Today I finished 'end of year' teachers' gifts.  I made photo books for our second grade teachers using Mixbook.com.  I have experience creating photo books using a variety of services including Kodak, Blurb, and My Publisher.  I have been meaning to try this online photo book site for awhile and thought this a good opportunity.

Here is what I liked about the service:

• Ability to pull my photos from existing online storage account.  For me this meant creating a web album in Picasa and granting Mixbook access to these photos.  The integration was smooth as silk.  Have your pictures stored on another service?  You can pull pictures from other sites such as Facebook, SmugMug, Yahoo, Flickr, and Photo Bucket.  And of course if you don't use an online storage service you can upload right from the computer.
• Easily sort imported photos by 'date added' or 'used'.  This made it easy to keep track of the pictures I already placed in the book.
• Ability to collaborate with other 'contributors'.  Although I spear headed this gift idea, these books are actually class gifts so I wanted a few parents' input on the format of the book.  I was able to invite and control who was allowed to collaborate on the books.  Again, the process was very user friendly.
• So many layout and background options.  This is one of the best features.  Compared to other photo book services I have used, this has the most flexible layout features.  You can modify the size and rotation of any photo holder and as well as add photos anywhere on the page.  While working on a page, changing backgrounds and layouts is very easy.
• There are so many 'sharing' options. Now that the books are finished and being printed for the teachers, I can email the link to all of the parents in the grade. This way they can view the book and order a copy for themselves if they would like.  You can also share on your blog, Twitter, Facebook and many more.
• Printed copies can be ordered in soft or hard cover.  To keep the cost down, I ordered soft covered books for the teachers.  The price was very reasonable.

A few improvements still needed:

• At times there was some 'hang' time that slowed up my work.
• For sharing, I would have loved a way to copy and paste a link into an email.  Instead, I had to send the link directly from Mixbook.
• I would have liked more control over the 'AutoMix' feature.  I wanted to be able to specify how many pages the book should be and a range of number of pictures per page.

Overall, I think this is a very easy and creative way to share photos online.  Instead of just posting or emailing pictures, you can add text, backgrounds, stickers and make the memories look special in little time.  Mixbook also provides a way to put together a meaningful group gift.  I could see using it to put together a 'grandparent' book with family members from different parts of the country collaborating.  I am anxiously awaiting the hard copies.  I will post my impressions in a follow up when they arrive.

Update on Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 10:58AM by MidLifeMom

I just received my printed soft cover Mixbooks.  I am very pleased with them.  They will make great gifts!!!