Jinny Gudmundsen

Kids love to share digital photos. Here are two programs that make sharing images more fun than simply attaching them to an e-mail. "Photo Parade" comes with great presentation features and is a breeze to use. "3D-Album" has snazzier looking photo displays, but its presentation features aren't as practical or as easy to use.

Photo Parade

With Photo Parade, kids import photos from any folder on their hard drive or from separate photo CDs. Kids arrange the photos and edit them, later adding titles, captions, narration and music. All this happens without affecting the original photo in case youngsters make a mistake and want to begin again. Kids select one of 50 different themes to create a slide show that can include animated cartoons and other special effects. Once finished, kids can save the presentation to a CD or e-mail it to friends and family. Kids and their e-mail recipients also can turn the slide show into a screensaver.

From Callisto Corporation, www.photoparade.com, for $40 (Super version). Windows and Macintosh.

3D-Album

With 3D-Album, kids can put their photos on spinning cubes or floating hot-air balloons. However, once the glitter wears off, 3D-Album has fewer features and is more challenging to use. The software doesn't provide photo-editing tools, doesn't work well with high-resolution photos, and doesn't always allow kids to insert titles, captions, and narration.

From Micro Research Institute, Inc, www.3d-album.com, $40, Windows.

Bottom Line: Kid-testers were willing to sacrifice the 3-D coolness factor for ease of use and preferred Photo Parade.

Gudmundsen, the editor of Choosing Children's Software magazine, publishes a free weekly newsletter at www.ComputingWithKids.com.