First, two frequently-asked questions…

*Q: *Missing mail? Is something not getting delivered to the right people anymore?

*A: *In every automatically-generated email message that Gryphon sends out, a link is included to allow the recipient to block messages sent from the system. It would look something like this:

*To block future messages, please visit:
http://mynewspaper.com/index.php/mail/block/b2d7a54a*

This link is included as a security feature in every system-generated message, but in situations where you have incoming information from the public – like a news tip form or opinion letter – it’s essential that whoever is on the receiving end of messages does not click this link, as doing so blocks Gryphon from sending mail to that address – and prevents messages submitted by readers from being delivered. It’s easy to do, but it’s also easy to change. Just let us know.

Q: “Wondering if we could change the way stories are logged in the “most popular” tab — could we change it to the stories with the most comments in the past week?

A: The “Popular” list can be limited to any date range. By default it is set to the past two months.

TIPS: Excellent Third-Party Software

Both Gryphon and Fotobroker users can benefit from use of what we think is the greatest photo tool since the invention of the shutter: Photo Mechanic. Not only can you use it to manage your images and metadata, it does FTP too – and you can even have it automatically pack in the source field during upload! We’re an authorized reseller for Photo Mechanic now, too, so you can order it from us, if that saves you a step. For regular users, it’s the same price. For collegiate users, you can get a little bit cheaper if you get it directly from Camera Bits – and you can find them here: http://www.camerabits.com/

Using Soundslides in Gryphon is easy. There are just two minor differences from the default save that you need to make in order for Gryphon to handle it transparently.

First, when you save/create your SoundSlides presentation, you must select the “custom size” option — this changes the directory structure of the final exported presentation, and that’s what Gryphon is looking for. The dimensions should be set to match the allotted display area on your multimedia section page. (if you don’t know, please ask ;)

Then, when you export the final project, a directory called “publish_to_web” is output. That’s what you want to upload to Gryphon, but first you should change its name to something unique and meaningful, being sure to only use alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores in the name. Also, add “.slide” to the end of the directory name — that’s what allows Gryphon to recognize the project as a SoundSlides document, even though it’s a directory full of files instead of a distinct filetype. So, for example, you’d rename publish_to_web to something like:

basketball_v_soandso_20101105.slide

Then upload that directory to Gryphon, using the FTP account. FTP is the only option here, since it’s not possible to upload a directory via a browser-based file uploader. In Gryphon’s Media area, select “scan import directory” just like you normally do when uploading via FTP. The slideshow should show up in the list just as any other media item would. Tag it “multimedia” to allow it to appear on the multimedia section.