FlipBook Maker

Hi everybody!
I think that everyone owning more than few photos, is continuously tempting new and different ways of ordering, exposing and collecting the best shots. But even if is real fun composing a photo-book, printing a poster, or building a kind of slideshow, or a DVD, this solutions, can easily be bulky and difficult to manage for showing to distant people. So the solution is clearly seen: put your images online and let your friends see them from wherever they are. Right. But then the questions start: which kind of gallery? Thumbnails? Sliding? A slideshow into a virtual frame? 3D objects? Just 2D? And why not a virtual book with turning pages? The last kind of effect can be familiar and intriguing at the same time. But coding this effect from scratch, and achieving a good result can be a match for more than one, and time consuming. Are there some plug-ins or programs that can help us? Yes!
One of this is the Ncesoft Flip Book Maker: a small software handy and easy to use that can give you the chance of building your virtual photo-books immediately, without coding a single line.
A simple three steps process let you realize that.
The First Step is choosing and adding the pictures you like. Worth to note that you can import some of the most common raster format (like PNG, JPG and BMP), and even SWF, FLV files and PDF.

First Step  - Add Files: press the big green button in the center of the work area and start selecting your media files.

In this same stage you can add an MP3 files to your project.
You can even set an URL for each image you have chosen, linking in this way the pages of your photo-book to other sites or resources.

First Step  - Image Properties: select an image and press the properties button.

First Step - Image Properties: a new screen opens and here you can set an external URL for each page, or the same URL for all the pages.

Now you are ready for the Second Step. This is the stage where you create the actual shape of the photo-book. Numerous style presets are the starting point for your creation, then you can customize lots of characteristics like the background, which buttons will be visible, if the pages are rigid or soft, the navigation bars, just to say some.
There is even the Effects tab, where you can add an overall effect to the book, like snowflakes or bubbles,  that will appear over the pages while you flip them.

Second Step - Styles: chose a preset and instantly, on the right side of the work area you will see a preview of your book.

Second Step - Styles: pressing the Customize button a new set of options appears, and you can modify the project in many ways to reach the best result that suits your ideas .

In this step you can chose the type of buttons for the Navigation Bars, or the effects for the book. What is not clear is if you can add new types of buttons or effects designed and animated in flash.
And now it is time for the Third and final Step: publishing your creation.
This is the easiest of the three: just chose the kind of file you need and the Ncesoft Flip Book Maker will take care of the process. The most interesting feature, here, is that you can release your work in different ways as: SWF, EXE, HTML, SCREEN SAVER or SEND BY MAIL (for this last one you need a valid profile active in your Mail software). Chose your final Output, set the Output Directory and press OK. That’s all! You can collect your finished work and start using it.

Third Step - Publish: on the left side of the work area you can select the kind of output files you need. Press the appropriate button and then set the output directory and file name in the request window that will pop-up. Press Ok and you have done.

Note: the small button, high on the right side, you see in this picture, is always available, and opens the settings window where you can set the Output size and the Play and Loop options.

This was just a quick introduction to a small software that can save you a lot of time if you need a flipbook presentation, giving you good results in a very short time.
Hope could be useful!