FlipAlbum Suite Ver. 4.2
Software Review by Francis “Mac” McGillivrayRecently, I received a CD containing a series of photos of Boston, my hometown, that was configured using FlipAlbum.
I thought it was great, and when the program was sent to our group to be reviewed, I jumped at the chance. The finished project was just like viewing a regular photo album only better. Each picture is identified, indexed and the pages flip over either automatically or manually. With the music background, it’s a pleasure to view. If you prefer, the photos can be displayed as a regular slide show. The finished product can easily be recorded to a CD and sent to all your friends. As I mentioned above, the CD I received on Boston was great. I now realize that was done using FlipAlbum 5.0. This current version has many, many changes and additions to version 4.2. but that was the product available for review. Anyone wishing to acquire this great program will be receiving version 5.0 or later.Installation was a breeze. My hard drive is partitioned and I wanted it installed on my “D” drive so I chose “Custom Installation”. I point this out because if you use the default, you cannot specify where the program will be installed. The suite consists of a 72 page manual, the installation CD and two additional CD’s loaded with borders & frames, photos and many MP3 musical tracks. You can set an audio playlist for your background music. It supports MP3 music format in addition to .WAV and .MID files. And if that is not enough, it also supports video files (AVI, MPG). Try that with a regular photo album. You get to choose the design of the front and back covers and as you add your photos to the album it automatically adds a list of contents and an index. As photos are selected they are put into a thumbnail overview page. From there you can manually add a picture into the album by using a drag and drop feature. I should add that it is a good idea to have your available photos already named otherwise you will have to rename them later. Many background colors, textures, etc. are available for the pages. The album binder can be changed to suit your preference. Photos can be placed on the album pages as single pictures, or multiple pictures on a page. You can even create a centerfold by using both the left and right pages. The best way to experience all this wonder, is to go to
www.flipalbum.com and check out some of the demo FlipAlbums. A trial version is also available for download if you so desire.When you have completed your album., it can be burned onto a CD or DVD. A viewer is provided for anyone receiving the CD so that they can enjoy the album.
The only thing negative, in my opinion, about this suite, is that the User Guide could be a little more user friendly. I chose to click on Help when I wanted instructions. It seemed a quicker way to get any questions answered. All in all, I recommend this program and expect to find it useful for some time to come.
Minimum Requirements
Windows 95/98/NT 4.0/2000/ME/XP
Pentium 166 MHZ
32 MB RAM
120 MB Hard Drive Space
800 X 600 Pixels Screen AreaFlipAlbum Suite version 4.2
E-Book Systems, Inc.
1600 Wyatt Drive, Suite 14
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Tel. (408) 625-8000
Cust. Support support@ebooksys.com
URL www.flipalbum.com
List Price $59.95
Return to Review Listing 2004