Flypaper 2.0 Improves Flash Content Creator

Scott Blitstein — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:54:15 +0000

Back in November I was quite impressed with Flypaper, a Windows application that lets you create, manage and reuse Flash content. With version 2.0 the Flypaper team brings many enhancements to an already-strong product.

The interface isn’t radically different but there are usability tweaks. It’s now easier to add content to many pages automatically and navigation between items is now much easier.

The real enhancements to this version, though, focus on collaboration. There is now built in real-time capability to mark up and make notes about any element of a project. By integrating this functionality right in to the application, it makes it really easy to share mock-ups and comps and gather feedback on works in progress, especially for larger teams.

In addition, companies can now create a repository for storage and so provide centralized accesss to content and projects.

Flypaper is still a great way to create Flash content for your projects and your clients, but with this version, it does make the jump towards being more of an enterprise-level product, and the pricing represents it. It is still a great option for those looking for a powerful way to create rich media content and these enhancements make it a great option for large distributed design firms or companies who outsource their Flash development.

Individual seat licenses start at $795 annually, with the enterprise platform starting at $9,995

Flypaper is still available for Windows only and a free trial is available.

Have you tried Flypaper? Do these Flypaper improvements make it a more compelling option for your rich media creation needs?

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Create and Share Flash Based Content With Flypaper

Scott Blitstein — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:18:57 +0000

Using Flash based content for your sales, marketing or training can be an effective and impressive way to present your message. It can also be expensive. When the content you created last month needs tweaking, it’s back to the developer to program your changes.

Flypaper wants to change that by providing tools that allow the general business user the ability to create and share rich content without the need for programming.

Flypaper is a Windows based application that makes creating Flash Content possible without the typical time and expense of hiring a developer.

Using just about any media content, you can create Flypaper Stories that aren’t just presentational, they can even be interactive and gather form data from your viewer.

Some examples on their site include everything from interactive sales presentations and brochures to portfolios and even fun things like a collection of Top 10 Monty Python Sketches.

Where Flypaper really pays off is that it is super easy to edit and reuse your stories. Make changes and revisions quickly so you can customize your content for a particular event or audience.

The creation process is very visual, sort of a cross between creating PowerPoint or Keynote slides and video editing. There is no code and no programming, but I would describe it as being very object oriented.

Everything that you create or add to a story has properties that define its appearance and behavior. If you create a page, you set the properties of that page. Add a button to the page and the interface changes to allow you to set the properties of that button. It is a very logical building block sort of approach and it works very well.

Creating branches in your stories to allow for user choice is really simple and a Story Map shows you how your pages fit together.

The Flybrary tool allows you to not only create libraries of your photos and other assets but it contains a bunch of sample templates and components that you can use in your own stories. It is also web enabled so you can search Flickr and other photo sites directly from Flypaper and drag and drop the content right in. (Be sure to check usage licenses on photos and other items found on the web)

When your story is created you can post it on the Flypaper.net or your own personal hosting site, or export to various formats including movies, executables or even SCORM e-learning courses. The Dashboard lets you view statistics on your stories, know what was viewed down to the page level.

I found Flypaper to be relatively easy to use, and the drag and drop functionality sure makes the process pretty simple. It will still take some time to create a fully featured professional looking presentation though. And there is still no shortcut for writing good copy and preparing compelling content.

Flyaper is a Windows only app but it should run well in Parallels or similar on the Mac.

A 30-day trial is available, after which the app and access to your flypaper.net account will normally run you $249, although there is special offer in place now for $195.

Would Flypaper make it easier for you to use Flash Content in your marketing?

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Flypaper 2.0 Improves Flash Content Creator

Create and Share Flash Based Content With Flypaper