Add-ins
FlashClips
reviewed by Geetesh
Bajaj, November 19, 2003
Introduction
About Creative Minds
Download and Installation
Using FlashClips
Pricing and Support
What's in the Future?
Conclusion
Introduction
There are many of you who have struggled trying to insert a Flash
SWF animation into a PowerPoint slide. Thankfully, many new products
that function as PowerPoint add-ins allow you to achieve this task
with one-click simplicity. One of these add-ins is called FlashClips.
FlashClips adds a new Insert menu option within PowerPoint
that allows you to add any Flash SWF animation into any PowerPoint
slide. In case you have no Flash clips of your own, the add-in
itself comes packaged with 84 Flash animations.
All put together, this is a simple concept put across in a refreshing,
yet easy to use style. Let's work with FlashClips and see what
it offers.
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About Creative Minds
FlashClips is from Creative Minds, Inc., a company based in Acworth,
Georgia, United States. Headed by Jennifer Rotondo, Creative Minds
offers several other products from their site including PowerPoint
templates, music and sound clips, the RunIt! program as well as
an array of other presentation related content.
In the past, I have reviewed Jennifer's excellent CBT on PowerPoint
called Slides That Win!, which
she co-created with Claudyne Wilder of Wilder Presentations.
For this review, I coordinated entirely with Jennifer and I wish
to thank her for all her assistance. Meanwhile, if you want to
know more about her other products, or would like to view some
samples that are included with FlashClips, do visit the Creative
Minds website:
Creative
Minds, Inc.
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Download and Installation
After you buy the product, you are provided with a download URL
and a license key.
Installation is a quick affair and the add-in automatically shows
up in PowerPoint 97 and 2000. However, if you use PowerPoint 2002
or 2003, you'll find that the add-in will refuse to show up within
PowerPoint's Insert menu. That's because Microsoft increased the
default security levels in newer versions of PowerPoint. To enable
the add-in in PowerPoint 2002 or 2003:
- Choose Tools | Macros | Security.
- Choose the Medium security level. Click OK.
- Now choose Tools | Add-Ins | Add New
- Browse to C:\Program Files\FlashClips\Movies\Add-ins (or wherever
you installed FlashClips).
- Select "FlashClips1_0.ppa" for PowerPoint 2000, 2002
or 2003 or "FlashClips1_0_PP97.ppa" for PowerPoint
97.
- Enable Macros when prompted.
- Close Add-Ins window.
- Choose Tools | Macros | Security again and set your security
level back to High (or whatever level you want).
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Using FlashClips
Using FlashClips is very easy indeed. Activate FlashClips using
the Insert | FlashClip | Movie option. The resulting dialog box
lets you import your own Flash animations using the Import button.
In addition, FlashClips includes 84 readymade Flash animations
in seven categories.
Any of these readymade clips can be selected using their previews
- then just click the 'OK' button to insert them on the active
PowerPoint slide.
You also have options to embed and loop the inserted Flash content.
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Pricing and Support
FlashClips is priced at US$149.99, which is somewhat expensive.
That's my only grouse - it should have been priced at a more realistic
level - how many add-ins would you find that do something so basic
and yet cost more than half the cost of PowerPoint itself? Having
said that, I like the quality of Flash content included with the
product and you might be able to justify the price to some extent
if you use the animations often.
I asked Jennifer about the pricing and here is her response:
We did a survey as to what people would pay for a product such
as FlashClips and this was the average. Many people spend ridiculous
amounts of time and money creating their own Flash movies in
vein. In the end, the product does more than just one thing...not
only does it allow you to insert your Flash movies, it also gets
rid of all the headaches associated with importing Flash into
PowerPoint. This is the missing link between the two applications
that so many people have been searching for since this process
was discovered!
Thank you, Jennifer
Support is through email and phone.
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What's in the Future?
I asked Jennifer about what prompted her to introduce a product
like FlashClips and also what future directions she foresees for
this product.
"Everything we do is based upon client inquires/needs...when
there is a need, we try to fill it. We don't anticipate what we
think will be important, we listen and create what is important
to our clients!
"We will be creating additional collections of animations
as well as additional FlashClips software. Our next is FlashClips
Text."
Thank you, Jennifer
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Conclusion
FlashClips does just one task - but it does it well. It succeeds
in hiding the complicated routines of inserting Flash content within
PowerPoint from all of us. It also includes options to embed and
loop inserted Flash content and automatically rewinds the animations
without requiring additional programming from you, the user.
In addition, the quality of animations included is first-rate.
In the end, a lot depends upon whether you would be interested
in spending US$149.99.
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