Use Your Flip-Pal at Your Summer Family Reunion

It’s now summertime, and many of us will be attending family reunions. Others will be traveling to visit relatives. And many of us will stay home and let the relatives come to us. (That’s what we’re doing this summer). To make that reunion more memorable, you might consider picking up a Flip-Pal mobile scanner to use both at home and when traveling.

I use my Flip-Pal to scan photos and documents when on the road – or if I’m home and scanning anything under 4 x 6 – or over 8.5 x 11 inches in size. I’ve been scanning my genealogy documents as well as my pictures, and using a flatbed scanner, as well as a high-speed scanner with a feeder attached. I’ve now added my Flip-Pal to that mix. The flatbed scanner is still my scanner of choice if I’m home and I’m scanning 8.5×11 documents. Otherwise most of the scanning has been switched to my Flip-Pal.

The big advantage for me has been that I can scan my photos a lot faster then usual using the Flip-Pal. Large photos and documents can be scanned in several shots, and then stitched together perfectly using the software provided with every Flip-Pal. This works equally well wheither I’m using a PC or my Mac. (Note – if using a Mac, be sure and shut off the auto-upload to iPhoto). Scanning albums is nearly as easy as scanning indiviual pictures. I recently scanned an album that belonged to my mother, with many of the photos glued into place. I took the lid off of the scanner, turned it over, laid the scanner on the pictures on the album page – lined it up by looking right through the scanner – and pressed the scan button. The scanner has a little window on it where the user can check to see if the scan came out good – just like your digital camera. Scans can be made in both 300 dpi, and 600 dpi. As noted above, the software supplied with the scanner is both Windows and Mac compatible.

The Flip-Pal is battery-operated, allowing full portability. When I made my first scans, I was using typical AA batteries that I bought in quantity at Costco. As I remember it, I was getting about 400 scans or so on a set of four batteries. I quickly realized that I was going to save huge quantities of money by purchasing an AC AA battery charger and a dozen batteries. That was a smart move. When I purchased my Flip-Pal, the only case available had no pockets for supplies. A deluxe case is now available – complete with pockets, and the earlier cases have been discontinued.

Another innovation is the Flip-Pal Sketch. You just lay the Sketch on photo that you wish to make notes on (like people’s names!), and scan the picture through the marked-up Sketch – thus identifying folks in the picture. It works great – making identifying photos while in your relatives’ homes easier than ever. My friend, Pat Rchley (DearMyrtle), pointed out to me that she uses two Sketches – one that she’s scanning, and another that she’s having her relatives doing the writing on, thus speeding up the process.

Two other innovations are software collections put together on DVD for the Flip-Pal, and available only with the purchase of a Flip-Pal mobile scannner. The last several months I’ve been using the Flip-Pal Creative Suite 2 software on my PC running Windows 7 – and I’m very impressed. The package includes PagePlus Essentials; PhotoPlus Essentials; WebPlus Essentials; Digital Scrapbook Artist 2; SlideShow Expressions; and Family Tree Heritage Platinum 8 genealogy software. The downside of this software is that it only runs on PCs.

A short time ago, a Flip-Pal with Creativity Suite 3 on DVD has been added to the Flip-Pal line-up. This new software package will runs on PCs and Macs – and includes the unsurpassed Adobe Photoshop Elements 10! This software helps you turn your precious photos into sensational photos. Use automated options to crop, fine tune, repair and retouch your photos, tag and share photos with your social network and quickly organize, find, view and manage all your photos and video clips. As a Mac user, I’ve been using this software on a daily basis for years – and vitrually every illustration on GenealogyBlog has undergone manipulation with Adobe Photoshop Elements. Also included is Corel’s Paint It! software. It allows you to choose a painting style and watch the automated painting process create perfect hand-painted photo art. A third software on the DVD is Logo Design Studio Pro, allowing the user to produce professional logos for any business, non-profit, or personal use.

The Flip-Pal has been approved for use not only in the Library of Congress, but in the National Archives. It’s gentle on documents, as it’s very light, and you do not move it across a document. And speaking of light, very little is used in the scanning process – thus protecting those precious old documents. Items that could not be photocopied, can be scanned with the Flip-Pal.

The Flip-Pal unit itself sells for under $150, while the Flip-Pal with the Creative Suite 2 sells for under $200. The new addition to the line-up, the Flip-Pal with Creativity Suite 3 (detailed above) sells for $209.99. Yes – it’s $10 more, but if you want to use Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 (which I recommend), it’s a great price!

Family Roots Publishing has just made a special purchase of a small book on document, photo, and artifact preservation that’s been out of print for a while – it’s entitled A Preseervation Guide, and was written by Babara Sagraves several years ago. We’re adding a copy to the package when you purchase a Flip-Pal mobile scanner from us during our Independence Day Flip-Pal promotion. Buy a Flip-Pal mobile scanner from Family Roots Publishing during promotion period the and we’ll throw in: