Here’s a quick, real-life story about Photojunction’s auto-save templates feature.

Last week we got a slightly panicked call from a PJ user who’d lost her entire album design. Frustrating.

Support treats calls like this as detective stories, and they’re really good at solving them.

But what happened is less important than what to do about it.

She thought she’d need to totally re-design her album, but we introduced her to Photojunction’s auto-save templates feature.

During the design of every album you do, Photojunction auto-saves templates of your design. It’s not an option you can turn on and off. Photojunction just does it because it cares.

That means the user had lost her project, but not her design. By simply setting up a new project and loading the auto-saved templates of her now eaten project, all she had to do was re-populate the apertures with her images (and PJ might have been able to do this for her if she’d wanted).

15 minutes after hopping off the phone, Photoshop was grinding through it’s exports and the album order was sent.

I liked the way she summed up the whole situation… “just a storm in a teacup.”

Cheers, Nigel

If you haven’t heard, Photojunction and albumexposure have teamed up to bring you online album proofing direct from within Photojunction.

We’ve had some great feedback since we announced (on Twitter especially) and wanted to share some of it with you

@bluesky_photo: Just seen this – what an incredible concept! Brilliant idea @jeffyoungren , thanks to v clever @photojunction + @albumexposure

@loripaladino: HOORAY!!!! Photojunction 1.38b and @albumexposure http://bit.ly/bdbnoJ

@muyiwa: Thanks to Photojunction, I am no longer terrified of clients wanting to make changes to their album!

@EricOConnor: If you pre-design albums this is a big deal. http://bit.ly/bNrA6o via @albumexposure @photojunction

@JeffYoungren: So Stoked that @PhotoJunction and @AlbumExposure are now friends – the ULTIMATE Album workflow!! http://bit.ly/bNrA6o

@WeddingsByRyan: Another beautiful album designed and sent for preview. Thank you #Photojunction. Thank you #AlbumExposure

Cheers, Danny (and Jared and Gary the albumexposure guys)

PS check out our mentions blog to see what others are saying about us.

I especially miss the States at this time of year. For a young football player, there was something magical about Super Bowl parties.

But I’ve moved on – a new love… Rugby.

Enjoy the hot wings, pizza and beer.

Cheers, Danny

Seen this? It’s called an iPad

From my geeky point-of-view (with a Photojunction bias of course) I’m gutted it doesn’t run OS X, and therefore OS X apps….

What a shame. Would’ve been cool to see Photojunction run on the tablet.

Here’s hoping they open it up a little in future.

Anyway, back to work to focus on ‘low lying fruit’ (a favourite saying of mine).

Cheers, Danny

Hi everyone!

The full PJ crew are back in the saddle for 2010 after a well deserved break… We trust you managed to take time out to relax and celebrate with friends and family.

The small beach town of Ohope was my choice of retreat this year. As well as strolling the fairways of the country golf course and relaxing on the beach, I spent a little time reflecting on the decade some are calling the ‘noughties’.

10 years ago I arrived in New Zealand to explore my family roots (my Dad’s a Kiwi and my Mum’s American). How time flies – cliché I know – but I remember counting down to the millennium in Matamata. Not many people can say that!

Think about all the things you didn’t know then. I didn’t know…

- I would live in New Zealand for the next 10 years
- My soon-to-be wife, Natalie
- The All Blacks would be knocked out of two more World Cups
- I would be diagnosed with cancer… (in remission 7 years later)
- How to spell “haematology” the English way
- Nearly as many photographers and geeks as I do now.

Plus all sorts of stuff that most people wouldn’t find too interesting.

So, here’s to the next ten years…

Happy New Year and welcome back from Danny and everyone at Team PJ and Queensberry.

Boxing Day Sales in New Zealand are just like Black Friday in the States. Nigel is hitting them up, but I’m opting out this year for a game of croquet instead.

Happy Boxing Day!

Danny

p.s. The Boxing Day article is worth a read.

Hey it’s Thanksgiving!

I was brought up in the States (Kiwi Dad, American Mom) … and we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in New Zealand.

I miss it and I wish we did.

It’s a great time to stop and “give thanks”, so here goes from Team PJ…

Thank you for using our software, and for your friendship, your commitment, your bug reports, your patience and your feature requests.

And a special thanks from Support, who say the phones are real quiet today!

Cheers, Danny

Check out this email we received from one enterprising Photojunction user:

“FYI I just designed a 6ft car logo in Photojunction and it worked great. I suggest expanding your business to more than just albums!”

That’s certainly taking the meaning of ‘flexible’ to a whole new level.

Do you have a similar story about how you’ve used Photojunction to do something a bit ‘out of the ordinary’? We’d love to hear about it – let us know.

Cheers, Nigel

PS Danny tells me he once talked to a Doctor who used Photojunction to display medical images…

Pavan and Sara

Have you heard that funny story Danny tells about how far PJ has come? How it was originally developed by a one guy in a cupboard? And that poor guy had to answer the phone as well? Stretching it a bit, Danny, but not much…

Anyway, if you’ve been with PJ since Day One you’ll remember that guy, Pavan … and maybe how worried you were that the wheels would fall off when he left to further his career! Well the wheels didn’t fall off (thank you Sepehr) but we’ve kept in touch with Pavan, who’s an awesome young man.

Recently we were privileged to support (enthusiastically) his application for Oxford University’s MBA programme, and we’ve just heard he has been accepted.

Congratulations, Pavan – you’re the man.

Cheers, Ian, Stephen, Danny and all Team PJ.

Pavan’s at vyas.pavan@gmail.com and on Facebook

Danny and Stephen are in geek heaven. Here’s another bleet update from WPPI…

 @PJ_Danny – had an incredible session with a whole bunch of PJ Pros. Heard some amazing stuff – like people designing 300 page albums in PJ!

Cheers, Nigel