I’m pleased to announce we’ve just wrapped up a retooling of our most popular designs, D2 – Manhattan and D3 – Brooklyn Bridge. Much of what we did was structural, so you will not see the changes on the surface, but for the users the control over the design just got better. Go (here) to watch a video showing the new template settings area and the massive number of new settings now available to users (*only available on new sites or after upgrading).

Here are some photographers using the new designs:

New-D3
http://jeromepix.com
http://pauledmondsonphotography.com
http://gracehuang.com

New-D2
http://geoffreybarish.com
http://finnohara.com

Here are a few of the changes you will notice on the surface:

The navbar (bottom navigation) can be positioned on the left (see it here)  or center (see it here) and each item is now represented by an icon and/or text label, plus you have full control over what is displayed (names, order, size).

(click to see larger)

You can now choose between 4 different kinds of arrows for the mouse navigation.

There are now 11 different image transitions available (you can also set how long the transition takes to happen).

There are now 7 different menu item indicators available (tells you where you are in the menu).

The menu text can be anchored to the top, middle or bottom of the menu.

We built a new scrollbar and have settings so you can adjust the position (left, right plus horizontal and vertical offsets), width and transparency.

Design 3 thumbs now slide in from the right and you can adjust the background transparency.

Design 2 has 12 possible thumbnail display options. You can choose between 1 and 4 columns of thumbs and between small and large sizes.

Videos now come with captions. The captioning system has a unique feature that allows you to change what the caption says as the video is playing. Have a look (here).

Finally, we’ve added the ability to put clickable social networking icons on your menu.

BONUS: You can now use the scroll wheel on your mouse to scroll the thumbs and text pages.

Don’t forget that changing colors, adding a logo, video, homepage slideshow, custom contact form, custom fonts and changing images, text, pages and galleries whenever you want all comes standard with our websites. Making changes to your site without calling a programmer is a core belief here at APF.

Enjoy.