FlipAlbum

by Joyce Kohl

January 9, 1999

Looking for a sensible way to categorize, index, annotate, and view all the folders of images on your hard drive? Look no further! E-Book Systems, Inc. have released FlipAlbum 3.0 (FAL) which almost instantly creates an album of any directory (folder) complete with a table of contents, thumbnails, individual pages of images, and a complete alphabetized index. Not only can you flip through the images, you can annotate them, play music of your choice while you're viewing them, resize the album, launch multiple albums, print any image, email an image, and create slide show presentations.

FAL S'Mores
And that's not all this incredible, amazing program does! It has a built-in image editor which includes a capture program, too. Most of this review will SHOW you what FlipAlbum can do and why I use "S'Mores" as an all inclusive, descriptive word. FAL is the "dessert" of image utilities.

It's MORE than a image viewer. It's MORE than a image organizer. I've personally never seen so many features crammed into one, more than reasonably priced, software program.

I found nothing in this program that didn't work exactly as it was supposed to. In fact, I found MORE options and features than I can possibly review for you without writing a tutorial. One of the "S'Mores" is a choice of three different sizes of thumbnails.

Where to Begin?
FAL is so full of features and commands for customizing your image folders that you'll probably feel like a mosquito in a nudist colony. Once you install FAL and open a folder, you won't know where to "byte" first! There's just no right or wrong way to begin, or to walk you through anything like "first steps" or "how-to" instructions.

Therefore, this review will be more of a visual concept via screenshots to show you what FAL looks like and some of the things it can do to make your management of images easier. My enthusiasm for FAL will become comprehensible as you continue through this review.

Installation is fast. You can accept the default suggested directory for installing the program or browse to the partition you wish to install it on as well as selecting to name the directory with your own preferred name. Once installed, you'll want to put a shortcut to the program on your desktop, because this is a program I guarantee you'll use often and a shortcut to it will save time. If you have a special work folder on your desktop like I do, you may want to drag and drop the shortcut into it.

Main Features I Found

• Albums which look and act like REAL picture albums
• Interface with 3D animated page-turning
• Automated slideshow
• Presentations with page-turning
• Background music of your choice
• Thumbnail overviews
• Table of Contents and Index of all images
• File management
• Multiple Sessions (multiple books)
• Bookmarking
• Picture editing and enhancing
• Text annotation - pages and pictures
• Email
• WYSIWYG printing
• Create multiple album icons on your desktop
• Image Editor - acquire images using TWAIN, edit, capture.
• Image formats accepted: .gif, .tif, .bmp, .jpg, .pcx, .ico, .wmf, .pcd, .png, .psd, .wav, .mid, .avi.

There are so many features accessed by the multiple choices from the toolbar and menu selections that I suggest you print some of the pages from the extensive help available in FAL to assist you. Especially for the image editor module. On the Website of E-Book Systems you'll find some tips for using FAL. Be sure you download and print them.

Requirements

• Intel CPU 486-66Mhz minimum (Pentium recommended)
• Microsoft Windows 95, 98, NT 3.51 or higher
• 16 MB RAM minimum
• 3 MB of available hard-disk space
• 16 bit color display adaptor minimum

S'Mores Toolbar
Open the sample album which is installed with the program. It will show you all the features available. Try the various commands from the toolbar menu. You can bookmark either the right or left pages; change the music; add images; and much, much MORE. Each of the toolbar menus contains numerous submenus as well as commands. Following are screenshots first of the toolbar, then of each menu selection:

My First Album
I've purchased several Web Clip Art CDs which allows me to use them freely (royal-free) for creating Websites. When I search through the thousands of images and sets of themes, I copy "maybe-I'll-use-these" images to folders on my hard drive. Half the time I forget where I've put them, and if I DO manage to find the directory I think I'm looking for, it takes me forever to find the image I want. Now that I have FAL, I simply select File/Open and within seconds all the images in the folder/directory I selected to open is turned into an album which gives me an organized method to find the images, bookmark pages, and manipulate them in multiple ways.

Here's my latest folder which is in a directory called "WEBART." Remember that FAL uses the same name as the folder/directory. This assures all albums are easily identifiable. You can, of course, change the album name.

The Front Page of my Web Art Album

The Index of my Web Art Album

Overview Screenshot Showing Image Thumbnails

Screenshot Showing an Annotation Using Font of My Choice
Also Showing Bookmarks I've Set

Viewing Images In the Contents Section
(One Image Per Page)

Image Editor
But creating albums isn't the ONLY thing you can do using FAL. You can edit images, capture them, send any image via email from within the program using the built-in image editor. Again, the help option on the toolbar will walk you through all the features of this module. Save an image to another format, crop an image, add text to an image, and instantly view the results. The image editor is FULL-FEATURED! It even contains a Twain option for scanning.

Selection Bar
Can be on bottom of workspace or at the top

I've never seen an easier image editor. To create a new image from a section of a picture, simply block the part you want, copy to the clipboard, then paste it. If you'd like to capture it for pasting into another editor, that's easy, too.

Image Chosen for Image Editor
Easily Crop a Piece of This to Create a NEW Image!

Customizing
Don't like the background? Change it! Don't like the book cover? Change it! Use any BMP (bitmap) file or color selections to customize the background behind your album, and change the book cover, too. In this sample I used a pattern for both the background and the book cover. I could have picked solid colors for each or both.

My Customized WEBART FlipAlbum

Conclusion
There's no doubt you probably have already guessed the only conclusion possible for this "S'Mores" image management program. FlipAlbum is among the elite; it's a can't-do-without Windows utility; it's superb in every way - whether you need an image categorizer, an image viewer, an image editor, or a capture program. FAL has it all. If I were to give an award for the best software utility I've seen during the last six months, FAL would win by a landslide.

Registration is usually $49.95, but check HERE for discounts and special promotional offers. The last time I looked, there's a special price of $39.95 for a limited time only. If you prefer to try the program first, you can download the free trial demo.

Don't even try to live without this image management utility!   There is nothing better on the market.    I give FlipAlbum 3.0 five out of five Go Inside Review Lights!

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Copyright © 1999