How to View Web-Based Photo Slideshows

How to View Web-Based Photo Slideshows on the Swanson Website

Some of our photos are now being displayed as interactive web-based "slide shows". (NOTE that we will refer to "slides" and "photos" interchangeably, since these stacks are almost entirely made up of photos.)

This web system (called "reveal") allows you to view the slideshow, image by image, much like viewing slides in the PowerPoint (tm) system available on Microsoft and Mac computers. However, in this case, you can view these photos without any additional software on your computer, phone, or tablet. Your browser does it all for you.

HOWEVER, note that the "reveal" software that runs the slide shows behaves quite differently when run on your computer screen (great!) versus running on a hand-held device (problematic). See below:

NOTES For Users of Phones and Tablets

NOTE: users of phones and tablets may have a better experience if they turn their devices horizontally for viewing. Be sure to enable the "auto-rotate" feature of your phone or tablet, before trying to view a slide show!

Depending on the size of the phone screen, viewing the photos vertically may suppress swiping. That is, you will see the photos, but you will only be able to scroll vertically from one photo to another. You can tell if this mode is active, because there will be no on-screen controls, such as the arrows in the lower right corner.

Full-screen viewing is apparently NOT an option with phones. (It is available for computer screens, see below.)

While it appears that Apple (tm) devices allow for full-screen web viewing, testing has shown that Android (tm) users will have differing experiences, depending on the browser used. If you don't have a particular browser installed on your phone, look at the suggestions below and use the "Play Store" to install one or more of them:

We have had some success with the Samsung Browser on Android devices
You can try the Chrome browser on your phone. It should be installed by default on Android phones
We are quite disappointed trying the Brave Browser. While a good product, it displays a lot of heading information above the picture, squeezing it down.

Similar disappointment with Opera GX.

Similar disappointment with Vivaldi.
Quetta padded the display with "headings" at the bottom of the screen, even more disturbing than Brave.

Our experience so far indicates that you can perform two-finger "zooming" of the photos. This allows you to view greater detail in an image. (However, note that the two-finger "pinch" may not be available.)

Features of All Viewing Devices

Bookmarking

Since you are viewing the photos in a web browser, you can bookmark (or "favorite") any of the "photos" in the slideshow. Each slide has a unique URL. When you want to return to a particular place within the slideshow, you just use the "Bookmarks" feature of your browser to bring up that slide.

On Phone or Tablet

In addition to the above "all devices" features mentioned above, you can, on a phone or tablet, navigate through the slideshow by just swiping left or right to see the previous or next slide. Note discussion above about vertical scrolling between images, when on a phone that is oriented vertically (portrait).

As noted above, it is strongly recommended that you try rotating your phone or tablet horizontally, so that the images appear as they would look on a display screen. Be sure to enable the "auto-rotate" feature of your phone!

It still may be possible that the small screen size will restrict scrolling to the typical vertical mode you have come to expect.

On Computer Screen

This experience has, by far, been the most satisfying. The photos look very good, and fill the entire screen. In many ways the Reveal system was created just for this role, particularly when used to display "powerpoint-like" presentations on the screen during a seminar.

In addition to the "all devices" features mentioned above, you have a great variety of navigation capabilities, when viewing on the computer screen. Note that, if your computer has a touchscreen, you can navigate through the slideshow by just swiping left or right to see the previous or next slide.

Whether you have a touchscreen or not, you can always navigate by pressing the left or right arrow on your keyboard to move between the previous and next slides. Also, clicking on the small set of arrows in the lower right corner of each photo provides navigation through the slideshow.

Keyboard Features (Computer Only)

There are a number of keyboard features in this web package, including:

Press "P" for previous photo
Press "F" for a full-screen view (ESC to return to normal)
Press "N" or SPACEBAR for next photo
Press "B" to pause slideshow
Press "END" for the last photo
Press "HOME" for the first photo
Hold "Shift" and left-arrow for the first photo
Hold "Shift" and right-arrow for the last photo
Press "ESC" for an overview of all photos in miniature
(Click on single photo to go to that slide.)
Press "?" for a popup displaying the keyboard shortcuts