VUVOX ::: faq

Q: I want to change the email address on my account. How do I do it?

A: Your privacy is very important, and so is the security of your email address. As a policy we don't change account email addresses once an account has been opened. We recommend you use your username as the primary way of logging into your account. If you have questions about changing your email address associated with your account, please request in writing

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Q: I want to close my account. How do I do it?

A: While you are logged-into your account, click on 'My Account' from the top nav bar. This will take you to a simple 'Update your account' page. Click on the Red link entitled 'Delete Account' -- You will be asked if you REALLY want to do this. If yes, then your account, all media and respective presentations will ALL be removed.

Q: How is the 'Public info' field used?

A: The public info is used to mask your username if you would like to have a more 'legible' and user-friendly phrase of authorship associated with your creations. Use the Public info field on the 'My Account' Page. This is the info that people will see next to your profile icon.

Q: How do I set my profile icon?

A: Follow these steps:

1) While you are logged into your VUVOX account, select the 'My Stuff' tab from the global nav.

2) select the link entitled  'Profile' --> you will be presented with your public profile page

3) Select 'Edit' to update and change the information on your public profile. From this page you can upload an image to change your profile icon.

Q: How do create / use channels?

A: Channels can be created from your 'My Stuff' page by selecting the button entitled 'Create a Channel'. You can think of channels as online containers for your presentations. Their visibility can be set to Public or Unlisted based on your sharing preferences. When you publish to a channel, your presentation can have it's own content and permalink, but you can also get the permalink of your channel itself, allowing you to group content together. The channel architecture also let's you embed channels in the VUVOX player. For more information on embedding Channels, visit the Embedding VUVOX FAQ.

Frequently asked Questions about Creating, publishing and embedding a VUVOX Collage. For additional help, visit our Online Video Tutorials on Lynda.com.

Q: Can I embed Collage in my blog?

A: We support many existing blog formats, but there is a known issue if Wordpress hosts your blog, it will not be able to be embedded. If you have a specific blog where it does NOT work, please tell us.

Q: Can I embed a VUVOX Channel in my website or Blog?

A: Yes, Channels are supported in the embed code. All you need to do is replace the path of the URL from a presentation ID to a Channel ID. See example below. <object width="100%" height="450"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="flashvar" value="controller=autohide"/> <param name="movie" value="http://www.vuvox.com/channels/YOURCHANNEL#.swf"/> <embed src="http://www.vuvox.com/channels/YOURCHANNEL#.swf" flashvars="controller=autohide" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%" height="450"></embed></object>

Q: Can I defer Collage from playing automatically?

A: Yes. Collage will not play *any* background music until the end user presses the 'play' button. You can also defer the player from playing by embedding collage with a width smaller than 320 pixels. anything below 320 pixels width will put the player into a mode where (when clicked) it will start the presentation and go full screen.

Q: Can I update my Collage after it has been embedded?

A: YES. Emphatically, yes! This is a great advantage of the publishing workflow. You can evolve your piece after it has been placed on a site. This is great when you want to make updates & changes to a collage without involving any additional technical pushes or updates to your site. Alternatively, you can not hurt an existing collage by using the 'save as' button in VUVOX collage to create a new version. Any additional changes will only be reflected in the new version.

Q: Can Collage be modified to something other than horizontal format?

A: We currently don't support other stages other than Horizontal. We'd like to support other stage sizes and aspect ratios soon.

Q: Is there a White Label version of Collage?

A: VUVOX is willing to work with select companies to develop custom variations of the tool. Send us a note via Feedback form with attention to 'Business Development'... it'll be routed to the correct person.

Q: Can I remove the 'VUVOX' logo from the Player?

A: Yes, but we usually ask that you ask for permission. You can remove the logo from the player by inserting a variable value  into the embed code. See example below:

------------ < begin embed code > < Your object height="400" width="550"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"/><param value="showHeader=false&showMenu=false" name="FlashVars"/><param value="always" name="allowScriptAccess"/><param value="http://www.vuvox.com/collage_express/collage.swf?collageID=YOURCOLLAGEID#" name="movie"/><embed height="400" width="550" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" FlashVars="showHeader=false&showMenu=false" src="http://www.vuvox.com/collage_express/collage.swf?collageID=YOURCOLLAGEID#"/>< end your object tag > < end embed code > -------------------

Q: Can I change the color of the Player?

A: Yes. From VUVOX Collage, you can select the 'Settings' button. This allows you to change the background color as well as the color of the Letterbox when it is published & embedded. Below is the interface used to change the color:

NOTE: you can also change the color of the Letterbox by inserting a parameter into the embed code as well: see example below

------------ < begin embed code > < Your object height="400" width="550" bgcolor="cccccc"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"/><param value="showHeader=false&showMenu=false" name="FlashVars"/><param value="always" name="allowScriptAccess"/><param value="http://www.vuvox.com/collage_express/collage.swf?collageID=YOURCOLLAGEID#&marginColor=0xcccccc" name="movie"/><embed height="400" width="550" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" FlashVars="showHeader=false&showMenu=false" src="http://www.vuvox.com/collage_express/collage.swf?collageID=YOURCOLLAGEID#"/>< end your object tag > < end embed code > -------------------

Q: How do I connect to my Flickr, Picasa or Smugmug account using VUVOX Collage?

A: Once you're in VUVOX Collage, select the respective media tab corresponding to the service you use.

• Flickr - Connect to Flickr account by authorizing your Flickr account to talk with VUVOX. (note, you only have to do this once). Once connected, the pull-down menu will allow you to select which online set you can select.
• Picasa - Enter your username (NOTE this is usually the name before the '@' symbol when you log-in to Google's Picasa account. Note that all public web albums will be visible in the pull-down menu. If you DON'T see your web albums, check the privacy settings. Only 'Public' web albums will be seen.
• Smugmug - Connect by entering your SmugMug username and password. This will allow SmugMug API to connect to VUVOX. Inside the pull-down menu will be all of your SmugMug online Albums.

Q: How do I paginate through my media when connected to Flickr, Picasa or Smugmug?

A: We'll paginate every 24 photos when connected to another service. Look for the phrase 'page 1 of  'x' . Click on the 'down' arrow right after the 2nd number. You will be presented with a number of pages that you can click on. This will allow you to jump from one page to another.

Q: What happens to my photos if I publish using my Flickr or Picasa images using VUVOX?

A: We never hurt the originals, they are retrieved every time the VUVOX piece is viewed. If you delete the original or move the album, the respective VUVOX piece will be unable to show any of the cooresponding images. NOTE that you are using these accounts to be the *source* of your media, so if you change that original media, then those changes will be affected in your VUVOX collage.

Q: How can I bring videos from YouTube into VUVOX collage?

A: At present, YouTube videos can't be added directly to collage, however you can add them indirectly through VUVOX Studio. We hope to add this functionality to Collage soon. To add a YouTube video to a media hotspot, follow these steps:

1) From VUVOX Studio, publish a slideshow including a YouTube video.

2) Copy/Paste the new VUVOX URL of that piece into the path of the Media Hotspot in Collage.

Frequently asked Questions about Creating, publishing and embedding a VUVOX Collage. For additional help, visit our Online Video Tutorials on Lynda.com.

Q: What is the best way to upload into VUVOX?

A: The most comprehensive way to upload into VUVOX is through the Collage interface. You must be logged in to access this screen. Uploading images, video and audio can all be done through this interface. Even if you are wanting to use VUVOX Studio, you can upload through the Collage interface. From here you can organize your media into groups or sort by media type (images, video, audio) if needed.

Q: What media formats do you support for upload?

We're in our final stages of the Collage private beta. It's been fantastic seeing what has been created! We've added a bunch of new features lately, including:

• Secure Flickr account access
• Secure Picasa account access
• Smugmug account access
• Video Layering
• TEXT layout and positioning

to check out collage, visit: http://www.vuvox.com/collage

We're very excited about the advancements in 'VUVOX: Cut-out Express'. It's been been fun watching some of our early beta testers create some pretty amazing things. The possibilities of dynamic frame cut-outs allow any photograph to be used to create a contextual portal to another piece of media. That could be a slideshow OR video. The juxtaposition of the media seems to be a really nice combination. There's really no end to what you can create with this thing. We want you to use it, share it and *dare* someone to a Cut-out dual!

Click on the 'Menu' button in the player to navigate to other cut-out examples.

We've been making advancements in our photo collage tool. Our most recent collaborations include the San Jose Mercury News Photo department, specifically the work by Richard Hernandez. We recently invited Tech Blogger & photo enthusiast, Robert Scoble to talk with us about these recent developments, and how VUVOX works with Photojournalists. The piece created by Hernandez was an interactive photo essay on the town of Willow Glen, California. The piece took about two weeks of research to document and photograph, but only about two hours to create in the new VUVOX collage tool. Scoble interviews Richard on his Creation process. Next, Robert Scoble interviews Dane Howard, CXO of VUVOX about tool itself and how the user experience was design for VUVOX collage. The Collage tool is currently in private beta, if you're interested in giving feedback or being contacted about the VUVOX beta, let us know.

Boston, MA: Our friends at Flashforward and Lynda.com are using VUVOX to showcase images coming directly from the conference. The attendees are invited to upload their images to Flickr and join the "Flashforward Boston" group and/or tag their photos "flashforward" --> They'll be participating in one big photo feed, that is syndicated back into the Flashforward Website. There will be three galleries of content. Conference Photos Gallery will include images from conference attendees, Expo Hall Gallery, and Flashforward Speakers Gallery, which will focus on the Point of view of Speakers. Mario Klingemann, AKA (Quasimondo) will also be on-site, giving a talk and being Mr. VUVOX ambassador.

After a bit of tinkering, I came up with a great style variation that showcases VUVOX's video capabilities. This one is available to those of you using VUVOX Express and our Facebook application, Photo Slide. It demonstrates just how captivating a little video can be. We’ve been working on Style variations that use video overlays and backgrounds to make your media come alive. Waves is a new variation that displays a slideshow on a sandy beach as waves wash over your media. The effect is a peaceful and contemplative as a day beside the ocean can be. The layout I created is kind of complex, using multiple layers to create the transparent effects. The effect on the other hand, is akin to the simple pleasure of watching the waves wash over your feet. You can find 'Waves' under the mediawall Style in VUVOX Express and Facebook's Photo Slide.