Sothink Glanda is an easy-to-use program developed to provide an easy way of creating flash (swf) movies. Using templates, built-in resources (such as images, sounds, buttons, movie clips, etc.) and effects one can generate flash movies in just a few clicks.

The program showed the best from the very beginning. The installation process is simple, and is done by clicking several times Next – what can be easier!

When the program starts, window 'New From Template' appears:

Here one may choose either one of the template projects (Album, Banner, or Navigation Buttons), or Blank Document will be used in a new project.

Let's try Album project that is dedicated to make a photo gallery. The window for choosing type of album appears. Here one can choose among two types of albums: with embedded in swf movie file photos or with photos stored separately from the swf file. The advantages of the both types are explained in the same window, so that one doesn't need to look to the help to make a decision. By the way, the help is also well structured and covers all the aspects of work with the program. Additionally, there are tutorials available for downloading from the website of the program which provide additional assistance in understanding the process of creating flash movies.

Returning to our Album project, in the next window the template itself is being chosen:

Let it be, for example, Snow. Now we need to add some photos to the album. If the check box 'Show advanced settings on the next page' is marked, on the next page some additional parameters of the slide show (such as time delay) and some more are provided. Again, it is quite good idea to provide additional settings, so that one who wants to create flash file in a little bit more advanced way is also not limited in options.

Finally the swf file is generated:

The structure of the generated movie can be viewed and editted in the main window of the program:

Parts of a movie, being shown sequentally in the movie, are called here scenes. As can be seen on the left of the window, the generated movie has not only an album scene in it, but also the scene with loading status bar that is being shown while downloading the movie from internet (since publishing in Internet is expected for this type of project). Double clicking on any scene of the movie will open the Scene Properties window, where some parameters of playing the scene, as well as the source code of the scene can be modified.

Summing up, we have got a nice looking and properly operating flash movie swf file in just a few clicks of mouse:

It can not be shown in this screenshot, but in the chosen template Snow there is a snow falling down at the frame of the album, and change of photos is being performed with cool transition effects, as it was set in the advanced parameters by default.

As to the interface of the program, it is without any doubts was developed by professionals using the latest technologies in programming, thus it looks thorough and modern. Assuming the provided functionality for creating movies from blank template, as well as ability to modify the projects generated from templates, Sothink Glanda seems to be very convenient tool to start working with flash technology. It will be also not useless to advanced users because of the provided simple way of working and flexibility of the program. And only if someday you find out that this tool is not enough for you anymore, you may want to turn to some more complex professional (and by the way expensive) programs like Macromedia Flash.

The limitations of the trial versions are not crucial: you may try the program for 15 days, with a small message "Powered by Sothink" being displaced in the left upper corner of the generated movies.