ADVANCED, VISUAL TIMELINE SOFTWARE ENABLES INTERACTIVE
BROWSING OF PHOTOS AND MEMORIES
Lake Arrowhead, California, November 25, 2008.
Softimeline LLC, today announced a new timeline authoring software tool. The goal was to offer a fresh and imaginative way for computer users to present and view history, photos and memories, with appeal for everyone from professional content creators to “scrapbooking" hobbyists. Slide shows and scrapbooks require information be viewed in the linear sequence dictated by the author, but according to the developer, Softimeline encourages random, interactive browsing.
"While most people couldn’t write a biography, anyone can easily create a visual history of friends or family using Softimeline," explained Ron Kloss, cofounder and CEO, of Softimeline, LLC. "Simply putting photos, home movies or documents in the right category, in the correct time frame, allows the viewer to then randomly access the subject’s entire life story."
He then listed possible applications for the product which include family, community and team histories; sporting events, legal evidence, diaries, military campaigns, scientific data, resumes and vacations; planning a screenplay or book... or importing existing PowerPoint® slides into a Softimeline project for use as Event pages.
"You’ll find text based, timeline software out there, and an abundance of photo organization schemes, with neither offering any real interactivity", affirmed Paul Smietan, the Chief Technology Officer, who added, "We think Softimeline represents the next generation of visual content creation and presentation software."
The author starts by choosing up to twelve categories from a list, or creates his own. Each category name becomes a label for a vertical timeline filled with thumbnail photos, which appear on a grid of time slices. The photos and grid scroll vertically, (for easier viewing) while all the bold category names remain across the top of the Home Page for reference. This creates a visual table of contents, as each small photo is an interactive link to more information about that subject. Whether viewing a biography, a corporate profile, a resume or a vacation, events are seen in context, as the user browses across a dozen categories, and vertically through time. Clicking any small photo on the Home page links to, and opens an Event page, with a larger version of the picture, as well as other relevant photos, plus text, sounds, or video. Now, one may move forward or back in time, to other Event Pages in that category, or return to the Home Page. Dozens of supplied templates for the Event Pages simplify authoring.
Softimeline runs on Windows XP, Vista and Intel Macs which do Windows and may be downloaded from the web site for $79, or purchased as a CD package for a slight additional charge, at www.softimeline.com.
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