Beginning in April 2014, the development team will be gradually updating all clients with the v2.10 release of Metro Publisher. This release includes several large feature changes to improve the user experience for you and your staff as well as your readers. Many of the changes come directly from suggestions by clients like yourself. Please read these release notes so you will know what to expect.
NEW BETA Features
Here are three exciting new integrations for you to try. These new beta integrations are available to all clients.
Flipboard – BETA Millions of people use Flipboard to read and collect the news they care about, curating their favorite stories into their own magazines on any topic imaginable. Now, you can turn on the Flipboard optimized feed of your content with one simple checkbox.
Subscription Genius – BETA Create a paywall for your content with Subscription Genius. Their new paywall system allows you to easily provide paid content. This system is easy to configure and economical.
Typekit – BETA Adobes subscription-based library of high-quality fonts that you can embed into your website. Just paste in your Typekit account ID, and your fonts are available for you to use within the Theme Gallery.
NEW Features & Updates
Updated UI for work site – As you'll notice when you log in to your work site, the look and feel of the interface has changed quite a bit. But don't worry, the changes are primarily cosmetic. We just wanted to freshen things up a bit. Other than the specified improvements such as the new way to create Blogs, most of your current workflows have not changed.
Updated Theme Editor – In preparation for expanding the number of standard themes we offer, the Theme Editor has been updated. There are a variety of new features such as:
- New UI and workflow
- More font choices - new standard screen fonts available
- Typekit BETA - add your own custom fonts
- New preview screen with options to view mobile devices
- Mobile Logo - Add a mobile version of your logo to be seen on smaller devices
- More refined options for font sizing and styles
New blog creation workflow – Don't worry, your old blogs are unchanged, but now there is a new workflow for creating NEW blogs that is much simpler.
- Create new sections that behave like blogs
- New more flexible blog overview pages
- These new blogs appear automatically in the main navigation
- Merge your old blogs easily to update them
Automated Related Links (PRO only) – For pro users, related links have just gotten a lot better. Rather than small text links on the left side of the page, the new automated related links show up at the bottom of the page with the title and thumbnail image. Related links appear based on tags but include a manual option to override.
Drag and drop sections to reorder – Sections and subsections can now be reordered by dragging and dropping. Additionally, you can merge the content from one section to another and/or delete the original section.
Content settings standard users – Standard users can now optimize their meta info on a per article basis.
Social media widgets for standard users – Standard users can now add 3rd party social media widgets to their content.
Google Analytics code updated for demographics – Google recently released a new demographic feature for analytics users. The Javascript generated by Metro Publisher has been updated to comply with the new standard. Existing analytics users just need to turn on the new feature within their Google Analytics accounts.
Homepage automation: exclude content by tag – By popular demand, we have modified the behavior for the tag filtering on the automated homepage. The tag filtering for Headline and Feature stories now includes the option to either include OR exclude content by tag.
Updated Events Export – The event export tool now has finer grained controls for grouping and defining the fields.
Header & Footer – The edit page for the social media chicklets, header and footer navigation links has been moved to Settings in the work site. This allows you to make changes without having to "publish" via the Theme Gallery.
Ad Settings – The edit page for Ad Settings has been moved inside of Settings in the work site.
3rd Party Settings – The edit page for 3rd Party Settings has been moved inside of Settings in the work site
Automated Homepage – Old manual homepages are being discontinued! With v2.9 we introduced a new automated homepage edit page as a BETA. With v2.10, the automated homepage is standard for all users. Any client who did not turn on the BETA version now has it automatically.
SEO Optimized Pagination – Old pagination being discontinued! With v2.9 we introduced a new AJAX paginator as a BETA. The new paginator improved SEO and allowed your users to print the entire article on a piece of content that is several pages long. With v2.10, the AJAX paginator is standard for all users. Any client who did not turn on the BETA version now has it automatically.
SEO Optimized Event Searches – Old event searches discontinued! With v2.8 we introduced new event searches as a BETA. The new event searches improved SEO by including all the event results data in the page. This change increases search relevance and improves inbound traffic to your event calendar searches over time.
- Better SEO
- Map/List views split into two pages
- Event category no longer required
With v2.10, these new event searches are standard for all users. Any client who did not turn on the BETA version now has them automatically.
And more – As always, this release also includes many updates and improvements under the hood that help improve site performance and search optimization.
