The Orkneycommunities Facebook page is now being updated automatically when new pictures are approved here, and when new News articles are published on the Orkneycommunities home page.

What's not to Like?

You'll be aware that we had hoped to have the site refresh and a package of updates to both the Image Library and your own sites in place by the end of August 2011.

Unfortunately that timescale went out the window due to serious health problems with one of the staff at our developers, which  left them short-staffed, and with a backlog of work. To accomodate their understandable inability to meet our original timescale we prioritised the work that needed to be done, and have progressed it incrementally over the last 6 months or so.

The prioritisation has seen the more cosmetic site refresh left until last, and focussed on the upgrades to the member sites and Image Library, and we'd like to take the chance to bring you up to date with what has been happening.

On member sites

• New page editor compliant with all browsers, but with choice of alternative editors including the old one reinstated as an option, by request.
• Full editor for Events Calendar events
• Social media linking provided on all pages to widen networking

On Image Library

• Filmstrip of random images has replaced the 'most favourited' picture list, to general acclaim
• Social media linking here too
• Thumbnail images now have captions as a tooltip when the mouse rolls over the picture (on most browsers - not Opera)
• Search facility has been improved - Advanced Search has more options and covers more scope as comments are now also searched.
• Localisation - all pictures can be associated with an area or areas. This will be developed to provide linkages between member sites and the Image Library, as discussed.

Coming up next

• Development of Localisation
• Orkneycommunities hits Facebook - News and picture updates will be flagged here
• Help System documentation will be amended

Please get in touch by emailing contact@orkneycommunities.co.uk for more information, to make suggestions, or to report bugs!

We are always keen to bring more guests to our table, and to get more pictures and comments on the site. And also to make the site easier to use.

To that end, you will now see social media icons under each picture on the Orkney Image Library, which you can use to post a link plus thumbnail to Facebook, for example, or a link to Twitter. This feature is also available on each page, comment, news article and event on the Orkneycommunities member sites.

Orkneycommunities.co.uk is developing a presence on Facebook in its own right, and rest assured you'll hear all about this.

But there is more!

The thumbnail images will now reveal their captions when the mouse goes over them, here and on the main site, and on the Orkneycommunities News section the group posting the news story is also revealed on mouseover.

On the member sites the page editor has been upgraded to one that works out of the box with Internet Explorer 9, and applied to the News, Blog and (for the first time) Events.

Also on the member sites, it is now possible to upload .docx and .xslx files to the Document Library.

More news as it happens...