Web galleries: PM vs iView/Expression Media/Media Pro

[syncrasy]

I'm a current Expression Media user, and prospective PM user (if/when the catalog is released). I didn't have time to experiment with all of PM features before my PM trial expired, so I'm curious if there are any PM users who are familiar with the Web gallery tools of both PM and iView/EM/Media Pro and who can share their experiences about pros/cons. (I'm still reading through the PM users manual to get more familiar with PM Web galleries.)

As far as I can tell, one PM 'con' is the lack of custom IPTC fields (iView provides 16 custom fields that can be used in its Web galleries). But ignoring that difference for now, here are my questions:

• How would you rate the flexibility and learning curve of PM Web galleries compared to iView?
• Is there anything the PM Web gallery exporter can do that iView's Web gallery exporter can't do?
• How easy/difficult will it be to make the transition from iView to PM using my current iView HTML templates? (I assume there's more involved than simply replacing the relevant iView variables with PM variables.)
• Does a PM Web gallery preview page include navigation to the previous/next image?
• Anything else I should be aware of?

Thanks.

[Kirk Baker]

I personally have converted several iView HTML templates to work with the HTML exporter template in PM.  It went pretty easy.

For your other questions, I'll defer to other users' opinions.

-Kirk

[ron_hiner]

I've used PM to generate hundreds of flash based web galleries using simpleviewer.   I loved how they worked and how easy they were to create.   But I didn't love that they didn't render on iphones and ipads.

Now I've switched over to Juicebox Pro for creation of web galleries.  I use PM to scale and export the images, then open them up in Juicebox builder.  (Juicebox.net)

It ads a step, but its worth it.

[syncrasy]

I've used PM to generate hundreds of flash based web galleries using simpleviewer.   I loved how they worked and how easy they were to create.   But I didn't love that they didn't render on iphones and ipads.

Now I've switched over to Juicebox Pro for creation of web galleries.  I use PM to scale and export the images, then open them up in Juicebox builder.  (Juicebox.net)

It ads a step, but its worth it.

Interesting options, but not very useful for my needs since the text display is so limited and the pages don't appear to be very customizable. Unless I'm mistaken, Juicebox isn't able to use/display metadata. I think the value of PM's web gallery tool is that you can use complex HTML templates that extract and display your choice of metadata variables as text alongside the image. This capability could be even more powerful with the catalog.

Anyone else with an iView background have any experience with PM galleries?