Redbubble Collections Tutorial by F.A. Moore

You’re very welcome. :)

I shall come visit.
Shew, that took a while. Thanks, Lina.

Awesome, Steppeland. I hope it might be useful..

You are welcome, Orazio.

Ah, how can I resist such a comment. Thank you. It is past my bedtime, so I might have to hit and run (5 AM lol!)

With that I’ll close up shop and say goodnight.

It’s such a cool tool, that everybody should really give it a whirl.

Rosie, so good to see you. Thank you for that compliment!

Cheers back. :)

I’m so glad. I believe that this tool will help sales, because we can select how the visitor who clicks on the collection sees that collection.

You’re welcome!

Hi Hugh! You’re very welcome. This is a lightweight power tool, that I believe does heavy duty work.

My pleasure, Enivea.

Dorina, the tool can help us put the buyer in front of our framed prints, mounted prints, or other sales formats, immediately, when they click on our collection. This is powerful!

Sorting and organizing is one thing, which most of us have wanted and anticipated; but these slightly hidden attributes (that are revealed on mouseover) are powerful tools for us— selling tools.

Thanks, Janis. Indeed visuals can be referred to again and again. This is a great tool. I truly believe it can do nothing but benefit us. So happy with it.

Hey, hey, Robin. I need to come see what you’ve done with it. You are the perfect tool-tester-outer. ;)

Stoneage be gone. This little app not only is easy, Linda, but I believe can make a difference in our sales. We can choose framed prints, or mounted prints, or cards (for a card collection, say) instead of cropped images. How wonderful is that? (see again, Fig. B4, B8, and B9)

Ruth, I couldn’t be happier than to know it’s coming across, spanning, hopefully, potential language barriers and geek barriers, too. Thank you! This tool is easy to master, and the potential benefits are enormous.

Hi, John. I haven’t run into a limit. With so many photographers on RB, who have nearly 1000 images or more, it would surprise me if the collection limit were too low. I’ll keep my ears out and ask some photographers what they have run into. Is it possible that you your drag and drop just failed for another reason? Maybe try again, or with a different browser and see if you get the same result.

The order in the general profile disappeared immediately when the visitor clicked to view all, which I did not think was user friendly. Now you can control that order, actually.

The way to control it is to create a collection of, say, favorite, or recent works. Drag the images in there which you would like to be seen FIRST.
Now sort them in the order in which you want. Be sure the first 6 are your primary “must be seen” images.

Now, back on your profile page, hover that collection, as illustrated in my Fig. B1, and click the up arrow. BAM. Now you have 6 of those images that you want to be seen on your profile.

The potential benefits of this tool, even in its early version, far outweigh any negatives, I believe.

Fantastic to hear that from you, Ushna. Thank you!

You bet, Rene.

Hey, Fee! Cheers back. :)

Byron, you make me laugh. I did stay up ‘til 5 Am doing it, when I had planned to go to bed early, around midnight. Ah well… lol. You are welcome to publicize it, as long as you don’t see any glaring errors. :))

Thanks, Byron, for checking in… for the humor. ;)

The order in the general profile disappeared immediately when the visitor clicked to view all; so it’s usefulness was as HONEY, to attract the clicks, and for us to put our best foot forward.

We can still do this with the new tool, and does it “one better”!

The way to control it is to create a collection of, say, favorite, or recent works, whatever you would have wanted on your profile page. Sort them in the order you want them. You can even add more to that collection, than would have (in the past) shown on your profile page. Be sure the first 6 are your primary “must be seen” images.

Now, back on your profile page, hover that collection, as illustrated in my Fig. B1, and click the up arrow. BAM. Now you have 6 of those images that you want to be seen on your profile. You have now controlled what is seen at the top of your profile page.

The way this tool goes “one better” than that, is this time, when they click to view “more”, they will see that special collection, where you have ALL of your favs stored and sorted just as you want them to see it.

Before, the visitor who clicked more got a default of most recent, or most popular; and you could NOT control it. NOW you have control back.

Not only that, but as illustrated in my Figures B4, B8, and B9, you can determine just HOW they see those images when they click over.

So yes, this gives you much more control.

The only thing we apparently cannot yet control is the “RECENT” additions section at the base of the page, below the collections. I look forward to being able to change that, too. But in the meantime, this tool gives us HUGE control that we have not had, over the profile page.

I hope this helps.

Just dig right in. I tell you it’s easy. You might want to print my page out, and take it step by step from the illustrations.

If you take it slow, and just create say 3 smallish collections (you can always add later), and follow these steps, illustrated above, you can get set up faster than you think.

Once you have the preferences set and are happy with them for the 3 small collections, THEN go back and drag more images into your collections and re-sort them, because you will already be all set!

Ellen, sweet. I’m so glad it’s helpful. Take it one step at a time. This tool is easy and puts control in our hands, of what is seen on the profile page, and what is seen when a visitor clicks over. It’s TREMENDOUS.

And how nice that something so powerful is so easy. It’s what I attempt to achieve in my apps.; so I really appreciate seeing it in another developer’s application.

You bet, Philip!!

“Even” you “can do it”… YaY, way to go, Liz!!
The tool is a great opportunity.

Well that is just brilliant to hear. Thanks so much Laureen! Oooo, just took a peek. Looking GOOD!

There may indeed be a limit, it would not surprise me. But I would think it would be substantial, and something that they might tweak, as they get feedback on the new tool. You have some beautiful watercolors. I perused one of your collections and will be back.

I don’t know but I know I don’t like spreading rumors. LOL. So I won’t repeat this. :))

Other than photographers who might have thousands of images, for most people, 100 is enough in one category, if that turns out to be the case. That would simply encourage us to be more explicit in our categories. For instance, instead of “’Fractals”, “Purple Fractals”, “Jewel Fractals”, etc.

I’ve made my living providing work arounds, so it seems like really not a big deal. But it would be good to know the limit, just because knowledge is power. Thanks, Jackie!! Yes, I, too, love having control of how things are seen. Wonderful!

The biggest minor drawback seems to be “change”. You know, that’s a drawback for all of us. lol.

Just follow the steps and try it by the illustrations above. I experimented “small” and it paid off in confidence to use the tool. We can always expand our categories, once we’ve got it down. Good luck! :D

Aw, shucks. Well, the good news is the left side of your page is still “yours” so to speak. Honestly, Ginny, the way the right side of the page was anyway, if someone clicked “more” below the images that showed in our preferred order, they didn’t see our preferred sort anymore, anyway. They saw most popular, or recently “recent”.

And you DO have control over those top 6 images. Just be sure to follow my Fig. B1.

You might want to print this out and follow along the illustrations.

You bet. Read the summary text. And print out (if you can) and follow the illustrations. Bmail me if there’s something you don’t understand, or you can ask it here. I’ll keep an eye out for questions. Good luck. It’s not hard at all.

You have really done a job with this, Robin. I love the cover for your “Faces” collection. It just makes you stop mid action.

I like that we can change the featured collection (meaning to which collection the top 6 belong) at a click, anytime we want.

That will be handy if say, you have a sale on, or want to feature CARDS, and CARDS is a collection.

Just think, with one silly little click, we can change what we are highlighting on our home page that day.

Before, we would have had to resort our whole portfolio.

Love it. It makes it so easy to visit your organized collections, Robin. Yay!

LOL. I try to be a good girl, except when I’m bad, Lois.
Oh, yes, do jump right into this Collections thing. The water is fine.

Maybe it’s a browser update thing then. Interesting. Thanks for testing, the copy paste thingy for the textbox, Robin. :)

Yep.

Okay, Anna, forgive me, but, playing “Dr. Workaround”, here, you might want to try this idea out for your group banners and see if it works for your purposes:

Unpublish a group banner. (Don’t panic)
While comment page web addresses will not work, image urls will.

The only thing that stops working is the link back to the image. If you don’t care about that, then unpublishing them will reduce your clutter, get them off of your first few pages, and, yet still has the benefit of working images.

For example, here’s one of my banners. It’s unpublished.

I see what you are referring to— the portfolio link on the left of your page leads to the backend, where the collections are listed under “portfolio”, and below “All Work”.

As far as I can tell, we can not move our collections above the link to “All Works” link on the portfolio page, proper.

To address this concern, I would say that we should consider a page layout.

First of all, the eye will naturally (for most of us) go toward the right side.
Couple that with the eyecandy of the image targets for the collections,
PLUS, the 6 top images that, I hope after this tutorial, most of us will
instantiate, and there we have plenty of eyecandy to attract the eye that
is already wandering to that side.

Those images have a link below them to view more of the collection.
Most pages on the web don’t get a long view from a visitor unless there is
something to really attract them to stay.

Once the collection is clicked they are in the collection.
But even from there, they can always click on the link “All Works”.

I believe that most users, wanting a FASTER and more personal experience,
will NOT click on All Works, in favor of clicking a collection that
targets, or seems to target, what they are looking for.

That’s why I don’t think it’s too big a deal, although, agreed, in the
future it would be nice to have that controlled, too.

Sure thing, Richard. The tool is really awesome, or I wouldn’t bother. :D

Great! “All the better”, as you say! Thanks for reporting your successes!

Good to hear. It’s a very easy, intuitive tool, although one does need to know these preference setting secrets, as they are what make it so powerful. Thanks, Scott. :)

Thank you, Albert. :)

You’re just in time, BC. It’s a brand new tool. I believe you will find it truly useful for your Big Cat images. I’m anxious to see how you group them.

You bet! Thank you for adding a note. :)

Good man, Christopher! I’m a fan of the look as well.

Wow, Christine, what a wonderful thing to say. Well, I sometimes work hard to understand technology, and I’m in the field. Things move and change so fast, it can be overwhelming even for those of us practicing in the area.

But this is such a good tool, and easy to use. There’s absolutely nothing to be afraid of here. Anything you do can easily be undone or changed; and there is no “right” or “wrong”, just really more of discovery, and “play”.

I just wanted to move that discovery process along, and leave speed bumps in the dust where they belong, as I believe this tool is uber useful. ;)

Thanks again.

You’re very welcome, Lucinda!

You bet! Thanks for taking time to leave a note. :)

I used to do that too, but it was tiring and really outdated technology. The drag drop thing is the ticket. And no matter how long we spent sorting, no one saw that sort order, other than the first 6 images on our home page.

Since last year’s major changes, it hasn’t mattered how we sorted our portfolio, except for those 6 showing on the home page. When one clicked to view more art, from the link below that grouping, they just got “Most Popular” or “Recent”, anyway. They never saw how we sorted our portfolio.

As we can still determine those 6 images, we really didn’t lose any important functionality. Instead we gained a lot of controls.

Hopefully one day, that sort will back as a drag drop, so that anyone who MIGHT view our entire portfolio will get it as we want them to see it.

With collections though, I believe that the “view the entire portfolio” mode will be used far and few between, by people who simply have all day. Everyone else will peruse our collection(s) that interest them, whether it be by color, or subject matter, or medium, etc.

I’m glad to be of help to get people up and going with this useful tool.

Thanks, Lynda.

My two cents, your last one, Original Sold Paintings is uglified due to the oversize typeface that is used on these. Can you shorten it to “Sold Paintings”?

One other thing about that cover. It’s the same as your floral cover. I would choose something different.

Also, if you have an odd number of collections, one collection at the top will spread over both columns (see my Fig. B10, above, or see my home page). I believe (and I’m not alone) that this is a very attractive format. So just add a collection and put your favorite one at the top.

Other than that, great! :D

You are very welcome.

It’s awesome, Keith!

Ginny, while I believe we should have that ability to drag-drop sort our entire portfolio, we don’t just yet. I don’t know if it’s coming, as I’m not privy to that information. I’m hoping that removing the arrows was the first step, and that we will soon be able to sort this, too, by drag and drop.

Right now there isn’t a way, except to add the ones you want to get to to a collection (maybe a favorites collection?)

If we could make a collection PRIVATE, then this is one way we could use a collection as a sort of temporary table for images we wish to get to rapidly. But that’s just an idea, and I don’t wish to go through the steps to promote it for votes. Besides, I have a feeling that collections is just the beginning, and that we will see more come out soon.

Many of us would like that, and since the technology is now rebuilt for drag and drop sort, maybe we will have it soon, Virginia. I don’t know.

Possibly they want to see how we use the power tool, Collections, first, and get us accustomed to that, before giving us full portfolio sort.

After all, if they gave us full portfolio sort up front, it’s possible that most would never touch collections, because it’s unfamiliar.

So I’m still looking (and hoping) for that in the future.

Anna, I am surprised, that we did not get the ability to drag-drop sort the entire portfolio at the same time as we got this tool.

Since RB has now built such an app (they don’t need mine), the ability to sort the entire portfolio in the same way (through drag and drop) must be there. We are simply not presented it. Therefore there must be a reason we don’t have that (yet?).

But I am hoping, too, that we get this SOON. And that the “Custom” option will be added to our portfolio view, too, just as it is for the Collections, and in fact, made the default sort.

That said, I’m still very happy with Collections. It’s a huge step in a great direction.

:D

I like it too! Can you tell?

I hope it works out great for you. :)

LOL, Larry. You can do it. Just relax and follow the illustrations, and the bulleted text section. It’s easy and fun.

Super. I am keeping the framed prints myself for my abstract collection.

The cool thing is that you can set each collections preferences separately. So let’s say that you drag all of your calendars into a collection, you can set that collection’s preferences to show them as calendars.

Or if you have some images that have proven popular as cards, or that you believe would make great cards, you can make a collection of those, then set the preferences to display that collection as cards.

It’s really great. The preferences icon is the GEAR icon that shows up when you hover over a collection from your home page (profile).

Excellent, John. This is easier than you think. In fact, don’t think, just do, and that will breeze you right through.

By “highlight”, do you mean that you have featured the top 6 from that collection on your profile page?

If so, I just added “Subconscious: Scarlet Cocoon” to my Abstracts collection which has its first 6 “highlighted” on my home page. AND I also re-sorted so that that Scarlet Cocoon shows up in those top 6 on my profile. No problem. It took exactly 2 seconds start to finish.

Oh that’s a good find, Anna – that we can edit through their Collections link.

;) (Thank you)

Maybe so. I’m using Mac snow leopard with Safari. But I’ll try with my other browsers too.

In the mean time, I’ll go remove Scarlet Cocoon from that collection. I just wanted to demonstrate to myself that it could be done, and to you if you wanted to take a peek.

I’ll test on some more Mac browsers and report back what happens, Dennis. Can you test on some other browsers? What are you using?

Me too, Before Christmas, I unpublished most of them.

But I don’t want the lack of that option to detract from the wonderful abilities that we’ve gained from the new Collections app. :D

Hey, Owlspook, I bet you have some great collections. :)

Sure thing, Marie. I hope it’s helpful.

Right! like “Puppy Portraits”, “Playful Pups”, etc.

It’s more attractive to click when we break it down like that, and easier to navigate for your visitor.

Dragging and dropping multiple items is non-standard, and this site is an enterprise site, meaning it needs to be standards based. :)

Jan, lol, it’s so g o o d   to see you! lol, I think I just like to share. ;)

Thank you!

lol, I really don’t envy the position of Photographers, as you all have probably 3-10 times the artwork as most other artists here. That said, this organizing tool is just what the doctor ordered for large collections. It’s just spending that initial time with it. Glad you like those two suggestions. :P

Joanne, I haven’t found a way to manipulate the Recent group (at the base of our collections), at all. I hope we get control of this block soon.

WITHIN each collection, you can sort by most recent. Use that GEAR, illustrated in Fig, B1, and set the first select menu for ORDER, to “recent”.

However, outside of the collections, I don’t believe that we can check a default order yet for the whole portfolio.

Mine are now set on Recent, though, as the default. They used to be set on most popular. This changed just recently; and I thought it was a site-wide change.

Yours are still on Most Popular by default? That’s strange. Hmm maybe there is a setting we don’t know about?

…still thinking. If yours defaulting to Most Popular, and mine to most recent, maybe it is a cookie setting… I’ll clear cookies and test that theory.

… no not by cookies. I deleted all cookies (which of course logged me out) and my “portfolio” still shows “Recent” as the default view.

Update me on yours.

… well, might not happen. I guess it depends on how much they want to branch code; and when such possibilities are standardized.

It’s difficult, because once something is selected, it needs to be dragged, before the drag even takes place.

However, before that, the key down event takes place, and then the click event fires when an item is clicked. So the trick is to capture multiple key down events before any of their click event fires, AND then to wait for a certain amount of time to elapse before allowing the click event to follow through to the target URL (the destination page).

That can be done with listeners and a bunch of code, but its very complex. Lasso-ing a group would be easier, as there is no click event. But even that type of selection is non-standard.

It could be done in a less pretty way with checkboxes to group some images as a selection, then dragging from any image in the group. But that would detract from the simplicity of use, and uncluttered real estate.

It can be done… RB uses JQuery libraries. And if someone comes up with a fool proof “plugin” there then we may see it sooner rather than later.

Yes, I believe that most of us want to be able to sort our total portfolio. I’m hoping arrows were taken off as a prelude to adding drag and drop sort for that, as well. (We’ll see…)

I’m hoping that placement of, options to hide (yes some of us want to hide “Recent”), and drag-drop sort of the “Recent” block on our home page will be next.

re “both ways”: kinda sorta. I’d like that little tweak of the “description” links before the items for sale; but I’m not complaining. I always work with what I’ve got. Thanks so much, Ginny, for bringing that to my attention. :)

Thanks, Owlspook, and I feel the same— happy to get these tools!
…and anticipating what the next round might bring ;)

Yes, from your portfolio page.

Did you reach the 100 limit in the collection with a problem?

The way to micromanage your collection is to click on the collection, then drag the images around to the order you want. THEN you have to remember to SAVE them.

The SAVE button is at the bottom. If you forget it may warn you about leaving the page. It’s something I tend to forget, myself, so I mention it.

Once you have sorted the collection (take one at a time; it’s easier to keep track of), THEN go to your profile page (home page), hover over it, and click that GEAR icon. If you have sorted the collection, it seems the default ORDER is “Custom”. And that’s what you want, if you went to the trouble to sort them. But if not, you can select “Recent” or “Popular” from there, as alternatives.

Does this help?

I’m thinking (with my troubleshooting hat on), if you got 2 in there, you should be able to get more.

I don’t know if this helps, but I found that when you hover over a collection, there is no bright indicator that it is THE drop target.

That means that if your hover is slightly off, it the target might become the “New Collections” link, FOR EXAMPLE, rather than the intended collection. And that just simply would not work, and would make it seem like it rejected your drag-drop.

I believe that’s an area to tweak for improvement – highlighting the drop target when we hover over it, so that we know we hit it.

This is mentioned in my reply to your next msg, where I listed it as step 4.

Oh… gosh.

Okay, let’s check these tips:
1) From your own profile page, when you’re logged in, click the top left portfolio link.
2) click and hold down on say the first image in your portfolio.
3) while you are holding the mouse down start dragging to your left toward a collection.
(Is that happening? You can drag?)
4) Hover over a collection directly, making sure the tip of your cursor can be seen over the text link
(this is important)
5) Then let go of the mouse. Peek inside, is it there? Should go to the end.

If all else fails, try logging out then logging in again or maybe clearing cookies first, in case of something there.

What browser and platform are you using? (e.g., Windows Explorer)

If all fails still, use the form to report your problem. Very important, though, let them know your Operating System and version (say Windows 7 or Mac OS 10.5 or 10.6.6) and browser and its version number. On a Mac, the version number is found under the browser menu, About Safari, or About Firefox, etc. )

You bet, Rob. I’m glad it’s coming in as a handy reference.

Wow, you’re a sweetheart. You know I enjoy sharing.

It’s really fun, Linda, besides being incredibly useful to us, and I believe a great opportunity to put a buyer in the mood before they even find THE ONE.

As a photographer, you have a bigger job ahead in sorting through everything and organizing it, since you might have more works. But it’s really worth it. Makes it so EASY to feature a different 6 on your home page when the mood strikes!

I didn’t cover that in the tutorial. Here you go.

Go to your portfolio page, where you see “All Works”, followed by your list of collections.

Step 1. Hover a collection title that you wish to move.
In this example, I will move the collection, named “Red”.
“Red” currently resides just above T-shirts.

Step 2. When you hover a red box appears with a doble-ended arrow.
Hold your mousing device down on it. You will drag this box up or down
to move the Collection.

Step 3. Drop it where you want it. Repeat with other collections.
In the example, you see “Red” is now above “Composites” and on it’s way up, captured in-process.

I’ve also updated the tutorial, Joanne. Thank you. :)

lol, point and click them in either direction, I imagine. I may have done the same thing at first. :))

The reason why they use an image box to drag with is this: consider what happens when you click a link— it takes you somewhere, to another page, or opens a new tab or window to another page. So clicking and holding down a link to move it is problematic. It’s impossible for software to guess 100% of the time whether the mousedown was meant to start a drag, or to start a hop (link action). The software would have to wait for the drag action to know for sure what was intended. So the user experience would not be so hot. Thus, the image is created to use as a drag handle. All is well (once you know that’s what it is for. :)

I don’t know, Joanne.

Right now, it looks like you would simply have to change its name to something else (click the collection and use the “edit” at the top of the page.

I don’t see a way to delete it. If you find out, please let me know, and I’ll add it here.

Wait there is one thing I haven’t tried…
Be right back…

Nevermind, that didn’t work. I was thinking they might have added it to the settings (what comes up by clicking the front page collection image’s gear icon); but no.

Ah, the Edit at the top FAR right, not the Edit for the collection name. Coolio, I glanced at that and thought, “Nah!” lol.

Thanks, Joanne!!

I had better add it. Thanks!

Added it. Thanks, Joanne. Good question. Good Answer! :)

Rob, I so agree with you! It’s just what we’ve needed and so good for prospective buyers, too, or anyone browsing our portfolio.

Heeehee. I get a kick out of your comment. Yep, perfect. :))
You’re welcome, too.

You’re very welcome! :)

Right now, there’s no way to hide them, that I know of.
But you can rearrange:

1. move your favorite to the top of the list on the portfolio page; and
2. hover over your target collection on your profile page; click the up arrow that appears under your mouse. It will then show at the top of your profile.