Wondershare Flash Gallery Factory

Introduction
About Flash Gallery Factory
Download and Installation
Using Flash Gallery Factory
Pricing and Support
Conclusion

Introduction

Flash Gallery Factory creates quick Flash-based photo galleries and slide shows from your pictures, and it's easy enough to use even if you haven't used a similar program before. The program also makes it easy for you to share your output on websites, blogs, MySpace, etc.

About Flash Gallery Factory

Flash Gallery Factory is from Wondershare, a company based in Guangdong, China that creates custom programs for the enterprise market. Ourpix is their foray into the photos and movies market. Learn more about their products and download a free trial version of Flash Gallery Factory from their site.

My contact at Wondershare for this review was Jane. Thank you, Jane.

Download and Installation

Download the installer, run the setup routine, and follow the instructions. You'll end up with a Wondershare program group in your Windows Start menu, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Wondershare Start menu Group

Using Flash Gallery Factory

When the application is launched, it presents the splash screen, as shown in Figure 2, below. Here, you need to choose one of two modes to work in: the Gallery Mode and the Slideshow Mode.

Figure 2: Splash screen

1. Gallery Mode provides you with in-built templates that get you started with just a few clicks and choices. For more control and tweaking, you'll want to choose Slideshow mode.
2. Slideshow Mode enables you to create slide shows with more customization options. You can still access the built-in templates like in Gallery mode, but here you can also customize these templates, and save any changes to a new template. Different transitions and motion effects can be applied to individual pictures. You can also add animated text, still and animated clip arts, animations, and sounds.

For this tutorial, we'll explore Slideshow mode. Follow these steps to get started:

1. Launch the application and choose Slideshow mode from the splash screen, as shown in Figure 2, above.
2. Doing so opens the Flash Gallery Factory. The Slideshow mode interface is shown in Figure 3, further below. Notice the five tabs on the top:
3. Browse, Template, Effect, Decorate, Publish
4. With the Browse tab active, browse to a folder on your system, as shown in Figure 3, below.
5. 
   Figure 3: Slideshow Mode interface
3. Choose the pictures you want to be added, and click on the Add Photo button, as shown in Figure 3, above. Add pictures from more folders, if required and similarly add music.
4. Now, switch to the Template tab, as shown in Figure 4, below. Here, you can choose any of the available templates in the Simple, Theme, and Custom sub-tabs.
5. 
   Figure 4: Template tab
5. Thereafter, select the Effect tab, as shown in Figure 5, below. Here, you can choose transitions and motion effects.
6. 
   Figure 5: Effect tab
6. The next tab is Decorate, as shown in Figure 6, below. This tab allows you to add decorative elements such as text, animated and still clip art, and animations to your slide show.
7. 
   Figure 6: Decorate tab
7. When done, go to the Publish tab, as shown in Figure 7, below. Preview the slideshow one last time, and then go ahead, and publish it using the any of the publish settings available.
8. 
   Figure 7: Publish tab
9. Publish options are explained below:

SWF: Creates an Adobe Flash SWF.
Web/HTML: Creates an Adobe Flash SWF with the HTML container.
EXE: Creates an executable file that will work on Microsoft Windows systems.
E-mail: Sends converted Flash output as an email attachment.
Screen Saver: Creates a screen saver.

Pricing and Support

Flash Gallery Factory costs $49.95 for a single-user license and is available as a multiple-user license product as well.

Support is through email, online FAQ, phone, and user forums.

Conclusion

If you want to create quick Flash slide shows that you can share and distribute, then Flash Gallery Factory is a great way to get started.