Site Update: Literature Appearance, Sta.sh Writer

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In our continuous effort to improve the deviantART experience, we're publishing weekly Site Updates to keep members informed and to gather feedback. Below is a list of recent changes to the site, bug fixes, and feedback that was brought up by members in the last Site Update.

What's New


Updates to Literature Appearance

We've made some changes to the way literature and Journals display on deviantART. In order to provide a more unified experience, we've updated the format of literature deviations and Journals to better display your text, as well as to optimize the reading experience for your readers!

In addition to the updated background, we've made sure that familiar tools for readers have been retained with the new layout. Readers can change the background from light to dark, enlarge the text, and more, using the buttons presented at the top of each literature deviation.

Screen Shot 2012-10-12 at 10.27.14 AM by ikazon

Additions to Sta.sh Writer

An Emoticons tab has been added to the "Add Items" section of the Sta.sh Writer sidebar, allowing you to add deviantART emoticons directly from the sidebar. This gives you the ability to click and add emoticons to your text instead of requiring you to manually type them out. 


In addition, an "Open Draft" option has been added to the File menu in Sta.sh Writer, so that you can easily pull your recent drafts from the Sta.sh Writer without having to load extra pages!

Screen Shot 2012-10-24 at 5.36.59 PM by ikazon

Group Journal Editing in Sta.sh Writer

Group Admins who have Journal editing privileges can now edit Journals posted by others through Sta.sh Writer, which makes it easier to edit, maintain and collaborate within your Group. An "Edit with Sta.sh Writer" button is now available on Journals submitted through Sta.sh Writer in Groups where you have editing privileges.

Previously, this functionality partially existed using the original Journal editor, but the Edit button was only available when browsing through that Group's Journals using the Journals tab. This method still exists for Journals created using the original Journal editor; Group Journals posted from Sta.sh Writer will now open in Sta.sh Writer when using this method.


Updates to the New Submit Art Page (Beta Testing)

Several updates were made to the new Submit Art page, which is currently being tested by a select group of members. These changes include the integration of Prints submission, a function to remember your settings from one submission to the next, and an easier means of changing your main file!


Art Thumbnails in Journal Thumbnails (Beta Testing)

When encountering Journal thumbnails on site, the scrolling thumbnail will now also display thumbnails of the artwork included in those journals, so you can see the included artwork before viewing the Journal!



Change Log

  • The Community Relations Newsletter for September and October has been posted. Added by moonbeam13
  • For a short period of time, the top of the Message Center would display "No Messages" regardless of how many messages were actually present. Fixed by allixsenos
  • Journals briefly could not be posted from the Journal section of a Group page. Fixed by kemayo
  • Various changes were made to the category structure. Some older deviations were moved from invisible closed categories into active ones. Fixed by shahyarg
  • Some ANSI deviation files were not recognized as a playable format when submitted. Fixed by randomduck
  • The Edit Journal button was hidden when Beta Testing was enabled. Fixed by kemayo
  • Some literature thumbnails showed no text preview when browsing. Fixed by kemayo
  • Publishing Journals was very briefly not available. Fixed by kouiskas
  • Deviations published in some literature categories did not have controls for toggling text and paragraph formatting. Fixed by kemayo

More Like This


  • Clicking the "Show More" button when browsing would sometimes cause IE 8 to jump to the top of the page. Fixed by banks
  • Users with the deviation preference 'zoomed in' would occasionally see a zoomed out image when reloading a deviation page. Fixed by banks
  • Browse and More Like This styles were tweaked for better use on mobile devices. Fixed by banks

Sta.sh


  • Publishing options were being cut off in Linux. Fixed by drommk
  • Published Sta.sh Writer items would have an incorrect grey background color for people testing the new Submit Art page. Fixed by kouiskas
  • On a published deviation, switching to Sta.sh comments would always be empty. Fixed by kouiskas
  • Updating a published deviation via API or changing the main file of a deviation would reset the size preference for that deviation. Fixed by kouiskas
  • Comment counts were not being displayed properly in Sta.sh. Fixed by kouiskas
  • Drag and drop didn't work in the Opera browser. Fixed by kouiskas

Sta.sh Writer


  • A very small number of deviations submitted with Sta.sh Writer had encoding issues. Fixed by kemayo, inazar and jekor
  • Raw indent characters were not preserved. They will now be turned into spaces. Fixed by kemayo
  • Pressing the tab key did not indent paragraphs. Fixed by kemayo
  • Unknown HTML tags in text pasted into Sta.sh Writer were not being removed. Fixed by kemayo

Your Feedback


Thanks very much for the feedback left on last week's update! Here's some of the feedback you left for us.
  • Feedback regarding site navigation was mixed. Many users mentioned that they liked navigation as it is currently, while some mentioned that they would like for it to be more simple. 
  • Xeir-Zith suggested that the site navigation should scroll with the page, so that site navigation can be reached from anywhere on the page without having to scroll.
  • arcelian suggested that a "log out of just this session" button could be added to the site navigation, for deviants who frequently log in from multiple locations.
  • Several users liked the suggestion regarding email notifications when a Note is received, though others mentioned that they would like to be able to turn them off, if implemented.
  • Some deviants would like to be able to watch another deviant's Favourites. Suggested by BojanPapic
  • When leaving a Group, some deviants would like an easy way to have their work removed from the Group at the same time. Suggested by LilaeaBluecoat

Deviants Stop By HQ To Chat!

A group of deviants came to visit us here at headquarters last week for a small pizza party, and to chat about More Like This, the Premium Content Platform, and some other new features. They also shared their thoughts about how they use deviantART and features they would like to see. How would you feel if we had a get-together like this in your area?

Here's a photo we decided to take last minute, after a few people had already left:


Discuss!

Critiques
The Critique feature allows artists to receive critical feedback on their work. All deviants can give Critique on deviations with Critique enabled, and Premium Members can request Critique on their artwork. Do you give Critique regularly? What do you find useful about the Critique feature? What ways do you feel the Critique feature could be improved?


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© 2012 - 2024 ikazon
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InvaderZynder's avatar
Hello, I was wondering how you write on the sta.sh journal. When I click the sta.sh journal, everything comes up but where I am supposed to write.