Welcome to ZangZing

Thank you so much for using ZangZing. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. This guide walks you through some ZangZing basics. Let’s get started by uploading some photos and creating your first album.

Create a New Album

ZangZing organizes your photos into albums. These albums act like folders for all your photos.

1. To create your first album, click the ZangZing logo in the top tool bar to go to your homepage.
2. Next, click the green New Album button. You can also click the New button on the bottom tool bar.

Add Photos

The first step to creating an album is to add your photos. One of our priorities has been to make sure you can upload photos from lots of different places. The Add Photos screen shows all of these different places, including My Computer, iPhoto, Picasa Desktop, Picasa Web, Flickr, MobileMe, Dropbox, Facebook, Instagram, Kodak Gallery, Photobucket, Shutterfly, SmugMug, and of course ZangZing.

1. Click on any of the folders to add photos from that location or service.
2. When you find the photos you want to upload, click on any photo. The photo will appear in the Added Photos tray at the bottom of the screen.
3. Click the green Next button or the Name Album tab once you have finished selecting the photos to upload.

A few extra tips:

• To upload photos from your computer, you have the option to use our desktop photo uploader. Since the photo uploader works in the background, it makes uploading lots of photos fast, convenient (since you don’t have to wait), and efficient.
• To upload photos from other photo services, you will be asked to connect your account. We promise not to post anything to those services unless you explicitly ask.

Name Album

• As you might have guessed, on the Name Album screen, just type the name of your album.
• After naming the album, you will see the album email address and album web address.
• Use the album email address to email photos directly to the album. The email address structure is albumname@username.zangzing.com.
• Every album web address is structured as www.zangzing.com/username/album-name. For the album name, any spaces are replaced with dashes.
• Choose your cover photo by clicking on the photo in the photo scroll bar. If you are thinking that those photos in the photo scroll bar look really small, you are right. Mouse-over any of them, and they show up in a larger size to make it easier to select your cover photo.

Ready to learn about Privacy Matters?  Click Next and we’ll tell you all about it. 

Privacy Matters

The privacy of your photos is important, so we make it simple. For each album, you decide if the photos are Public for everyone to see, Hidden for only those that know the web address (URL), or Invite Only for only those that you invite to see the photos.

Choose Your Privacy Setting

Each ZangZing album has its own privacy setting. The default setting is Public.  Changing the privacy setting is simple.

• Click the Create Group & Share tab when creating or editing an album.
• Choose Public, Hidden, or Invite Only.

Ready to learn more about Create Group & Share?  Click Next and we’ll tell you about it.

Create Group & Share

Every ZangZing album is a group album. So, you can decide who can view, add, download, and purchase photos. You can even choose to notify the group when new photos and comments are added. We also understand that sometimes your group is really all your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. In those cases, you can share your photos on your favorite social network, too.

Create Your Group

1. In the Create Group & Share tab when creating or editing an album, click the Create Group button.

2. In the pop-up window, add Viewers and Contributors with their email addresses. Viewers can view photos. Contributors can add photos.
3. The default setting is to automatically email the group when new photos and comments are added. You can always turn this off by clicking the checkbox to the right of the Create Group button.

Post Photos to Facebook and Twitter

We, of course, want you to share photos to Facebook and Twitter if that is what you want.

• Click on the Facebook Share or Twitter Tweet buttons to connect your account and write a message.
• Once you share to Facebook or Twitter, we will by default automatically post any new photos to Facebook and Twitter. This means that you get the best of both worlds. Your full resolution photos are saved on ZangZing and comments and likes from your Facebook friends or Twitter followers start rolling in.
• If you are wondering how Invite Only albums are posted to Facebook or Twitter, don’t worry, no photos are posted. Facebook friends or Twitter followers have to be on the Invite List to see the photos on ZangZing.

Who Can Add Photos

When you create your Group, you can control who adds photos to your album.

• Under Settings, choose to let Contributors or Everyone add photos.
• The default setting is that Contributors can add photos. In this case, you need to Create a Group as described above and invite friends and family to be Contributors.
• If you choose to let Everyone add photos, we still respect your privacy settings, so “everyone” means everyone that can see the album. To add photos through the web, users need to be members of ZangZing. However, users do not have to be members of ZangZing to add photos with the email address of the album.

Who Can Download Full Resolution Photos

• Under Settings, you can choose to let No one, except you as the album owner, the Group, referring to those that are invited as Contributors or Viewers, or Everyone that can see the album, download full resolution photos. To download the photos, they need to be members of ZangZing.

Who Can Purchase Photos

• Under Settings, you can choose to let No one, except you as the album owner, the Group, referring to those that are invited as Contributors or Viewers, or Everyone that can see the album, purchase photo products using the photos in the album.

Click Done once you finish creating your group and sharing your photos. Now, friends and family can add, view, comment, download, buy, and simply enjoy your photos on ZangZing.

ZangZing also offers photo products. Click Next and we’ll tell you about it. 

Shop on ZangZing

Photos are special. They remind us of what’s important. Print your favorite photo and share it the old-fashioned way. Send it with love as a framed print or even a photo panel. It’s a gift that will be remembered.

On ZangZing, choose a photo from any of your albums, including your Invited Albums. We’ve tried to make is really easy, and we’re sure you’ll love your products. If not, don’t worry. We provide a 100% satisfaction guarantee. To learn more about our products, read our blog post.

How to Buy

1. Click the Buy button in the bottom toolbar.

2. When shopping on ZangZing, the first step is to choose a product.

3. Then, choose photos from any album for that product. We make it really easy for you to browse ZangZing to select your photos.

• When you mouse-over a photo, click the photo to select it or click on the magnifying glass in the bottom right-hand corner of the photo to see it in Picture View.
• You can also choose to Add All Photos from an album.

4. After selecting the photos, click the green Add to Cart button. From your cart, you can choose the Buy More button to keep shopping or click Checkout. We currently only ship to the U.S.

Want to learn about how to Explore Albums?  Click Next and we’ll tell you about it. 

Explore Albums

ZangZing makes it easy to connect with your group. You can Like albums and photos, Comment on photos, Follow friends, and explore different photo views and sorts, including Photo Grid, People, Activity, Picture, and Movie views, as well as Recently Added, Date, and Name sorts. All these activities make it fun to explore ZangZing.

Like Albums and Photos

Want to stay up to date on an album? Like the album. Then you will receive email notifications when new photos or comments are added, and the album will show up on your homepage. We this think is one of the best features of ZangZing.

• To Like albums or photos, simply click the heart button when viewing the albums or photos.
• Your Likes are shared with the album owner and photo contributors, as well as anyone that has Liked the album or photo.

Comment on Photos

Start the conversation so people can remember those treasured moments.

• To Comment on photos, click the Comment button and type your comment.
• Your Comments are shared with the album owner and photo contributor, as well as anyone that has Liked the album or photo.

Follow your Friends

When you Follow friends, we send you email notifications when your friends create new Public albums, and those Public albums show up on your homepage.  This way it’s easy for you to stay up to date.

• To follow friends, click the Follow button next to their profile photo.
• Whenever you Follow someone, they will be sent an email.

View Photos Lots of Ways

• Photo Grid View shows your photos as thumbnails.

• People View shows the list of people that have added photos to the album (including their photos), Liked the album, or Liked photos in the album. You can also see which ZangZing members have been invited to add photos to the album.

• Activity View shows a summary of the activity on the album, including who added photos, invitations to view or add photos, likes, shares, and comments.

• Picture View shows a large version of each photo. To get to Picture View just click on any photo thumbnail. In Picture View, you can always mouse-over the film strip just above the bottom toolbar to search for a photo to view.

• Click the Play button centered on the bottom toolbar to bring up Movie View, which shows a slideshow of the album.

• Use the Sort Options to sort photos by Recently Added, Date, and Name.

Ready to learn about how to Explore Homepages? Click Next and we’ll tell you about it.

ZangZing Homepages

Every user has a ZangZing homepage. These homepages have different views, including Album View, People View, and Activity View. These views make it easier to explore your homepage, as well as those of friends and family.

When exploring other people’s homepages, remember that you will only see their Public albums. It is only when you are on your homepage that you will see Public, Hidden, and Invite Only albums.

Homepage Navigation

• You can always tell that you are on someone’s homepage when you see a user’s name and profile photo centered on the top toolbar.
• To get to your homepage, click the ZangZing logo.
• To get to someone else’s homepage, click on their username within ZangZing or input www.zangzing.com/username in the browser.
• To change homepage views, click the Album View, People View, or Activity View buttons that are in the top toolbar. Each of these views is described in greater detail below.
• Just below the top toolbar, there are additional View and Sort options, including viewing All, Liked, and Following, as well as sorting the albums by Recent, Date, or Name. Each of these is described in greater detail below.

Album View

• The default view for any homepage is Album View.
• In this view, you can use the View Options just below the top toolbar to view All, My, Invited, Liked, and Following albums.
• All shows all the albums that you have created, been invited to as a Viewer or Contributor, Liked, or the Public albums of the people you are Following.
• My shows any albums that you have created. If you are looking at another user’s homepage, this section shows any albums the user has created. For new users, the first album in this section is an empty Profile Photos album, which we will discuss in the next section of Getting Started with ZangZing.
• Invited shows any albums that you have been invited to view or add photos. If you are looking at another user’s homepage, you will not see this section.
• Liked shows the album the user has Liked.
• Following shows the Public albums of the people the user Follows.
• You can also use the Sort Options to view the albums by Recent, Date, or Name.
• Recent sorts the albums from the album with the most recent activity (usually new photos) to the album with the least recent activity.
• Date sorts the albums by most current to oldest (based on the date of the cover photo) or vice versa.
• Name sorts the album alphabetically by name from A to Z or Z to A.

People View

• People View includes the list of people that the user is Following, as well as a list of people that are Following the user.
• When you first join ZangZing, you will automatically be Following a few people. This makes it easier to explore ZangZing initially, and you can always “unfollow” these individuals. Also, when you first join ZangZing, you will not have a column for the people Following you – that is of course until someone Follows you.

Activity View

• Activity View includes a summary of the user’s activities on ZangZing. This includes invites to albums, Following activity, Liking activity, sharing activity, and more.
• When you first join ZangZing, your Activity View will show that you started Following a few people. As you use ZangZing, this Activity View will accurately reflect your actions.

Ready to learn about how to Import All Your Photos? Click Next and we’ll tell you about it.

Import All Your Photos to ZangZing

Are your photos saved across multiple services and computers? And, is the concept of downloading and re-uploading photos one-by-one overwhelming? At ZangZing, with one click, you can import all your photos from just about anywhere on the web to ZangZing. And you can finally have all your dearest photos saved and shared in one place.

How to Import All Your Photos

We know it sounds too good to be true to quickly and easily import all your photos from Facebook, Flickr, MobileMe, Dropbox, Instagram, Kodak Gallery, Photobucket, Picasa, Shutterfly, and SmugMug with the click of a button. So, we recommend that you try it out for yourself. It’s super simple.

1. Click the Import button in the bottom toolbar

2. Select from where to import all your photos (you may be prompted to connect your account)

3. Set the privacy for all the albums and then click Import All

Once you click Import All, we display placeholder images for your albums and photos. It will then take several minutes to import all the full resolution photos to ZangZing. The good news is that you don’t have to wait and we’ll send an email once each album is completed.

A Couple of Common Questions about Importing Photos

Does ZangZing import photos at high resolution?

We import photos at the highest resolution that is provided to us through each of the other services. Most of the services give us full resolution photos. Unfortunately, Shutterfly only provides us with lower screen resolution photos and Facebook does not allow for full resolution photo uploads.  Also, to get your originals from Flickr you need to have a pro account. We call that picnapping…

What is the cost of ZangZing?

ZangZing is currently free until July 1, 2012. To learn more about our premium service, please review ZangZing Pricing.

Ready to learn about your Profile Photos Album? Click Next and we’ll tell you about it.

Your Profile Photos Album

When you first join ZangZing, your initial default album is your Profile Photos album. It starts as an empty album ready for you to add your favorite profile photos.

The Profile Photos albums acts like any other album on ZangZing, except in two cases. First, the cover photo of this album is used as your profile photo on ZangZing. Second, you cannot delete the album.

How to Add a Profile Photo?

• Click on the Profile Photos album . Since you haven’t added any photos yet, you’ll land on a blank white page. It’s a blank slate until you add a photo.

• On the bottom toolbar, click the Add button. This will open up the Add Photos dialog box.

• Click on any of the options, such as Facebook, Flickr, or iPhoto, to select a photo to add.

• Click the photo you want as your Profile Photo. You will see it animate to the “Added Pictures” tray.

• Click on the “X” in the top right corner to close the Add Photos dialog box.
• Click on the “ZangZing logo in the top left corner of the toolbar to go back to your homepage. Voila! Your Profile Photo is set.

This is the final step of Getting Started with ZangZing. If you have additional questions, email us at help@zangzing.com. And, have fun sharing lots of photos!