Editor's
note: Simple Star has announced the availability
of PhotoShow 2.1 which now also allows the creation
of a Video CD (VCD) for playback on your TV through
a DVD player (PC only). Note that we have not
evaluated this new feature, so try before you
buy. Also, not all features are available
on the VCD and you need to make sure your DVD
is compatible (read the PhotoShow
Video CD FAQ). Contact Simple
Star PhotoShow Support directly for upgrade
info and any other support related questions.
November
19, 2002
So
you have taken the fateful step and bought yourself
a digital camera. You have taken your first pictures
and want to show them off. Congrats! What is the
best way to do so?
You
may post them to a web site and invite your family
and friends to log on and browse. Or, you may
wish to burn a CD. This Holidays Season, instead
of sending a card, why not send a CD of your favorite
pictures to family and friends? And I have the
perfect software that will help you make that
CD in a jiffy.
I
recently downloaded Photoshow 2.0 from Simple
Star for a seven-day evaluation and was bowled
over by how easy and intuitive it was to use.
As its name suggests, Photoshow 2.0 is a photo
slide show creator, i.e. it allows you to take
your favorite photos and create an automated slide
show. It is extremely easy and intuitive to use
and you're all over and done with a quality slide
show all in a matter of minutes. It's all done
with drag-and-drop, and click-to-select editing
and publishing. You can add transitions effects,
music, clip art, and text captions -- all with
a simple click of the mouse. When I say "simple,"
I mean real down-to-earth simple.
You
start by first adding pictures to a slide show.
You may add pictures one at a time, add multiple
pictures at a time, or add a folder of pictures.
You order the sequence of the pictures around
using drag and drop. You can edit each picture
for brightness, rotate it, crop it, add text,
add transition effects, even add a soundtrack
(downloaded from mp3.com). Add clipart (even animated
ones) and captions, too. You can also specify
the speed of the slide show.
Once
you have created your slide show, you have a number
of publishing options. You can upload it to photoshow.net
(advertised as free, but I did not try this),
create an XML file for your web site, burn a CD,
create an executable file, or create a screen
saver. I chose to create a CD, and in a matter
of minutes, I had a CD that played my slide show
with accompanying music. If you are a professional
photographer, imagine showing your portfolio of,
let's say wedding, pictures to potential customers
this way. It was really cool. Like I said, earlier
on, forget the card, send a CD this year.
I
also tried the "Publish to HTML" and
this creates an index.html file that runs your
slide show. Real easy.
No
evaluation is complete without a rundown of what
could be improved and I have a couple of suggestions
for Simple Star to make Photoshow 2.0 even better:
•
Ability
to add own sound captions, i.e. through a
microphone. It would be great to be able to
tell grandpa what this picture of his grandson
is all about.
•
An
Undo/Reset feature for the brigtness function.
Truth is I messed up and would like a second
chance.
•
When
I tried the "Publish to HTML" it
required download of some extra software that
took quite a while. I hope these extra files
are included in the CD version of Photoshow
2.0.
•
It
would be nice to have controls on the published
slide show, i.e. previous, next, pause and
stop buttons.
These
suggestions in no way detract from the quality
of the product. I like Photoshow 2.0 because it
is easy to install, easy and intuitive to use,
and very very simple to create your own photo
slide show using its drag-and-drop, click-to-publish,
anyone-can-do-it, fun-to-use interface.
PhotoShow
2.0 is available for the PC or Mac from Simple
Star.
Editor's
Note: PhotoShow is not related to Photoxels
in any way (even though the two names do sound
related). PhotoShow is a software product from
Simple
Star. We evaluated this software and liked
it. If you do decide to purchase it after having
tried it, do remember that any support question
you might have should be addressed to the vendor's
support: Simple
Star PhotoShow Support (read the PhotoShow
FAQ). That does not mean you cannot drop us
a line to let us know how you liked the product,
and how good Simple Star's support is. Thank you!
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