Flash Effect SiteBuilder

Flash Effect SiteBuilder is an interesting little gem of a Flash animation and website building program that's really a diamond in the rough - or a diamond in the glitz, if you can find the core functionality underneath the glitter and shine. It offers quick, easy site templates for people who want a Flash site but don't necessarily know Flash well enough to create the desired effects.

Despite the fact that the website alone brings the professionalism of this Flash animation software into question (you'll see what I mean when you see the dancing girls), I was pleasantly startled when I opened Flash Effect SiteBuilder to find a staggering array of pre-made Flash website templates with many slick, well-done, and rather complex effects. Now granted, the templates are extremely gaudy and noisy; that didn't surprise me at all. They're very customizable, though, even for a novice user. It'll take a little clicking to get used to it and figure out what you want to do, but overall it's not that complicated to learn.

It comes with an HTML editor, a basic Flash editor, and a player that lets you view your content in the program without having to publish for more advance effects. The various templates are categorized to let you start with a complete template or work with various pre-made objects by inserting them and customizing them to your needs. I managed to start from scratch and build a complete website design with multiple complicated effects and menu options in five minutes, and it didn't look half bad (no, the posing girl isn't mine).

It's not perfect. It's limited in what it will allow you to do, and customizing some of the options takes more advanced Flash knowledge than its target audience might have. But overall it's a nifty little program, although I'd have to take the full version for a spin to really be able to recommend it.