I really don't want to upset anyone at Pubcoder, I seemed to have ruffled some feathers with a few suggestions I made. There are a few omissions that would add a great deal of options and few things that behave oddly. My latest odd thing was when I tried to create audio files inside Pubcoder using the Mac voice synth it exported the file as an MP3 which of course Pubcoder won't accept as an audio file. It means converting it in another software but I don't understand exporting an audio file in the wrong format as in one Pubcoder doesn't consider an audio format? The pan and zoom is a little twitchy and required me to reduce the size of the window box to get it to work right, it's usable but having a way to constrain the "Drag" action would be better. Most softwares allow you to disable an axis say the "X" or "Y" axis so it will only pan up/down or sideways. That would be better than the pan and zoom which has issues.
The big omission which would open up a lot of possibilities is adding a way to parent objects or layers. Example, I'd like a way to say have a background image that I can pan across that is made up of windows or doors that you can click on the window or door that links you to another page. This would open up an ocean of possibilities for interactive games and content. There's no way to parent the links to the background so when you pan the links stay in the same place. I'm looking at a way to mimic the old "rail and rotate" games where you can look at multiple options then click on one to take you to the next place. Another example would be a library of books where you can pan across the shelf then click on one of the books so you can see inside. There's more high end functions I'd obviously love to see but a couple of basics are missing like parenting which would add a vast number of options. I can't even parent a text block to a background frame which is frustrating. I have to move the elements separately. The MP3 instead of .wave was just odd and requires extra steps. The constrain issue is another one that 99% of softwares would include so it's not an extreme request. Constraining an axis really is a basic feature in most softwares.
Once again I'm not wanting to upset anyone. Pubcoder is so amazing it makes you want more. A few tweaks and it'll make it to the next level. Now that I found the title bar I'll make some more forum posts with questions but I really am blown away with what Pubcoder can do. My big one was being able to save things from coloring books. I'm scared to do a coloring book until this is resolved due to negative reactions from parents and kids that want to save their work. It's a very cool feature but it's risky to use it given the negative reactions I'd get. The coloring game is 95% there but that last 5% is sadly everything. I've dealt with parents in this country and if they can't print out and put their child's masterpiece on the refrigerator they'll want my head even though it's not something I can offer at this point. It's a stunning feature I'm afraid to use. Even a save until manually reset would be a compromise. Apparently the feature isn't even in the planning stages so I'm guessing a year or more. Just sad it's so close but I don't dare include it in a book.
Please don't be offended I really do love this software and I'm not exaggerating when I say I have a 100 books I want to make in the next few years using it, I have the titles already and partial outlines on some of them. I could make that a 150 with a few tweaks in the software. Saving your work in the coloring game and parenting are really the two big ones.
Thanks, and keep up the staggering work. I've looked at dozens of authoring softwares and nothing comes close to Pubcoder.
FYI I hadn't been able to use the forum because I was trying to add the title where it says "Start conversation". Turns out it's above that and when you're running on 3 hours of sleep a night not all that obvious. I finally got 8 hours of sleep and figured it out. I can use Photoshop and write in my sleep but figuring out new software and forums is beyond me when I'm that tired:-) Insomnia is a terrible thing......
