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- Upload of images is frustratingly slow and often hangs in progress, requiring a browser restart and loss of work;<\/li>\n
- Dragging images from the media folder to a project sometimes simply doesn’t work at all, again requiring a restart;<\/li>\n
- Text boxes cannot be resized to accommodate more (or less) text than will fit in a given box;<\/li>\n
- Images are fixed and cannot be moved around on a page to facilitate creative layouts;<\/li>\n
- Viewing storybooks online seems inordinately slow, even on a fast campus-wide network.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For these reasons, most of my students reluctantly conclude that Panraven is not a reliable classroom tool, particularly for younger elementary students. The final product, while very compelling, is not worth the potential frustration of using the tool in a K-12 setting.<\/p>\n
That’s why I was thrilled to be directed by a colleague to Tabblo<\/a> (pronounce it “tableau”). Like Panraven, Tabblo creates online storybooks. (It also creates comic books and posters up to 24″ x 36″, but that’s another blog entry.) Unlike Panraven, however, uploading images is very fast. In fact, in my side by side tests on the same computer using the same network, Tabblo uploaded images many times faster than Panraven. Tabblo never hesitated to upload properly, and dragging photos into a story within Tabblo worked perfectly each time I tried it.<\/p>\n
Viewing storybooks online is also much faster than with Panraven. Turning a page in Tabblo produces a pleasing”page curl” effect (which works forwards or backwards at both the top and bottom corners of a page) and there is no noticeable delay in loading the next page as there is with Panraven. On the other hand, Tabblo stories appear much smaller on a web page than do Panraven stories (which give you the option of enlarging the display if you want), making captions or small text difficult to read. If there is a way to enlarge Tabblo books, I have not found it yet.<\/p>\n
Creating layouts in Tabblo is a breeze, and, while you can choose from a variety of preset layouts, the author is afforded complete control over the placement of images and text boxes on any page. Pictures can be moved from one place to another on a page or dragged off the page and stored in a virtual lightbox for use later. Text boxes can be any size and can be resized easily. It’s simple to insert new pages or delete unwanted pages. And–these actions happen quickly, with no discernible delay in execution.<\/p>\n
Tabblo doesn’t win in every category, however. Panraven allows you to embed your stories into a blog, wiki, or other web page. I like this feature very much. Tabblo generates code that “simulates” embedding (that is, it places an image of the storybook cover in your blog), but that image is in reality just a link to the Tabblo web site. It would be wonderful if Tabblo allowed true embedding of projects into web pages.<\/p>\n
Below is a test story that I created with Tabblo. Notice that the captions are difficult to read. I cannot find a way to increase the text size in the captions.<\/p>\n
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![\"Tabblo:](\"http:\/\/www.tabblo.com\/studio\/image\/public\/198121\/7d5b1d4441e15b4f367ec5a557c1375f.jpg\")