In past issues of this newsletter, we've covered tools for building Flash presentations that are not from the creator of the Flash format, Macromedia. I have just received a new Flash creation tool that lives up to its name: In-A-Flash Pro from NETGUI.

In-A-Flash Pro is a timeline-based Flash construction system that require no knowledge of Flash or even programming. It relies on a wizard and a drag and drop model that really does make building banners and simple animated content pretty easy.

By default, In-A-Flash Pro starts by offering you a wizard that helps you select a project type (banner, greeting card, photo album, Web site intro), a project style (the options depend on which type you selected), options such as text or images again depending on project type, and then the option to immediately publish the presentation.

Publishing has its own options and allows local publishing that generates the SWF (Shockwave) file and associated HTML file for browser display on your hard disk or publishing via NETGUI. This latter facility hosts the Flash content on the publisher's servers so that they can be viewed by anyone.

If you choose not to publish, you can exit the wizard and go into editing mode. I have to say that the product's look is ugly which, while it isn't a deal breaker, is not a great selling point.

The timeline presentation is very simple which is a big plus compared to the complex timeline view offered by Flash tools from Macromedia and other publishers. The timeline is divided into scenes and for each scene you can add text, graphics, and background audio. You can copy and delete scenes and any of their components.

You can specify where text and objects start and end their movement, what effects are to be applied to them as they move and when clicked on, what other scene in the movie or what URL should the default browser be sent to.

The product comes with a library of images and Flash movies that can be used in In-A-Flash Pro projects. Here lies my biggest complaint: The provided graphics are awful. They are almost exclusively cartoonish in style and appear to have been created by someone with little or no artistic sense. This is a shame as it severely undersells the real value of the product.

All in all, In-A-Flash Pro is a solid product that is excellent for creating simple Flash content. Indeed, when time is short, In-A-Flash is extremely effective solution for quick ads and supporting graphics - just don't try to be too fancy.

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