Rangefinder Magazine
August 2005

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First Exposure by RON EGGERS
Easy Electronic Presentations With Flip Album 6

ALL TOO OFTEN, when people think of computer presentations, they think of Microsoft Powerpoint. While Powerpoint works well enough for text and graphic presentations, it’s not really the best choice for presenting photographs. But there are programs out there that make it simple to produce very sophisticated computer-based photo presentations.

One that is particularly well suited to professional photographers specializing in weddings and portraiture is E-Book System’s FlipAlbum 6.0 Pro. Rather than presenting the content in individual computer screens, as PowerPoint and other slide show programs do, FlipAlbum output mimics more traditional photo albums, which might include wedding, portrait and school themes.

The program is easy to load. There were no problems during installation. Creating generic albums is easy. The QuickStart Wizard takes you through the process, step by step. There really are only three steps: opening the folder that contains the images that are going to be included, determining whether you want the individual images contained within one FlipAlbum page or across two of the album pages as a double-truck, and selecting the template that’s going to be used as the album cover and pages. It’s really that simple.

It would be nice if the QuickStart Wizard had a few more options to it, so that text sizes, fonts and other graphic elements could be specified before the album is created, but that’s not a major limitation.
It is possible to customize the album from there. Text annotations, multimedia files and graphics can be added using the Insert Annotation and Insert Multi-Media Object options in the Edit drop-down menu.

Additional images can be added, and, with the Image Editing module, edited and optimized. Creative effects, such as drop shadows and beveled edges, can be added to design elements to increase their visual impact.

A couple of little added features would make the graphic elements look better and the pages be more sophisticated. For one thing, it should be easy to add hairline rules and borders to text bounding boxes and images. For another, some more sophisticated templates would be nice.

Images can be optimized and modified directly within FlipAlbum. The Image Editing module has a range of features. It can handle most of the routine image optimization tasks that might be required, but it’s really not intended as a substitute for a program such as Adobe Photoshop.

Theoretically, it’s possible to do all the image prep work within the image editing module of FlipAlbum. Changes made to the images on the page are saved back to the original source images, so it’s important not to work with the original image files. To get the most out of the program, it’s best to create a separate folder, optimize, rotate and crop any sources images, add any hairlines or rules to them, and save them in that folder. That way the program can compile the optimized images into a FlipAlbum.

For text, it’s possible to specify font types and sizes, as well as text and bounding-box fill colors. Type sizes and fonts can be modified interactively. It’s also possible to add audio files, such as MP3 music, which can really enhance a presentation.

The pages themselves can also be modified. That’s done through the Page Properties option in the Edit menu. Options there include using the default background for the template involved, changing the color or adding a texture. Textures can be graphic patterns or images. If images are selected, they become full-bleed photos that the other elements sit on top of. Once all the elements have been placed on individual pages, page orders can be changed as needed.

While the program has a lot of power, it takes some getting used to. It doesn’t always seem to respond as it should. It’s sometimes a problem, for example, to highlight an object to change size or position.

Completed books can be viewed as they’re being created, directly within the program, or run as slide shows. They can also be compiled into executable programs. That way, anybody can view them or navigate within them. Recipients don’t have to have the FlipAlbum program installed, as with packages such as Powerpoint, to be able to view presentations. FlipAlbums run independently of the program.

Once created, navigating through FlipAlbums is easy. There are thumbnails in the front of the publication for all the images on the individual pages. Clicking on one of the thumbnails brings up an enlarged version of the page. There’s also a table of contents at the front, which makes it possible to jump to the specific pages.

It’s possible to leaf through the electronic publication, front to back, back to front, or any order you want, just as you would with a real book. There’s also an alphabetical index at the back of the book that can be used to jump to the desired image, selected by title.

The images incorporated in FlipAlbums can be protected. Completed albums can be encrypted so that the images can’t be used as source files for printing. That makes it possible for photographers to distribute CD presentations, and not have to worry about having copyrighted images misused.

FlipAlbum 6 Pro has a suggested retail price of $159.95, which includes a selection of templates. There are separate design libraries available at $99 per set. Each set contains a large selection of album themes and design styles. FlipAlbum is an interesting program. It has some limitations, but most of those limitations can readily be worked around.

Ron Eggers is a Senior Editor with Newswatch Feature Service.