Opening Thoughts

(Formerly closing thoughts...)

Muse 2017.1 Release Updates

The 2017.1 release of Muse was buggy, and many users rolled back to the old version immediately. Adobe has released a new beta on their pre-release site (www.museprerelease.com), and we encourage everyone to give it a try and log any bugs they encounter. We suspect this version will ship for the Adobe MAX conference in mid-October.

The pre-release version of Muse will not install over your old version, so it's a great way for you to test new features without getting "stuck" on the new version.

2017.1 - MuseThemes Widget Updates

Due to major changes in the code output in Muse 2017.1, many of our widgets need to be modified for compatibility with the new version. Fortunately with our large development team, we've already started the process and our updates will be available soon.

In the last few weeks we released smaller scale widgets until we had some clarity on the bugs in the new version. With the beta available (and looking very stable) we'll proceed full steam ahead with our updates.

Tech Support / QA Lead Job Posting

We received a HUGE response to our job posting for a technical support / QA lead. Thanks so much to everyone that applied. We're still in the process of reviewing applications. Sincere apologies for the delay, however the Muse 2017.1 release (chaos) required our immediate attention and focus.

Part Time Testers Needed

A common bottleneck in our workflow is the time required to fully test a new or updated widget. We often have a big list of widgets that have been updated by our developers, however, we're slow to fully test, package and re-release the widget out to our members.

I'm looking to build a team of 5-10 casual, part time testers who can help overcome this barrier. If you're an advanced Muse user, and have an hour or two each week to review our new products and updates please send me a note at contact@musethemes.com. We'll pay you an hourly (or flat monthly) rate, and it definitely could lead to more work down the road.

Feedback - Power User Membership Tier

We're throwing around ideas for a "Power User" tier of membership on MuseThemes.com. Similar to a Developer or Advanced plan on other theme sites, our power user tier would have access to our Mucow files instantly as they are updated by our developers. This is a huge benefit, meaning you'll get much faster code updates and improvements to widgets.

Replacing widgets on your canvas is also much easier with a Mucow file – all of your panel settings are copied over when you use the "right click > replace Mucow" method in Muse. Right click / replace is not available for .Mulib files.

There is some risk to our business if we distribute our Mucow files (such as, easier code theft and piracy) however we're willing to take that risk if it greatly improves your experience with our products.

Combined with other benefits like a Power User Lounge, a redesigned product download system and a Slack channel for direct communication with our team, this new tier would better support the businesses using Muse and MuseThemes products every single day. Pricing may start around $299 / year, and we would explore bringing on additional staff to focus on this important segment of our customer base.

Your feedback on this idea is appreciated! Please feel free to post in the comments below, or send me a note to contact@musethemes.com.

July / August / September 2017 Recap

New Products and Benefits

• Pop Ups Pro - the complete solution for creating custom and powerful popup modals. Great for engaging site visitors to promote sales, newsletter signups, event announcements and more.
• Hero Connect - a new Connect powered widget allowing you to create different styles of hero images and sliders on your site which can be easily updated via Google Sheets.
• Scaling Text - scale text fluidly across your site, ensuring perfect typography on all screens.
• Anchor Scroll - add smooth scroll to anchor links in widgets or code snippets with this ultra-simple widget.
• Wireframe Pack 4 – a new selection of pre-built wireframe websites ready for you to drop in content.
• Quick Tips, Video Series – a weekly series of quick tutorial videos explaning common questions and misunderstood features in Muse.
• Rouge Theme - One our most popular themes of all time, rebuilt to be fully responsive.
• Muse 2017.1 Release / Support - feature overview, tutorial video and ongoing support information.
• 30 new and updated product tutorial videos, and 6 blog articles.

Upcoming Projects & Priorities

(please note priorities and projects are subject to change)

New Projects

• Add to Calendar - a widget that allows visitors to add an event to their calendar in one easy click. Custom built to integrate with the most popular email / calendar platforms.
• Responsive Slider / Form / Composition Set - a package of pre-styled native widgets taking advantage of the new responsive functionality in Muse. These are going to be beautiful!
• Tooltips - a complete library of tooltips that can be applied to any element in Muse. Based on the tippy.js library (https://atomiks.github.io/tippyjs/).
• Litigate, Responsive Conversion - a fully responsive version of our Litigate theme.
• Product updates and bug fixes based on our strategy above.

Product Updates - In Progress

• Review Connect - add html support for spreadsheet content
• YouTube Gallery - SSL support and layout improvements
• Facebook Previews - Performance / code enhancements
• Animated Page Transitions - complete rebuild to address performance and better transitions
• Google Calendar - implement multiple language support, improving loading performance
• Twitter Feed Pro - address loading and spacing issues, as well as other improvements
• Google Translate - improve load speed, and provide better control in responsive layouts
• Dynamic Slideshow - complete rebuild to optimize code and improve performance

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Thanks for being a member of MuseThemes.com!

Cheers,
Steve Harris