this page lets you add meaningful text and keywords about you, your industry, business, products and services, and why you’re unique. Why is this important? Because the more a search engine knows about your site, the better it can match searchers to your site, and the more visitors you’ll get.

How do you know which keywords and phrases to incorporate into your Info Page? First, there are three things you need to identify:

your audience;
their needs, and;
what questions your audience is most likely to pose to find what they’re looking for.

Once you’ve answered these three questions, you can structure your Info Page content to address your audience’s search intent. One way to think about intent is to determine how a visitor’s queries might be structured:

Navigational: Are searchers looking for your website in particular? It is estimated that nearly one quarter of all searches are from people who want to get to a website they already have in mind. This is why it’s so important to make sure your name is memorable and included throughout your Info Page.
Informational: Are they looking for information that your site provides?
Transactional: Are they looking to buy something?

Use the language your audience uses. For example, if your goal is to sell products or services through your website, then you should focus on using transactional language: words like “buy,” “services,” etc. If you have a service business that might require some research on the part of your customers, you might want to focus on providing information and use phrases like, “learn about…” “find out more about…” etc.

Once you have a good handle on your audience’s intent, you’re ready to do your keyword research, covered in the next post.

The Info Page: Enhancing with Video

Shozam Guru — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:46:00 GMT

Nothing says “personal” like video – particularly if you’re doing the talking. Create your own video introduction to welcome people to your site, tell your story in your own words or demonstrate your product. Get creative and have fun with it! Here’s an example of an Info Page with video used to highlight a recent photography trip to Yellowstone National Park.

Adding video to your Info Page follows the same process as adding other HTML code discussed in earlier blogs: just add the video code to the Step 2, Image tab, Long description. Remember, because the video will show in lieu of a text description, you will need to have an image associated with the video. In the above example, I’ve used a photo of Yellowstone Falls to support the video content. So where do you get the video code?

Record your video, save the file and then upload it to YouTube which automatically converts the file into a web-ready format and spits out an embed code. You will need to make a minor modification to the YouTube embed code to adjust the size of the video to fit nicely into your Info Page. Here’s an example of the YouTube embed code, and here’s what you’ll need to do to adjust the video dimensions:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FSISYLFhLZE&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FSISYLFhLZE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Change the object width to “525” and the height to “425” where they appear at both the beginning and the end of the code. So, now your code will look like this (changes highlighted in yellow):

<object width="525" height="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FSISYLFhLZE&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FSISYLFhLZE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="525" height="425"></embed></object>

Copy and paste the code into the Info Page, Long description and that’s it!

If you view your Shozam gallery locally, you may get a pop-up warning from Adobe Flash Player Security citing a “potentially unsafe operation” on your computer. This warning will go away once your gallery is uploaded to the web.

Once you've done it a time or two, you’ll be an expert!

The Info Page: Mapping Your Business Location

Shozam Guru — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:48:00 GMT

Add an interactive map to your Info Page in minutes. Here's an example (scroll down the page) of how the embedded location map will look.

To get your location map, just go to Google Maps. Type in your business address and click on the "Search Maps" button. Once your location map appears, click on "Link" in the upper right-hand corner of the map. Then click on "Customize and preview embedded map." The following pop-up window will appear:

Click on the "Customize" radio button and type in 535 for the width and 425 for the height as shown above. This will ensure your map view fits nicely into the Info Page format. You can also adjust the Preview window to get the view you want. Copy the resulting HTML code that appears in field #3.

The map code that you will paste into your Info Page is being used instead of a text description for an image, so you will need to associate the map with an image. You can use a photo of your building or your logo. Once you've imported the image, click on it to highlight and paste your HTML map code into the Step 2, Image tab, Long description. Have more than one location? Just add another photo with an associated map for each of your locations.

Congratulations! You've just put your business on the map!

The Info Page: Using an Online HTML Editor

Shozam Guru — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:20:00 GMT

The previous post talked about hand-coding simple HTML commands to alter text. If you're planning to customize larger blocks of text, try using an online "WYSIWYG" (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor. This type of HTML editor provides an editing interface similar to text editors, like Microsoft Word, so it works well for users who don't know HTML.

After doing our own experimentation with online HTML Editors, we like FCKEditor. It's free and runs online so there is nothing to download. The "FCK" is the developer's initials, in case you were wondering. This editor provides an intuitive user interface with lots of editing controls that make it easy to achieve the final results you want.

Here's how to use FCKEditor. Go to www.fckeditor.net/demo. Type in the text you want to customize in the Demo window provided. Apply the characteristics you want (font, size, color, etc.) and click on the "Source" icon in the upper left corner of the Demo navigation bar. The application will convert your customized text into HTML. (Clicking the "Submit" button will do the same thing, but open your HTML code in a new window.) Copy the HTML code and paste it into the Long description text field in Shozam.

Using an HTML editor allows you to get correctly formatted HTML code, easily. More so, looking at the code generated will help you understand better how to use HTML syntax so you can create more, on your own.

The Info Page: Customizing the Look of Text

Shozam Guru — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:22:00 GMT

Let’s say you want to customize your name when it appears in text on the Info Page, and your name is John Smith. Here’s how to add color, bold or italics to any text (in this case, John Smith) when it appears in your Info Page text using simple HTML command syntax.

Color syntax
Colors are presented as a six digit color “hex” code preceded by the # symbol. For this example, we are using a common shade of red, #ff0000:
John Smith

Choose another color by entering the code for that color from this chart: http://html-color-codes.info/

Bold syntax
John Smith

Italics syntax
John Smith

Altogether now…
So now let’s say you want “John Smith” to appear in red, bold, italics. Here’s how the syntax looks:
John Smith

Entering customized text into the Long description field in Shozam
Assuming that you’ve read the blog post “How to create an Info Page” you know that you enter text for your Info Page in the Long description field in the Step 2, Image tab. If you just want to highlight a few words or sentences in a paragraph, you can just enter text normally into the field and add in your syntax for those words you want to highlight, as presented above. For example, say you want to bold John Smith in a paragraph, here’s how you would type it into the field:

Hi, my name is John Smith, and I am the owner of JS Photography. I specialize in pet photography that captures your best friend’s personality and joie de vivre.

Now let’s say you want to keep John Smith bolded, but you want the entire paragraph in italics. Here’s the syntax:

<p><em>Hi, my name is <strong>John Smith</strong>, and I am the owner of JS Photography. I specialize in pet photography that captures your best friend’s personality and joie de vivre.</em></p>

The next post will provide an alternative to hand-coding – using an HTML Editor. This tool is helpful if you have larger blocks of text, or want more in-depth customization options.

The Info Page: Including External Links

Shozam Guru — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:18:00 GMT

You can easily add links to external web pages on your Info Page. You might want to direct people to a Facebook page or a great web resource you found.

Let's jump right in using an external link to the Shozam Guru blog as an example.

External link syntax

<a href="http://www.shozam.com/blog">Shozam Guru Blog</a>

The entire URL of the external link (http://www.shozam.com/blog), is bracketed by <a href="..."> followed by the name of the link as you want it to appear (Shozam Guru Blog) followed by the closed bracked </a>. That's it.

Entering a link into the Long Description field in Shozam

When entering your link in Step 2 -->Image tab --> Long description field for your Info Page, just type in any preceding text followed by your link syntax. For example:

Hey all you Shozammers! There's an awesome blog that can help you get the most out of Shozam. Check it out at <a href="http://www.shozam.com/blog">Shozam Guru Blog</a>, and let me know what you think.

As you can see, it's pretty easy to add a link to your Info Page.

Optional parameters for a link

Target - Specifies if you want the link to open a new window or keep the same window. When left blank, the browser will use its default behavior
Title - Creates a little tooltip showing that ‘title'

So a fancier link may look like this:

Hey all you Shozammers! There's an awesome blog that can help you get the most out of Shozam. Check it out at <a href="http://www.shozam.com/blog" target="_blank" title="Click here">Shozam Guru Blog</a>, and let me know what you think.

Adding links to a list

So back to the last blog post: here's how you would enter Jeanne's "favorite list of photography sites" as clickable links the Long description field:

Hi, I'm Jeanne. Thanks for visiting my website; I hope you find it informative, instructional and most of all, inspirational. I want to share my favorite list of photography sites that get my creative juices flowing:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.fzipperphoto.com">Frank Zipper Photography</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.customphoto.ca">Custom Concepts Photography</a></li>
<li><a href=http://www.portraits.putneyphotography.com>People's Choice Gallery</a></li>
</ul>

So now you know all about adding lists to your Info Page.

The Info Page: Creating Lists

Shozam Guru — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:07:00 GMT

You can create two kinds of lists in your Info Page: an unordered (bulleted) list, and an ordered (numbered) list. Here are examples using the imaginatively titled: Item 1, Item 2 and Item 3.

Bulleted list syntax
<ul>
<li>Item 1</li>
<li>Item 2</li>
<li>Item 3</li>
</ul>

Ordered list syntax
<ol>
<li>Item 1</li>
<li>Item 2</li>
<li>Item 3</li>
</ol>

So basically your list will need to be bracketed by an open tag and a close tag. The tag identifies the list type – ul (unordered list) or ol (ordered list). Inside the tag the list is organized by listing all list items and each list item will need to be bracketed by the respective open and close ‘li’ tags.

Entering lists into the Long Description field in Shozam

When entering your list in the Step Two, Image tab, Long description field for your Info Page, just type in any preceding text followed by your list syntax. For example, if Jeanne wants to include a list of her favorite websites on her Info Page, she would type the following in the Long description field:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi, I’m Jeanne. Thanks for visiting my website; I hope you find it informative, instructional and most of all, inspirational. I want to share my favorite list of photography sites that get my creative juices flowing:
<ul>
<li>Frank Zipper Photography</li>
<li>Custom Concepts Photography</li>
<li>People’s Choice Gallery</li>
</ul>
If you’ve found a photography site you think is exceptional, send me an email with the URL. I’d love to check it out.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s that simple to create lists for your Info Page. How can we turn this list of favorite websites into external links? Be sure to visit my next blog post to find out.

The Info Page: Providing Your Email Address the Safe Way

Shozam Guru — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:13:00 GMT

With Shozam, you can add HTML code directly into the Info Page using the Long description text fields. Why is this important? Because it lets you customize your Info Page for any number of purposes. Assuming you are not a coder in your spare time, the next few posts will provide the exact HTML code syntax for common needs. Don’t let “HTML code syntax” scare you. Shozam Guru will do the heavy lifting by providing you with the exact code string; all you have to do is copy and paste the code into the appropriate Long description field when you create your Shozam Info Page.

The next few posts, you’ll learn how to:

Add a “Contact Us” encoded email link so visitors can send you an email
Customize the look of your Info Page text
Add bulleted and numbered lists
Include links to external sites like your Facebook and Myspace pages, or other favorite sites
Create a link to a map with directions for the location of your business
Add video for a truly compelling Info Page

So let's get started:

How to Encode Your Email Address

Giving people a way to contact you is important in establishing credibility and increasing a visitor’s comfort level; it makes you accessible. If you want to provide an email address in your Info Page as a method of contact, make sure you aren’t exposing it to possible abduction by spam-bots.

These cyber “robots” crawl source code looking for anything with a “@” symbol which they harvest for spam purposes. Make sure you don’t include your actual email address either as visible text or in a link unless you encode them. So how do you create an email link that with an address that isn’t visible to bots? You need the “Spam-me-not E-mail Link Obfuscator.” Say what?

The Obfuscator is a free online application that encodes your email address so that robots can’t read it. Encrypting your email is quick and easy, and could save you a lot of spam-related headaches. Here’s how to do it:

Go to the Spam-me-not website
Enter the email address you want to encode in the field provided
Select “random-mixed notation” from the “Encoding mode” drop-down menu
Copy the resulting “Encoded e-mail link” code and paste it into the appropriate Long description field of your Info Page

The Obfuscator uses an encoded version of your email address as the visible link text default. If you prefer to use text other than your email address (like “Contact Us” or “Send me an email”) enter the text you want to appear in the “Visible link text (optional)” field and select “optional visible link text” from the drop-down menu.
When someone clicks on this link in your Info Page, it will launch the visitor’s default email with your email address prefilled. If a visitor does not have email, the link will fail. That’s why some people prefer to set up Contact Forms which don’t rely on email, are more powerful, but also more complicated. That’s another blog topic for another day.

For an example, go to the Wildscape Photography Info Page and scroll down to the "Contact Me" section. At the bottom of the address block you'll see the email address. Although it looks like a regular email address, it has been encoded. When I created this Info Page, I added the obfuscated email code to the Long description field for the "Contact Us" window sign image. I included other HTML code in this image's Long description field as well, including a location map and customized text which I'll show you how to do in an upcoming post. Cool, huh?

Shozam version 1.3.36 update is released

Razvan Neagu — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:30:00 GMT

Shozam version 1.3.36 update is now available for free download.

2009.06.15 - Version 1.3.36

Download free latest version update to Shozam (updates all editions)

IMPROVEMENTS

Step 2 --> Sell tab: Support for many additional currencies
Step 5 --> Generate tab: Installing a Shozam version update will now force Shozam to generate all gallery files regardless of the "generate modified files only" checkbox in Step 5 (ensuring Shozam update propagates through all gallery files and preventing odd incompatibilities)
Step 5 --> Generate tab: All gallery files generated if gallery folder is deleted or not found
Step 5 --> Generate tab: Improved clarity of the main tab in Step 5 which now has a new field for Gallery Folder Name. This should make it more explicit where the gallery files are stored and prevent issues and confusion that occured in earlier versions. TIP: You can use this now to hide your gallery title from displaying in the top banner of your gallery pages. Learn more...
Step 5 --> Generate tab: Gallery path in Step 1 and in Step 5 will now be in sync, which will prevent issues when a gallery is manually moved to another location. Step 5 Gallery Folder Name and Gallery Location fields are now prepopulated from the path displayed in Step 1 of Shozam rather than from the gallery project file - WebGallery.xml.
Step 5 --> Generate tab: "Overwrite?" popup window that appears in Step 5 before generating the gallery is now more accurate and informative
Step 5 --> Generate tab: Now you can access View Gallery and View Files in Step 5 after you click Cancel in the "Overwrite?" alert window
Edition Upgrades: Upgrades now activate automatically; no need to require a special activation key

FIXES

Fixed a theme display "hide" issue

STABILITY

Handled instability when trying to generate gallery in a private folder under Windows Vista if not using "Run as Admin" mode

KNOWN ISSUE

Shozam does not run under Windows 7 (which is only in an early Beta test stage; expected release date is October 22, 2009)

Download free latest version update to Shozam (updates all editions)

The Info Page: Finding the Right Content and Tone

Shozam Guru — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:53:00 GMT

There are a few things to keep in mind when crafting your Info Page. Whether you use Shozam for personal or business use, you want to convey credibility, warmth and personality. You want people to be comfortable interacting with your website and with you. Keep the page content short, snappy, conversational and relevant to your visitor. Think “captivate,” not “comatose.” Here are some pointers on how to write an About Us or About Me page:

Be personable. Write in the first person (use “I” language), and be conversational.
Keep it short. No need for a long, drawn out history that rivals War and Peace. If you have a business website, you just want to let your customers know you’ve been around for awhile; that you’re not a flash in the pan. Tell them how long you’ve been in business or serving your industry.
Include a brief summary of who you are and what you do. If you provide products and/or services, talk about them here.
Differentiate yourself. Tell your visitors why you are different and why they should interact with your website or do business with you.
Provide credibility indicators. Talk about your expertise. List any awards, certifications, community involvement, etc.
Present your philosophy. Talk about how you approach your interaction with others or how you satisfy your customers' needs.
Think locally. If you are located in a particular area, consider mentioning a town or city, even a zip code. This can also help your organic search results for searches made in your local area.
Provide your contact information. This can help you get listed faster on Yahoo. If you’re providing an email address, you’ll want to encode it so that it won’t be harvested for spamming purposes. This is the topic of an upcoming post.

Take a look at our Info Page example, Wildscape Photography, that hits all the bases.

Get going with that prose, because next we’re going to focus on some really exciting options for customizing your Info Page.

The Info Page: How to Create Yours, Step-by-step

Shozam Guru — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:52:00 GMT

The Info Page is a “text-driven” specialized album page within a Shozam gallery (available in the Shozam Express Edition and higher). It is displayed when a viewer clicks on the “Info” link in the upper right-hand corner of the gallery. Often used as an “About Us” page (the link label can be changed), the Info Page is easy to create.

Before we get started, let’s take a look at a very simple Info Page. Note there are two sections: “National Park Service” and “About Us.” Each section has a heading, long text, and an image:

All Info Pages have this layout: sections that include a heading, long text and an image. It is built using the same “album” creation you already use to make albums in Shozam, but the program uses your inputs a little differently: the image captions become the section headings, the long descriptions become long text, and the album description becomes the heading at the top of the page. Now that you understand the layout of the Info Page, let’s create it.

Building Your Info Page Step-by-step

Go to Step 3 and click New Album. This album will become your Info Page
Shozam will take you to Step 2 so you can add your Info Page images. Think about what kinds of sections you want on your Info Page, and what image will best represent each section. You will need one image per section
Once you’ve added your images, click the Text tab. The screen will look something like this (fields will be blank until you add text):

Click the thumbnail of the first image
In the Short caption field, type in the heading for the first section. In the example above, I typed in "About Me" which became the heading for my first section
In the Long description field, enter the text for your first section. I entered text that tells viewers what I want them to know about me. You can also enter HTML in this field to truly customize the section. More about entering HTML in an upcoming post
Do this for each image (or section) on this panel. When you are done, click Next
In Step 3, select the thumbnail for your Info Page “album”
Write your Info Page title in the Album description field next to the album thumbnail. In the Step 3 example below, it's "Photography to Preserve and Protect"
Click the Options tab. You will see this screen:

With your Info Page album selected, check the box under Info Page as in the example above. The Hide album(s) box is checked by default so that your Info Page album will not appear along with other albums in other pages of your gallery.

Congratulations! You’ve create your Info Page!

To change the Info link label

Go to Step 5 and click the Label tab (this tab is available in Shozam Advanced Edition and higher)
In the Info field, type the link name as you would like it to appear

That’s it! When your gallery is generated, your new label will replace the "Info" label.

Have fun with this great Shozam feature! And don’t forget to include a link to your new Info Page in your comment.

The Info Page: Creating Content that’s Right for You

Shozam Guru — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:03:00 GMT

Start with the end in mind. What do you want your Info Page to communicate? Are you an artist who wants to explain your style and inspiration? Are you selling services and want to reassure customers that you’re credible? Are you selling products and need to explain shipping and handling? Are you managing the site for an organization and need to promote the mission and goals? Or are you posting personal photos and want to tell viewers who you are? Here are a few ideas for an Info Page.

Info Pages for businesses and organizations:

About Us
Our Services
Our Products
Our Mission
History
Contact
Ordering and Shipping
Price Lists
What’s New
Resources
Store Locations
Policies (Returns, Guarantees, etc.)
In the News

Info Pages for individuals:

About Me
Bio
Contact
Favorite Websites
Lists
My Projects
Work Samples

Here are some examples of Info Pages used in different ways:

Wedding Gallery: About the Bride and Groom
Professional Photography: About Our Services
Showcase Info Page: Check out all the bells and whistles in the example I’ve created for this blog series: Wildscape Photography

Once you’ve decided the focus of your Info Page, it’s time to get down to it. The excitement is building! Stayed tuned for the next post on how to build your own Info Page.

The Most Important Page on Your Website: The Info Page

Shozam Guru — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:53:00 GMT

Okay, so maybe it’s not THE most important page, but it’s pretty darn close. The Info Page option, available in the Shozam Express Edition and higher, is displayed when a viewer clicks “Info” (or other label if you change it) in the upper right-hand corner of your gallery. Whether your Shozam gallery is personal or for your business, if you aren’t using the Shozam Info Page option you’re missing a great opportunity to tell your story, showcase yourself, and promote your business and your brand.

People interact and do business with people. An Info Page, also commonly called About Us, helps to make that personal connection with the visitor: it is unique to you and what you want to communicate.

To give you an idea of some of the things you can do with an Info Page, here’s an example created by fictional Wildscape Photography. Note the use of video to give the page some “oomph,” and more practical uses including a brief background of the photographer’s passion, his business focus and an interactive studio location map.

Ready to do your own Info Page? Not sure how to set it up or what to say? The Shozam Guru is here to help.

The next several posts will cover:
• Uses for the Info Page: the obvious and not so obvious
• How to create an Info Page with Shozam: step-by-step guidance
• What to include in your Info Page and how to set the right tone
• How an Info Page can help with search engine optimization (how your site is indexed so visitors can find you)
• How to add HTML to your Info Page: a powerful topic worthy of several posts in itself

If you’re already using the Info Page, post a link to your page in your blog reply. Until next time.

To leave a comment, please make sure you first log in...

Welcome to the Shozam Guru Blog

kkmcneel — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:47:00 GMT

Shozam Web Gallery Generator is an easy, yet powerful suite of software programs – you may not know just how powerful. That’s why we’ve asked the Shozam Guru to create this blog series to guide Shozammers like you in building the web galleries of your dreams. You will learn about features, options, work-arounds and other secrets known only to the Shozam Guru. Let’s get started!

Shozam version 1.2.35 update is released

Razvan Neagu — Thu, 14 May 2009 06:56:00 GMT

Shozam version 1.2.35 update is now available for free download.

IMPORTANT: It is strongly recommended you backup your gallery and then generate and upload allgallery files after installing this update.

2009.05.14 - Version 1.2.35

Download free latest version update to Shozam (updates all editions)

IMPROVEMENTS

Improved compatibility of themes with Linux servers; sometimes theme background graphic was not displaying. (Changed theme folder image introbkgrd.jpg Capitalization (introBkgrd.jpg) for first them to make consistent with other themes.)
Improved compatibility with web servers that do not recognize correctly or transcode certain special characters. (Shozam now replaces `!@#$%^&()+~; _ - [ { ] } ‘ , ©=-_Øå®€'™ characters in the image filenames with “_”.)
Step 2 --> Map tab: Added dropdown options 0 to 19 in for zoom
Better map display: There will be new UI Map options available at Image/Gallery map and also at Step 2 View Map.
Better map display: Map zoom level will start from 0 and not 1 at Step 2 map tab.
Better map display: By default Map options will be Map/Satellite/Terrain on image/gallery map and at Step 2 View map to maintain consistency.
Better map display: Zoom for single gallery map will set nicely and map will appear (before giving error that 'sorry map is not available to show to this zoom level')
Better map display: Applied 3D control for maps at Image/Gallery and Step 2 View Map.
Better map display: Applied scale control for maps at Image/Gallery and Step 2 View Map.
Better map display: Zoom for Gallery map will set nicely to fit maximum markers unlike before set to 2 in all conditions

Better map based navigation in the gallery: Image map will now also show all markers as Gallery map will have same zoom as applied at Step 2. Only balloon will be on selected image.

Better map based navigation in the gallery: Removed pre/next links from image map.

Step 5 --> Tag tab: Easier entry of copy-and-paste text in the tag tab. (Replaced enter keystroke at Step 5 tag tab keyword textbox with space (“ “).)

Step 5 --> Generate tab: 'Overwrite existing gallery' alert popup should not come if Generate Modified files option is checked or there is no gallery present at Gallery location path. Step 5 --> Generate tab: New UI for gallery title and location to ensure Gallery path will always be in Sync. Gallery path textbox will have whole path of gallery unlike before to avoid errors due to confusions.

Gallery title displayed on generated pages and the page title tag (displayed in the browser window bar) will be now in sync even if you change title (in Step 5) for an existing gallery.

Improvement in 'generate modified files only' option: All html files will generate of that particular album if info checkbox checked/unchecked.

Better custom CSS support: Edit Customize theme will be accepted even if some property is not valid or not interpreting CSS (including comments and BLOCKED EXPRESSION.

Better custom CSS support: Properties will not be resorted by Shozam in theme.css file.

Detect any modifications in Gallery st Step 5 and prompt before allowing going to step 6.

Help URL’s verified and updated (Step 6 'Integrate with existing' links were broken after help server moved location)

Resolved issue for old version gallery having duplicated file names opening in Latest version.

EXIF checkboxes changes detected and generated required files.

Step 3: Made consistent text “Modify album pages” in context menu as well as on button

Removed issue from adding Bmp image and if source not available while generating modified gallery.

Added in warning message path for missing File /album name and image name on step 2 when file source is not available.

Resolved double dot issue on image map page.

Step 2 --> Other tab: Original link was not visible in image map page even if you include source image

Delete source image having special characters and apply watermark to existing gallery.

Info.htm file should not have extra space characters at info image path in info.htm file unlike before which was causing issue in Dreamweaver.

Step 6: aligned controls better in the UI

Updated License.rtf to 2004-2009.

STABILITY FIXES

Handled program stability issues for the following scenarios:

Step 2 --> Video tab: Preview click when Video file is Invalid/ Implemented same for audio/image preview (testcase 15569)
Step 2 --> Video tab: Select Preview from context menu for invalid video/image file (testcase 15636)
Step 2 --> Video tab: Previewing video (also from context menu) while video file is invalid or source deleted
Step 2 --> Audio tab: Previewing audio while audio file is invalid or source deleted
Step 2 --> Image tab: Previewing image from Context menu while image file is invalid or source deleted
Step 3 --> Options tab: Previewing audio while audio file is invalid or source deleted
Step 4: Load custom theme that has comments in the CSS file
Step 4: Load custom theme that has expressions in the CSS file
Step 4: Load custom theme that has a property added with no set value
Step 4: Load custom theme that has invalid text as a property
Step 4 --> Customize tab: Delete button when particular theme is already open or access denied
Step 4 --> Customize tab: Preview button when access is denied
Step 4 --> Customize tab: Save as button when access is denied
Step 4: About theme button when access is denied
Step 5 --> Generate tab: Generate gallery right after a source image is deleted
Step 5 --> Generate tab: Generate gallery opened from Step 1 after gallery was manually deleted or moved to another location
Step 5 --> Generate tab: Confusing Gallery Title with Gallery location
Step 5 --> Generate tab: Gallery location path mismatched with Step 1 Gallery location path
Deleting existing Gallery folder while it’s open in Shozam.
Deleting Source image while added video in single image gallery.
Deleting all Source images of particular album having single album before generating gallery.
Deleting all Source images of particular album having two or more albums before generating gallery.
Duplicated albums generation after deleting all Source images of particular album having multiple albums before generating gallery.
Access to path issue for My Shozam Themes folder.
Access to path issue for Gallery folder.
Generate Gallery when theme folder is not accessible.

KNOWN ISSUES

These are existing issues that are known:

Video files will not play *locally* in any browser other than IE 5; once uploaded it will play great in all browsers. Same for Original (source) file.
If internet connection not available or some other net issue occurs, map file will give JavaScript error on page.
If an existing gallery (created with an ealrier version than 1.2.35) has duplicated file names and if you open gallery in any later versions (including 1.2.35), due to duplicated file names Shozam will remove one image and it may generate twice the remaining image.
Due to security Windows Vista users not logged in with full administrator account privileges can only run Shozam if launched with “Run as Administrator” .

Download free latest version update to Shozam (updates all editions)