WideRange Galleries Blog

Welcome to the official WideRange Galleries blog, written by Jack Brauer, owner and lead programmer at WideRange Galleries. This blog is meant as a resource for clients to keep track of latest features and tips to maximize the potential of the gallery software.

Categories:
Introducing Snapshot Blog Posts
January 2024

I'm excited to introduce a cool new blogging feature for our websites: Snapshot posts! Snapshot blog posts (or just "Snapshots" for short) provide a way to have a "container" blog post to which you can add an ongoing series of simple blog posts - sort of like a blog within a blog...

Streamlined Blogging
December 2023

I recently launched the newest version 5.9.2 of the WideRange admin. The main upgrade for this version is that I've overhauled and streamlined the process of adding new blog posts:

When you add a new blog post, you can now enter the blog info/text AND upload or insert photos AND publish the post all in one step, which is quicker and more intuitive...
Version 5.9 : Cart Upgrades
May 2023

It's been a long time coming, but I've finally launched Version 5.9 of the WideRange Galleries website software! The main story of this new version is an overhaul of the cart system, including integration of a much upgraded newer version of Stripe Checkout...

Stripe Checkout
May 2023

WideRange Galleries website shopping carts are fully integrated with Stripe payment processing, and as of Version 5.9 the carts utilize the newest modern version of Stripe Checkout. PayPal payment processing is still available and still works fine, but the Stripe Checkout process is noticeably more streamlined and professional...

How to Sell Gift Certificates
December 2022

Offering gift certificates for sale on your website gives your customers a good option for gifting your prints and products to their friends and families, especially if they are too late to order a print before the holidays or if they'd just rather give the recipients the option of choosing their own print...

Spam Be Gone
August 2022

WideRange Galleries websites now feature a powerful spam filter which analyzes the content of the contact form messages to determine if they are spam or not. So far the spam filter has proven to be remarkably effective at blocking almost all contact form spam, so much so that you can disable the reCAPTCHA tool if you'd like.

Version 5.8: Full Screen & More
June 2022

After a few "quiet" version updates during the last year, this month I've launch a bigger update with Version 5.8 of the WideRange Galleries website software. This version gives lots of tender loving care to image presentation, as well as some other useful updates...

Announcement Banners + Other Updates
July 2021

WideRange Galleries version 5.6 brings a useful new feature for our websites: announcement banners! When you activate the announcement banner, a message of your choice will display in a prominent banner bar at the top of your website...

WebP Images
May 2021

With the release of WideRange Galleries version 5.4, our websites are now equipped with the next-generation WebP image format! WebP is a modern image encoding format that offers significantly smaller file sizes resulting in faster loading pages and reduced bandwidth consumption...

Version 5.2: Dark Mode
March 2021

Hot on the heels of Version 5.1, today I've released Version 5.2 of the WideRange website software! This version brings two new updates:

Dark Mode

Give your eyeballs a rest with the admin control panel's new dark mode option! You can toggle the light/dark modes from the little sun/moon button at top right, or you can switch it on the Admin Settings page...

Version 5.1
March 2021

I am happy to introduce Version 5.1 of the WideRange website software! The bulk of the updates with this version involved extensive under-the-hood code and database performance improvements, but there are a number of new features to explain too:

SEO Updates Meta Title Overrides: All Galleries, Products, and Pages now have their own Meta Title Override input field where you can enter a custom meta page title to use instead of the normal, automated version...
Manage Email like a Pro
February 2021

Email is not only a part of our daily lives but an integral aspect of doing business online. Yet I've been surprised by how often I see clients aren't managing their emails in an efficient way. In this article I will explain the best ways to manage your email account, limit spam, ensure smooth website communications, and maximize productivity...

What to Know About SEO
January 2021

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a very broad term that covers basically everything involved with the process of getting website pages to rank well in search engines’ organic (natural, non-paid) search results...

Homepage Features
February 2020

The homepage is quite possibly the most important page of a website, since of course it's usually the first thing a person sees when they visit. WideRange Galleries websites offer a variety of options and features for the homepage so that you can showcase your best first impression...

Print Preview Images
February 2020

One of the advantages of WideRange Galleries websites is the clear and intuitive way that the print ordering options are presented for each photo. The print options are listed in sections organized by each display option (such as framed, metal print, acrylic mounted, etc...

Click-Through Agreements for Workshops
June 2019

Attention workshop leaders! WideRange Galleries websites have a product feature that you might find useful for your workshop products: click-through agreement checkboxes for products like workshops!

What this does is that for applicable product pages it adds a checkbox that says “I agree to the terms and conditions listed above” (or whatever you want that to say) and this checkbox must be checked by the customer before they can add the item to the cart...

Accurate Online Sales Tax Calculations
April 2019

While online sales have traditionally been free from sales taxes, recently states have been implementing complex online sales tax rules in the wake of a 2018 Supreme Court ruling allowing them to do so...

WideRange Gallery-based Blogging
February 2018

WideRange Galleries websites come equipped with a fully integrated, gallery-based blogging system. Utilizing the blog to post frequent photo journals, trip reports, and/or articles is a fantastic way to add relevant and interesting content to your site, which is important to build a following and keep them coming back to your website...

SSL Encryption
December 2017

All WideRange websites utilize encrypted SSL connections and secure https web addresses.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and, in short, it’s the standard technology for keeping an internet connection secure and safeguarding any data that is being sent...

Comments, Anyone?
December 2016

With WideRange Galleries websites it's easy to enable comments on any gallery, product, or page. Blog or journal pages are especially well suited for encouraging comments, feedback, and discussion...

Photo Search Index
May 2016

WideRange Galleries websites have a built-in photo search feature that displays the results in an image thumbnail grid format, visually similar to a normal gallery. Taking this one step further, the WideRange software enables you to create a "search index" page - basically a list of suggested search terms, like a glossary of your photo archives...

Print Sales Statistics
July 2015

The WideRange Galleries admin system includes a comprehensive prints sales statistics panel with visual charts and graphs that provide valuable insight into which photos sell, when they sell, and where they sell...

Responsive Images
June 2015

WideRange Galleries websites are equipped with a fantastic feature for displaying photos at their finest on all types and sizes of screens: Responsive Images!

Summary

• Responsive images look significantly sharper on high-resolution retina screens...

Admin Efficiency Tools
May 2013

The WideRange Galleries administration control panel - or "admin" for short - enables you to easily manage all the content of your website, from galleries to photos to products to pricing and much more...

Variable Payment Page
February 2013

Just in case you weren’t aware, WideRange Galleries websites have a variable payment page! The address is at:

So, for example, mine is at: mountainphotography.com/payment/

This comes in handy when you need to receive money from a customer for something that doesn’t have a set price on your website and thus can’t be put into the shopping cart...

Sitemaps
December 2012

WideRange Galleries websites are equipped with Sitemaps! A sitemap is basically an XML-formatted file that lists all of the pages on your website. Google and other search engines have spiders, which are automated programs that periodically crawl through your website to evaluate and index the various pages for their search engines...

External Gallery Links
December 2012

Did you know, the gallery URLs can accept external links? Here’s how this works:

When you add a gallery, you enter a URL code for the gallery – normally it’s just one or two words to describe the gallery in its page address...