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May 01, 2006
[ AMARA FLASH SLIDESHOW CREATOR ]
Price: US$30 (from www.amarasoftware.com)
Rating: 4.5
The low-down: The Amara Flash Slideshow Creator is a small application that takes the tedium out of creating slideshows to replay with the Adobe (Macromedia) Flash player, which most people already have installed linked to their web browser.
Creating a slideshow using Flash 8 is quite difficult and expensive. Amara reduces the process to its simplest form. Naturally a degree of creative user control is removed, but that won’t worry most people.
The steps in creating a slideshow are: prepare the pictures in the right size, resolution and degree of compression; drag and drop them into Amara Slideshow Creator; choose transitions (fade, zoom etc); select the type of show -- automated or controlled with navigation buttons or thumbnails; add sound (mp3 files) and generate the output file.
The created Flash file can be previewed in a web browser and, when all is as it should be, saved. (There is a demo version that neither previews nor saves, but it does give an idea of how the program works.)
HTML code is generated in the saving process and that can be copied to the clipboard and pasted into a web page file. The *.swf file is also stand alone and can be emailed and run in the Flash 8 player.
Like this: The sheer simplicity of Amara Slideshow Creator makes it a winner. And an immense amount of fun.
Dislike that: There is nothing to dislike in this software but it is easy to create a wish list for future development. Some of the parameter settings are obscure, using terms familiar to programmers but not to human beings. There are a couple of areas in which aesthetics can be improved. The developer is open to suggestions.
Parting shot: Menno Berndsen is the CEO and developer of Amara software. After ten years living in the Orient and a short time back home in Holland Menno has now settled in Australia. He came here on holiday, liked the climate, the European culture and the stuff in the supermarket and came back permanently! He does his software development with partners in Belgium and the Netherlands. His Amara Flash Slideshow creator is highly recommended.
[The Flash file for this sample is 315KB which will load slowly on a dial-up connection. The speed of slide change is also affected by the configuration of the computer on which it is displayed.]
[ AMARA can be purchased online and costs U$29.95 ]
Posted by terry at May 1, 2006 04:04 PM
Comments
Looks like some good software
Posted by: Matt at May 8, 2006 08:04 AM
I am trying to use the AMARA slideshow and having problems and no response from AMARA. I am desperate...would you be kind enough to help me figure it out? THANKS!
Posted by: Jenifer at April 30, 2008 07:23 PM
Jenifer: Can you be a little more specific about the problem you are having with Amara. I may be able to help, but it is two years since I last had any contact with Menno Berndsen. TL
Posted by: Terry at May 1, 2008 12:21 AM