Major new Micro.blog feature: photo collections! Check out the help page for screenshots and videos, or visit one of my own blog pages where I’m testing the feature to collect photos from parks. Micro.blog for Mac app has also been updated to version 3.4.

@manton you are on a roll!

@manton Very cool! It's almost like being a long-time blogger helps you think of creative new innovations for micro.blog !

@manton fantastic! I emailed about this like 2 weeks ago. It’s amazing to see how fast you work.

@manton Do you sleep ever?

@manton Using the Sumo theme, I can get the pictures into the collection, but they appear on the page as a single vertical line down the right-hand margin, not as a grid.

@manton Whoo hoo! made a couple of collections! Me, skateboarding !

@apoorplayer Thanks, I’ll check… We probably need to tweak the layout for some themes.

@bloftin2 Cool! 🛹

@manton Thanks!

@haglund Thank you!

@DaveyCraney Yes, high chance. Maybe it should automatically do that if you have the Micro.blog collections plug-in installed.

@manton Did I miss the method for correcting the AI generated alt-text and tags? I ask because in this image) I am not about to fall off my board. hahahah.

@manton That's great! Congrats on the launch! I had some questions related to the API, so I've started a thread in the forum. Oh, and there's a typo on the help page, "Develoer".

@samgrover Oops, fixing. Thanks.

@manton unrelated, quick question

Can I only reply on the timeline? How do I make a timeline post? Is it a free trial limitation? Thanks.

@manton nicely done!

@manton Just finished playing around with it, solid add :) Any thoughts on being able to create multiple photo pages, maybe utilizing categories to direct posts accordingly?

@manton Small typo in the CSS section of the help page: "By default these are about 2000x200..."

@markstoneman Ha, whoops. I’ll fix, thanks.

@manton One question:

1. If I were to not set height, would the result be a flexible masonry pattern, with images in portrait mode rending taller?
   

microblog_collection img { width: 150px height: 150px; border-radius: 5px; object-fit: contain;   }

@manton thanks! This is a great idea. It seems to be a good way to separate, say, real photos from silly memes we may post and want to collect. Keeps everything from being jumbled together.

@manton I really admire your ability and zeal to back every new feature that you bake in with an API. I respect you as a developer for that -- thank you! 👍🏽

@manton This is superb work; thanks for your continued innovation. Can I make one small suggestion/request? If possible, it would be cool to have the option for new additions to the collection to show up first, rather than last. Put another way, perhaps the collections could be reverse-chronological, rather than chronological. Does that make sense? Thanks again.

@scattershot You should be able to post without any issues. cc: @help

@markstoneman no, there’s no CSS only way to do masonry cleanly. People have asked me for it with my glightbox plugin for years. It can only currently be done well with JavaScript libraries.

@adam Makes total sense. I wondered about that. Might need to be a preference? I'm not sure what sorting people would want more often.

@acfusco I think I can fix the Sumo photos alignment. Working on that now and the quotation issue. Thanks!

@markstoneman It should be possible, might need a couple more tweaks than just the height. At its simplest you could set: width: 200px; height: auto;

@manton a preference would be ideal; thanks for considering.

@manton Do we have to use the shortcode somewhere first to activate the Collections feature? Asking coz I’m not seeing the “Add to Collection” under the “…” for a photo.

@pratik yes.

@jthingelstad @pratik that's a bit strange to enable the feature... so I tried myself with a first collection about Apple.

@manton Thank you.

@numericcitizen @jthingelstad Yup. Strange. I want to first create a collection in the Uploads section and then add it to a page.

@pratik yep!

@numericcitizen Also, does it work in a post?

@numericcitizen @pratik @jthingelstad On the Mac: App Menu -> Window -> Collections (shift-cmd-K)

Then once there: App Menu -> File -> New Collection

idk about other platforms just yet but I agree, at least on the Mac it's awkward.

@SimonWoods @numericcitizen @jthingelstad Ok. For now, I'm a web-only user for Micro.blog. I'll dust off the Mac app and see if the workflow is more intuitive.

@pratik There is a link for making a Collection on the web but I didn't see until I had already made one. That's the wrong way around, no @manton? Right now there is no way, on the web, to know that Collections even exist unless you happen to read a blog post or Help document.

@SimonWoods @pratik @manton I do not see a link to make a collection from the web interface. Is it on the Uploads page?

@mandaris Add /collections/new to the end of the address URL.

@SimonWoods Yup. I see it now. I agree. It should be on the Uploads page before you create a page with the Collection shortcode. That way, it can nudge you to make a collection and add it later to a page/post. Also, it's not clear whether we can use a space or a dash in a collection name. I used both, and it didn't show up, so I made another one without a space.

@pratik yep! see my recent posts... I don't like the way it shows up on someone timeline, though.

@SimonWoods @pratik Yeah, I've made collections kind of hidden until you need it. Maybe a little too hidden. The Mac app is another way to create a collection: Window → Collections, and then File → New Collection. (Edit: Just realized this was already said... Carry on!)

@manton very Apple-esque 😂

@manton awesome work, well done!

@manton Awesome does this update include the Instagram import fix too?