WideRange Galleries Blog (Features)

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 their photo gallery websites.

Categories:
Mailing List Integrations
Mailing List Integrations
November 2025

I've recently made some upgrades for our websites' contact forms and mailing list integrations, including consolidating all mailing list features in a new admin page, adding a Pop-up subscribe form code field, and integrating a Signup Checkbox feature for the contact page form.

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Advanced Image Sizing
Advanced Image Sizing
June 2025

With the newest WideRange version 5.10, I have enhanced the image sizing algorithm so that large images will now scale both horizontally AND vertically so they can be viewed in their entirety on any screen size without any vertical scrolling necessary! This offers a subtle but considerably improved viewing experience for all users, since images will now display smaller on small screens and larger on large screens.

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Add Bluesky Comments to your Website!
Add Bluesky Comments to your Website!
December 2024

For those of you who use the Bluesky social media network, I've added a nifty little feature to embed Bluesky comments on your website!

Note that this is not a complete integrated commenting system like our other FastComments or Disqus options where people can comment directly on your website pages; the Bluesky comments are simply displayed on your pages, and if people want to comment they must do so on the Bluesky platform...

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Tiled Galleries
Tiled Galleries
November 2024

Tiled gallery formats have been around on some of our websites for years, but recently I upgraded and improved the code and performance, so I'm happy to announce that as of version 5.9.7 the tiled formats are now standard options for all of our websites! These formats offer a dynamic, modern look that can give your galleries a more dramatic visual impact...

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Global Privacy Control
Global Privacy Control
October 2024

As of WideRange version 5.9.6 our websites are now compliant with both Global Privacy Control (GPC) and Do Not Track (DNT) standards. This means that our websites are able to respect users' browser settings about not tracking or sharing data...

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Inventory Available
Inventory Available
June 2024

I'm happy to announce that product inventory is now a feature for our websites! Well, at least for standalone products (products listed in the admin at Products > Modify); it is not yet available for products assigned to photos, including Prints...

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Taming A.I. Bots
Taming A.I. Bots
April 2024

TLDR: In the WideRange Admin at Settings > AI Bots you can opt to disallow known AI bots from scraping your website to train their models.

In this current Wild West era of artificial intelligence, AI companies have simply assumed from the start that it's their digital Manifest Destiny right to treat the entire internet as fair game for training their models - copyright law be damned...

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Introducing Snapshot Blog Posts
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...

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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...

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Spam Be Gone
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. The spam filter has proven to be remarkably effective at blocking almost all contact form spam that each website is only averaging about 1 spam message getting through per year!

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Version 5.8: Full Screen & More
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...

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Announcement Banners + Other 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...

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WebP Images
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...

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Version 5.2: Dark Mode
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...

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Homepage Features
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...

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Print Preview Images
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...

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Click-Through Agreements for Workshops
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...

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Accurate Online Sales Tax Calculations
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...

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WideRange Gallery-based Blogging
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...

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SSL Encryption
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...

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Comments, Anyone?
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...

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Photo Search Index
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...

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Print Sales Statistics
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...

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Responsive Images
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...

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Admin Efficiency Tools
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...

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Variable Payment Page
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...

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Sitemaps
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...

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External Gallery Links
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...

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