Welcome to PowerAlbum, an innovative way to organize, categorize, group, document and use clip art, photos, sounds, videos and other OLE 2.0 files. It is also possible to select pictures for any Windows program that can read a graphic file from the clipboard. PowerAlbum makes it easy to locate and select files because you can:
* See reduced images (called thumbnails) of the objects instead of a list of file names
* Organize your files into subject categories any way you please, even across drives and directories
* Search for text, pictures, sounds, and video clips by file name, file type, description or key word
PowerAlbum looks and feels like an on-line photo album. An album contains reduced thumbnail images of your object files. They are grouped into subject categories separated by tabs, as pictures in a real photo album often are. You can flip through the pages of an album or jump directly to another category.
PowerAlbum now goes beyond the photo album metaphor and allows you to view pictures or objects in FilmStrip mode. This option adds another dimension to the organizational features while saving valuable screen real estate. Once you find a picture you want to use in a document, copy it to the clipboard. Then minimize or close PowerAlbum, activate the application that contains your document, find the location where you want the picture to appear, and paste it into place. As an alternative you can use PowerAlbum's powerful Drag and Drop capabilities to move objects between OLE 2.0 capable applications. Another way to view pictures is via the slide show. In fact, the slide show can be used as a screen saver to display your personal collection of images with sounds. Photo Library provides you with one pre-made album. You can combine albums, make your own albums and add new images, documents, spreadsheets and more. This combination of features makes PowerAlbum a very comprehensive organizing tool.
Table of Contents
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1. Installation.
2. New and Improved Features.
3. Tips for Using and Building Albums.
4. Information for Calendar Creator Users.
5. Information for PowerAlbum 1.x and 2.x Users.
6. Picture Export Restrictions.
7. Video Import and Playing Problems.
8. Copyright Information
1. Installation.
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PowerAlbum may be installed on Windows 95, Windows NT or
Windows 3.1. If you are running in Windows 3.1, PowerAlbum
will install the Win32s DLLs and the Microsoft Video for
Windows drivers onto your system.
2. New and Improved Features.
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This release contains a substantial amount of new functionality.
a. RESIZABLE BOOK.
PowerAlbum's Book view window is completely resizable. You
decide how much or how little to display on the screen.
b. FILMSTRIP.
A completely new User Interface designed to provide all
the functionality of PowerAlbum while using very little
screen space. You can decide how large or small the
Filmstrip will display and whether to display it in
vertical or horizontal orientation. This new view is
very powerful for Drag and Drop usage. You can toggle
between Filmstrip and Book views.
c. ALWAYS ON TOP.
You can select the Always on Top option to make the
albums easily accessible for Drag and Drop with other
applications.
d. DRAG AND DROP.
PowerAlbum now has full Drag and Drop functionality with
all OLE 2.0 applications. This simplifies the usage of
all your organized files.
e. VARIABLE THUMBNAIL SIZES.
You can choose to display the thumbnails in five different
sizes - tiny, small, medium, large and huge. You can have
different thumbnail sizes in the Book and Filmstrip views.
f. FRAMES.
Multiple objects, or files, may be placed in a frame. The
Frame feature makes grouping and cross-referencing files
very simple.
g. EXPANDED FILE FORMAT SUPPORT.
PowerAlbum now supports all file types. You can organize
everything from pictures to videos to spreadsheets. Any
file type can be organized and documented.
h. EXPANDED OBJECT DEFINITION.
Every object, or file, orgainized in PowerAlbum has four
properties: filename, name, keywords and description.
This allows more detailed documentation and search
capabilities.
i. EXPORT PICTURES TO NEW FORMATS.
You can convert your pictures to other file formats.
See the Picture Export Restrictions section for a list
of restrictions.
j. EXPANDED SLIDE SHOW FEATURES.
The slide show now has transition options. This feature
can be used as a personalized screen saver. Slide show
transitions can only be used with raster images.
3. Tips for Using and Building Albums.
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a. COPY ALBUMS TO THE HARD DRIVE
Using and opening albums is faster when the albums are
copied to the hard drive versus reading them directly
from the CD-ROM. This also allows the albums to be
viewed without the CD-ROM in the drive.
b. MAXIMUM ALBUM SIZE IS 2,000 OBJECTS
While PowerAlbum can build albums larger, it is best to
keep the album size under 2,000 objects. This makes the
easier to use and faster to open.
4. Information for Calendar Creator Users.
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PowerAlbum is fully compatible with Calendar Creator 3.0
for Windows 95.
5. Information for PowerAlbum 1.x and 2.x Users.
------------------------------------------------
PowerAlbum can also work with albums (ALB files) from
PowerAlbum 1.x and 2.x or Calendar Creator for Windows,
1.x or 2.x. However, to use these albums, it is necessary
to import the old ALB album into PowerAlbum and save it
as a PWR file. The new PWR album cannot be used in previous
versions of PowerAlbum.
Note: The album import process is relatively slow.
6. Picture Export Restrictions.
-------------------------------
The following limitations apply to Exporting Pictures in
PowerAlbum:
1) No vector image can be exported to a raster format.
2) No raster image can be exported to a vector format.
3) No PCD can be exported to another raster format.
7. Video Import and Playing Problems.
-------------------------------------
In Win32s, if you cannot add or play video files, make sure you
have installed the Video For Windows Runtime drivers described
in the Installation section above.
8. COPYRIGHT
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(c)1992-1995 SoftKey Multimedia Inc., a subsidiary of SoftKey International Inc. All rights reserved. Photos (c) 1995 Photo Disk, Inc. and (c) 1994-1995 Aris Multimedia Entertainment, Inc., a subsidiary of SoftKey International, Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. SoftKey and PowerAlbum are registered trademarks of SoftKey Multimedia Inc., Photo Library is a trademark of SoftKey Multimedia, Inc., Microsoft Windows and the Windows logo are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
ROYALTY FREE USE OF CLIP ART AND PHOTOGRAPHS:
Subject to the restrictions described below, you may resell the clip art or photo images in printed form and you may make copies of the images for use in advertisements, public or private presentations, business communications, multimedia presentations, and other similar uses. For example, subject to the restrictions described below, you may use the images to create posters, greeting cards, invitations, calendars, reports or catalogs.
The restrictions are:
1. You may not resell or distribute the clip art or photo images in any electronic form, including, on any on-line service or the Internet. For example, you may not include clip art or photos in another software product for resale, or distribute the clip art or photos on an on-line bulletin board service.
2. You may not use photos of identifiable people, trade names or trademarks in any product for sale, distribution, or in any public presentation or public display. For example, you may use photos of people in private presentations, but not in newsletters, advertisements or public presentations.
3. You may not use photos of people or identifiable entities in any manner which suggests the endorsement or association of any product or service or in connection with any pornographic or immoral materials. For example, you may use a photo of a non-human object such as an animal in an advertisement, but you may not use a photo of a person in an advertisement.
4. Users must credit SoftKey and reproduce the following notice in the publication: "(c) 1995 SoftKey International Inc."
