Sarasota PC Monitor
Photo.web, Deluxe 4.0
A Software Review
by Robert Lewis
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.With all of the interest in digital imaging, digital cameras, photo organization software, scanning photos and slides for manipulation and editing, it is no wonder that Boomerang Software came up with a Photo Album program to put your photos on a Website so you could share your photos with the world. Email is great, it keeps you in contact with family and friends, but it is easier to write and not bother to send along the latest family pictures. Sharing the photographs with families who may live thousands of miles apart can be done instantly using Photo.web, if they have a computer and access to the Web.
With Photo.Web you can store your developed photos, and also transfer pictures to Photo.Web from a scanner, floppy disk, digital cameras, the Web or even your VCR. It sounds complicated, but it is easy to get started and get your Website operating. Computer requirements are minimal with a 200 MHz processor, Windows 95 or better,16MB of RAM and 150MB of free disk space. Installation is simple: insert the DC and all the work is done for you.
I am not the intuitive type. I kept the well written manual by my side, reading as I went along to learn about the software. The Website Photo Album is set up with a Home Page and one level down are your Photo Albums. These Web pages are considered children to the home page.
Getting started was made easier using the Wizard. The wizard is a five step process. The first step was selecting the album, or albums that you want. The wizard list provides 13 titles, included Family, Friends and Vacation, typical album subjects. Album style selection was the second step. They have 30 different albums styles, with horizontal picture frames, vertical picture frames and plain pages. There are four page turning selections. I liked the standard page turning because you it only advanced one picture at a time. You could see the previous picture, which gives continuity in looking at the album. The smooth rolls the pages, mosaic dissolves the pages and cool makes 3-D images. The fit to edges check box will fill the album space, but I discovered it distorts the pictures. I had to go back and uncheck that option.
Choosing the pictures in the Photos Dialog Box was fun, once I found where I had stashed my pictures. The top section of the dialog box lists the files and folders that you can select. To the right is an image preview area. Click on the file and the picture is previewed. I found this feature important in the selection and organizational process. Next came the naming of the Web page and putting a titling the album covers. Reviewing them was neat as each page of the album turned over beautifully.
Boomerang Software, upon registration of Photo.web, provides 2MB of storage space. I did not upload my album to a server as the reviewer does not register the product until the review is complete. Boomerang estimates that it takes 5MB of storage for 50 photos. That means you only get free storage for about 20 photos. Less than one roll of conventional film, not much space. If your album is more than 20 pictures in size, you will need to arrange for additional space, Boomerang will do this for you, naturally for a fee. They manage www.PhotoRing.com for their customers.
Other Album creation options are the Templates, using system templates and Blank, allowing the creation of a site with no predefined features. Text can be added to your photos when using the templates.
I found the program reasonable to use for someone who does not venture much beyond using the normal word processor and spread sheets. Personally, I would just like to have the photo album on my computer to organize and view my photos in an album format. Photo.web is created by Boomerang Software, Inc, 90 Concord Avenue, Belmont, MA 02478, phone 617-489-3000. :
Copyright 2002. This article is from the January 2002 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,300+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.