Pixiq

Launched recently, the new Photodex ProShow Producer 4.5 is a major overhaul of the slideshow creator, now with a Wizard that really makes some magic on your workflow.

Available in two versions, the professional ProShow Producer 4.5 and the more “familiar” ProShow Gold 4.5, the renewed program from Photodex is the same software people has learned to trust with some news tricks and a fantastic new tool: a Wizard.

Users of Photodex ProShow know the potential of the program – I’ve been using it for all my slideshows since I discovered it many years ago – but always wanted a bit more: the capacity to create slideshows almost automatically, defining only the set of pictures, the sound, titles and… GO!

Until the last version of the software this was not possible. There was and still is a set of templates that can be used to define the base for what you will have to build manually, placing images one by one, and although you did have some form of automatically define settings like transitions between slides a.s.o there was no real “press this button and we do the rest”. Well, now there is.

  In fact, this new versions of the Windows software adds automatic show creation with an all-new wizard and hundreds of new transitions and effects. In addition, ProShow Producer users can build their own transitions with the new Create Transition tool.

ProShow's new wizard intelligently mixes a user's photos, videos and music together into a dynamic slide show, instantly. Perfect for quickly creating a show with no effort or getting the creative juices flowing before fine tuning in ProShow. It comes with hundreds of built-in themes and effects for creating slide shows for any occasion. Users can adjust the energy level of their shows, customize themes and create their own themes by mixing together any of the thousands of available slide styles and transitions.

After testing the program for some hours I can write down that it does work perfectly and does choose intelligently pictures to respect if they’re landscape or portrait format, at least in the trial runs I did with different settings. One of the good things of the wizard is that it let’s you try out different combinations without having to start from the beginning. You can define pictures, place them in order, define title, music and a lot of other aspects, and then test the result. If you’re not happy you just need to define new settings or simply ask the program to “Try Again”. And once you think you have the final slideshow you can either save it, prepare it for different outputs from Blu-ray to YouTube or… edit it to give the show your final touch. It is a fantastic way to set up a slideshow fast without loosing the option to adjust things in the end. I’ve had a ball playing with these options and in a matter of seconds seeing the results. It helps to get the creative juices flowing to have such a fast response in such a short time. If you don’t believe me, try the demo of the program and imagine what you could do with even more transitions, effects a.s.o. to change the way your slideshows look. Please, look at the slideshow on this page to get an idea of the options through the Wizard. And I am barely touching the surface.

"We wanted the user experience with Version 4.5 and the new wizard to be seamless; instant show creation with the option to edit down to the millisecond if a user chooses to do so. It's the best of both worlds," said Paul Schmidt, President and Founder of Photodex Corporation. "I also couldn't be more excited about our new transition effects. They open up whole new world of instant, creative power for ProShow."

ProShow 4.5 includes hundreds of new transition effects like Page Curl, Curved Path and Camera Flash. The transitions interface has been redesigned to make browsing effects easier with categorizations like Simulations, Image Adjustments and Page effects. ProShow 4.5 also supports adding new transitions with ProShow Transition Packs. Volume 1 is available now for $19.95 and includes an additional 25, dynamic transition effects including Clouds, Smoke and 3D Drift.

A special bonus for Producer 4.5 users is the powerful new ability to build custom transitions. With Producer, professionals and power users can create their own custom transition effects for use in their shows. Custom built transitions can be used by the wizard and can be easily distributed to friends online.

ProShow 4.5 also comes with over 100 new, built-in slide styles for creating instant special effects in slide shows. The robust selection of new styles includes themed effects for Weddings, Portraits, Celebrations, along with popular staples like the Backdrop Zoom and Pan styles, new Caption styles and much more.

ProShow Gold and Producer 4.5 are available immediately from www.photodex.com .Upgrades start at $44.95 for ProShow Gold 4.5 and $89.95 for ProShow Producer 4.5, downloadable and boxed editions available. ProShow Transition Pack Volume 1 is available at $19.95 and requires ProShow 4.5.