Happy Release Day!

With the release of RapidWeaver 4 we can finally let everyone see Collage 2. We’re still beta testing, but we’d love it if you would download it and help us work out the last few bugs. The beta is quite stable and definitely ready for real world use.

Collage 2 Beta 1: Get it Now

New Features

We’ve been hard at work on this new Collage for almost six months, so there’s quite a bit to talk about. Read about all the new features here or jump over to our Collage pages and check out some screenshots. Our screenshots even use Collage... to show off Collage!

AJAX Slideshow

Add a super cool animated slideshow with AJAX image loading. Just one click and Collage does the rest for you.

Image Editing

Now you can zoom, scale, and crop your images just by grabbing them with the mouse and dragging them into position. Or, click on the auto-reset and your image will automatically be scaled to perfectly fit into the Collage thumbnail.

New Styles

We’ve added a new Styles window. If you’ve used Kwix or Carousel, you’ll be familiar with it. Even better, we’ve begged, bartered, and bribed Elixir Graphics into creating a few professional grade Collage Styles that are built right in. They even did our super cool icon too!

Cool Effects

Everyone loves the light-box effect. Now you can have it right inside your Collage. No more Javascript wrangling or Flash incompatibilities, either. With just one click Collage will scale images, add the Javascript, and upload everything for you.
Plus you can add even more description to your images without cluttering up your pages with a Hover box. Turn on hover boxes and a nice little box will pop up when the user moves the mouse over your images.

Loads of Graphic Options

Now there are even more ways to make your collage unique. There are a lot of new things to set, here’s the big list:

• Image Backgrounds
• Image Masking
• Image Overlays
• Selectable Corner Rounding
• Set the Rounding Radius
• More settings for your shadows
• More settings for your reflections
• Edge fading

Mouseover Effects

Every single graphic setting can be changed when a user hovers their mouse over a thumbnail. It makes it simple to produce eye grabbing interactivity. Simply copy over your idle-state settings and change, change a few settings, and voila!, you’ve got a professional mouseover effect.

And there’s so much more!

A live preview window to see all your settings in real time, xHTML strict coding, AJAX image loading, Fade-Out slideshow controls, higher quality thumbnails, and of course, better IE support than ever.

RapidWeaver 4

Collage 2 uses all the great new RapidWeaver 4 API calls. That means that we have much more control over the way we manage images and save files. Collage doesn’t degrade your images at all. Collage “hard links” to the original files, just like Time Machine does. It doesn’t take any extra space on your hard disk, but if you accidentally delete the original Collage will (as if by magic) make sure that a copy is safe and sound inside your RapidWeaver file. It’s like having your cake and eating it too!

Leopard

Leopard gave us the power to add some great upgrades to the Collage interface. We take advantage of some great animation effects and use Leopards built in image browsers to give you all the speed and power Mac users are used to. But don’t worry, we didn’t go over the top. In Collage 2 form still follows function.

Requirements

You must have RapidWeaver 4 to use Collage 2.

How much?

If you purchased Collage in the past three months then Collage 2 is a free upgrade.
If you purchased Collage before that then the upgrade to Collage 2 is just $7.95.
If you’re new to Collage then it’s $14.95.
If you qualify for a free update we’ll contact you via the email address you registered with. If you don’t receive an email or believe your email address has changed feel free to send an email to support and just ask -- we want to make sure you get the bargain that was promised.

How do I install it?

The easiest way to install it is to:

1. Open RapidWeaver
2. Close any open documents.
3. Download the Collage 2 disk image here.
4. Double click on the Collage plugin in the disk image window.
5. Quit and restart RapidWeaver

How do I upgrade?

This time we’re doing things a bit differently. Collage 2 is such a huge change from Collage 1 that we decided updating your existing Collage pages just wouldn’t produce quality output. Images would suffer because Collage 1 saves small images and Collage 2 needs nice big images for Slideshows and Lightboxes. So we decided that you should probably migrate you pages slowly, using the original images, that’s the way Collage 2 works best. Here’s what you need to know:

• Q: Will my Collage 1 pages be upgraded automatically?
  A: No, you should rebuild them from the original images.
• Q: Can I keep my old Collage 1 pages while building new Collage 2 pages?
  A: Yes! Collage 1 and Collage 2 run side by side.
• Q: Do I need to uninstall Collage 2 to run RapidWeaver 3.6?
  A: No. RW3 will ignore Collage 2.

How do I get it?

Jump over to our Collage page and grab a copy.

Oh, And there’s One More Thing

We really tried hard to get rid of the Header and Footer sections of the original Collage. You won’t find them in this release at all. Why? Well, people have been quite successful at using Kwix without them and we thought it would be great to eliminate all that complex code in Collage too.
But, then we sent the Collage 2 beta copies around for private testing. It’s been pretty much unanimous that we really screwed up. We’re sorry. We promise it won’t happen again. :-)
We’ll put back the headers and footers before the final release. But it’s a lot more code than you might imagine, so be patient while we hammer it out.

Getting Ready
Like a lot of other folks we’ve been busy having fun with the RapidWeaver 4 private beta. If you’re on the private beta list (lucky you!) then you may have noticed a few problems in Blocks. A lot has changed behind the scenes and Blocks had a few minor glitches. We also took the opportunity to fix a couple of small bugs that have been around forever.

What's Fixed
There are no new features in this version of Blocks. It's just the bug fixes:

• RW4 Only: Dragging a selection area in edit mode works well again.
• RW4 Only: New icons.
• RW3+: Images saved as PNG with transparency that also have rollovers display correctly in IE
• RW3+: Images with rollovers can be saved and published without a primary image (the primary image can be deleted to produce an image that is only visible when the mouse is over the block).

How much?
Like most updates from YourHead Software this update is free.

How do I install it?
The easiest way to install it is to:

1. Open RapidWeaver
2. Close any open documents.
3. Download the Blocks disk image here.
4. Double click on the Blocks plugin in the disk image window.
5. Quit and restart RapidWeaver

You'll need to republish pages before the new content (like the new Javascripts) gets to your server, but otherwise there should be no changes required.

How do I get it?
The most recent versions of Blocks are always available (with release dates and build numbers) on our Downloads page. Or you can just click right here: Blocks v3.1.2

I can’t show you Collage 2. Collage 2 requires RapidWeaver 4 and RapidWeaver 4 is still in private beta testing.

But I can give you a sneak peek of some Collage 2 output. This is just a little test. It barely even scratches the surface, but you can see a couple cool features:

Nifty Cool Stuff

- One rounded corner.
- Text positioned over the reflection.
- Cool overlay image (from Elixir Graphics).
- Image changes when you mouse-over.
- !!! Lightbox !!!

Other Nice Stuff

- Collage is valid strict for the first time ever.
- Degrades to a semantic equivalent page when no JS is available.

Not Quite Done

Internet Explorer on Windows is really really hard to make work well. We’re still working on our IE compatibility. I have two bugs on the bug list for IE6. We’re still in beta, that’s for sure. So please, if you do notice a bug in IE -- report it -- and rest assured that it’ll be IE compatible before I put it on the download page.

Check it Out

Yep, you heard us. Collage 1.2 is free to use, free to publish, no restrictions, no time limits. Jump on over to the Collage page and grab a copy.

What’s the Catch?

As you might have heard, Collage 2 is coming very soon. It’s just around the corner. But Collage 2 is more than a just an upgrade. It’s an entirely new plugin. It’s so different that instead of just a regular upgrade we designed Collage 2 to load as a completely new plugin. You’ll be able to use both Collage 1 and Collage 2 pages on the same site.
So Collage 1 will be free and Collage 2 will be introduced in a few weeks. And no, it will not be free.

Answers to all your Collage 2 Questions

Can I get Collage 2 today?

No. It’s still in private beta testing. Soon, though. We promise.

What’s new in Collage 2?

That’s a secret. You’ll just have to wait... ...ok, I’m like completely bad at keeping secrets, that was as long as I could hold it in... ...it’s got a new lightbox, a slideshow, cool graphical frames, savable styles, rounded corners, a great new interface to let you customize everything, and a whole lot more. I’ll post more to this blog as we get closer to the release.

What are the requirements for Collage 2?

Collage 2 will only work with RapidWeaver 4. Collage 2 takes advantage of the great new RapidWeaver 4 plugin interface to do some really cool stuff. Rumor has it that RapidWeaver 4 will be a free upgrade, though, so as soon as it’s released you’ll be all set.

How much?

If you’ve purchased Collage in the last three months, Collage 2 will be a free upgrade.
If you purchased Collage before that, then it will be a $7.95 upgrade.
If you’re new to Collage it will be $14.95

Do I have to upgrade?

No. Of course not. We’re even making sure that Collage 1 will continue to work with the new version of RapidWeaver. But, we think we’ve made this new version of Collage so great that you won’t be able to resist!

Will upgrading change all my pages?

No. Collage 2 is a totally new plugin. Your Collage 1 pages will remain as they are. Since Collage 2 supports larger images for slideshows and lightboxes, it didn’t make sense to just “upgrade” the pages. It’s best to start Collage 2 pages from scratch, from the original images -- that way you’ll get the best quality output.

If I download the free version can I upgrade for free?

Umm... no. We actually have to feed our families, too. That means occasionally we ask for a little bit of money. In return we try to make the software absolutely great, totally irresistible, and super fun to use. Our hope is that after you’ve tried it out $15 will seem like a bargain.