Flip PowerPoint Professional: The Indezine Review

Introduction

So much hard work goes into creating presentation slides in PowerPoint -- that's the reason why many users want to repurpose their PowerPoint content to make elearning content, online presentations, screen savers and even ebooks. And our review product today goes a step further and lets you create page-flipping ebooks.

Flip PowerPoint Professional opens your existing PowerPoint slides, and then provides you extra elements to design consulting quality documents. Behind the scenes, your PowerPoint presentations are converted into Flash based publications, with page-flipping animation and sound. Additionally you can customize your own themes and add objects such as MP4 and FLV movie clips, YouTube videos, MP3 music audios, hyperlinks, email addresses, internal page links, image slide shows and more.

Finally, publish your presentation online and share your page-flipping ebooks.

Flip PowerPoint Professional is from Wonder Idea Technology Limited, a company based in Hong Kong. You can learn more about the Flip PowerPoint Professional from their site. My contact at Flip PowerPoint Professional for this review was Lailie Tan -- thank you, Lailie.

Back

Flip PowerPoint Professional

Download the installer from the link given above, and run the setup routine. Even if you do not download and install Flip PowerPoint Professional, you can follow this walkthrough to understand this product better:

1. Launch the application to bring up the Flip PowerPoint Professional splash screen. Here click the Create New button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1.
   
   
   Figure 1: Flip PowerPoint Professional splash screen
   
   
2. This brings up Flip PowerPoint Professional dialog box, as shown in Figure 2. Here you can choose from various templates and themes, you can also choose from Online Templates tab (highlighted in red within Figure 2) to get more choices. Also, provide a name to your file and set location to save the file in the section highlighted in blue within Figure 2. When done click the Next button.
   
   
   Figure 2: Choose your templates and themes
   
   
3. This opens the Import PowerPoint dialog box, as shown in Figure 3. Here you can import your PowerPoint presentation which you want to use as the source for your flipping ebook. Also, set the page range for importing, select the file mode, and set the quality and size of the pages. When done, click the Import Now button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3.
   
   
   Figure 3: Import PowerPoint dialog box
   
   
4. This opens the Flip PowerPoint Professional interface with the imported presentation, as shown in Figure 4.
   
   
   Figure 4: Flip PowerPoint Professional interface
   
   The Flip PowerPoint Professional interface options are explained below, as marked in Figure 4.
   
   
   1. File Menu: Here you'll find options to save and import the project.
      
      
   2. Toolbar: Within this toolbar, you'll find buttons for Import PowerPoint, Edit Page, Apply Changes, Convert to Flipping Book, Upload Online, Manage Online Books, and BookCase.
      
      
   3. Pane: This pane has four tabs: Design Setting, Bookmark, Scenes, Assistant. With the help of these tabs, you can add bookmarks, scenes, and also add an assistant to the flipped ebook.
      
      
   4. Preview Area: Here you can preview the changes made.
      
      
5. Click the Edit Page button (highlighted in red within Figure 4, above) within the Toolbar to bring up the Flip Page Editor, as shown in Figure 5. Here you can embed Flash clips, pictures, movies, YouTube clips, audio, links, etc. Once done, click the Save and Exit button, highlighted in red within Figure 5.
   
   
   Figure 5: Flip Page Editor
   
   
6. This will take you back to Flip PowerPoint Professional interface -- if you are satisfied with all the changes made, click the Convert to Flipping Book button highlighted in blue within Figure 4 (shown previously on this page).
   
   
7. This brings up the Output Option dialog box, as shown in Figure 6. Here you can choose from various output options such as HTML format or you can also distribute your publications using Email, CD/DVD or Flash-drivers in ZIP, Mac App, Mobile (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and even Android-powered devices) or EXE format. When done click the Convert button, highlighted in red within Figure 6.
   
   
   Figure 6: Output Option dialog box
   
   
8. Make sure you save your project often.

Back

Pricing and Support

Flip PowerPoint Professional costs $299.00.

Support is through e-mail.

Back

Conclusion

For what it does achieve, Flip PowerPoint Professional is an investment that may work for you. We did find several quirks in the product -- for one, the hyperlinks in our flipped ebooks did not work all the time. Also at $299, you better be sure that this is a product that you need. But if this product does work for you, then that's great -- also we haven't found another product that offers the same abilities.