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e-Promocard
Designer
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Author : Wayne
Date : 8th April 2002
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Introduction :
In a cutthroat business world where everyone wants
a slice of the cake, any thing that gets you noticed is worth
grasping with both hands. For hundreds of years business introductions
have consisted of a shake of the hand and an exchange of business
cards which tend to get a cursory glance before being tucked
into a pocket, usually to be forgotten about and put through
the next wash. The question is, with only a few square inches
of card at your disposal how do you make a lasting impact? How
about a business card that not only offers the traditional contact
information but which also lets you offer a fully customizable
animated sales pitch complete with background music.? e-Promocard
Designer lets you do just that, let's take a look :
The Kit :
Out of the box is almost everything you need to
start creating your own multimedia business cards. I say almost
because without a CD-RW and burning software you're not going
to get very far but I hardly think it's fair to expect them
to supply that too. This is essentially a starter pack and it
comes with ePromocard's Designer software, five 35 Mb CD-R cards
with Poly wallets, 16 high resolution printer labels, label
applicator and label creator software. Further CD-R cards are
available in packs of ten or 50 at £49.95 for the pack
of 50 and £12.99 for the pack of ten. Additional packs
of 120 labels are available at £9.99.
The CD-R blanks themselves are designed with a
lip which allows them to sit in the 80mm recess of any standard
tray loading CD-ROM drive although for obvious reasons they
can't be used with slot loading drives.
Just out of plain ole' curiosity I fired up Plextor's
PlexTools utility which reported the blanks to be four minute
CMC Magnetics (type 6).
How it works :
Installing the software is a breeze as you'd expect.
Once installed the first step is to create your content, a real
no brainer thanks to the incredibly simple wizard that holds
your hand every step of the way.
The first screen explains how to get started with
a new session or how to edit a session you've already created.
Click for a larger image
The next screen you're faced with allows you to
select the look and sound of your presentation. To set the "feel"
of your presentation there are eleven themed, animated templates
to choose from. Sounds can be chosen from five license-free
audio snips which are actually fairly relatively small samples
that loop continuously. e-Promocard designer uses the traditional
*.wav format which allows you to import your own audio tracks
and a quick poke through the installation directory reveals
that the backgrounds behind the snazzy flash animated templates
are simply 800x600 *.jpg images which opens up the option to
create customised cards that are even more personal. Unfortunately
none of these options are available through the software itself
but anyone with a reasonable knowledge of PCs and image editing
can have a field day.
Click for a larger image
The next step is to set the layout for your first
page. A maximum of six pages can be created in total and the
wizard takes you through the creation process for each page
individually.
With the required layout chosen you then click to activate the
various boxes and type away. There's no option to control font
type, size or colour which is a touch disappointing but the
effect tend to look pretty good all the same. Depending on the
layout you've chosen you can also import images into the presentation.
The "Contact" template allows you to add clickable
links to your website and email address.
Click for a larger image
Once you're happy everything is saved to your
hard disk complete with an auto-run file. The final step is
to burn the files onto one of the blank cards as outlined below.
1) Open your CD writer application software.
2) Remove any discs from your CD writer and
insert a blank CD-R.
3) The files you need to copy are located on
your hard drive, either under the default directory created
by the application (C:\epromo\cards\), or under the directory
you requested the application to locate elsewhere on your hard
drive.
4) Within the ‘cards’ directory you
will find a directory with the same name as your session name
(for example "My ecard".
5) It is the contents of this directory that
need to be copied on to your e-carD.
6) You must open this directory and copy all
of the files held within it. Copying over the directory without
selecting the files contained within it will not enable the
application to run. These files include ‘autorun.inf’,
the instruction to the user’s PC that enables the card
to automatically run when the card you have burned is inserted
into the CD-ROM drive.
I'd planned to be clever here and time the burn
but using the awesome Plextor 40/12/40A that we reviewed
not so long ago the whole thing happened so quickly that
I thought it had failed until it spat the card out again. As
a note of caution, make sure the card is sat properly in the
tray before you close it or you may find yourself having to
dismantle your drive to try and recover a jammed blank.
Creating the label :
Label creation is taken care of by the bundled
exPressIT Lite software. Again the whole process is simplicity
itself even down to printer calibrating which requires you to
print out a calibrating grid then fold the paper in four to
ascertain how far off centre your printer prints. Read the number
off the grid that corresponds to the fold marks, dial in the
correction and you're done.
Click for a larger image
Step two is to choose which label on the sheet
of eight you'd like to print. Although you can later specify
all eight labels be printed at once it's frustrating that you
can't tell the software you want to print a full sheet at this
stage of the creation process.
Click for a larger image
Next up choose your background, a simple point
and click operation that even the most mentally challenged of
users can manage.
Click for a larger image
Add a little clipart if you want it from a fairly
limited and uninspiring collection.
Click for a larger image
And finally add your text and adjust your layout
for best effect and you're ready to print. Fortunately this
process does allow you to specify font size, positioning and
colour.
Click for a larger image
The printed labels look pretty impressive thanks mainly due
to the fact that the label sheet is made of decent quality coated
inkjet paper rather than just regular paper.
The final step in the creation of your masterpiece
is to apply the label to the CD. This is where the supplied
label applicator is a must. If you've ever used conventional
CD-ROM labeling kits then the process is exactly the same other
than the addition of a couple of raised guides to accommodate
the rectangular shape of the CD. For those who aren't familiar
with what's involved it's nothing very technical.
After peeling one of the self adhesive labels from the sheet
you place it face down (adhesive side up) into the applicator.
Next you sit your freshly burnt CD card onto the
spring loaded centre spindle and push down bringing it into
contact with the label.
Gently smooth the label on and there you have
it, one e-Promocard animated business card ready to wow your
customers and turn the competition green with envy.
Conclusion :
PROs
Presentations look slick
Ridiculously easy to use
Not too expensive
Labels are good quality coated inkjet paper
CONs
Presentation creation software lacks flexibility
Burning feature ideally needs to be integral part of software
Cards can't be read in slot load drives
e-Promocard multimedia business cards are a great idea that's
sure to get your company noticed and it's so simple to use that
even the small company can make a big impression. From publicising
your new website to launching a new multi-million dollar product
line the uses are almost endless, but that's not to say it's
perfect. The lack of configuration options in the design software
takes away any control over text size, colour and placement.
The contacts template allows only a limited amount of contact
information on a single page so if you want to add half a dozen
or so contacts you may find you need to spread it over several
pages leaving less room for other things and the final burning
process is quite clumsy, particularly for an inexperienced user.
Rating a product like this is difficult. Compared
to the traditional business card this is light-years ahead,
offering the chance to get information across that simply wouldn't
be possible otherwise. The problem is that you're left feeling
that so much more could have been done to truly personalise
things and that a lot of the creative process has been taken
out of your hands. It's a fine line between making a product
easy to use and and making it too complicated but I feel the
software is perhaps a little too simplistic for a lot of people
who may want to let the creative juices flow. The option to
import audio and graphics helps a little but even this is more
difficult than it need be.
The moans aside I think it's fair to say the final
product looks good and certainly doesn't betray the fact that
you created the whole thing in a few minutes. If you want to
get noticed and impress your clients then e-Promocard Business
Card Designer is certainly the way to go.
Special thanks go to Sarah Tokley for arranging
this product for us to review.
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