14 DAY TRIAL // The general tendency nowadays is to move everything in the virtual world of the Internet. Operating systems are migrating to the online realm, you can create documents online, watch live television, date anyone you want, order food, shop for both clothes as well as for different other items, etc. There is little you can't do with an Internet connected computer and, truth be told, some of us are 100% dependent on the Internet and everything it produces.
And when it comes to personal stuff, we all know that no longer inhibitions exist; take a look at YouTube, it is the perfect environment that transforms a perfectly average person into a star. Anyone can post a movie clip and shoot for the stars.
Owning a piece of the web, be it under the form of a small insignificant website, surely must have popped the wish of having a slideshow section where the everyday user can watch the places you've traveled or the latest pictures of some newly built contraption. The concept is easy, but implementing it may require some assistance. Fortunately you can create your own slideshow for the web and customize it the way you like it in just a few easy clicks.
Flash Album Creator gives you the possibility of creating your own slideshow effortlessly and customize it by inputting strings of text or inserting your own music in the background. The application is not free of charge and $39.99 may seem a bit steep for some of the users, but there is a trial period that can make things clearer. The only limitation in evaluating the software consists in a 30 launches restriction and a stamp will be applied to the output slide show.
Working with the application may be one of the easiest jobs you have ever done. The interface is intuitive and really shows all the steps you need to take in order to carry out the project. First and foremost you have to add the images that are going to build up the entire slideshow (Ctr/Shift+Selection is supported). In fact this step is signaled by the yellow bubble in the lower left hand corner of the application window, plus you can't make any settings unless the images are loaded.
Once you have added the images, these are displayed on the strip in the left side of the screen and you can begin defining the properties of the slide show. You can change the order of the images, the time for them to be displayed, transition time as well as the type of transition itself. For the latter, there are 12 transition effects (Blinds, Box, Checkerboard, Cover, Fade, Shape, Split, Strips, Uncover and Wipe) and 10 of them have different variations.
Users can include narration in the slideshow (MP3 supported only) and use an URL link to be activated once the image is clicked. General section of the properties permits setting the same play time for the entire images in the project or only for the selected ones. Unfortunately this choice is not available in the other sections of slide show configuration.
Text insertion is customizable in terms of its location in the image, font type, size and color as well as formatting (bold and italic options are available). You can insert only one line at a time and there is no option to apply the same string of text for all the components of the show, so you have to add the text for each image manually .
Panning and Zooming options however can be applied either to individual components of the projects or the all of them and permit the user the placing of the image at start/end point, as well as the zoom percentage.
Regarding the transitions (there are over 40 possibilities) the application can make the selection of the transition easier for you by providing the "Randomize" option which shuffles and randomly assigns different transition effects. However, you can go through the minute job of customizing the effect for each slide. Also, appending the same transition to all the images is a possibility, although it would be kind of boring especially if there are many of them.
The last step in customizing your slideshow makes the setting of the frame rate, background color as well as the frame width and height possible. More than this, to make the output result look as professional as possible, Flash Album Creator can display a navigation panel the viewer can access in order to pause the slideshow, move to the next image or to the first/last one. Also, for slower Internet connections you can enable a loading bar giving the user a hint on the time remaining until viewing the show.
Flash Album Creator proves to be a very easy to use tool for creating nice looking slideshows for the web as the output result can be exported as an HTML page containing the flash movie, an SWF file and the corresponding HTML code so that it can be manually inserted in the page as well as an executable file.
But before proceeding to publishing the project, make sure everything is the way you want it to be and preview the show. This function can display it at full size and include all additional elements inserted like audio track, navigation buttons or text. Although it will all seem to work flawlessly, I have to warn you about something: pausing the slideshow will only freeze the sliding of the images and the audio will continue playing.
All in all, Flash Album Creator does a great job at permitting the user easy creation of professional looking slideshows. Every option is out into the open and you can preview the entire project before publishing it to some form or another.
The Good
Flash Album Creator is extremely easy to harness even by the uninitiated user, making each option easily accessible and a cinch to understand its effects in the project.
Preview function presents the slide show as if it would be already published and with almost no derogation from reality (save for the URL link).
The Bad
Pausing published projects with audio included will affect only the slide of the image while the track will continue playing.
One cannot add the same text to all slides, and the operation has to be completed independently for each image. It would be nice to have a volume control option when Narration and Background music meet.
The price may be over the budget for many users.
The Truth
Learning curve is almost inexistent and the results are impressive. There are plenty of options to play with in order to reach the desired results and over 40 transition effects are at your disposal. However, for $39.99 I was expecting an avalanche of transitions and more controls.
But in the end the application proves to be a good instrument for creating slide shows either for publishing on your website or simply making self-extracting flash movies to be played in a flash player.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
