cool thanx for this! :D

thanks, i'll test this as soon as a get a chance :D

YEESSSS!
Thank you thank you thank you!

thank you i really needed something like this!

this looks really cool!!! i wanted to create a story before but i thought it was too complicated... thanks for making it simpler!!

I have been using Sims2Blog without any problems but have often wished I could edit while reading outside the game. Look forward to testing this. Impressed with what I see, both the product, your website and your documentation. All very professional. Thanks for sharing.

:gidea: This is just what I was looking for -- thank you so much! I really look forward to trying it out. I hate to use the storytelling part of Sims 2 because my game tends to crash when I use it. I hate to even get started knowing my writing may get erased without saving. This will make album creation so much easier! :jig:

Thats way a looking for! Thanks! :D

Great idea, I hate seeing that after I upload the story to the exchange that I have to change an error that I might have accidentally mistyped.. this it great !!!

hi,
when I try to save, I get this message :

"Save operation failed
XML Integrity Check Failed !
Using backup file for recovery
Modifications will not be saved".

I have the University Expansion Pack, and I use the v. 0.7.1 of your program.
I use the French version of the game. And Sims2Blog doesn't work either with my game !!

And sorry for my bad english.
Bye :howdy:

Cool finally I found this missed it some how. I am glad you did this. Thank you so much 10 stars to you too.....

I have to say, I tested this yesterday, and it worked very nicely. No problems to report on it's usability. There was only one little (very little) thing I didn't like, and that was how the title appears on the top of the page. It shows "the family album for the (whatever) family living in the (whatever) neighborhood, as opposed to showing the actual title of the story. The story book title appears at the bottom of the page. Most people need to use "dummy" lots to create a second chapter to a story, so the title's lost, and the family name, and neighborhood name are unimportant. Also, not completely related to the program itself, but I don't know if anyone else is having a problem with the links to your web pages in your post, but when I click on them, any of them, I get a web page not found, and my browser takes me to a search engine instead.

BTW-I have university, and the stories I tested on are from that, so there were no issues to report there.

I have received reports that some people are unable to access the official web site. I believe this is an issue with my hosting provider. Apparently, some areas are blocked. Anyone unable to access the www.transamerican.net/s2album official web site should post the first part of their IP address. For example, if your IP address is 208.47.200.9 then only provide the 208.47 portion. This way you remain anonymous and secure and I have something to give to my hosting provider to make sure they are not blocking access to your area.

Thank you!

I am unable to access the official web site, it keeps telling me "Connection Refused". My ISP is 71.32.

Also, I would like to request a new feature - the ability to Start New Album. (This would be particularly useful when starting a new Family Chapter).

I'd also like to request a larger picture browser (so I can see details in the pics before I add them to the album. It also would be helpful if the picture browser "remembered" which family I was choosing when returning to the photo browser. (I like to add about 10-20 pics when I work on my albums, and it gets tedious to remember each family's "number").

(Speaking of which... would it be possible to assign aliases to the hexadecimal family number, so it would be easier to remember which was which?)

And one last item... I've created "cover pages" for each generation/family, which I'd like to insert at the beginning of the story. I've named them as such:
Gen001_GG001.jpg
(Generation 001, Global Generation 001)

Unfortunately, the storybook viewer doesn't "see" them or present them as photos to add to the story. Do they need to be renamed to match each family's Family Number?

This is such a great program, thank you for creating it!!

One more suggestion, based on University.

If you weren't aware, University creates new photo albums for each "household" (group of sims) that goes to college. These are completely separate from the Family albums. (In fact, you can't even access University photos from the Family albums while inside the game). Thankfully, your program does!

The only problem I am running into is this:
I've already created several albums for my sims who went to college (within TS2). Now, I'd like to integrate their stories into the main family album.

For example: The next generation of album starts in the teen years, and Janie Smith has gone to college. While at college I record her significant events.

I'd like a way to merge her University album with her existing Family album.

I'd suggest something like the following:
1. Open Family Album
2. Import Pages from "______.xml" (dialogue box chooser)
3. Mini album opens up, and allows to choose pages to be imported.
Click to put a green mark on the first page, and click on another page to place a red mark.

If a later or earlier page gets clicked (after initial choosing), the markers would move accordingly.
4. Choose OK. (and pages and text would be imported.)

Perhaps another option to specify the location of the importation. Like "At End," "At Beginning," or "Insert Before Page __"

So much valuable feedback, thank you kindly! I will attempt to address each question/suggestion as I go through them.

> I am unable to access the official web site, it keeps telling me "Connection Refused".

Contacted my host and you are no longer being blocked. I apologize for the block.

> Also, I would like to request a new feature - the ability to Start New Album.
> (This would be particularly useful when starting a new Family Chapter).

Good suggestion, I will try to work it in before the beta release. There are considerations such as the game’s generated naming convention for family albums that will have to be considered.

> I'd also like to request a larger picture browser

Currently, the picture browser uses the actual thumbnail generated by the game. It was in the original specification to have a “zoom” feature using the snapshot. I have had to scale back some features in order to meet a realistic release goal for version 1.

> if the picture browser "remembered" which family I was choosing

Good suggestion. If you are working only on one particular family’s album, the browser should probably default to selection for that family’s snapshots. I agree.

> would it be possible to assign aliases to the hexadecimal family number

I’ve looked at the options for automatically detecting the family name and there isn’t really a ‘clean’ way to accomplish it. I had planned for this in the original specification. I hadn’t considered user defined aliases. The alias to hex relationship could be recorded in the registry. This is worth considering.

> I've created "cover pages" for each generation/family… Gen001_GG001.jpg…
> storybook viewer doesn't "see" them or present them as photos

Because the name does not begin with “snapshot” or “thumbnail”. Originally did this to eliminate confusion for people that may sloppily mix Sims 2 storybook files in with other images that are not valid for a storybook. The negative consequence manifests when users attempt to create custom graphics of the appropriate specifications and they are not visible due to the name filter.

Which brings me to a question I have for you that I will ask in a subsequent post.

Thank you!

Oh, I've been waiting for this - thank you sooo much. Testing now

LF is Line Feed. CR is Carriage Return. In the UNIX world only LF is used for an ASCII text file, including _most_ modern Macintosh OS editors. Old Macintosh used only a CR. Micro$oft, chose to use a CRLF combination. The Sims 2 game saves the XML storybook files with only a LF, which is the most common system. Storybook Viewer complies with LF’s only in the XML, despite Micro$oft’s text control. If a user modifies and saves the XML using M$ Windows notepad, the LF’s are converted to CRLF’s but the Sims 2 Game doesn’t seem to mind and joyfully opens the storybook, then saving it with only LF’s again. CRLF usage will increase the character count, however, since they only occur at the end of a paragraph the overall increase is nominal.

Other readers may find this interesting so I am going to copy it to the forum thread. Also, I have already increased the size to 1024 and it will be available in the next release.

Thank you!

So let me clarify. If I edit my story in this thing, you can still upload it AS A STORY on the website?

Or you can package it as an htm file and put it in a blog on your website?

Correct!

This is the best thing I have downloaded from here ever!

Wow This is just what I need to post my stories on my page I cant thak you enough!!!!!!

I want to be just like you when I grow up.

Well thank you! **runs off to mess with the program**

I will let you know that everything works okay after i do some testing!

This is sooooooooo cool thank you I always hated having to go into the game to make a story and then have to get off the game to get online and then have to get back on the game to post it on the Sims 2 website and then get off the game to get back online to sign off! Thank you sooooooooo much!

I'm using the latest version. For some reason, most of my albums either give me an error message that reads "KeyWordList: Unexpected Length" and others don't seem have anything in them. I realize that might not be the fault of the program, but I figured I'd point it out.

But, I did see enough of the program in action to say that it's top of cool.