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Technology Bytes
by Francine Brokaw
FlipAlbum Suite 4.0
From EBook Systems
Cameras are wonderful devices for saving memories, but what do you do with all the photos you took of your trip to Disney World? What's the easiest way to show off your children to the rest of the family? With more people using digital cameras these days, sharing pictures with others can be a hassle. The Flip Album Suite 4.0 is a fun and easy way to create and share your photographs. And the albums created with this software are a hundred times more interesting than plain pictures. The pages actually "flip," just like turning the page of a regular photo album. In only seconds you can make a personalized album that can include music to accompany your pictures, and also video.
With the program open and after only a few clicks, simply navigate to the folder containing your pictures and drag and drop them into your book. Or, if you want to include all the images in a specific folder, you can easily create an album without having to drag and drop the individual images. Once you have your pictures in the album, rearranging them is only a matter of dragging the thumbnail images from the overview page to the right place and dropping them in that location. It's that easy!
Your new album will include a table of contents page and an index page, as well as a front and back cover. EBook Systems recently started including the Design Libraries Standard Edition (a two CD set) with the program so there are more than three thousand borders, frames, titles, themes, sample photos, clipart and music files. A Premium Edition of the Design Libraries is available for an additional cost. Among the many options within the FlipAlbum program are auto flipping the pages, bookmarking pages, scaling the size, resizing photographs, and annotating your album. And they're all just a click away.
All right. You get your photo album just the way you want it to be. The graphics are great, your pictures look fantastic, and the music is perfect. Now what do you do? There are several options.
First, you can save your book as a file so you can open it any time you want.
Second, you can upload your book to the web by using the "upload" button.
Third, you can email the book. This requires an easy configuration of the software to correspond with your email program. The address book feature within the program is a handy way to add your favorite recipients, or even import your existing address book so you can choose who will be the lucky ones to view your photo albums. Note: emailing your books requires uploading them to the web first, however the wizards in this program make it all painless.
Fourth, if you have a CD-RW in your computer, why not just create a CD of your new album? The FlipAlbum CD Maker is included in this Suite, and the best part is whomever receives the CD does not need any special software to view your book. All they need to do is insert the CD into their drive and voilą.
The great part about creating a FlipAlbum book is the pages won't yellow over time and your photos won't degrade. Have you ever opened one of your old photo albums and the pictures came sliding out because the glue disintegrated? And if you've written the dates on the back of pictures, you have to take them out of the album to find out when a particular photo was taken. These things won't happen with a FilpAlbum.
With a simple interface and wizards that make everything a breeze, the FlipAlbum Suite 4.0 is the easiest and handiest program to create and view automated photo albums. It lists for $79.95/US.
If you don't have a digital camera, you can still make a memorable album by scanning your photos to your computer and using those image files. The program supports BMP, GIF, JPG, PCS, WMF, ICO, PNG, PSD, and TIF image files, AVI video files, and MIDI, WAV, and MP3 music files.
Ebook Systems has two other FlipAlbum versions. The FlipAlbum 4.0 does not include the "export to CD" option, and is a little less robust than the Suite. The FlipAlbum Professional adds an encryption feature and the ability to use the CDs you create for commercial purposes. For a comparison of the features, check the FlipAlbum site.
I am very impressed with this software. It's easy to use, useful, and fun! The company says it is "software you can handle," and they're right about that. If you want to take it for a test drive, click here to download a trial version.
© 2001 Francine Brokaw
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