Blog entry preview

While writing or editing a blog entry, the ‘Preview’ button is a very useful tool to check out what your message will look like when you publish it, without actually publishing it (yet). For example, it can be used for re-reading and spell-checking your entry, or making sure that all markup and pictures show up correctly. We’re glad to announce that previewing your journal messages has just gotten better: it will now display the blog entry in your travelogue template, so that you can see exactly what it will look like once it’s online.

Immediate picture uploading

When uploading new pictures in the Member Area, you’ll see that things look a bit differently. Instead of being limited to uploading five images at a time, you can now upload an unlimited amount of pictures by using just one ‘Browse…’ input field. After having selected your picture, the upload will begin start right away in the background, and you can immediately use the ‘Browse…’ input field again for uploading the next picture. Handling picture uploads this way will save you quite a bit of waiting time, and on top of that provides you with a clear overview of the status of your pictures being uploaded.

(With thanks to Martin Conicek).

Finding your location

Keeping things simple and making things easy to use for everyone is one of the challenges in which Fuzzy Travel tries to excel. We think we did a pretty nice job on the improved location search. While you type, matching locations will be displayed. Click the one you were looking for, and you’re done!

This new method of finding locations effectively gets rid of one button and three drop-down lists, which makes things visually a whole lot more comprehensible. Feedback is welcome, as always.

Writing Without Worries

It can happen to anyone: losing your to-be-published journal entry accidentily. Some examples:

• You click the ‘publish’ button, and your internet connection turns out to have died.
• You’re in the middle of writing a travel story. Suddenly, the power generator of the island you’re on decides to take a break and your computer switches off. (It might sound far-fetched, but it actually happened to me!)
• You accidentily logout without having published your journal entry.

Are you scared yet? Don’t be, because here’s the good news: You no longer have to worry about losing any of your journal entries. During the process of writing, your entry is from now on regularly saved as a draft. Should you happen to lose an entry due to whatever cause, the next time you go to ‘write a new journal entry’, the draft will automagically be recovered and displayed, so that you can continue writing from where you were cut off.

Generally, the only thing you will notice about this auto-saving feature is a small announcement, as you can see in the accompanying picture. But the most important thing is that you can now truly “Write Without Worries”!

Select your theme!

We’re proud to give you more options for personalizing your travel blog. In the Member Area under ‘Edit options’ you will now find the option to choose a new theme for your travelogue. At the moment there are two themes available: ‘Classic’ and ‘Fall’ (new!).

Feel free to give theme selection a try. After selecting a new theme you will immediately see the changes reflected on your site. And if you don’t like the new look, switching back is just as easy.

We hope to add many more themes for you to choose from in the future. If you have any suggestions for new or existing themes, your feedback is most appreciated.

Map markers

If you have a lot of posts with locations assigned to it, the amount of markers can make your map seem a bit chaotic. To counter this, new, smaller, post markers are now shown on your map.

Also, if you have your map start position set to ‘automatic’, and your itinerary happens to cross the International Date Line, your map will from now on center correctly.

Introducing Premium Membership

You now have the possibility to upgrade your free account to Premium Membership. The biggest advantages are that you’ll have access to detailed visitor statistics of your blog, there will be no advertising shown on your travelogue anymore, and you’ll have the option to password protect your entire travel journal. More details are on the upgrade page.

Picture voting made easier

A bit of rework has been done on the recently introduced star rating system for pictures. You and your visitors can now simply click on the star rating bar itself to cast a vote. Easy as pie!

(With thanks to Yvo Schaap.)

Even more comments!

Another member request implemented: visitors can now not only leave a comment to diary entries, but also to your pictures. Interactivity galore! Of course automated spam comments are automagically filtered out. You can manage all your comments from within the Member area.

Who are your subscribers?

On request from a curious member, you can now view the email addresses that are subscribed to your travelogue’s email notification list. See the Subscriptions page in the Member area. It also provides an easy way for inviting more people to join your travel journal’s mailing list.