Plugin Questions, Comments, and Concerns

Hello there, @paosfitworld! Thank you so much for your concerns, suggestions, and feedback as it is very helpful and valuable to us while we continue to improve the plugin. Please be patient with me as we work through your list of concerns and suggestion. ??

– Is there any way to lock layers?

Not at this time, but I’ve filed a feature request in GitHUb: https://github.com/google/web-stories-wp/issues/7332

– Is there any way to copy/paste text/element styling?

You can select all the elements/text you want to copy, then enter the short keys for where you want to place it (CMD+C and CMD+V). Here is an example: https://jmp.sh/DXTZraz.

– Will there be any support for Lottie (JSON) files?

Lottie format is not a feature we plan to support at this time due to the possible impact the large files may have on performance.

the “Set image/video as background” feature was working and today is not working at all. When selecting an image or video on a blank page, there’s not even an option to set it as a background.

Are you able to set the image/video as background if dragging and dropping it into the zone like this: https://jmp.sh/u52lW1E?

– Adding animated elements is not currently possible and has to be done outside the tool. It would be great to add basic animated elements directly from the plugin or at least making the plugin compatible with Lottie files.

Can you confirm you are referring to GIFs as animated elements?
IF so, this is a known issue with GIFs in WordPress core, where WordPress removes both the animation and transparency from the thumbnail versions (the ones provided in srscet/sizes. So this does not only affect Stories, but all GIF usage in WordPress in general.

We are looking into ways to fix this for the Web Stories plugin though, by either removing the thumbnails or converting animated GIFs to MP4 videos for better performance. You can follow the progress on this ticket.

The workaround in the meantime is to use various online converter tools to convert the GIF to an MP4 video like it sounds like you are doing.

– Video corner radius and border options are not working

– Videos are not playing in edit mode, only in preview mode

I personally have not been able to replicate this issue. Could you share additional details to further troubleshoot?

– Who is your hosting provider and plan?
– What file format is your video?
– Are you using any plugins/ services to offload your videos?
– Can you please share your Site Health information privately via this form.
– If possible, could you share a screenshot or screen recording of the issue? You can use services like JumpShare or Recordit to share.

– Page advancement custom duration is not working

I was able to reproduce your issue and I’ve opened a GitHub issue to further investigate this further. We will follow up with any updates.

– When adding videos to the stories, it would be great to link to other external sources like YT, Vimeo, Google Drive, etc.

There is an open request for this here if you’d like to monitor any progress for that.

Right now, if we want to add original videos, they have to be uploaded to the WordPress database which takes too much storage space.

Now that we have video optimization in place, files uploaded into the Story editor will have an option to reprocessed them to much smaller sizes.

– When using shapes as layer masks, the drop zone is a bit tricky. It takes quite some trial and error for the image or video to be embedded in the shape and not somewhere else.

Could you perhaps share a screen recording of this experience?

Hi Luckyna,

Thank you so much for your detailed responses. Highly appreciated ??

You have cleared many topics for me.

++++++

Are you able to set the image/video as background if dragging and dropping it into the zone like this: https://jmp.sh/u52lW1E?

Yes, worked perfectly! Tried both images and videos. Thanks!

Can you confirm you are referring to GIFs as animated elements?

I’m referring to any element with animation. Ideally, I’d like to have a library let’s say of animated elements like in Canva for example… see example: https://share.getcloudapp.com/qGuE68rk

Alternatively, is there any way I can bring those animated elements from Canva to WebStories while keeping the background transparency of the element?

On the other hand, is there any way to bring animated elements with transparent backgrounds to WebStories? Something similar to Instagram Stories stickers?

– Video corner radius and border options are not working

– Videos are not playing in edit mode, only in preview mode

All fixed now, everything is now working!

– Are you using any plugins/ services to offload your videos?

Is there any in particular that you can recommend?

Now that we have video optimization in place, files uploaded into the Story editor will have an option to reprocessed them to much smaller sizes.

Is that something that happens automatically? Do I need to select different reprocessing options when uploading the videos?

– When using shapes as layer masks, the drop zone is a bit tricky. It takes quite some trial and error for the image or video to be embedded in the shape and not somewhere else.

Could you perhaps share a screen recording of this experience?

See example here… https://share.getcloudapp.com/nOuoLrjg

Thanks so much for all your help!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by paosfitworld.

Regarding animated elements, I’ve passed along your feedback and you can monitor any progress on the matter here.

Now that we have video optimization in place, files uploaded into the Story editor will have an option to reprocessed them to much smaller sizes.

Is that something that happens automatically? Do I need to select different reprocessing options when uploading the videos?

The video optimization feature is enabled by default. This feature automatically optimizes and compresses videos that are uploaded to the Media Library within the Web Stories Editor.

Are you using any plugins/ services to offload your videos?
Is there any in particular that you can recommend?

There are ways to store media content outside of WordPress but still be able to use it in your Web Stories and other WordPress content types through the Media Library. This is commonly called “offloading,” and you can find more information about it via Google search. Essentially, offloading allows you to use the WordPress Media Library as usual, but actually store the media on a different server. There are WordPress plugins available that can connect your site to your offloaded storage. Note that this would require purchasing storage elsewhere in addition to have your WordPress site.

Setting up file offloading falls outside of the scope of the Web Stories plugin and our support, but there are lots of great resources out there about how to do it.

See example here… https://share.getcloudapp.com/nOuoLrjg

In reference to your experience with dragging and dropping media to the shape, I’ve shared this feedback here. Currently, aiming for or staying along the shape’s borders when dropping media to the shape will be the smoothest way to apply the mask.

We are happy to hear the other issues have subsided and appreciate your feedback and reports. Please feel free to monitor the progress of any of the topics you raised by subscribing to the issues in GitHub. Thank you!!

Thank you so much for addressing all my comments!

One last thing for now if you don’t mind ??

I have a pretty extensive image/video library in WordPress and I use the following plugin to organize the media; otherwise, it would be a mess to find the things I need… https://codecanyon.net/item/media-folders-manager-for-wordpress/21715379

The plugin allows me to have folders and subfolders within the WordPress Media Library for better organization.

The problem is that when trying to add images to the WebStories plugin, that folder/subfolder interface is lost and all I left with is an endless number of images and videos to sort through.

Here’s what I’m talking about… https://share.getcloudapp.com/jkuL6Xwl

Is there any way to improve this?

Thanks so much!

Just wanted to update you on this… I was able to find a way to insert images/videos from the media library using the folders and subfolders structure. However, when adding videos that were already part of the library, it seems there’s no video optimization happening. Is this normal?

Thanks so much

@paosfitworld Hi there! Videos are optimized when uploaded to the Media Library within the Web Stories editor. We’re currently working on a feature to auto-optimize videos that were previously uploaded when you add them to a story, but for now, you need to re-upload a video in the Web Stories editor in order for it to be optimized.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

Thanks so much Bethany! really appreciated.

Have a great weekend ??

@paosfitworld Very welcome! I’ll mark this topic as resolved, but feel free to create a new topic if you have any additional questions about the plugin.

Hi there, @paosfitworld! Could you tell us if you are still experiencing the issue with page advancement? If so, could you share your story URL or a video of this issue as I am unable to reproduce it.

– Page advancement custom duration is not working

Yes, for sure. The problem keeps happening…

For example… I set a custom page advancement of 7 seconds, but as you can see, some slides, especially those with videos, take longer to jump to the next one.

https://paosfitworld.com/web-stories/killer-arm-moves/

In theory, custom page advancement timer should override whatever the video length is. Hope this makes sense.

Here’s another example… https://paosfitworld.com/web-stories/macro-tracking/

Thanks for the link and the explanation!

What you see there is the expected behavior: when there is a non-looping video on a page, the page will only advance after the video has played, regardless of the page advancement setting you chose.

You could mark your video as looping so it will always be 7s.

Does that work for you?

Ohhhh I see… Thanks Pascal. That works for me ??

@paosfitworld Following up here as we’re working through some options on storing videos and I wanted to hear your thoughts.

In the past few months, we have implemented to new features to address concerns around video hosting bandwidth:

1. Video Optimization –?Videos uploaded to the Media Library within the Web Stories Editor are automatically optimized, and you also now have the option to optimize a video that was previously uploaded in the Media Library. In our testing, a 50MB video is reduced to <1MB in file size, about the same size as a high-res image.
2. With the new Video Cache option, which can be turned in Web Stories > Settings > Video Cache, your site will automatically serve videos from Google’s servers (instead of your own) which should eliminate bandwidth costs for most videos.

With these new features, have your concerns about video bandwidth addressed? Or do you also still want the ability to upload videos elsewhere and link to them within Web Stories? If so, why?

We’d really appreciate any feedback here – we want to make sure that the updates that we’ve made or plan to make will directly address your needs.

Thanks so much!