Third Light Ltd The Digital Asset Management Specialists [1]http://www.thirdlight.com/ IMS Newsletter - April 2010 Dear all, Welcome to the April 2010 newsletter, our bi-monthly update on developments at Third Light and news about changes and improvements made to the IMS product. The intended purpose of this newsletter is to keep existing and prospective Third Light clients informed about new features. Please follow the instructions at the end of this email if you prefer not to receive our newsletters. Features mentioned below are free of charge, and will be released to subscription sites on 8th April 2010, and in the next IMS Appliance update in May 2010. Third Light Appliance Manager and Licencing Packs Third Light has launched the [2]Third Light Appliance Manager, a graphical toolkit for managing more than one IMS web site on the same hardware. The Appliance Manager allows any new or existing IMS Appliance server to support additional Third Light sites, and is designed particularly for agencies or web developers. Installing multiple sites on one IMS server offers economies of scale through a substantial saving in equipment, power budgets and server management time. This makes the Appliance Manager ideal for any business wanting to extend its services portfolio with IMS, a ready-made digital media library product. For further details and pricing, please email your account manager or [3]click here to use our contact form. Desktop Upload Tool Update for MacOS X The MacOS X version of the Third Light Desktop Upload Tool has been substantially overhauled to address problems identified in the earlier pre-release versions. The new build is a "native" MacOS X application, no longer reliant on the Mono Framework. This results in a more stable application that loads much faster and uses standard user interface features. The updated version will be released on 8th April and will then be offered as a free download from our web site: [4]http://www.thirdlight.com/ims/features/uploader Note: Support for the older PPC architecture is being tested and will be included if possible. Please check the page, above, for further details on PPC support on 8th April. Duplicate Image Detection (Appliances) (new) Third Light Appliances can now perform automated scanning to find duplicate images, based on visual matching. By using the Tools -> Find Duplicates menu, it is possible to perform a rapid scan of your entire IMS system for duplicates, then quickly recover wasted space by removing unnecessary copies. The duplication detection system works on the visual characteristics of the images, and is able to detect images that are not precisely identical. For example, different cropping, aspect ratios or file sizes, as well as other subtle differences caused by compression or differing metadata tags are all taken into account. Once duplicate files have been discovered they are summarised visually. IMS provides tools for pruning duplicates, with priority filtering to help identify the best images (those with the largest file sizes or most recent changes made, for example, are ranked highest). Duplicate Image Detection will be discussed in this month's '[5]Hints & Tips' page, and will be available in the next IMS Appliance Update free of charge. Metadata in Pop-Up Preview Windows (new) Pop-up previews appear when hovering over thumbnails, for example within an album or search results. These previews can now incorporate the primary metadata - as displayed on the Picture Console view - under the preview image, to allow for inspection of the metadata without clicking through to the Picture Console. This feature is a Site Option and can be enabled from the Configuration -> Site Options -> IMS Functionality menu, according to your preferences. The options labeled "Enable pop-up previews" and "Enable metadata in pop-up" must both be checked to switch on this new feature. Magnifying Glass Tool (new) When viewing a file on the Picture Console, an option has been added to use a magnifying glass to enlarge part of the image interactively. To use this tool, click the magnifying glass icon at the top of the icon bank, on the right of the preview. Click again to disable the tool. Note: In existing IMS sites, this feature is a Site Option. On the Configuration -> Site Options -> IMS Functionality page, check the option labeled "Enable magnifying glass tool". Print-ready Contact Sheets (new) A new icon to prepare a Contact Sheet has been added to the toolbox. When viewing Albums, Smart Folders, Collections or the results of a search, clicking the Contact Sheet icon in the toolbox will provide a form to generate a printable version of the checked files on the page. Options to control the layout and whether to print the metadata for the files are included. Note: the layout used is not fixed to a particular paper size or aspect ratio; your web browser's 'Print' tool provides this translation. Version Control and Change History (Appliances) (new) IMS Appliances record a complete audit log when files are updated, replaced or modified by users. For example, when a file has new keywords assigned, this change is recorded in the audit log. In the latest release of IMS, details of changes are displayed on the Picture Console via an option at the top of the existing History Notes window. Clicking on the link labeled "View Change History" will provide historical logs of changes made to the file in a list form. Secondly, IMS Appliances now include Version Control. This allows multiple revisions of a file to be stored, and for older revisions to be recovered later. Common example uses for Version Control include replacing watermarked "comp" images with final versions, or uploading updated, retouched or cropped variations of a file. Version Control allows earlier revisions to be re-activated, rather than being lost, and also avoids fragmentation of metadata records as the revisions evolve. Version Control can be accessed from the Download Wizard, to make it easy to use the cropping and resizing features of IMS to generate new revisions. At the end of the Download Wizard, instead of downloading the file there is an option labeled "Replace Original - Save as a new revision in IMS" to provide this feature. Import and Export Tools for Metadata In order to simplify migrating from other software, there is now an Import and Export Tool for metadata. Files can be imported or exported in either CSV or TSV (comma or tab separated values) files, which can be generated by any spreadsheet software and most database tools. When importing, IMS will analyse your uploaded file to identify unique mappings to your IMS content, using either filenames or Third Light IMS reference numbers if available. Options to arrange which columns map to which metadata fields in IMS are provided, and IMS can merge or overwrite existing metadata according to your preferences. When exporting metadata, IMS provides an option to filter by Album, Smart Folder or Collection or to choose only a sub-set of metadata fields to include in the export. Exporting metadata from IMS provides CSV or TSV files suitable for editing, then uploading back into the Import tool. This is a useful way to make wide-ranging metadata changes to your site. The new tools are available to administrators via the Tools -> Import Metadata and Tools -> Export Metadata menu items. Minor Changes And Bug Fixes We have made a number of small adjustments to IMS as follows: * Email alerts: IMS now provides an option to email a nominated administrator whenever new uploads occur. This feature is controlled from the Notification Manager (Tools menu). As this can result in many emails, this notification is disabled by default. * PDF watermarking: Full support for watermarking multi-page PDF documents has been added. * Cost-free Price Plans: Vendors using their own merchant account on IMS Appliances may now activate Cost-Free Price Plans, which are designed to assist with back office orders generated internally. Please contact support to enable this module, if required. * New PhotoBox products: Support for the new PhotoBox Pro Prints (premium paper), Wallet Cards and Keyrings products will be enabled as part of this month's update. * P&P Optional on Custom Products: It is now possible to define Custom Products that have no postage cost. This is designed for businesses using all-inclusive pricing on Custom Products, or who are delivering electronic products. * Full Internationalisation (UTF-8): Third Light IMS now supports UTF-8 international character sets throughout. This functionality is available on IMS Appliances installed after 1 March 2010. Support for multi-lingual themes will be released in Summer 2010. * Upload Approvals for Administrators: The upload approvals workflow in IMS can now be used with administrator accounts, as well as normal user accounts. This provides a convenient way to trigger metadata tagging and a visual review immediately after uploading files. Feedback And Referrals We operate a referral scheme to reward any existing IMS customer who directs a new client to us. If you know of a business that would benefit from using IMS, please make an introduction - we'll provide a period of free use on your account if they buy one of our products. Every feature of IMS is based on your ideas and feedback. We keep a thorough record of all feedback and aim to implement the features that are most requested as part of our development plans. Simply email [6]features@thirdlight.com to send us your comments. For support questions, please use the Help menu support tool, as this allows us to track your queries and answer questions more efficiently. Thank you for your custom and Happy Easter! With regards, Third Light Ltd. The Digital Asset Management Specialists [7]http://www.thirdlight.com/ ® 'Third Light' is a registered trademark of Third Light Ltd. Adobe and Adobe Creative Suite are trademarks of Adobe Inc. © The contents of this newsletter are the copyright property of Third Light Ltd and may not be reproduced without written consent. References 1. http://www.thirdlight.com/ 2. http://www.thirdlight.com/ims/packages/licencing 3. http://www.thirdlight.com/corporate/contact 4. http://www.thirdlight.com/ims/features/uploader 5. http://www.thirdlight.com/ims/articles/tips 6. mailto:features@thirdlight.com 7. http://www.thirdlight.com/