Pics.io Release Notes, 17 July 2019
New team permissions, revised Sorting, multi-page hider, etc.
It’s been quite a while since we last informed you about something new & fresh in Pics.io. So, it’s high time we finally did it!
Our latest release has brought lots of changes. In particular, there were some very important changes to Team permissions and Sorting modes. These are some of the core functionalities in Pics.io, so we’ve put every effort to make them more user-friendly & consistent.
1. New Team Permissions
Inviting your teammates to Pics.io & giving them roles is the first step you take in Pics.io. You have to make that all ship-shape from day one as this is part and parcel of your files security.
Before you could only set up very general permissions. We have had tons of requests from our users who asked for more versatile and specific team roles. Finally, we’ve made that a reality.
Now, you can set up fine granular permissions. It means that you can configure permissions per collection. In other words, you can allow particular teammates to change something in one collection but forbid the same actions in a different collection.
This is how you can configure versatile scenarios of how different people can access and change something in your shared library. And this gives you complete control over your team library. We bet this is something you’ve always wanted.
Now let’s talk about Sorting Modes and see what’s new about them. A couple of things have changed here.
2. Consistent & team-wise Custom Sorting
Custom Sorting is when you arrange your assets inside a collection deliberately — by simply dragging & dropping them where you want. Why do you need Custom Sorting?
- You may want to put some more relevant content at the top — where your team can find it really fast, without additional searching. This is why Custom Sorting is applied for the whole team — if one person changes the order of assets in a collection, everybody else can see that, too.
- Custom Sorting is helpful when you are about to create a website on the basis of this collection. Website is your showcase. You clearly want some of your best “flagship” photos appear first — to make a positive first impression on your clients and partners who you share this website with. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, right?
So, what’s new about Custom Sorting?
Before, whenever you changed the order of assets in a collection — for the reasons described above — there was no guarantee that you will find them in the same order tomorrow. A colleague of yours could have tampered with this collection and changed your perfect order. Meaning no harm at all — just because they didn’t know that you had some specific order in mind.
Now, you have more security. Once you apply Custom Sorting to a collection, every other teammate will be aware of that. If they try to change your arrangement, a warning message will pop up saying something like “Hold on! Someone from your team has already applied custom sorting here. Are you sure you wanna mess with it?”.
This will protect your collection from unnecessary changes. And your team library will be more consistent & predictable.
3. Independent Sorting for Websites
This must be great news if you use Pics.io to distribute your digital content. We have introduced a small change into our websites, but this small thing is really game-changing.
Before, the website you created inherited the Sorting Mode of the collection. It means that whenever you rearranged assets in the collection, their order would change on the website as well.
This was a bit discouraging. After all, you may have selected a particular order of your assets to make them look attractive on the website. But on the very next day, you may not recognize it because a colleague has changed it. It’s very sad, and we totally understand your pain.
Now, you can set a Sorting Mode for your website independently from collection. Every time you create a website, you can specifically select a Sorting Mode — which will remain unchanged whatever happens in Pics.io.
4. Better indications for other Sorting Modes
You already know that we have plenty of other Sorting Modes in Pics.io. In fact, you can sort assets by whatever criteria you can think of. File names, resolution, date of upload, star rating — you name it.
To make this tool even more useful for you, we have changed the design of this panel. It’s a slight change, but you know — the devil is in the details.
It has become much easier to understand the order of your sorting. Go have a look at it if you haven’t seen it yet. You’ll surely appreciate that.
5. Multipage Panel Hider
And there is one more nice improvement in Pics.io. It’s about multipage documents such as Sketch, Adobe Illustrator, and EPS.
Before, on the left of the main screen you could see always see the entire list of pages your file consists of. And this panel wouldn’t go anyway — it always stayed there, even if you didn’t need it.
Now, there’s a special button in the top left corner that hides the multipage panel when you don’t need it.
This helps you to get a complete view of your document, without additional clutter.
6. Panel for background jobs
This is the final big change in Pics.io that we’d like to tell you about. This may be very important for teams that work with huge assets (such as video files, for example) or big chunks of smaller files that you upload at the same time.
Everytime you upload huge assets to your team library, it triggers a lot of background processes in Pics.io. We read all the XMP/IPTC metadata, generate thumbnails, process the content of your PDF and AI files for text search, and do many other important things with your assets. The thing is that all these processes take time…
Before, you were not able to see what was going on in Pics.io. That’s why, a lot of our users were kind of frustrated when they couldn’t find all the keywords or metadata they were expected to find right after they uploaded something in Pics.io.
Now, we let you have a sneak peek at what’s happening behind the scenes in Pics.io. If some background jobs are in progress, you can see them in the panel on the right & in the toolbar at the top. We believe that this new thing in Pics.io will give you much more control over what’s happening in your digital library.
These were the recent changes in Pics.io we wanted to share with you today. Welcome inside to try them.
And again, we never fail to remind you that all our improvements happen because you ask us to change something in Pics.io. So, please talk to us, give us your feedback, and help us become better!
