Manufacturer
Website	Flax - Flash Text Effect Tool
Platform	Windows OSX Linux
Price	$29.95
Rating	Average: Select ratingPoorOkayGoodGreatAwesome Your rating: None

Once installed Flax comes up with a rather minimal interface of floating windows looking somewhat odd on a windows system, but ideal for running it alongside other applications like your favorite swf-reading vjsoft.
The Effects Window lists about more than 40 different basic settings, which can be tweaked by one to eight parameters to look slighty different. Effect settings can be saved and imported back into the Application. nice.

Text formatting is pretty basic, you can add different shading or colored outline styles tho.

To create an effect just select size of the output window, font and background colour, type some text, select an effect and watch the results in the real-time preview. When you've tweaked the effect parameters to your satisfaction, you can export it as a swf-file for use in a VJ-Soft reading this filetype - f.e. running smooth with Resolume 2.1.

While exporting to swf, flax creates a frame animation of symbols, giving you the opportunity
of editing or combining a number of single files in a row in Flash, providing a workaround
for the fact that Flax can only handle one combination of text and effect at a time.

Goldshell, the manufacturer, seems to be aware of this issue and offers a free key for
clipyard on buying flax - an additional application dedicated to splicing different Flax-Files together.

Other options inside Flax include adding a background picture (tho it mite be cooler to export your work with a neutral colour for keying purposes) or exporting it as standalone application (hm... yeah, ok) or setting this file as your system screensaver (ow... cute ;)

all in all... a bit overpriced but convenient - designed for people
looking for flashy effects without investing time on
programming... overall low cheese factor on effects
compared to other applications in the same range.

... and if your tired of bouncing letters around, why not go and try some dingbat fonts.... :)