Thanks to the addition of the arrows to the right of the image in the Artworks page, it’s now easier to reorder your images. The double arrow allows you to make the image show first (or last) and the single arrow allows you to move the image up (or down) one place. Alternatively, if you go to the “Your Gallery” section and click “Edit,” you can change the order of the images by using the drop-down menu next to “Display Order.” We will program this function so that members can drag and drop, but not until we redo the image upload function. The latter needs to be reprogrammed for speed and for maximum image size. We will be making the image enlargement size larger also (for Theme B sites).

This new option is now almost completed. Professional Plus members will be able to specify the colors and fonts for their sites. This will, however only apply to Theme B designs, for the moment. Please take a look at the Themes section for a view of Theme B.

We expect this enhancement to be in effect in the next few days.

Caoimhin Barry, our tech lead, has promised us an exciting November. The customization feature is the big one, but we will also introduce faster and easier image upload and a better text editor. These two areas have been the source of a lot of member issues, and we are happy to finally address them.

In September, we launched the Mixed Media, Glass Art, Landscape Painting, and Plein Air Portals. In October, we added Still Life, Botanical and Ceramics. We have also incorporated some changes in the presentation of the information and in the programming. We will address the issue of more member images showing in the featured images rotations on the Portals, but we need to do this in conjunction with the reprogramming of the search functions. Right now, all members have one thumbnail that serves to represent their work. In the future, members will be able to specify one image for each category/subcategory in which they work that will then be added to the Portals featured member rotation.

We are looking for more content for the Portals. We would be very happy to consider any articles you have written or would consider writing for both the Articles section and the Portals. Please email Laura at portals@artspan.com with any other thoughts regarding resources that you feel are missing or ways in which you feel the portals might be improved. We need your help to make these Portals truly relevant, rich in content, and a compelling destination for members of the art community.

We no longer use Its Your Domain as our primary registrar. We are now handling that in-house. We found that the service level from IYD did not meet our needs. Our registration prices have all gone down by approximately 13% for new registrations and slightly less for renewals (14.89 for renewals and 13.89 for multi-year renewals). Most of you will still have your domains registered with “Its Your Domain” and you will still be able to manage them through your Admin. If you want to transfer over to us, please log in to your admin and click on “Manage Domain.” The cost to transfer is $12.58 and will include an extra year of registration.