So, as I’m sure those of you who’ve been following this blog for at least a couple of weeks already know, I recently got a job as a graphic designer for a medium-sized fashion company in the middle of my hometown. And so far I’m absolutely loving it and have been able to effortlessly tackle any challenge that has come my way, to the attention of my boss who has complimented me twice in just one week. Twice! However, yesterday was the first day in the office where I was really thrown a curveball. The task seemed simple enough. I was to take the company’s fall catalog which was in Word format and convert it into a well-designed interactive flip page brochure. Sounded simple enough to me at the time as I thought there must be countless programs online that can do this sort of stuff with no problem whatsoever. Boy was I wrong.
On The Hunt For A Fast, Easy To Use Digital Flip Page Maker
I quickly hopped onto Google, put in a quick search, and downloaded the first piece of software that I saw. Disaster. It was slow, clunky, and crashed on me three times in the space of an hour. Okay, I thought. This is probably just me being unlucky. I then went on the download a second piece of flip page publication software which set me back $45.00. I’ve now just spent the same on the piece of flip page publication software as I usually do on a new pair of heels, surely this one has to work flawlessly, and it did…until they wanted another $50.00 from me to export the flip page magazine! What on earth!?
Anthony To The Rescue!
Annoyed and frustrated, as a last-ditch attempt I bashed out a desperate status on Linkedin asking my network if anyone knew of a simple, effective, easy-to-use piece of software that would turn my stale word document into a glossy, interactive flip page publication.
I then went to make a hot chocolate and came back to find over 8 replies. Didn’t realize I was that popular! To my slight disappointment though, 6 of the replies were people asking how I was and wanting to catch up, so completely unrelated, but then I saw a lengthy message from Anthony an old school friend who now works for a swanky Silicon Valley start-up.
He pointed me in the direction of a piece of online, cloud-based software called Yumpu Publishing and reliably informed me that a lot of the Silicon Valley guys have been using it to fire off slick online brochures and pitch presentations to their clients and potential investors. I thought, well if it’s good enough for the big shots in Silicon Valley then it should be more than enough for my modest needs.
Upon landing on their site, I immediately realized that it must be a modern, well-built piece of software just judging by their website which was glossy, responsive, well designed, and stunning from a design perspective. Completely unlike the sites for the previous flip-page brochure making software packages I had tried which looked like they were straight out of 1999.
It took me 30 seconds to sign up for the software and 4 minutes later I had exported an interactive, attractive flip page publication. Goodbye stale Word document. The software was super-fast and incredibly intuitive and easy to use.
What Really Sets Yumpu Publishing Apart From All The Others
But that was only the start. Upon using the software a little more there are a few key features that really stood out to me.;
- Cloud-based – This means I didn’t have to download anything to my hard drive and meant I could work on my publication anywhere there was an internet connection! Be that the US or Brazil. Not that I’m planning an extravagant trip to Brazil anytime soon though.
- Super intuitive Hotspot Editor – This is one of those features that fully blew my mind. It allowed me to DRAG videos and slideshows directly from my laptop into the software window and they would appear straight away precisely where I wanted them!
So, now when readers view the flip page catalog online they will not have to click a video link and be taken off to Youtube to be distracted, the video will instead stream inside the digital publication, as if by magic!
The hotspot editor allows you to embed way more than just video and slideshows though. You can seamlessly embed audio clips, internal links (next page, zoom, etc), and external links. - Optimized Content Delivery – This is something I didn’t see in any of the other outdated, badly built interactive flip page publication creation software packages I tried previously and it’s something that really can’t be overstated.
In 2017, now more than ever, we are living in a mobile world with more content being consumed on smartphones than on desktops in the US.
This software fits well into this new mobile world as it optimizes content for every screen size so the large proportion of readers that will inevitably be viewing my finished fashion catalog on iPhones and Android devices will get the optimum experience and will not have to put up with text not displaying properly and only half the images being displayed. - Plug into a vibrant community of readers – This is something I didn’t see any other interactive flipbook creator even attempt to try, which isn’t surprising, as, unlike a normal feature, something like this is incredibly hard to replicate. What am I talking about? I’m talking about the fact that when you have finished your interactive publication using the online software you can just hit export and then publish it wherever you want OR you have the option of exposing your flip page publication to Yumpu Publishing’s community of millions of enthusiastic readers. That’s huge!
So, there you have it guys, my simple quest to turn my stale, uninspiring fashion brochure into an interactive flip page publication led me to find a ridiculously feature-rich, slick, cloud-based digital publishing platform. Well, with a little help from my old friend Anthony.
Finally, A Non-Restrictive Free Version
Also, I almost forgot to mention, everything I mentioned above, is available in the FREE version of the online software. No, I’m not talking free for 14 days and then pay up to carry on using it. I mean completely free!
Of course, you can upgrade to their paid version which adds even more features and functionality which I didn’t even think was humanly possible. But the free version of Yumpu Publishing lets you create, edit, export, and share your publication to your heart’s content without charging you a dime. This is very much unlike the restrictive “won’t let you even export unless you pay” free versions of other flipbook creation software packages.
So, as always, when I come across more cool software, tips or tricks I will share them with you guys on this blog. And if you need to convert a stale word or PDF document of any kind, be it a brochure, magazine, or catalogue, into a slick, interactive, eye-catching flip page publication then I really can’t imagine a better tool for the job than Yumpu Publishing. Until next time, adios.