Admin Efficiency Tools

May 2013
Clocks
Efficiency saves time with compounded interest.

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. Geared specifically for photographers, the WideRange admin offers robust efficiency tools that go beyond typical website control panels, providing efficient website management of large photo collections and extensive print product lists.

Here I will highlight three such features that can save photographers hours of tedious, repetitive labor.

Quick Editing

Quick Edit
Quick Edit allows you to click on any data to directly edit it.

In many pages in the admin there are quick edit (or edit-in-place) links where you can click on any data to directly edit it. So for example if you're looking at a big table of photo data in one of your galleries, instead of having to edit each photo individually, you can just click the data right there and save it without leaving the page. In the screenshot example above, I've clicked on a photo caption, which pops up a panel where I can edit the caption and save it right there.

Batch Editing

Many data tables in the admin are equipped with batch edit options. This is a powerful feature that allows you to select numerous items (like photos, galleries, or products), then change their data all at once. Batch editing can save heaps of time and tedium!

For example, what if you wanted to add a couple keywords to a hundred photos. Can you imagine modifying 100 photos' data one by one to do this?! With batch editing you can do this in a matter of seconds.

Another example is the "Batch Assign Prints" panel which allows you to apply numerous print sizes to numerous photos all at once. Just select the photos, select the print sizes, and save. Something like this that takes a minute in the WideRange admin could be a delirium-inducing fiasco in other website software.

Data Filtering

Data Filtering
With Data Filtering you can find your target quickly.

Many data tables in the WideRange admin also feature a data filtering input field. You can start typing there and immediately the data table is refined to show only matching entries.

For example, say I have a Colorado gallery with list of 300 photos and I am looking for a specific photo from the Weminuche Wilderness. I can type "weminuche" in the filter box and immediately the list is narrowed down to show only photos that have data matching "weminuche". I can quickly find my photo without having scroll through and examine a huge list of images.

And More...

There are also lots of little interface details in the admin that provide a more efficient workflow. One such feature is what I call the next actions menu - when you edit and save something in the admin, you'll often see a menu of links to do the next things that you're likely to do, which is quicker and more convenient than navigating through the main menus again.

Next actions
"Next actions" are convenient time savers.

I have been building and refining the WideRange admin software since 2004, and am constantly striving to further improve it. With efficient website management we can all spend more time outdoors with our cameras rather then being glued to the computer!

Posted in Features.