New Storybook Gallery!

[pstewart]

I have an album of pictures of my daughter that was just sitting around collecting dust, so I thought I’d do something fun with the photos. I wrote another children’s storybook called Shoes, longer than Fun With Beer and, I’m happy to say, not the least bit controversial! I am very pleased with how it turned out. I hope you like it too.

To read the story, go to this gallery: http://www.pbase.com/pstewart/shoes
Open the first image, then keep clicking “next.”

[minoltaman]

Good One

[ugot2bkdng]

Phyllis,

Actually, I find the way the shoes are laced controversial.

Chuck

[graphicsmanip]

Chuck makes a good point..

Excellent story with great photo support Phyllis.

[pstewart]

Grrr...! Ma! Chuckie's makin' trouble agin!

Thanks, Gary. The photos inspired the story. I had (have) a goofy kid...she takes after her dad the comedian. She was nice enough to pose for the new leg shots at the end, even though the whole world will now see how goofy she really was (is). She's a good sport.

[pstewart]

I just noticed something. Evidently a lot of folks find my story boring...sniff-f-f-ff-ff-fff-f-f. The number of page views on the first few pages varies (odd in itself!) between 18 and 22 each, then toward the middle/end it falls to 9-14 each. Which means it didn't hold the interest of about a third to a half of the folks who started reading it. Because the numbers vary, many must have just skipped around the pages opening one here and there, in which case the story makes no sense.

Even more discouraging is the gallery hit number of 119 compared to those who actually read the pages. Only about 15% of the people who went to the gallery bothered to read the book and open the pictures.

Pretty discouraging, because I was really thrilled with it...thought it was a really cute story. That's what I get for avoiding controversy. Folks may have complained about my Beer story, but, hey, at least they read it! Controversy is where it's at. Let's see...next time the kids will be...

Well, I hope you do eventually take the time to read it...goes really fast. Or have your kids read it. I'll bet they'd enjoy it.

[minoltaman]

Controversy is where it's at.

Yup....always has been, always will be. Springer and many others proved that long ago.

[pstewart]

Well, actually this book is full of controversy...ya...full of it! Like the part where I fed her dirt ...or let her play on the roof ...or made her sleep in the snow and... well, you all remember if you read it.

[ugot2bkdng]

Sounds like good topics for the Springer Show to me....

Chuck

[pstewart]

I don't usually take the time to scroll through things like this. I guess I am not "mensa" material. Having said that, I was impressed.

This is just wonderful. Very nicely done, great story and well thought out.

I made it about halfway through ... I just hate repositioning the screen, and clicking on next for a thousand pictures

Well, if you don't read to the end the story makes no sense. But you may have hit on the problem folks are having! It never occurred to me that many folks would be using 17"-19" monitors with settings of 1024 wide, as I use 1152 by 870 on a 19". Wish I had considered that before uploading all those 600 by 600 images! By the way, there are only 42, not 1000.

How about reading it at "medium" size? Then you wouldn't have to reposition the screen, but just click "next" at the top right, which wouldn't require even moving the mouse. Anyone try that?

Well, at least the folks who did make it all the way through liked it, so maybe they thought it was worth the effort. But it shouldn't have to TAKE any extra effort...so...

Would it help if I changed all the images to 500 by 500? Please tell me, because that's a lot of work and if it doesn't help I don't want to do it for nothing. If it does help, I'll do it. Meanwhile, if repositioning the screen was a problem for you, would you please try again at "medium" setting?

[The EDIT was for monitor sizes.]

[ugot2bkdng]

Phyllis, I am using a 21 inch monitor and 1280 by 1024 and I had to move the image down to see the "next" icon.

I changed to medium as suggested. That worked until I got to page 7 which is now difficult to read.



chuck

[minoltaman]

I view at 1280x1024 on a 19" with IE6. Everything is coooel with me.

[arifakhan]

Hi Phyllis,

I enjoyed that; especially the earlier images. The feet sticking out take the cake.

Very creative indeed! There seems to be a rather large gap in there when she grows up a little too suddenly.

I don't know why people have no patience these days to go through the whole thing. Perhaps that is the typical nature of the internet browser. Short attention span.

Arif

[pstewart]

Thanks, guys.

Arif, the reason she "grows up too suddenly" is twofold. As most moms will agree, we take way more pics of our kids when they're tiny, and fewer as they get older. The second reason is I didn't want the book to drag. Once the main idea is well established, it's time to get to the punchline, in my opinion. Anyhow, folks already claimed it was too long...lol!

Chuck, on your browser, don't you see a "next" in the upper right also?

Here is a great tip for PC users that I got from Clare on my Inno site:

For those PC users if you press F11 when viewing a site it turns to full screen and gets rid of your tool bars to allow an easier view.

Good book Phyllis

This should be handy for viewing lots of galleries. With my Mac, I can't use it. Wonder if there is a way to do this on a Mac?

I changed to medium as suggested. That worked until I got to page 7 which is now difficult to read.

I have fixed that page using larger text. Thanks for telling me! It's really an important page because it provides the reason for all the pics that follow.

[kevinbe]

What, I go away for a little while and come back and now you're a writer! What a wonderful story Phyllis! I started going through it and wasn't able to stop until the end. By George I think you may have found a new product for your business. Or maybe I forgot to take off my business hat.

Anyway great job Phyllis!