BannerZest Pro version 1.1.2 - Hassle free Banner Animation
software
Reviewed by Robert Pritchett
Introduction
Enliven your website or blogs in
seconds and at low cost with BannerZest. It's the fastest and easiest way to
add punch and movement to your still images online, and get the
professional-looking slideshows.
BannerZest talks to all the leading
website and blog editors. So whether you are using Apple iWeb, RapidWeaver,
Dreamweaver, Freeway or any other tool, BannerZest allows you to get your
banners online easily. Uploading work via FTP or to your .Mac account is fully
supported from within BannerZest. To integrate a banner on a page you simply
paste a code snippet that BannerZest has automatically prepared for you.
Nothing could be easier.
My Experience
We can Flash without needing Flash, but I have it. Maybe you
don't.
I downloaded and installed the version prior to the one
listed above and it took a little getting used to figure out how to intuitively
use this banner-animation app, but I finally figured it out and have it running
happily on two site – http://www.maccompanionc.com and http://www.synergycentre.net,
both of which are Dreamweaver sites. I haven't tried it on the PESWiki.com site
yet, because it is based on the same technology as Wikipedia.com and we are in
the middle of switching platforms and upgrading the server software for that
site. One thing at a time.
I can only guess that the software developers at Aquafadas
would be willing to do a version for wikis, because they did it for Web 2.0
sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
The Pro version does everything the Standard version does
for about $80 more - http://www.aquafadas.com/en/bannerzest/standardvspro.php.
What that entails is media browsing, integration with Aperture and Adobe
Lightroom, attaching the URL to media (which I had to back off because of
website performance being less than steller), custom JavaScripting for
click-handling, integrating media viewers, loader optimization, Pro themes,
access to the SDK and Developer resources and a little Email support.
The Quick Start Tutorial will give you just about everything
you need to get up and going - and the "How to" is the part I didn' thave when I started , so it is
now a very welcome addition to their site. They show it was there back in February and I guess I just didn't notice.
All I had to do was corral a bunch of pictures, set them in
order, figure out which process for presentation I wanted to use and upload to
the home pages of the websites. There were a few other site-specific files
involved that had to be tweaked, but I go through it and you can see the
results. Have any sales increased ramped up as a result? N Not that I know
of. Has traffic improved? Not if the majority of readers are still using phone
modems or using mobile connectivity to surf (as in Vince Serf, bet it?) the
Internet. We tend to get spoiled when we are accustomed to fat pipes and figure
everybody else is up-to-speed. Not so.
What changed with the update? Things that affect the rating,
so now I can give it a wholehearted 5 out of 5 macCs. Those updates resolved
FTP publishing issues, hyperlinking (my bugaboo), book theming (which I
started with and then changed to other themes in both sites) and server
authentication security support for .htaccess.
Greg Healy did a pretty good review (pictures and
everything) over at MacApper. I do, however have to agree with Karl Hodge over at MacWorld
UK that BannerZest Pro is much more than just a cheap Flash 3D act-a-like. It
really is a web-based slideshow presenter.
Spring 2008 is almost Summer 2008 and I have not seen the
Programmer's SDK for Themes yet. Maybe they are waiting to release during WWDC.
I'm on the announcement list…
Conclusion
If you run websites and think a little pizzaziness and
snazziness are worth pursuing, you might as well get a copy of BannerZest Pro
and "GetR Dun"! This is just another great tool for those who use
Macs to get their work done professionally and in a timely manner. It could
very well be a "killer app " for all those webmasters who are hobbled
to PC-based websites in getting them to move to Macs.
