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Page Builder 2.2 was available as a giveaway on April 26, 2011!
The Page Builder 2.2 is a powerful application that will allow you to create impressive and professional full screen Flash webpages. Program will embed the flash page into a webpage for you. Design your full screen flash page by adding your photos and text and then hundreds of installed Flash animations, background images and Flash buttons. A Flash page can be made in minutes with no programming skills required.
Windows XP/ Vista/ 7
137 MB
$19.95
Honestly, I thought the software was awful. Fired it up and got a gray screen in the background - no matter what I did (text box, picture etc.) nothing happened - I eventually worked out that the gray box represents the screen size of the finished movie. Menus are difficult to navigate, and poorly created, and overall the software doesn't appear to do what it claims.
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I did have problems after all with one thing. I could not get the box to close after picking text for a button. The X did not show up to close the window. So I had to shut down the program and start over. I hope this does not happen to often. Anyone have a problem like this?
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I am using windows 7 64bit and it went fine with install and registering the software. So far I have Not had any problems with running the software but I just started. Looks like good software to me so far. I also had no problems on their web site with running things on their site. Have a great day all :)
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Cannot start program. Task manager show that program started, but no program window ;)
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I downloaded installed on Vista 32 bit SP1.
The Program works fine! Its user interface 'GUI' is different than the normal interface used in windows. once you get accustomed to it it's great...Thank you GOTD & Cellsoftnet
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Lousy. Useless. Once "installed" clicking on the icon, or selecting from the list in Program Files (either one) just pulls up the executable, and errors. Avoid this one.
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I went to the site in Firefox v.4 and it was beautiful! I don't know what some of you are trying to say, but I will give this a try!
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I'm amazed how many people who have so many negative comments about Flash have no idea what Flash does or can do, and comparing HTML5 with Flash is just ridiculous. HTML5 will never kill Flash, it will never be able to do close to what Flash can. HTML5 will get better, but Flash will always improve and in so many more ways that HTML5 will be able to.
I won't get into what Flash can do here because it would take me days to explain everything. Try reading up on Flash before assuming you know what your talking about, just because you have heard things from Adobe haters or from people trying to push HTML5 doesn't mean a thing because those people also have no idea. Flash will always be way more powerful than HTML5, and they are actually two totally different languages that do totally different things aside from animations and banners. So you may be tired of Flash adverts but you will also become tired of HTML5 adverts too. I don't find having to install and download Flash updates a big deal, it's not like it's complicated.
Sorry about the rant, I'm not putting down HTML5 because I do believe it is great, but Flash is also great and they shouldn't be put into the same category.
NOW for the soft, this is a great product if you want to create a Flash website, it comes with many features, animations, background images, and buttons hence the large file size, and all for a great price.
Thanks CellSoftnet and GAOTD.
Also if anyone is looking for a good alternative to Adobe Flash go check out Vectorian Giotto, it doesn't do AS3 but it is now free.
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I downloaded this program this morning and I think it is great,it installed without any problem and registered as well. I am currently designing a site using it. It did not take many months as someone suggested to create this site. My operating system is Windows Vista
It only took 2 minutes and 18 sec to download
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Installed on Windows XP SP3
Terrible interface. terrible GUI, terrible output.
Two thumds down for today's giveaway but thank you anyway Cellsoftnet for the opportunity to try your software and especially to GOTD for the service you provide here every day ;)
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@70 I agree and disagree - I am in highschool, but I would never design a page like THAT ;)
I will admit that in no way am I a pro at designing websites, but I can make a fully functional one with XHTML, JavaScript, and CSS that loads faster and has better effects than I could make with this program. I tend to try to avoid the mistakes that most people make, and admit to making others.
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@74 I do not agree.
Your statement about "too many connections" - Sorry that's incorrect. Today's browsers (IE, FF, Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc.) will add the "www." for you if needed. It is not usually required any more. http://cellsoftnet.com and http://www.cellsoftnet.com both lead to the same spot anyway. That's how websites work - it's been that way for years.
The reason why people where complaining about "too many connections" is because when the page loaded, it said "Server error: too many connections" This means DoS. It did not matter whether you typed www in the url or not - the site was down.
Yes I did slam this program. Yes I did try it first. Twice. And I uninstalled it. Twice. This program was not ready for release, but it was released anyway. It should have been FULLY tested before release. Yes it installs flawlessly. It also uninstalls flawlessly. It does not RUN flawlessly.
Users don't understand the background because there is NO explanation whatsoever when the program opens, so of course they will not know what to do with it. When a program has a non-standard layout people get confused quickly, and if they aren't helped by the program in finding things, they will most likely not spend the time to "play around"
I am not so much worried about the file size, I have downloaded programs that were in excess of 3GB - no big deal. Takes like 2.5-3 hours. I'm on the computer for a long time, so that's no problem. I did not like that I had to wait 15 minutes for it to download just to end up uninstalling it. That was my problem with the size. And what they don't tell you is that it is over 300MB when installed. Yes, it may be a 137MB download, but that's compressed.
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@77 I agree.
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@78 - The whole point of the software being here is a testing ground really. The author offers the program and hundreds, if not thousands of people download and try the software. Then they come back here and report back what they liked, what they didn't like, what errors they had, and how it could be improved. What is supposed to happen next is the developers take the feedback (both good and bad) and use it it make an even better program.
This is also for publicity, to basically put a company "on the map". Great for startups and small businesses.
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@79 I have never heard that phrase before. Ever. Learn something new every day. :D
I had to look up the meaning...
(for those of you who haven't looked it up yet):
Meaning
Don't be ungrateful when you receive a gift.
If you're interested, I found it here. (Just citing my source ;) )
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Has anyone else noticed that the developer's site itself has changed since 3:00AM? The 404 error is gone from the image loader, the layout doesn't overlap anymore (was unreadable in some spots - text over images), and it looks as if the shareware sites list has grown LARGER.
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Well this is delightful. It'd be nice to try the software but I'm not able to access their website on IE8 on Win7 Ultimate x64, and the download only returned an unexpected end of archive result. This is highly unusual as I've only ever once had that before. I tend not to bother if things just go kablooey before they even get started. Given the "tremendous amount of griping and screaming" that went on before, it seems that those people who contributed to the aforementioned complaints have a very valid point about prior research and investigation. Thanks but no thanks. I've read too much bad stuff about this thing to be bothered with it even after attempting to download it to justify why I shouldn't be bothered.
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Hi,
First off, I don't understand the problem people are having accessing the website. I've tried it with Firefox 4.0 and it works fine, works fine with IE and Opera too. Also, I don't see anything particularly wrong with the website, although after reading John's comment (#1) I too checked the awards and found he was right...only one is clickable and takes you to some seemingly unrelated site from Hong Kong.
I downloaded it anyway and everything worked fine...registered okay, worked okay. I'm certainly no dummy when it comes to computer software, but I'm certainly no tech nerd either and I found it to NOT be as easy as they claim it is, so I dumped it.
-Jeeem-
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flash?? are they nutz?? there are so many people that hate flash that firefox even has an addon to block it.. have they not heard about the addon flashblock?? why would anybody want to make a website that so many people won't be able to see because they have the flash content blocked??
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Haha, the website is a bit all over the place, looks a bit like it's done on Microsoft paintbrush to me =O.
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#58, mike, XP users have no concept of what all they're missing. It makes me wonder if you even use the best features of Vista and Win7. IE9 is my preferred browser for a number of reasons. I never need other browsers anymore, except for sites which look for a specific browser version and don't recognize IE9+. Most people never really give browsers other than the one they're using a chance and never really learn very much about them. Firefox used to be my #2 browser, but some time ago Opera became my #2 browser with Firefox #3. Then with IE9 I don't bother with other browsers except for very specific things, like if I have a massive MHTML file, Opera is best. Also, you can't trust "reviews" because most of them are written by people who don't know anything about the browser in question. The Google Toolbar has all sorts of useful features. While IE9+ integrates search in the address box, the Google Toolbar searchbox now does Google Instant Search. It handles spell checking, site navigation and searching, and automatic translation. If only a portion of the page is in another language, you don't need to select it, just translate the page and Google will figure out which sections are in other languages and translate them.
Sorry, but WMC is just behind IE as my most-used home application. Win7's MC handles most of my TV needs (PowerDVD handles the rest). Win7 MC handles 4 tuners of each type (8 of each type with hacks), in the US, QAM, (cable) NTSC, ATSC (I have multiple tuners of each); CableCard is available but I'm waiting for a better, cheaper version due out soon. You can select tuner priority per-channel, and ATSC and QAM channels can be merged into either (e.g., most people want QAM to have priority, but if there's no signal, MC7 will automatically use ATSC, and if that's not available, attempt cable NTSC). WMC also handles streaming video, particularly Win7, where people who haven't setup the guides in the last couple of months don't know that Internet TV has been integrated (I think that Netflix streaming was also better integrated). Of course, WMC can handle lots of other stuff, like DVDs, videos, music (including FM), slideshows, Blu-Ray with PowerDVD, etc. WMC also streams to media extenders. Certain types of DRM are a legal requirement in the US, whether you choose to break the law is your business. Win7 MC has an optional DRM component. The advantage is that you can more easily view a number of types of DRM'd material. The disadvantage is that theoretically a broadcaster can cause something to be DRM'd that otherwise wouldn't be (I haven't run into that issue yet). MC7's guides are far more sophisticated than anything from cable-company DVRs (but MS broke rerun handling, which used to work correctly). You can select per-program whether to use a particular channel, any channel, prefer HD, or prefer SD (if NTSC, quality, better than transcoding). I've changed my tuner cards and went back to 2 cable NTSC tuners, but Time-Warner's signal is too weak for one of them, so it's not available. It's not unusual for my MC7 to record 4 QAM (usually HD) and 1 NTSC channel (would be 2 if the signal were better) concurrently. Here's only a very small sample of the features in MC7, at my monitor's resolution of 1920x1200 (zoom to fullsize), JPEG'd for filesize, so not as sharp as the original display: Guide with integrated Internet TV (the digital music channel is one I mapped) overlaid on HDTV, mini-guide overlaid on HDTV, live thumbnail during seek via mouse in HDTV.
Maybe it depends upon which version of Win7 you have (I learned my lesson and bought Ultimate), but Win7's codecs already handle MPEG-2 and multichannel surround sound in WMC and WMP. WMP12 has all sorts of adjustments related to audio and video when using MS codecs. MS codecs already have hardware video decoding support. MC has always had a separate list of codecs to use, keeps it from getting messed up like WMP from multimedia app installations. Win7 already handles DVDs. I never use the OEM version of any software, always stripped-down junk which doesn't work worth beans. I always buy the highest version of PowerDVD available. Among many other features, PowerDVD will play WTV and DVR-MS files with audio at 2x, MC7 only keeps audio at what appears to be 1.5x. I find it interesting that you're always talking about optical media, especially DVDs, but now you're admitting that streaming media has value. Actually, streaming media can't match Blu-Ray because the bandwidth isn't available. I have DVDs, never use them. HDTV stomps DVDs, I only buy Blu-Ray (my computer will even play HD-DVD, I have one title). It's been a long time since I've seen DRM'd TV on my PC (CableCard will record DRM'd HDTV; premium NTSC channels, which I don't have, will be DRM'd), so I don't have problems with archiving shows.
Win 7 backup and restore points are fully integrated with versioning, which is neat. A functional System Restore is a big deal to most people. Most people aren't using VMs, and most people don't want to spend their lives analyzing install files for what they might or might not do on their systems. No uninstaller or uninstaller utility in the world will fix your computer back after an uninstall. You need to set a System Restore Point before an install (unless the installer is a properly written Microsoft Installer package). If you don't want the application or it messes things up, uninstall first, then do a System Restore. Data may be left behind if the application ran, but that only takes up space. A System Restore is a form of rollback, so you should generally only do one relatively soon after an installation, particularly before any other manual or automatic installations. I won't use anything from Paragon, I've demoted them to junkware status since after all these years and versions they still can't get the basics right, like recognizing and handling my drives. Even you admit that their file restore is unreliable. I don't use Win7's backup, I use ShadowProtect Desktop, which does near-continuous backup and all hardware-independent P2P, P2V, V2P, etc. It even automatically disables itself in P2V, and has direct support for VirtualBox. By the way, I've never had to disable my security software in VMs, I only disable my Intel RST (RAID) support because it uses a lot of virtual CPU looking for non-existent RAID arrays.
Win7's networking support is much improved over earlier versions of Windows, but I don't have my PCs with older OSes networked (never even boot them unless my main PC's hardware fails).
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Went to homepage; loaded instantly.Firefox 3.something. Reloaded "too many connections" page;loaded fine.
I just can't believe most of you people do nothing but indiscriminately criticize or use this comment section for ego stuffing. Sorry to be critical myself but....a greater show of appreciation to these guys (GOTD) is definitely in order.
I haven't downloaded yet, but will; and if I don't like or can't use it, maybe I will POLITELY comment about it, or even offer some constructive criticism.
I've been coming to this site since its inception, but recently stayed away for a few months because of all the unprofessional rancor and abuse. Nothing has changed. I have downloaded and use sooo many apps from this site, I couldn't possibly express my appreciation enough.
Thank you GOTD for this offering. It looks promising, especially at the price. I just allowed your Facebook app.
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Thanks to the community for the great and detailed feedback, both positive and negative; critical and intuitive. I will pass on today's giveaway, but only because I don't plan on having a need for such software. And if I do, it will be a paid and supported package. And of course, thanks to the GAOTD Team for the site, the boards and bringing it all together.
PS: Yes, cellsoftnet's site does make me wonder if it was just put together in the last day or two.
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There is a tremendous amount of griping and screaming before you are hurt in these comments. Have people never heard of "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth?" Try the software and then tell your results. Some of these comments seem to be from people trying to show everyone how smart and hip they are.
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I downloaded this program this morning and I think it is great,it installed without any problem and registered as well. I am currently designing a site using it. Yes the home site listed is not a fancy one but I decided to give it a try. Windows Vista Home Edition. Programs offered here are free, Why do so many people offer complaints when they have the choice to install or ignore
Thanks for the free programs. I have been using this site for about a year, I think its is great, keep up the good work.
I think people have problems installing software because they don't have a genuine version of Windows.
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Finally got to their site. Excellent! If, that is, you fancy a site looking like it was designed by a three year-old with a meth addiction...Yikes!
I'm beginning to think this might all be just a scheme to drive up viewership on their site. Sure the sw is legit (I guess) but they probably know that no one with half a brain would use actually use it: Their object is hits not serious customers.
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I agree with Giovanni #56. I've been designing web sites since 1995 and I worked as a programmer/analyst for 30 years before that.
I monitored how much data was received just to look at Cellsoftnet's home page (http://www.cellsoftnet.com/). The total was 10.42 MB.
The internet is filling up like the LA freeways at rush hour and nobody is happy about the high cost to expand the internet backbone. No matter who spends the money, you and I will ultimately be stuck with the bill.
Someone may have spasms of guilt when they throw an aluminum can in the trash, but they never think about how their web site adds to internet pollution.
I'm going to pass on today's GOTD offering. I can put up a web page more efficiently than that. You can too if you take a little time to find out how.
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Thank goodness for thumbs-up and thumbs-down ratings and ability to make these comments! Without either, I might have tried this download out, looks really cool, but I'm not going to mess with it. Is there any good shareware/freeware that's out there that does the same thing?
Thanks!
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It's a shame so many slammed this product without trying. It installed flawlessly on my PC and I created flash animation page using the yoga template in less than 5 minutes after the installation completed. Users don't seem to get the fact that when the program opens up it draws a black page template in the background. This changes to different sizes and positions on the screen depending on the template size selected. So that explains the black screen problems some users report. It gets filled in as you design your page.
For those that are complaining about the size of the download they have missed reading what the program is comprised of:
- 60 pages of background and wallpaper images;
- Flash video;
- Over 1000 flash animations built in;
- 20 preset pages ready for editing;
- and much more
For those complaining about slow downloads, why is that the program's fault? I know not everyone is lucky to have high speed internet but lets get "real" here.
It could do with a better help file but I get the impression that the developers thought that the interface was pretty self explanatory. I tend to agree since one can figure it out in a few minutes by just "playing around".
For all the complaints about getting errors for "too many connections" That one was a "no brainer". The complainers simply did not change the hyper-link settings from their default value which was set to the developer's site which everyone was hammering.
The one issue that has merit is the life expectancy of flash with HTML 5 coming up but I'm not holding my breath on that one yet.
And finally.. No, I do not work for the developer in any way, shape or form.
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I've been using SwishMAX for some years so thought this might be a good tool to add to my toolkit. Their homepage loaded quickly using FireFox 3.6.16, but their server must be getting hammered as every page in their site I try to access I get a "Too many connections" error. I have to admit that my personal home page is pretty lousy as it was designed at least ten years ago, but theirs is the most poorly designed site of any software company I've ever seen. Talk about clutter...
One of the problems with sites created exclusively with Flash is getting high rankings in the search engines. I did look at the code behind their home page and they had fairly well designed "title", "description" and "keywords" meta-tags but their site has virtually nothing else that search engines could spider. I did try Googleing "pagebuilder", "page builder", "Cellsoft", Cell Soft" and "Cell Soft Page builder" and the last was the only one where they showed up on the first page of the search and that in position #5. The other searches didn't show them in the first three pages, which is where I quit looking. A site is worthless if no one is going to find it.
I started to download the software and Download Helper showed that it was taking 12 minutes at 124kb/s. Not bad, but half-way through I canceled the download as I'm thinking this would not be a welcome addition to my ToolKit. I never design sites in Flash, only small elements of those sites.
I'm surprised that people think 137mb is a "large" program. Especially as this appears to be loaded with sample graphics. Heck. I've got music files bigger than that.
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I feel so sorry for these poor programmers. I gave it a shot because so often the write ups here are so overly dramatic...in this case, not. This app might be good in the future - it installed and uninstalled perfectly on Win 7 Pro x64 and ran without crashing - but right now it is really bad in just about every way. I was able to find my way around but did not like the results. Flash effects should be subtle and sophisticated, none of these were. Most of the artwork rendered would be better created as animated gifs or DHTML.
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Nr 7, think maybe all that "fat" is the templates and extras for designing your page? Strip all that away and you get some of same trash handed over to GOAD thats around 2 or 3mb in size. Just like some of the past video editors or dvd authoring software. What do you get for 2 or 3mb? Crap. I assume this software is provided to us by GOAD for input back to the author. If the size of the file is your sole reason for not using it, you may be passing up some good stuff. I just installed MS's flight sim. 2 DVD's required to install. That's why I have over 3TB's of hard drive space so I can load all the fat ware I can find. On the software's note. Loaded fine on a Win7-64 machine. Now time to play.
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I have to agree with the critics I always check out the site first and I also was not impressed with the faux awards they claim to have earned.
If the excellent observations listed in the comments of those before me are not enough to make you think twice and your still on the fence about this one and to just stir the pot a little more lets just look at the facts.
This is a software design company that makes all the tools you need to make yourself a website.
They claim that this software is "a powerful application that will allow you to create impressive and professional full screen Flash webpages" (remember this is for average Joe user with little or no skills because if you had advanced skill you would not be here in the first place). So you have all this power, and they are not like average Joe these guys are pro's right? After all they created all this award winning software so they must be must have above average skills.
Then I wonder why does the page they created with this software look like it was made over a weekend by some high school kids? (Keep in mind these guys are Pros) It makes me wonder how good average Joe's page will look?
Another point: Why is there a Paypal "Donate Button" in the center of the page if these guys are trying to convince me to buy one of these powerful software titles?
How about the fact that there is no info on the company itself? And the "best shareware sites link" with all the stars and such seems to be just a impressive list of links to other sites not to reviews of this software Sorry not impressed.
Why do you have buttons to vote for your software at the bottom of the page do you rate yourself and award your own stars too? Might be by why the only award you could click on was the one that gave them "5 Bulls" Looks like a lotta bull to me.
Enough said if your not sure and gotta have it because its free for today only then go for it let me know how your corporate page turns out, but from what I see I'm gonna pass.
Thanks GOTD
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Seems very cool for the effects available! Try the pagebuilder demos on their website - Excellent!
Whether you want flash effects on a personal website might be debatable!
But if you do, you can get some great effects with today's GOTD!
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I downloaded this a few hours ago and installed it.
During the install I got 3 warnings from Avast telling me..
a) It was trying to get a list of all files in my C directory
b) It was trying to install a Keylogger
c) It was trying to control Windows Protected Files
Now, I'm not sure if these are "false Positives" or not, so I am not pointing any fingers at anyone here..just passing it on for everyone here.
Once it WAS installed, it refused to register, even though the popup GOTD panel told me it was activated..as well as it's own "Thank You" popup confirming registration!
I closed it down and reopened it, but it was still showing as being unregged..and remained that way, even when I repeated the process and registered it for a second time.
On top of all of this, I when I clicked on "templates" and chose one, it refused to load and gave me an error message. Same goes for trying to pick a background image..the thing did nothing, but give me another error message.
It's a real shame, as this program looked like a really good bit of software..and I was honestly thinking of buying their banner maker, but after this fiasco I don't think I'll bother.
I've just uninstalled it.
PeterC
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I will probably go ahead and try this software and see if it can be useful.
The problem with wix.com is that the ones I find useful for my site are the ecommerce ones and they have a subscription fee attached to them. So, if this software can deliver a professional site, I welcome it.
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#56: "Many websites have their entire homepage built in flash page, but if you don’t have a quite fast broadband connection at home it can take ages to load their homepage."
I agree with the gist of what you're saying -- I went to check the nearest location for Popeye's Chicken & had to wait for their Flash intro to load, & almost didn't have the patience. At the same time though, site A's target audience may be different than site B's, & I may be in a tiny minority out of all the Popeye's Chicken fans. Some sites may have been sold a bill of goods by their web developer, but I think at least some sites have tested it out & found their Flash intro or home page gets better results. When those of us who don't necessarily like Flash are in the minority, there's little we can do but grin [or grimace] & bear it -- if the alternative is a less successful site (in terms of numbers), that could translate into no site at all. ;-)
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CellNet Page Builder is a bit of a strange program -- like a few other apps I've tried over the years it seems the developer basically threw out Windows design conventions & did things their way instead. Regardless how well it works, or doesn't, this sort of nonconformity. i.e. not fitting into the mold of how Windows apps are supposed to look & work upsets some people. In Page Builder's case I think only some of the GUI-related criticism is justified. The way it works is you have a central control panel with a row of buttons up top -- click one of those buttons, e.g. Flash, & another window opens where you browse what's included, & when you select one of the previews, a new window at the bottom shows relevant settings you can change. Click the button for Position and size, & another window opens where you can enter coordinates or drag a green square on a grid. Most windows stay open until you close them. The modular concept doesn't bother me -- it's common in graphics & video apps -- but not being able to move windows around the screen, being limited to the non-re-sizable area of the original control panel window is a definite negative. Another negative is that while you're working on a design the control panel is always on top, so a good part of the preview display that shows you what you're doing is often obscured -- you can minimize the control panel, but I'd prefer to just bring the preview forward. I'd also prefer more of a drag/drop design but that's me, & I know I can't have everything. :-)
One thing that did impress me is the preview, which doesn't use the often resource intensive Flash player from what I could see using SysInternal's Process Explorer [microsoft.com] -- this might make it more suitable than many alternatives for lower powered hardware. And installation is very close to painless, with just a few new registry keys for uninstall, the app itself, & registration data. That said, I don't look for Page Builder to used as a portable given it's 3,781 files, 280 folders, & ~361 MB -- all those files, even if most are smaller just eat up space on a USB stick. Most of those files are things you can use like backgrounds, & having them at the ready can speed up development. The downside to a template (or cookie cutter) approach is your work isn't as totally unique as if you did everything from scratch, although judging by some designs out there, originality & uniqueness are not automatically good things.
I don't know that many pros would abandon whatever they're using now to jump to Page Builder, yet at the same time I don't know how many novices it'll attract without an easy way to actually get your finished work on-line with the rest of your site -- it seems you get a folder with everything in it, & the rest is your job. That said, something like SWiSH miniMax4 will set you back $70, & while I think Swish is generally recognized as better software, that version doesn't include using video. There are free Flash tools [swftools.com has a freeware listing], but if one or more of those doesn't meet your needs, Page Builder might, & it could save you a fair bit of cash.
As far as using Flash itself, sometimes it can be a decent choice, other times not -- it depends on your target audience & what will bring them back to your site. I worry about the relative inefficiencies of Flash -- my wife's Flash-based games consume as much if not more resources than many leading age shooters etc., & for something so relatively simple as one of her arkanoid games that bothers me -- but that's the least of her concerns & she loves those games, not shooters. The people visiting your site may be the same way. If you're interested in your site's traffic, & if your tests show a Flash intro increases that traffic, go for it... ignore anyone telling you it's a waste unless they can point you towards a painless way to increase your numbers without it, & then run tests to see if they're right. IOW Test Everything & go with the results, because at the end of the day if you're concerned about traffic or click-throughs or whatever, results are what matters, not what I or anyone else thinks.
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Ok, so after getting some sleep ;) and reinstalling the program, some more features work than before, but it is not completely working. If you click buttons and then the red button in the left column, you still get that layout error.
I have since noticed that this program was obviously not fully tested before being brought to GAoTD - perfect example of this http://sf3soft.x10.mx/miscounted.png. Because apparently pages don't start at 1, they start at 10, and increment by 10. Also, they go in the order of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 90, 80, 70, 60.
If you try to spread out the windows,they will disappear inside the original window. Apparently this looks like the program itself might have been made in Flash, because that is exactly what Flash does. A regular application would use separate windows that you can move around.
Flash is nice, but too much of it is too much, causing high loading times on low bandwidth, which is a HUGE turnoff for site visitors. If they can't get the page to load in a few seconds, they will go off and do something else that loads faster. That is also one reason I am not a fan of WIX, because too much is too much, and I don't like seeing progressbars all over the page. I prefer good ol' HTML. Want cool effects? Use JavaScript. Want a dynamic layout across different browsers and platforms? Use CSS.
Overall, the GUI is EXTREMELY hard to use. The top layered window (with the options in it) tends to get in the way, causing you to constantly have to move it while designing a site. Do not mistake being able to drag&drop inside that big grey box - if you click on anything that could possibly contain a link, it will open your browser and bring you to whatever the link is pointing to, which defaults to the program's homepage. I feel sorry for anyone who has their browser open already and doesn't have tabs. (IE6 and similar older browsers)
I figured out how to export the page, but with the export came this weird text file that makes no sense at all. I have no idea what it is for - it looks like it is supposed to be HTML, but not... Page1.txt The exported HTML page was completely blank - the swf is not embedded like it tries to. What the page "Should" be is here Page1.swf
Just a note: if you create and open an exe created with this program, there is NOT a close button - you have to either right click the taskbar and close it, or open task manager and end the task/terminate process.
I will say this: Congrats GAoTD. This giveaway has just caused a Denial of Service "attack" on the maker's website. Apparently too many people are trying to view the page, so the server basically shut the pages down (DoS). I guess that does have something good to it: the page loads instantly XD
Sorry guys but I'm not impressed, and I can't believe I waited that long for it to download just to end up uninstalling it in the end...
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I don't know...I was able to view their really "busy" website in Chrome ok. The designs ARE garish and gimmicky. I was going to download this one and try but there are so many negative comments, I guess I'll pass. But I do love stuff that makes interesting visuals...keep at it, GOTD!
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A Flash-style web development tool that contains backgrounds and images will be large...the larger the better (in terms of included slides, frames, and backgrounds to choose from).
If you are going to gripe about file size and download time, please go somewhere else. Reading all these comments has seriously given me a headache. If you are new to Flash, do some research, reading, and evaluate whether you want to tackle the task. This software (albeit free) will at least introduce you to some of what Flash can do. If you are NOT willing to invest some time learning Flash and how it works, save yourself the time (and us more headaches) by simply pointing your web browser somewhere else, now!
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Didn't have any problem getting their page to load, but can't get any further than the home page, all i get is web server too many connections error.
It is a bloated home page, too much going on in one place but that's a designer choice not software.
I'd like to try it but will have to try later tonight.
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I tried to customize the background with one of my own templates and the whole thing crashed and disintegrated.
After starting from beginning again, it said "not allowed", but no reason why is it not allowed.
Then I tried to link the click to another web page from the start up menu that will connect to another non flash page, no luck again, it says: "Can not link, not allowed".
So what is the point of building flash pages when you can not customize them to your own needs.
Just removed it from my system. Good luck to the persons who will keep it.
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Flash is good for presentations, product demos, games and other applications, nowadays flex is replacing flash based web applications.
Animations and special effects are better done with Adobe Flash it has incredible scripting powers.
Flash site is no good for search engines.
There are loads of other disadvantages building an entire site using Flash.
Anyways thanks G.A.O.D
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#13: "I thought the big push was to html 5, and for flash to die. Why would I want this program in this case?"
FWIW I'm not sure I'd mind if Flash was gone from most web sites tomorrow, but it's not going to happen any time soon. Html 5 is still a ways away, not every browser or device displays it, video is still being sorted out etc., plus you have all the folks who have been making their living writing Flash code for years -- they're not keen on helping to end their career. Microsoft, Google, the Mozilla folks [Firefox etc.], & Apple are trying to speed the death of Flash, & part of that is proclaiming Flash is dead. Using "html5 sites" with Google, html5gallery.com is the #1 hit -- the 10 examples on their home page at least aren't exactly a who's who of the web. ;-)
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#18: "As usual, ex-pee users can’t use IE10, or IE9, or WMP12, or Aero, or DX11, or Win7′s much-improved Windows Search and WMC, or improved built-in backup, previous versions, or improved System Restore and networking support, or HD Audio loopback, or full-speed SSDs and many other performance improvements, or Win7′s built-in codecs..."
Not disagreeing [except for maybe the tone ;-) ], according to the stats I've read most recently, win7 has just overtaken XP in the number of on-line users visiting monitored sites. That means there are still an awful lot of XP users out there. Personally & just FWIW I don't think the nearly half of all Windows users running XP should worry overmuch or feel badly, & certainly not be insulted. I think 7's great, & encourage those that can run it to do so if for no other reason than practicality -- at ~$100 for a 3 user HP home pack it's the cheapest way I've ever seen to stay current, though I don't know how long that deal will be available, & with win8 due in a year or so I'd expect more and more software to stop supporting XP *eventually*.
ie9 is nice, but Internet Explorer is losing market-share slowly to Chrome, Firefox, & to a small degree Opera [I like Opera but is has a relatively low # of users]. The majority of those using something besides ie do so because they like their browser better. To a great many not being able to use ie9 is far from the end of the world -- I've had it since beta & only have used it maybe 6 times this month for downloads at Microsoft's site. VLC [videolan.org] & Media Player Classic - Home Cinema [mpc-hc.sourceforge.net] are considered by a huge number of users to be far better then *any* version of Windows Media Player. Having Direct X 11 support is nice if your hardware supports it, but the list of games with DX11 support is not all that long [Wikipedia: http://goo.gl/H3sEJ ], & Googling on dx11 apps, software etc. hardly inspires envy. Windows Media Center is nice [it works like Vista's version should have], but too late -- streaming video keeps gaining ground & looks like the future from everything I've read, from all the companies releasing streaming stand-a-lone boxes, all the Blu-Ray players & HDTVs with on-line streaming and so on... on PCs/laptops that tends to make Windows Media Center irrelevant. Still, for those who want something similar in XP, check out the selections at sites like videohelp.com -- depending on the features you want/need, one or more of those alternatives can be better anyway, & you get to skip the WMC DRM. ;-)
Far as backup goes I've read good things about what's in 7, but having never had a problem with Paragon's apps, I've never seen a reason to give up some of their superior tech, e.g. virtualization capabilities [I know SysInternals has their own small VM utility, but use it & compare the 2 -- it doesn't begin to compete]. Vista/7 do have better System Restore, & rumor has it win8 is going to be better yet in that regard, but OTOH do you focus on bad things happening or the capabilities of an OS? I know most people don't choose their home because there's a hospital across the street. ;-) AS far as relative performance goes, running both XP & 7 64 on this rig, with the same software in both, sometimes XP is faster, sometimes 7 [mostly on apps/tasks that can use more RAM], but they're usually about the same. Win7 has more overhead than XP, so it needs greater efficiency to just stay even. If you use win7, you might want to check out Win7DSFilterTweaker & CodecTweakTool [videohelp.com] as 7's built-in codecs & codec handling is to a great extent a PITA. Buy a PowerDVD OEM disc for ~$10 on-line & mpg2 is handled, with ATI & Nvidia support too. I haven't found an ideal solution for AVC, but the latest ffdshow does usually work in video apps, while VLC works as a player. Can also try the new LAVFilters, which seem promising. FWIW later versions of .NET in XP add the EVR debuted in 7 [Enhanced Video Renderer - MSDN: http://goo.gl/aoVL3 ]. Where Vista/7 can be a big PITA compared to running XP at home is networking. Vista's worse than XP, & 7's worse than Vista. Networking with 7 is more advanced, but if what you care about is connecting to every PC/laptop in your home, regardless what Windows version they're running, 7 can make you miss XP terribly. Frankly that's the 2nd reason I'd recommend the 3 user family packs, so you can upgrade every PC/laptop if/when connecting them is important.
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1. why is their website index in Flash and the rest in html ? Even i am better at html code than them on those pages. It should be a flash presentation of their program, not that ... horrible stuff.
2. By the way, after many comments i noticed that the website renders nice in FireFox, other browsers struggle.
3. What is whith that GUI ?!
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Not downloading. Could be a great software is they pay attention to what they are doing. Better GUI and a better site (the site it's like a business card, in this case it doesn't convince me)
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Well I find FLASH content on webpages a damn useless GARBAGE, taking into account that most USERS nowadays (especially the Firefox ones) use browsers plugins and addons that KILL FLASH content with one single click...LOL!!
Of course FLASH is visually attractive and we all know that attractive websites are more successful than the ugly ones, not to mention that FLASH pages can offer some features not available using plain HTML pages!!
But FLASH FILES, especially those using sound effects, embedded movies or bitmap images, require BANDWIDTH and they can take AGES to load if you don't have a DSL broadband connections at home!!
FLASH is also far more difficult to update than regular HTML code!!
Besides that, you should also know that FLASH SITES pose challenges for search engine rankings and SEO (not every search engine is able to crawl and index the content of Flash movies).
Moreover, many Flash files use meta refreshes or other tricks to disable your browser’s BACK BUTTON and this is not good if you are into an online business as Google AdWords doesn’t approve pages with disabled back button.
That being said, you should not forget that the main purpose of a webpage is to offer CONTENT and NOT to create slow loading bloated webpages CRAP...LOL!
Many websites have their entire homepage built in flash page, but if you don't have a quite fast broadband connection at home it can take ages to load their homepage.
And obviously, if a page does not load fast, you are a LOSER, because you lose readers and/or any other possible customer if you are into an online business.
So, as matters stand, I strongly believe that Software such as today's giveaway can be useful and effective only for big designer studios and amateur graphic artists alike, or for those involved in the advertising sector and online games (and I defy anyone here to prove otherwise)!!!
Anyway, for those interested in building FLASH Sites, I suggest reading this nice article where there are listed 10 FREE TOP FLASH TOOLS designed to help you create amazing Flash Websites for yourself and your clients (I recommend Wix.com, which is also SEO friendly ==> no need to install anything unlike this 127 MB file exe).
http://www.webdesignmo.com/blog/2008/11/24/top-10-free-flash-tools-and-inspiration/
Enjoy & Prosper!!
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As I see it: The download is large, primarily because there is so much template and background art included. That may mean that they have provided too many options. But it doesn't make the coding itself inherently primitive.
The UI is not itself fundamentally "pretty" but what exactly do you require of the software? Would you prefer to see the developer spend time on pleasing graphics -for your personal edification while building content? Or, on utility/functionality for the personal edification of your customer? The software is intended to facilitate building of pages with a particular type of content - Not to do something that it does not claim to do (i.e.:html5)!
The developers have provided FREE OF CHARGE an offering that may be preparatory to the kind of editing that many here seem to crave (again: html5)... Does it really make sense to pummel them on their current efforts because they have not provided what you see evolving in the near future?
Perhaps they intend to go; are already going; or have already gone to where you want them to go (i.e.: html5)? Assuming that this is plausible, I would rather see them encouraged in their efforts, and evaluated on the basis of what they have provided - than castigated for what they have not done - or do not claim to have done.
One of the drawbacks of the GAOTD format/timeframe is that it requires download, installation, operation, and evaluation on a timeframe that is, for lack of a better superlative nano- in scale. I would ask GAOTD to modify its own cycle to make what is ostensibly its goal: evaluation of emerging software; more realistically achievable.
Rather than a simple 24-hour clock, perhaps 24-hours to accomplish the download and install; A longer period for evaluation; Possibly a second change registration option based on the list of original downloaders, and distillation of the comments; ... All this within a sequence where one giveaway's time frame overlaps with one or more others.
The 'web world' moves very fast - granted! But people are still human, and to provide genuine and legitimate evaluation, requires attention to parameters that are inherently relevant on the human side of experience. Human's require sleep to distill their experiences into meaningful cognition.
Meaningful feedback is therefore less likely within a 24-hour feedback loop. Thus the hyper-critical assessments that seem to appear for many offerings seen here...
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www.wix.com flash site made easy...no downloading of nothing.
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OMG!!!
Checked out the authors website. I thought my graphic talents sucked.
Looking at their site made me want to trample children in my attempt to run away from the site.
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The tut video on their website (PB video) has no sound! Video itself is not very sharp, so how silly not to have sound to tell what is being done! I downloaded the video and tried to open using various players - still no sound.
In some programs the video too doesn't show well.
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Tried their site using IE9. Seems to load OK, but takes awhile. Tried to see the demos, but they did NOT load. I use AceHTML to bulid sites. Version 5 is a freebie, the Pro version is really nice for simple work. You can A/B with an internal viewer. You'd need to know some coding, however, but it will allow you to add both javascripts and flash. Not a big dl either. Small code equals people staying around to watch it open.
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For the $19, there's actually quite a bit crammed in there. At first glance, you find yourself staring at a "gray box", and it back at you, waiting for something to happen. This gray box can be re-sized at several different settings. The UI seems blocky and rough to navigate--but only for a few minutes. Having a help file in plain easy to understand english is priceless. The help file covers the bases pretty good. In no time, I had the background set, the buttons in place, etc. There's a preview button so you can see how your page is coming. When you choose an item, such as a button, a grid appears with a green box--that box represents the item you picked. Moving the green box, moves said item around on the gray box--a sort of WYSIWYG. They add a ton of graphics, etc. (hence the large file size), and yes, some are dated--but you can add your own. Even with a good help file, you will have to get in there and play around some. I can't lie--anyone having previous experience will find it a plus. I had no problem accessing their site, or downloading their regular setup.exe, which btw, accepts todays code. You can use your real name and email--or not. (W7x64.)
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This looked very interesting, thats where it all stopped.
Download took 5 minutes using Dap. It would have taken 15 in normal download mode.
The install lasted another 5 minutes and then came time to run the program. Well this is where it got disappointing , first after opening,it just hung there for a few minutes. When it did load I was a little taken back by the Interface.
Where do I start?
Where do I preview?
Where do I publish?
options? where?
It Was just way to busy.
After a little exploring I managed to build a web page. But when I previewed In Fire Fox 4 Nothing worked.Tried IE8 and same result.
It just sat there.
If the finished web page worked and loaded a little faster it may be worth keeping but due to slow loading time and the installed size(huge!) I will be removing this from my collection.
A Little disappointing.
Thanks GOTD & Cellsoftnet for giving us the opportunity to try this program.
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Cellsoft's website is a mess of poor design. The examples of other websites created by the software are terrible as well. Broken links, pages opening in new windows, and pages that just plain don't work. What are they thinking?
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