RIP Full-screen Slideshow?

Goughy

I first started with SmugMug in May, 2006 and followed its ups and downs over the years until April this year when I mistakenly thought I could live without it. I rejoined in July!

One of the features of SmugMug I really enjoyed and brought me back was the full-screen (and I mean really full-screen, edge-to-edge) slideshow. This shows my images to their fullest extent in all their ‘glory”. This feature is also available on Apple Photos but, unlike Apple, SmugMug allows me to show the captions I have carefully crafted for my viewers and to adjust the timing of the slideshow.

However, I notice, with some dismay, that the Slideshow appears to be tangled up with the new Lightbox changes. My public galleries are in Collage (Landscape) style and now, when I hit the slideshow arrow on the header image, I am taken to the “new, improved” slideshow. Not only does this not show my captions but it is no longer full-screen.

At least for now, I have found a clunky workaround. I can add a slideshow content block to each gallery containing the images from that gallery. This shows the “old” slideshow style (full-screen, captions and all). However this kludge means I also have to customize each gallery individually to ensure that each gallery slideshow block includes only the images for that gallery.

It is also somewhat inconsistent, since selecting the slideshow content shows the “old” style but hitting the arrow icon on the header invokes the “new” slideshow. I fear the “old” slideshow will disappear altogether eventually.

I understand the reasoning behind the new Lightbox changes. It is preferable to be able to view images without the clutter of captions, icons etc. overlaying the image itself. But the slideshow is a different beast. I would think that most slideshow viewers are not inspecting the images in any great detail but would like a sentence or two describing what they are looking at. The controls are only visible on hover, so do not distract.

I would like to request that, for slideshows:

1 Real edge-to-edge full screen slideshows be made available. Maybe, this could be done by providing an option to remove the border from the “new” slideshow.

2 Allow permanent display of captions overlaying the bottom edge of the image, NOT by shrinking the image and displaying the caption alongside.

3 Allow the controls to be displayed only on hover so that they are not a permanent distraction on the images.

I suppose that slideshows might be considered old-fashioned and uncool but I think these changes would improve the experience.

Richard

denisegoldberg

There is a full screen icon in the upper left corner of lightbox. Once you start the slideshow you can click that to go to the full screen slideshow.

I clicked the slideshow button from one of my galleries and it immediately went into full-screen mode.

Goughy

Yes. But it still has a border around it to contain the controls. It is not edge-to-edge full screen.

Anyway, I have found that in the "Customizing the New Lightbox" provided by Leftquark, item 5. Make the image full width (navbars will overlap the photo) should do the trick. However, for some not obvious reason, it only seems to work if I also include item 2a. Change the LB background color.

This still leaves some boxes where the controls appear on hover.

I need to study that thread some more. There might be some other gems in there.

Perhaps I should change the title of this thread. Rumors of the death of the full-screen slideshow have been greatly exaggerated!

dennismullen

Same problem here. I have my 16:9 ratio pictures sized to 1920 width and now they are sized smaller to make room for the controls.
The controls should overlap and then disapear when the curser is removed.