Review: Flypaper's new entry-level content creation product

Flypaper Express is a new, entry-level product that is aimed at digital signage users who want to display professional looking content on their screens.  The product is very attractive for the following reasons:

• Simple to install.  Integrates itself into PowerPoint.
• Inexpensive ($99).
• Produces industry standard Flash or MPEG 4 content.
• Supports audio and PowerPoint animation effects.
• Comes bundled with a few templates to get the user started quickly.

So lets take a look at this new content authoring tool...

First, the PowerPoint integration is really good.  Users can work with a tool they already know and possibly even integrate some of their existing PowerPoint content.

The software adds a new toolbar to PowerPoint where you can access all the application's features.  The icons and menus are intuitive so practically anyone can get going without much training.

You can select one of the many included templates and you can also select a standard screen resolution (720p, 1080p or custom).  Opening a template gives you access to the editable content.  It is very easy to  edit text, change graphical elements and replace images to adapt the template to your needs.  

Note that you can also create a new template from scratch but I suggest new users play around with some of the samples until they get used to the application.  People with little experience using PowerPoint may feel a bit overwhelmed as you can pretty well deconstruct all the on-screen elements in each slide.  On the other hand, users coming at this from a creative background may feel a bit limited by the PowerPoint environment.  

You can easily preview your content, however I found the export process to be quite slow and I was testing on a PC with a 6 Core AMD CPU and 8 Gb of RAM so folks running on a corporate level PC may find the need to move up to a more powerful PC (or be patient as the software does its thing!).

Clicking on the icon called "Market" launches your web browser and brings you to a web site that is currently in development (Flypaper Market, coming soon...).  Presumably, Flypaper will open the product up to users so they can create and re-sell their own templates.  Will be interesting to see how that works out. 

Exporting your work is very straightforward.  I tested the Flash export and it worked flawlessly (albeit slowly, here again).

Once you get the file created, the results are quite acceptable as you can see in the screen capture of the preview window below:

The software outputs the files in a folder under Documents > Flypaper Express Presentations and in the example above, the SWF file size came to 997 Kb which is very acceptable for content meant for a 1080p screen.  The Flash output did not suffer too much from image compression artifacts and I would not hesitate to display the results in any venue.

The Good:

• Inexpensive.
• Easy to use (especially if you know PowerPoint).
• Output is perfect for digital signage but you can create any Flash content you want if you are prepared to work at it.  There is nothing preventing you from simply using this product as a PPT to SWF converter but you can do much more.
• Supports both Flash and MPEG 4 with audio.
• Ideal for any user who does not have access to a dedicated creative team.  Things will get even more interesting once the Market site launches.

The "not so" Good:

• You are working in PowerPoint, warts and all... Creative types used to work in Flash may want to look somewhere else.  They will only get frustrated with PowerPoint's limitations.
• I found previewing and exporting to be quite slow, and I tested on a fairly powerful desktop PC.

In Conclusion... 

Flypaper Express is very good at what it does.  Low barrier to entry for corporate users and small shops (restaurants, retail, etc...).  Anyone looking to produce professional looking material in a cost effective manner should download the trial and take it for a spin!

Creative shops and commercial signage network operators may be better served by Flypaper Pro.