As one of our top choices for photo album software, SmileBooks has earned its place in the rankings. We were excited to try SmileBooks and see just how their photo book software works. After creating our very first SmileBooks photo book, we were not disappointed. Although SmileBooks doesn't offer the amount of backgrounds and embellishments as other photo album software choices we reviewed, it does give you more creative freedom with your templates, photos and text. We were impressed with the ease of use and with the customizable features that are available through SmileBooks.
We found plenty of reasons to fall in love with SmileBooks. You don't have to upload your pictures to the application before placing them in your book. While that is an option, you can also drag and drop pictures from your computer's hard drive into your photo book. It was convenient, it was easy and it was fast.
Another excellent feature that SmileBooks offers is the ability to download your own background images; we recommend everyone do this. The backgrounds and the pictures are stored on the left side of the interface, and you can easily drag them to the book project on the right. Users who like to create their own scrapbook pages and simply place them on a page to be bound and printed will find SmileBooks a perfect option. For convenience purposes SmileBooks allows you to select one background and in one-click add it to every page in the book.
In addition to adding your own backgrounds, you can also add your own clipart and embellishments to personalize your book. We appreciated this tool and enjoyed the versatility that it provides and the ability that we had to make each book so different and so personal for each user. Everything is completely customizable and like the pictures and text that can be sized and placed anywhere, you can do the same for embellishments. This gives almost complete creative freedom to the photo book creator.
While SmileBooks may be slightly confusing at first, it doesn't take long to understand its interface and navigation. The photo album software has a toolbar running across the top of the application which allows users to customize and edit their photo book. The problem with the toolbar is that there are no labels for the icons included on the toolbar, which causes it be somewhat confusing. Many of the icons are common enough that some users will understand what they are selecting; however, it is not general enough or clear enough that every user will understand it right from the beginning.
On the right side of the application are three tabs labeled pictures, design and layout. Here you will have the ability to add pictures, change or customize the features in each area. Across the bottom is the pages of the book. You can select any of the pages at any time to create or edit the content. It is important to mention that while other photo album software choices allow you to add pages one at a time, SmileBooks requires pages to be added eight at a time.
Through visiting the SmileBooks website you gain access to all of their customer support resources. Across the top of the page are several links that will take you to the main areas of the website: Create a Photo Book, Get Inspired, Products, Prices, Special Offers and Help. Through the Help link we found resources that allowed us to telephone customer support, email customer support, watch how-to videos, access frequently asked questions (FAQs), participate in a forum with other users and get additional tips from the company blog.
The FAQs were broken down into two sections: Questions on SmileBooks Products, Orders and Services and Questions on SmileBooks Design Service. The numbered questions also served as links to each answer. We liked the design of the questions and felt like that section was more organized than many other FAQs sections we've seen on other sites.
SmileBooks photo album software offer several tools that are fabulous to have in a photo book service. We appreciate the customization that is available and the ability that we had to create our own templates by placing and sizing text and photos anywhere we wanted on each page. While the default options are limited, you can upload your own backgrounds and embellishments to the application. While some users may be intimidated by the thought of completely creating their own page, many photo book users will appreciate the opportunity to easily add character and make their photo book exactly what they are hoping for.
