FlashPaper
Finally, it's time to mention my favorite feature. Rather, it's what would be my favorite feature if it worked on Macintosh, but it doesn't. I'm simply left to dream about the day it can be my favorite feature.
Creating SWFs from Printable Documents
For those of you on Windows machines, say hello to FlashPaper, the coolest and quickest way to get MS Office documents, PDFs, and other printable items into their own snazzy Flash interface for posting to the Web without actually doing any work. This handy, dandy feature allows you to convert pretty much anything into a Flash .swf file, complete with its own scrollable, zoomable interface (zoomable is a word, right?). So, if you were previously unimpressed with the ability to drag-and-drop a document into a page and use it as content, here's the thing that just might turn you around (see Figure 15).
Figure 15 I "borrowed" this image from Macromedia's Web site because I'm a Mac user and can't make my own screenshot of FlashPaper.
You can convert a Word doc into FlashPaper and post it online in about 60 seconds. And that, I assure you, is faster than any Flash developer can do it building this functionality from scratch. And just to top things off, it looks cool. No design skill is required.
To learn more about Contribute 2 and perhaps pick up a copy for yourself, check out http://macromedia.com/software/contribute/.