Openoffice Review

Openoffice
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I thought I was ordering word, it was misslabled it with MS word.It never did load- the word processing or the rest of the crap that was included-none of it would even open. The seller refused to except it as a return and refused to return my money. At least it didn't screw up my computer. Maybe you'll have better luck-but be ware the seller stand behind his probuct....way, way, WAY, WAY behind his product.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Openoffice



Buy Now

Click here for more information about Openoffice

Read More...

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 Review

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
CorelDraw was my first foray into vector graphics back when version 3 showed up on my desk at the small "Mom and Pop" screenprinting shop i worked at. Back then, Corel came with OODLES of free fonts, clipart, manuals ... not to mention FREE technical support via a toll-free number.
i stayed with Corel exclusively until version 10 ... enduring countless patches, bugs and the dreaded "odd-numbered" curse (if you tried version 5 or 7, you feel my pain). Adobe Photoshop was always my photo-editing program of choice ... CorelPhotoPAINT just never quite "did it" for me.
Industry demands eventually delegated that i delve into Adobe Illustrator. Being already familiar with Adobe Photoshop's features, tools and "look and feel", Illustrator didn't present a huge, overbearing learning curve. In Illustrator, i found the same robust features as CorelDraw ... which wasn't what impressed me about Illustrator. Adobe's intuitive programs, and their ability to interact with one another ... seamlessly ... THAT is what won me over to Illustrator. Illustrator's ability to edit/create PDF's in their native format? WOW! Exporting LAYERED vector files to Photoshop ... with layers INTACT??? WOW!!! (i could go on)
Now, that being said ... there are STILL things that i prefer in CorelDRAW compared to Illustrator. The EXTRUDE function in corel is MUCH easier to utilize. The PowerClip function is more user friendly than Illustrator's "make clipping mask" function. The ability to customize/edit/add shortcut keys is an amazing feature. (again ... i could go on) (EDIT: i learned this IS possible in Illustrator CS2 via the EDIT/Keyboard Shortcuts, or Alt+Shift+Ctrl+K)
In regards to importing and exporting files from other applications, CorelDRAW wins, hands down. It boasts a ROBUST set of import and export filters, my favorite being the .eps import filter which lets you import an .eps while converting the fonts to curves DURING the import. This is a MUST HAVE if you work with an .eps file created on another computer whose fonts you lack. If i had a dollar for every .eps that pulls into Illustrator with fonts blown out ... i'd be independently wealthy. WHY Illustrator has never implemented this is beyond me.
So, to sum it up ... CorelDRAW is a great program ... but i can't imagine it being my ONLY vector drawing program. Just like in real life, you need a great team. This program, paired with Adobe Creative Suite, meets my needs perfectly.


Click Here to see more reviews about: CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3

Whether they are design professionals on deadline or small business owners creating their own marketing materials, customers will enjoy a significant productivity boost from CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3. The suite simplifies the design process for projects of any scale, including logo creation, professional marketing brochures, and eye-catching signs. Customers choose CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 because it delivers a combination of superior design capabilities, speed, ease of use, and affordability that's unmatched in the graphics software industry.

Buy Now

Click here for more information about CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3

Read More...

Microsoft Word Home and Student 2007 Review

Microsoft Word Home and Student 2007
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
There was a time when Microsoft Office Word's most recent incarnation was held as the Gold Standard of word-processing programs by most casual- and many professional-computer users. This "article of faith" was so ubiquitous that the pre-installed downgraded word-processing program, part of what is called Microsoft Works, was held in some contempt by most users and usually deleted right away and replaced with the most recent version of Word. No more.
Office Word 2007 is packed with things no one needs and wastes every user's time trying to figure it out.
Compared to the over written and unnecessarily complex Word 2007, the basic templates in Microsoft Works (version 8.5) are refreshingly appealing, simple to use and entirely adequate for most writing and word processing tasks.
Unlike the older versions of Word and the Works Word Processor, Office Word 2007 opens to seven separate template tabs - Each with its own full range of choices and each with own set of multiple and complex tool bars and options. These view pages include 1) Home, 2) Insert, 3) Page Layout, 4) References, 5) Mailings, 6) Review and 7) View. Without going into detail, suffice it to say that the truly necessary aspects of each were once contained on the two simple toolbars most commonly used in the earlier versions of Word, Editing and Navigation.
Navigating between these seven tabbed templates is like moving from room to room - or from house to house - to complete one meal or one conversation. It is simply a user-unfriendly, ill-conceived design. The multiplicity, design and inclusion of many useless options on the production default page ("Home") alone are distracting, delaying, complicated and yield no better product than the earlier, simpler versions.
Word processing should be straightforward, easily navigated and complete. The basic tools of spell-checking, formatting, cutting, pasting, highlighting, etc. should be positioned so as to make them immediately available while working. With Office Word 2007, Microsoft has abandoned these basic precepts and needs. Every time a different tab/template selection needs to be entered to accomplish a necessary task, the writer is distracted. Any writer - including many of you who are reading this, will agree that adding distraction reduces productivity and efficiency.
Microsoft's Office Word 2007 was appears to have not been designed by writers, but by software engineers rewarded for building bigger and more complex programs.
The same strategic error was made by Microsoft in its current operating system, Windows VISTA. Most users of the Microsoft XP system found it perfectly adequate. VISTA bloated a good operating system until it became a gargantuan program of gigabyte-guzzling proportions while adding little if any functional improvements. Yet another example of size and complexity winning out over necessary functionality. Office Word 2007 is a repetition of the self-same misjudgment.
Time is of the essence to most people when they write. It took me nearly ten minutes to figure out how to change a default that double spaced every line I wrote! The Style templates are simply bizarre and distracting, taking up fully half the toolbar space in the basic "Home" production tab. The more functional and necessary functions are squeezed into mini-size half icons making the necessary navigation all the more difficult.
Yes, there is a way to customize one's own toolbar - but why should we have to spend our own time to re-simplify what Microsoft Word 2007 has literally encrypted and hidden in a maze of overlapping separate templates, options and useless features!
There is talk of VISTA being replaced sooner rather than later and that, as heavily promoted as it was and with the talk of ceasing to provide support or updates for XP in the coming year, it will be piled atop the 'it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time' junk heap along with Windows Millennium. I expect Word 2007 to wind up there, too.
In the meanwhile, there are good choices, even if you choose to stay within the Windows 'family' of word processing programs. Most simply (and inexpensively) the aforementioned Microsoft Works 8.5 actually turns out to be a pretty user friendly and functional package that includes a more familiar and easier to use word processing program, an Excel-like spread sheet as well as an Access-like database for keeping and sorting information.
Office Word 2003 and XP software is still out there and is getting pretty inexpensive - And it is far easier to use.
As a former admitted "Microsoft Word snob," I must confess that I have learned something from these experiences. Bigger is not necessarily better. The principle applies to software as well as to cars. Microsoft should not be rewarded for bringing this 'upgrade' to market any more than the developers and promoters of Hummers ought be acknowledged for their ecological contributions to the well being of the planet.
I have also learned that the earlier and simpler versions of Microsoft's word processing programs are far superior in ease of use and essential, efficient functionality than is its newest product, Office Word 2007. I encourage every new computer buyer to give Microsoft Works a try before automatically dumping it in favor of Word and its related programs. You might be in for a very pleasant and economically satisfying experience!


Click Here to see more reviews about: Microsoft Word Home and Student 2007

Microsoft Word Home and Student 2007Win32 CD

Buy Now

Click here for more information about Microsoft Word Home and Student 2007

Read More...

Adobe InDesign CS5 Upgrade Review

Adobe InDesign CS5 Upgrade
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I'm sure the product is great but Adobe will not allow an upgrade from a Suite Version to just InDesign CS5. Product returned.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Adobe InDesign CS5 Upgrade

Adobe InDesign CS5 software introduces new and enhanced productivity and collaboration features. Integrate interactivity, animation, sound, and video in documents and presentations to attract, engage, and inform your audience. Take advantage of intuitive tools that simplify object selection and editing. Streamline file management by including mixed page sizes in a single file. Access Adobe CS Live online services from within InDesign to streamline critical review processes. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.

Upgrade to Adobe InDesign CS5 To install an upgrade version of InDesign CS5 software, you must have an eligible earlier version of Adobe software: InDesign CS2, CS3, & CS4.
For information on eligibility, visit www.adobe.com/go/upgradeinfo.
Top reasons to upgrade to Adobe InDesign CS5
Interactive documents and presentations Engage and inform readers with documents and presentations that integrate interactivity, animation, sound, and video. Export documents directly from InDesign to SWF files for playback in Adobe Flash Player.
Simplified object selection and editing Perform repetitive layout tasks efficiently. Manipulate frames and frame content without switching tools. Dynamically adjust white space between objects while maintaining the relationship between frames. Use on-object controls to modify frame corners directly in the layout.
Integration with Adobe CS Review Create and share document reviews online from within InDesign through integration with CS Review, a new CS Live online service. Invite colleagues and clients to comment using just a browser. Using the CS Review integration in InDesign, you can view comments in the context of your InDesign layout, making it easier to address feedback to meet project deadlines more efficiently. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.
Multiple page sizes Create pages with different sizes in a single document to streamline file management. Share the same master page across different-sized layouts for greater efficiency.
Tracked text changes Mark up text directly in InDesign and easily track copy revisions. Get to final copy faster by accepting or rejecting text changes within the document.
Paragraphs that span and split columns Quickly format headlines, subheads, or any text to span multiple columns in a single text frame without having to create separate text frames.
All-new Layers panel Easily manage layers in simple and complex documents. Quickly find, select, lock, hide, name, and change the stacking order of individual page items directly in the Layers panel. Drag objects from one group to another. The new Layers panel behavior is similar to the Layers panel in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.
Production enhancements Speed up delivery of print and digital documents. Preview InDesign pages and placed images in Adobe Bridge. Find linked assets used in one layout and drag them into another InDesign document using the integrated Mini Bridge panel.
Eliminate missing fonts InDesign automatically installs the required fonts when you open a document and uninstalls them when you close it. Appropriate font licensing is still required.
Digital export Export your page design and text layouts with greater fidelity to Flash Professional CS5, retaining animation, video, and sound from your InDesign document. Export InDesign content as XHTML with greater control over page order for editing in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5. Export eBooks authored in InDesign CS5 to industry-standard EPUB files for reading on laptops or mobile devices, including the Apple iPad, Sony Reader, and Barnes & Noble nook. Include rich media to bring eBooks to life when read on a personal computer using Adobe Digital Editions, a desktop reading application.
Live captions Generate static or live captions automatically from image metadata, and add text before or after the selected metadata tag in InDesign. Specify the position and style of the caption, optionally including the caption on its own layer.

Design professional layouts for print and digital publishing
Cross-media publishing Publish documents in print, online, or on mobile devices. Create engaging interactive documents (SWF files) for playback in Adobe Flash Player, complete with animation, sound, and video, interactive PDF documents with video or sound, or sophisticated layouts for print publishing using a versatile, intuitive toolset.
Integration with Adobe CS Live online services Improve the efficiency of critical design processes with new CS Live online services that work with InDesign. Conduct online reviews of page layouts using CS Review, one of the new CS Live online services. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.
Integration with Adobe design, web, and digital-reading applications Move projects smoothly from design to print or digital output thanks to tight integration with industry-leading Adobe solutions such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, and Flash Professional, as well as Adobe Digital Editions.
Productivity tools Produce sophisticated page layouts using customer-inspired productivity features such as the ability to include mixed page sizes in a single file, streamlined object selection and editing, an all-new Layers panel, smart guides, rapid table creation, and multiple-file placement with fewer clicks.
Robust text composition Create beautiful, sophisticated text for any medium with professional typography features, including styles, text wrap, the Paragraph Composer, OpenType support, and drop caps. Include headlines that span or split columns without a separate text frame.
Built-in creative tools Explore creative possibilities directly within InDesign using integrated drawing tools, nondestructive effects, built-in Adobe Photoshop effects, finer transparency controls, and support for 3D Photoshop artwork.
Preflighting and production Speed up production, increase reliability, and deliver error-free documents with document-installed fonts, PDF export in the background, live preflighting, JDF technology, and on-screen controls.
Automation Create powerful automated workflows to reduce the time you spend on repetitive tasks. Standards-based XML features can automatically lay out pages with text and images. Incorporate database-driven content for greater efficiency when publishing across channels.
Extensibility Rapidly build unique workflows and software solutions for custom publishing using InDesign Markup Language (IDML), an XML-based file format that enables developers to create or modify files using standard XML tools.
Collaboration in editorial workflows Improve collaboration between design and editorial teams with tight integration between InDesign CS5 and Adobe InCopy CS5 and the ability to track text changes in InDesign.
Top new features of Adobe InDesign CS5
Interactive documents and presentations Engage and inform readers and clients with documents and presentations that integrate interactivity, animation, sound, and video. Help reduce costs by creating interactivity directly in InDesign.
New intuitive panels help you add rich media to page layouts:
Animation panel. Apply the same motion presets included in Flash Professional CS5, or add your own custom presets to InDesign to instantly animate objects on the page without writing code. Options in the Animation panel let you specify duration, speed, rotation, scale, and opacity. Quickly edit a motion path using the Pen tool, and convert any path--even one you import from Illustrator--into a custom motion path with the click of a button
Object States panel. Create multi-state objects that indicate which button is selected, display images in a slide show, or show versions of text in different languages. Multi-state objects are page items that have multiple appearances. Object states can be images, text frames, or any other objects or groups you want to display when someone clicks or rolls over an interactive button while viewing an interactive document. For example, you might create a multi-state object that consists of multiple images to create a click-through slide show; when the viewer clicks a button, the next image appears.
Timing panel. Control animation timing and playback without having to use a timeline to add keyframes or create motion tweens. Use the Timing panel to determine when objects such as bullet points in a presentation or images on a page should animate in the interactive document. For example, animations can be triggered to play when the page loads, when the page is clicked, or when a button is clicked. Loop the animation or play it a specific number of times. Link objects to animate simultaneously, with the same or different durations.
Media panel. Preview and scrub through placed video files without leaving InDesign. You can select a frame from the video sequence to represent the video in your InDesign document before the video plays, and even create navigation points that determine which parts of the video play when you click a button or otherwise trigger an action.
Preview panel. Take animations, buttons, and other interactive elements for a test drive without leaving InDesign. You no longer have to re-export your content every time you make a change to any rich media element--interactivity, animation, video, or sound--just to see how the change affects the document. Instead, preview and test a selection, the page, or the entire document before you export your final SWF file.

Simplified object selection and editing Perform repetitive layout tasks efficiently in InDesign CS5. Numerous improvements can help make tasks such as aligning and distributing objects or customizing frame corners faster and easier.
Multiple transformations with a single tool. You can use one tool to select, align, distribute, rotate, resize, reposition, crop, and scale frames and frame content. InDesign CS5 dynamically switches to the right tool for the job, so you never need to lift your mouse from the layout. The new Content Grabber lets you quickly reposition content within a frame, just by clicking and dragging. A real-time crop preview helps you position the content precisely where you want it.
Gap tool. Adjust the white space between objects to dynamically reposition page items while maintaining design relationships. Shift the white space up or down, left or right, without having to crop or resize each object on the page individually. You can even expand or contract the white space, dynamically resizing or cropping adjacent objects accordingly. The new Auto Fit feature keeps the relationship between the object and its frame consistent as you resize the frame.
Live Corner Effects. Drag the corners of a frame to dynamically change the radius and shape of the frame directly in the layout. Modify one corner at a time or all four simultaneously.
Easy grid placement. Take the tedium out of placing images in a grid, as in a directory or catalog. Simply press arrow keys to add columns and rows for images or threaded text frames.

Integration with Adobe CS Review Streamline reviews and accelerate your design workflow with CS Review, a new Adobe CS Live online service that integrates with InDesign CS5. Using CS Review, you can create and share documents for online review within InDesign. Colleagues and clients can view your document online and add comments with easy-to-use annotation tools directly in their browsers. All comments are automatically displayed in InDesign CS5, within the context of your page layout. Clicking a comment shows you the content it references, so you can easily match comments to the appropriate areas of page design. Simple sharing, easy access to reviews, and centralized comments speed up the review process to help you finish your project on time and within budget. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time.
Multiple page sizes Simplify file management by creating pages of different sizes in a single document. Whether you're designing marketing collateral, brand identity deliverables, or a magazine layout with complex folds, keeping all of a project's assets in the same file shortens design and production time.
The new Page Selection tool makes it easy to select individual pages, which you can resize using options in the Control panel. You can easily share design assets by applying the same master pages to pages of varying sizes. With the Page Selection tool, you can even reposition the master page content for different layouts: select the page, select Show Master Page Overlay in the Control panel, and then drag the edge of the master page to position it over the page.
Track text changes Get to final copy faster now that you can track text changes directly in your InDesign document. You can write, edit, and mark up text in InDesign with no need to import separate text files and remap styles every time there are copy changes.
With Track Changes enabled, InDesign keeps track of additions, revisions, and deletions in the document. The page layout remains uncluttered; to see the changes, simply open the Story Editor. There, you can accept or reject changes using options similar to those in popular word-processing applications. InDesign automatically assigns a different color for changes made by each user, so you can easily see who's made the edits.
Paragraphs that span and split columns Quickly format headlines, subheads, or any text to span multiple columns in a single text frame. In previous versions of InDesign, all text in a frame conformed to the column width. To span a headline across multiple columns, you had to cut the headline out of the story and paste it into a separate text frame. Now you can apply settings to a paragraph, specifying whether the text should span some or all columns, or split columns, so that InDesign automatically reflows what was one column into two or more columns.
All-new Layers panel The Layers panel has been completely rebuilt. If you're familiar with the Layers panel in Illustrator and Photoshop, you'll feel right at home in InDesign. You can now view not only layers but the individual objects they contain.
Select, hide, name, lock, and change the stacking order of objects such as text frames, images, and shapes directly within the Layers panel.
Reconfiguring grouped objects is fast and easy. With a quick click, you can reveal the hierarchy of objects within a group, including any hidden objects. Then, simply drag objects from one group to another in the Layers panel--with no need to ungroup, select items, and regroup.
Production enhancements InDesign CS5 includes several productivity advances designed to help you deliver print and digital documents faster. Improved integration with Adobe Bridge software and the new Adobe Mini Bridge panel in InDesign, document-installed fonts, and the ability to export PDF documents in the background all can help you meet deadlines with ease.
The new document-installed fonts feature helps avoid the inconvenience of missing fonts during production and printing. When you package a document, InDesign includes fonts used in that document. When that document is opened on another system, InDesign looks for a document fonts folder and automatically installs those fonts for use only in that document. It then uninstalls them when the document is closed. This timesaving feature can help avoid costly design and print errors. While InDesign takes the hassle out of installing the fonts required for printing a design project, the appropriate font licenses are still required for any party creating or printing the document.
Now you can preview individual pages in an InDesign document in Bridge without opening InDesign. You can also view thumbnail previews of the images placed in an InDesign document in Bridge without having to open the InDesign file first, making it easier to locate and reuse images. In InDesign CS5, you can access much of the power of Bridge without leaving InDesign. Locate InDesign files, images, videos, and other assets using Mini Bridge, and drag them directly into position in your document.
Maximize your production time by exporting PDF documents in the background. InDesign takes advantage of 64-bit multithreading, so you can export large files as you work on other projects.
Print to digital Quickly and efficiently extend your page content to the web, onto mobile devices, or for playback in Adobe Flash Player.
Hand off InDesign CS5 pages to Flash Professional CS5 with greater fidelity. The new text engine in Flash Professional retains typography you created in InDesign, including threaded text frames, so you can easily make last-minute text edits in Flash Professional. Multi-state objects and placed video and audio files included in the InDesign CS5 layout are carried over into Flash Professional. Objects animated with motion presets in InDesign are added to the Flash Professional timeline as motion objects. The original layer structure of the InDesign document is re-created in the Flash Professional timeline, so the Flash developer can easily understand how pages were created.
Create compelling eBooks with enhanced support for the EPUB file format. Author eBooks that can be read on a variety of devices such as the Apple iPad, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble nook, mobile phones, or personal computers using Microsoft Windows or Mac OS. Include interactivity, animation, sound, and video to bring eBooks to life when read on a personal computer using Adobe Digital Editions, a desktop reading application. Enhanced export features include the ability to control content reading order based on document structure, support for prebuilt CSS to provide consistent styling, support for chapter breaks, improved table formatting, and font subsetting.
Get a head start building web pages with enhanced export features that let you repurpose InDesign text and image content using Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 software. Using the Structure panel in InDesign, you can control the order in which page content is placed on the web page when imported into Dreamweaver. InDesign now generates CSS definitions that more closely match the text attributes you specify in InDesign to give you greater control over typography and reduce the need to rework text in Dreamweaver.
Live captions Generate static or live captions for an image automatically from its metadata. Adding a caption such as the photographer's name or copyright information directly from metadata stored with the image saves time and helps minimize the chance of error.
Live captions change as the metadata changes. Static captions use metadata when you generate them, but aren't updated later. You can convert a live caption to a static caption at any time.

Buy Now

Click here for more information about Adobe InDesign CS5 Upgrade

Read More...

Adobe InDesign CS5 Review

Adobe InDesign CS5
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I am a scientist, not a graphics professional. I used InDesign for the first time as version CS3 and was impressed; I successfully made several nice posters without too much effort. Now that I am writing two books for which I am creating many illustrations in Illustrator, I thought InDesign would be perfect for page layout. It certainly has the capabilities. My goal was to import a roughly 40-page chapter from MS Word 2010 and then add 13 figures with figure captions and two text boxes. I struggled for roughly 3 days, during which I watched numerous how-to videos and read a lot of instructions, before I got completely bogged down. For example, because InDesign is capable of advanced tasks like creating dynamic figure captions, I spent a lot of time trying to get it to automatically number figure captions. The process was painful and ultimately unsuccessful. I gave up, and on a whim tried MS Publisher 2010. What I couldn't accomplish after at least three days of effort using InDesign I was able to accomplish in less than 3 hours in Publisher. I don't know yet whether Publisher will be able to pull together all of my chapters and create a TOC and index like InDesign can, but since I couldn't even finish a chapter using InDesign, it's ability to work with multiple chapters is useless to me. And the interface for working with books in InDesign is a joke: it's a tiny panel; if you choose "Create new book" on the splash panel, you won't even know InDesign created a book, because the tiny panel is obscured by the splash panel. InDesign's interface is bland, and all of the icons and text are tiny and can't be made larger. Combine that with having to wade through a lot of jargon in the user manuals (typography jargon is especially annoying), and trying to learn and use InDesign CS5 proved to be painful, and required intense concentration and dedication. Yes, Adobe spent a lot of time producing helpful user manuals and how-to videos, but perhaps their time would be better spent making an easier to use product than trying to provide help for a hard to use program. In summary, InDesign CS5 is absolutely no fun to use, so if you can accomplish your page layout tasks with a simpler program like MS Publisher 2010, don't use it.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Adobe InDesign CS5

Adobe InDesign CS5 software provides precise control over typography and built-in creative tools for designing, preflighting, and publishing documents for print, online, or to mobile devices. Bring documents and presentations to life with interactivity, animation, sound, and video. Leading industry tools, and productivity enhancements make page layout simpler and faster. Access Adobe CS Live online services* from within InDesign to streamline critical review processes.

Design professional layouts for print and digital publishing
Cross-media publishing Publish documents in print, online, or on mobile devices. Create engaging interactive documents (SWF files) for playback in Adobe Flash Player, complete with animation, sound, and video, interactive PDF documents with video or sound, or sophisticated layouts for print publishing using a versatile, intuitive toolset.
Integration with Adobe CS Live online services Improve the efficiency of critical design processes with new CS Live online services that work with InDesign. Conduct online reviews of page layouts using CS Review, one of the new CS Live online services. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.
Integration with Adobe design, web, and digital-reading applications Move projects smoothly from design to print or digital output thanks to tight integration with industry-leading Adobe solutions such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, and Flash Professional, as well as Adobe Digital Editions.
Productivity tools Produce sophisticated page layouts using customer-inspired productivity features such as the ability to include mixed page sizes in a single file, streamlined object selection and editing, an all-new Layers panel, smart guides, rapid table creation, and multiple-file placement with fewer clicks.
Robust text composition Create beautiful, sophisticated text for any medium with professional typography features, including styles, text wrap, the Paragraph Composer, OpenType support, and drop caps. Include headlines that span or split columns without a separate text frame.
Built-in creative tools Explore creative possibilities directly within InDesign using integrated drawing tools, nondestructive effects, built-in Adobe Photoshop effects, finer transparency controls, and support for 3D Photoshop artwork.
Preflighting and production Speed up production, increase reliability, and deliver error-free documents with document-installed fonts, PDF export in the background, live preflighting, JDF technology, and on-screen controls.
Automation Create powerful automated workflows to reduce the time you spend on repetitive tasks. Standards-based XML features can automatically lay out pages with text and images. Incorporate database-driven content for greater efficiency when publishing across channels.
Extensibility Rapidly build unique workflows and software solutions for custom publishing using InDesign Markup Language (IDML), an XML-based file format that enables developers to create or modify files using standard XML tools.
Collaboration in editorial workflows Improve collaboration between design and editorial teams with tight integration between InDesign CS5 and Adobe InCopy CS5 and the ability to track text changes in InDesign.
Top new features of Adobe InDesign CS5
Interactive documents and presentations Engage and inform readers and clients with documents and presentations that integrate interactivity, animation, sound, and video. Help reduce costs by creating interactivity directly in InDesign.
New intuitive panels help you add rich media to page layouts:
Animation panel. Apply the same motion presets included in Flash Professional CS5, or add your own custom presets to InDesign to instantly animate objects on the page without writing code. Options in the Animation panel let you specify duration, speed, rotation, scale, and opacity. Quickly edit a motion path using the Pen tool, and convert any path--even one you import from Illustrator--into a custom motion path with the click of a button
Object States panel. Create multi-state objects that indicate which button is selected, display images in a slide show, or show versions of text in different languages. Multi-state objects are page items that have multiple appearances. Object states can be images, text frames, or any other objects or groups you want to display when someone clicks or rolls over an interactive button while viewing an interactive document. For example, you might create a multi-state object that consists of multiple images to create a click-through slide show; when the viewer clicks a button, the next image appears.
Timing panel. Control animation timing and playback without having to use a timeline to add keyframes or create motion tweens. Use the Timing panel to determine when objects such as bullet points in a presentation or images on a page should animate in the interactive document. For example, animations can be triggered to play when the page loads, when the page is clicked, or when a button is clicked. Loop the animation or play it a specific number of times. Link objects to animate simultaneously, with the same or different durations.
Media panel. Preview and scrub through placed video files without leaving InDesign. You can select a frame from the video sequence to represent the video in your InDesign document before the video plays, and even create navigation points that determine which parts of the video play when you click a button or otherwise trigger an action.
Preview panel. Take animations, buttons, and other interactive elements for a test drive without leaving InDesign. You no longer have to re-export your content every time you make a change to any rich media element--interactivity, animation, video, or sound--just to see how the change affects the document. Instead, preview and test a selection, the page, or the entire document before you export your final SWF file.

Simplified object selection and editing Perform repetitive layout tasks efficiently in InDesign CS5. Numerous improvements can help make tasks such as aligning and distributing objects or customizing frame corners faster and easier.
Multiple transformations with a single tool. You can use one tool to select, align, distribute, rotate, resize, reposition, crop, and scale frames and frame content. InDesign CS5 dynamically switches to the right tool for the job, so you never need to lift your mouse from the layout. The new Content Grabber lets you quickly reposition content within a frame, just by clicking and dragging. A real-time crop preview helps you position the content precisely where you want it.
Gap tool. Adjust the white space between objects to dynamically reposition page items while maintaining design relationships. Shift the white space up or down, left or right, without having to crop or resize each object on the page individually. You can even expand or contract the white space, dynamically resizing or cropping adjacent objects accordingly. The new Auto Fit feature keeps the relationship between the object and its frame consistent as you resize the frame.
Live Corner Effects. Drag the corners of a frame to dynamically change the radius and shape of the frame directly in the layout. Modify one corner at a time or all four simultaneously.
Easy grid placement. Take the tedium out of placing images in a grid, as in a directory or catalog. Simply press arrow keys to add columns and rows for images or threaded text frames.

Integration with Adobe CS Review Streamline reviews and accelerate your design workflow with CS Review, a new Adobe CS Live online service that integrates with InDesign CS5. Using CS Review, you can create and share documents for online review within InDesign. Colleagues and clients can view your document online and add comments with easy-to-use annotation tools directly in their browsers. All comments are automatically displayed in InDesign CS5, within the context of your page layout. Clicking a comment shows you the content it references, so you can easily match comments to the appropriate areas of page design. Simple sharing, easy access to reviews, and centralized comments speed up the review process to help you finish your project on time and within budget. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time.
Multiple page sizes Simplify file management by creating pages of different sizes in a single document. Whether you're designing marketing collateral, brand identity deliverables, or a magazine layout with complex folds, keeping all of a project's assets in the same file shortens design and production time.
The new Page Selection tool makes it easy to select individual pages, which you can resize using options in the Control panel. You can easily share design assets by applying the same master pages to pages of varying sizes. With the Page Selection tool, you can even reposition the master page content for different layouts: select the page, select Show Master Page Overlay in the Control panel, and then drag the edge of the master page to position it over the page.
Track text changes Get to final copy faster now that you can track text changes directly in your InDesign document. You can write, edit, and mark up text in InDesign with no need to import separate text files and remap styles every time there are copy changes.
With Track Changes enabled, InDesign keeps track of additions, revisions, and deletions in the document. The page layout remains uncluttered; to see the changes, simply open the Story Editor. There, you can accept or reject changes using options similar to those in popular word-processing applications. InDesign automatically assigns a different color for changes made by each user, so you can easily see who's made the edits.
Paragraphs that span and split columns Quickly format headlines, subheads, or any text to span multiple columns in a single text frame. In previous versions of InDesign, all text in a frame conformed to the column width. To span a headline across multiple columns, you had to cut the headline out of the story and paste it into a separate text frame. Now you can apply settings to a paragraph, specifying whether the text should span some or all columns, or split columns, so that InDesign automatically reflows what was one column into two or more columns.
All-new Layers panel The Layers panel has been completely rebuilt. If you're familiar with the Layers panel in Illustrator and Photoshop, you'll feel right at home in InDesign. You can now view not only layers but the individual objects they contain.
Select, hide, name, lock, and change the stacking order of objects such as text frames, images, and shapes directly within the Layers panel.
Reconfiguring grouped objects is fast and easy. With a quick click, you can reveal the hierarchy of objects within a group, including any hidden objects. Then, simply drag objects from one group to another in the Layers panel--with no need to ungroup, select items, and regroup.
Production enhancements InDesign CS5 includes several productivity advances designed to help you deliver print and digital documents faster. Improved integration with Adobe Bridge software and the new Adobe Mini Bridge panel in InDesign, document-installed fonts, and the ability to export PDF documents in the background all can help you meet deadlines with ease.
The new document-installed fonts feature helps avoid the inconvenience of missing fonts during production and printing. When you package a document, InDesign includes fonts used in that document. When that document is opened on another system, InDesign looks for a document fonts folder and automatically installs those fonts for use only in that document. It then uninstalls them when the document is closed. This timesaving feature can help avoid costly design and print errors. While InDesign takes the hassle out of installing the fonts required for printing a design project, the appropriate font licenses are still required for any party creating or printing the document.
Now you can preview individual pages in an InDesign document in Bridge without opening InDesign. You can also view thumbnail previews of the images placed in an InDesign document in Bridge without having to open the InDesign file first, making it easier to locate and reuse images. In InDesign CS5, you can access much of the power of Bridge without leaving InDesign. Locate InDesign files, images, videos, and other assets using Mini Bridge, and drag them directly into position in your document.
Maximize your production time by exporting PDF documents in the background. InDesign takes advantage of 64-bit multithreading, so you can export large files as you work on other projects.
Print to digital Quickly and efficiently extend your page content to the web, onto mobile devices, or for playback in Adobe Flash Player.
Hand off InDesign CS5 pages to Flash Professional CS5 with greater fidelity. The new text engine in Flash Professional retains typography you created in InDesign, including threaded text frames, so you can easily make last-minute text edits in Flash Professional. Multi-state objects and placed video and audio files included in the InDesign CS5 layout are carried over into Flash Professional. Objects animated with motion presets in InDesign are added to the Flash Professional timeline as motion objects. The original layer structure of the InDesign document is re-created in the Flash Professional timeline, so the Flash developer can easily understand how pages were created.
Create compelling eBooks with enhanced support for the EPUB file format. Author eBooks that can be read on a variety of devices such as the Apple iPad, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble nook, mobile phones, or personal computers using Microsoft Windows or Mac OS. Include interactivity, animation, sound, and video to bring eBooks to life when read on a personal computer using Adobe Digital Editions, a desktop reading application. Enhanced export features include the ability to control content reading order based on document structure, support for prebuilt CSS to provide consistent styling, support for chapter breaks, improved table formatting, and font subsetting.
Get a head start building web pages with enhanced export features that let you repurpose InDesign text and image content using Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 software. Using the Structure panel in InDesign, you can control the order in which page content is placed on the web page when imported into Dreamweaver. InDesign now generates CSS definitions that more closely match the text attributes you specify in InDesign to give you greater control over typography and reduce the need to rework text in Dreamweaver.
Live captions Generate static or live captions for an image automatically from its metadata. Adding a caption such as the photographer's name or copyright information directly from metadata stored with the image saves time and helps minimize the chance of error.
Live captions change as the metadata changes. Static captions use metadata when you generate them, but aren't updated later. You can convert a live caption to a static caption at any time.

Buy Now

Click here for more information about Adobe InDesign CS5

Read More...

Art Explosion Publisher Pro 2.0 Review

Art Explosion Publisher Pro 2.0
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Publisher Pro 2.0 is a great product and a good follow-on to the first version. Not only can you easily produce small publications (I create 16 page "tabloid sized" newsletters, with tons of photos) and export them as pdf files, but you can now open and edit pdf files, a feature I haven't seen in any affordable publisher. Its interpretation is precise, though when it meets a change in formatting (such as a single word in bold type within a paragraph), it interprets that as the end of a text block and starts a new section. I only use that feature when I want to fill out forms I've received from others or add a little text or images to them. I wouldn't try to heavily edit a large file. Pdf creation now includes form fields, which allows for more interactive features such as radial and other buttons and fill-out-able forms in addition to the standard pdf bookmarks, index and table of content which link to content within the pdf, hyperlinks to external sites, and more.
As in the previous version, it still has lots of pre-made templates, but the blank templates are still the best. I love being able to make a tri-fold brochure and actually selecting each page I want to work on separately: the right panel, left panel back panel and interior spread. The program then prints it in the correct sequence on the page. And in each of the 24 categories (including Banners, business forms, greeting cards, webpages...) there are many blank styles from which to chose.
As a volunteer newsletter editor (with no formal training in design and only some spare time), I find myself in the position of producing newsletters, flyers, tri-fold brochures and ad books not only for the large regional and local group of one organization, but also for my friends' school groups and churches and the local library. I often have to send the files to professional printers who require high-quality pdf files. It's a little more complex than either it's predecessor (Pub. pro version 1) or the older version of MS Publisher I had used before (a program I was happy with, but it had no pdf support), but most questions are easily resolved by refering to the in-program help files. On the other hand, it's a more powerful program with color separation, palette (incliding Pantone) support, transparencies and effects - features you'd expect in higher end programs. It also has a more flexible studio bar with tear off tabs for line style, formatting, colors, object styles, etc.., that you can view, hide or drag to arrange.
Included with the program is the free Publisher Pro Photo Editor, which allows you to draw and paint using layers and transparencies, and then export your pictures in a variety of formats (including some transparent versions), such as jpg, png, gif, etc. It doesn't have a lot of filters and fancy stuff, but it's a good little program for simple photo editing or creating a small graphic.
But most important, the telephone customer support was good. When I first got the program, I had difficulty opening some, but not all, of my older Publisher Pro files - the program crashed! I called customer support after a few days trying to figure out myself what the difference in the files was. I was told it had to do with the Nova clip art in the files and to remove the images and the file would work. Luckily, I had the previous version installed on another machine. I noticed in the Tools: Resource Manager that those clipart files were "linked," so selected "unlink" (which embeds the image) and then the files opened fine. (The Resource Manager is a nice feature that shows you what images and fonts are in your document, what their size and status are, and allows you to jump right to them). Nova Developement is currently working on a fix for the problem.
Pros: great price (especially if you have a rebate), good customer support, some high-end features, free photo editor and the ability to export to pdf.
Cons: a little harder to learn (reading the tutorials helps!), legacy files crash unless the clipart is embedded.
Overall: If you want a more powerful publishing program that produces quality pdf files, but is still within your budget, this is the one!
p.s. If you do get this program, you should check out the entertaining place-holder text, with it's odd pop-culture references that form random stories. More interesting than Lorem ipsum.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Art Explosion Publisher Pro 2.0



Buy Now

Click here for more information about Art Explosion Publisher Pro 2.0

Read More...

Franklin 2003 Stedman's Medical Dictionary MMC Review

Franklin 2003 Stedman's Medical Dictionary MMC
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I'm having to go through the refund process, and no one from tech-for-less answers e-mails. DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!
It doesn't work, and you have to send $20 to mobipocket to use the reader to find out it DOESN'T WORK!!! Useless product.Amazon should be ashamed of this one.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Franklin 2003 Stedman's Medical Dictionary MMC

Stedman's Medical Dictionary, 27th Edition, is the most up-to-date authority on medical language and is the standard reference for all health professionals. Now you can get the complete Stedman's on your PDA without worrying about running out of your device's main memory - via Franklin's new Universal MultiMediaCard (MMC).Just insert the MMC and you're ready to access definitions for over 102, 000 medical terms, drug names, eponyms, procedures and protocols. The content includes the Official Terminologia Anatomica-Latin and English anatomical terms for the specialties of gross anatomy and neuroanatomy, as well as 1, 200 common Greek and Latin word parts - the building blocks of medical vocabulary.Even better, the Universal MMC works with just about every recently-released PDA with an SD/MMC expansion slot, including: Franklin eBookMan; Palm M-500 series; Palm Tungsten; Handspring Treo 90; Handera 330; HP iPAQ; Cassiopeia Pocket PC; Toshiba Pocket PC; Dell Axim; and even Nokia's Communicator Phone! With the Universal MMC, Franklin makes your choice for critical information at the point-of-care the easiest yet!

Buy Now

Click here for more information about Franklin 2003 Stedman's Medical Dictionary MMC

Read More...

Franklin 2003 Merck Manual MMC Review

Franklin 2003 Merck Manual MMC
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
We're sorry but, this card will not work on a Palm Tungsten E.
No updates are available at this time.
Thank you,
Technical Support
Franklin Electronic Publishers
This is the only response from Franklin No refunds or advice given

Click Here to see more reviews about: Franklin 2003 Merck Manual MMC



Buy Now

Click here for more information about Franklin 2003 Merck Manual MMC

Read More...

T-Shirt Maker Review

T-Shirt Maker
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Simple and easiest to use of T Shirt programs. Don't be put off by the low prices. Simply Magazine, with their Simply Media brands, have lots of craft products like this, with all of them on Amazon I think.
Mary

Click Here to see more reviews about: T-Shirt Maker



Buy Now

Click here for more information about T-Shirt Maker

Read More...

Runtime Revolution Enterprise Review

Runtime Revolution Enterprise
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I looked for years for a cross-platform replacement for Hypercard and finally found it in Runtime Revolution's Revolution Enterprise. And I've been using it ever since (started in 1999 or 2000 if memory serves).
This software has something for everyone. People with no programming experience can start by creating very simple programs using buttons to go forward and back. Those with a little bit of experience in high-level programming languages like me can easily learn to create interactive cases, quizzes, and drills. Indeed, although entirely self-taught as a programmer with a little bit of experience in Hypercard and a bit more in BASIC, I was able to create software commercially-marketable software for medical education.
And the software created by other, more sophisticated, users of Revolution Enterprise is nothing short of amazing! For a small taste, check out www.runrev.com--where you can even download a time-limited but fully functional demo of Revolution.
As for technical support, there is a very active list-serve on which questions can be posted. Most of the time when I post a question, it is answered within 12-24 hours, often with code samples attached. And, RunRev the company has proven to be highly responsive to suggestions from users.
Cross-platform functionality couldn't be easier. I prefer to work on a Mac. Converting my software to Windows takes essentially no time--click a few buttons and off you go. In (literally) a minute or two, you've got a Win XP/Vista app ready to distribute. In fact, the only adjustments I've ever had to make to my software has been to make sure the text displays exactly the way I want it to--and this is a font/OS issue, not a problem with Revolution.
All in all, I've been very satisfied with Revolution and look forward to using it to make ever more sophisticated applications. It beats everything other development environment I've tried hands down for combining ease-of-use with virtually limitless potential for creating even the most sophisticated applications.
And NO, I don't work for RunRev. I'm just a pleased-as-punch long-term user of Revolution.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Runtime Revolution Enterprise



Buy Now

Click here for more information about Runtime Revolution Enterprise

Read More...

IMSI Masterclips 1,000,001 Review

IMSI Masterclips 1,000,001
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
IMSI Masterclips 1,000,001 doesn't exactly deliver what it promises. The only way to get the advertised photographs and fonts is to download them from their website....HOWEVER, you can only do so free for ONE YEAR (the box doesn't tell you this). While this product thankfully does include a catalog (black and white, even though the box's inside flap shows that it is in color), not all images that appear in the catalog can actually be found on the 32 CDs that come inside the box. Sporadically and what appears to be randomly, items that appear in the printed catalog cannot be found on any of the 32 CDs. Disappointing.

Click Here to see more reviews about: IMSI Masterclips 1,000,001

IMSI MasterClips 1,000,001 delivers 32 CDs filled with high-quality images, plus a free subscription to ArtToday.com, a leading digital content provider. This robust image collection features award-winning Web art, fine art, photographs, fonts, sound clips, animations, and more. You'll find clip art and image categories for people, animals, businesses, food, and much more. Plus, the easy-to-use image finder locates, displays, browses, and prints EPS, GIF, JPEG, PICT, and TIFF images. More than just a browser, it also performs simple editing functions, such as crop, scale, rotate, and invert. Use a single keystroke to delete, rename, copy, and move your graphics files. Customize keywords for images, making searching a snap. Best of all, IMSI MasterClips supports a range of popular Mac applications, including Adobe Illustrator, Adobe PageMaker, Macromedia FreeHand, Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, QuarkXPress, and Totally Hip Web Painter.

Buy Now

Click here for more information about IMSI Masterclips 1,000,001

Read More...

PrintingPress: Wedding Review

PrintingPress: Wedding
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
My fiance and I decided to make our own wedding invitations. We bought this product because we believed that since it was a product designed specifically for weddings, we would find a good selection of wedding clip art. We did not. The clip art in this program is disappointing. For instance, they have 46 images of a bride, but all 46 are the same image of a bride, but with different colors. They have 46 grooms, but again, all 46 are the same, but with different colors. The variety is poor as well. If you are looking for wedding clip art, "Art Explosion: Seasons, Events & Holidays" has a much better wedding clip art selection than this for the same price! Mountaincow customer service, however, is excellent and they offer a 30 day money back guaranty.

Click Here to see more reviews about: PrintingPress: Wedding



Buy Now

Click here for more information about PrintingPress: Wedding

Read More...

CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 Upgrade Review

CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 Upgrade
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I have been a user of CorelDRAW for more than 10 years and have often used many other graphics products including the so-called industry leader Adobe products. After using CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 I believe I can finally rid myself of all these other products and stick solely to this suite. All the new features are incredibly useful and time-saving. All the applications work well with one another, and I've pushed it as hard as I can with some huge files, and it hasn't had any problems at all. This truely is an incredible release... thanks Corel!!!
PS. If you don't believe me, download the trial from Corel's website and try it for yourself (www.corel.com)
Jim

Click Here to see more reviews about: CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 Upgrade

CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 is a comprehensive graphics solution for Windows XP. Whether you're designing for business or pleasure, CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 can do it all. The software is ideal for freelance designers; business, printing, publishing and advertising professionals; executives, managers, technicians, and sales support specialists; engineers, scientists, administrative support professionals, and more. And because CorelDraw 12 is optimized for Windows XP, businesses will save hours of training time, assured that employees can begin producing professional graphics almost immediately.Industry Leading Applications and Features CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 includes three industry leading applications -- CorelDraw Graphics 12 for illustration, page-layout and vector drawing; Corel Photo-Paint 12 for professional digital imaging; and Corel R.A.V.E. 3 for motion-graphics creation. These three outstanding applications give CorelDraw Graphics Suit 12 a set of unprecedented features.Dynamic Guides offer unprecedented levels of control, letting designers create a shape, draw a line, or place an object exactly where they want it, in one easy step. These intelligent enhancements dramatically reduce design time by allowing users to create, size and position objects easily and precisely, with fewer clicks.When you need to sketch a design quickly and professionally, the Smart Drawing tool offers built-in intelligence to automatically recognize and dynamically smooth the curves of many shapes including circles, triangles, and parallelograms. This allows you to create perfect forms on the fly.CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 makes is easier than ever to incorporate text into projects. Users can see detailed changes to type -- including leading and kerning -- regardless of the zoom level, enabling them to view and manipulate on-screen text with ease. Enhanced Align and Distribute features provide more flexibility, precision and control over text layout. Users also have access to more than 10,000 professional clip art images, 1,000 TrueType and Type 1 fonts, and 1,000 photos and objects. And with Unicode support, CorelDraw Graphics 12 lets you seamlessly incorporate multiple languages, including English, Japanese, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek and many others, into a single design.With the enhanced Touch-up Brush and more than 70 effects filters, removing defects such as dust and scratches from digital images is a breeze. This feature provides a dedicated tool to perform common image/photo touch-ups by intelligently covering unwanted areas. The more the designer brushes over the affected area, the more the effect is amplified.In addition to all these features, CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 also gives users access to exceptional software from other leading vendors and industry standard technologies including Bitstream Font Navigator 5.0, Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications 6.3, Kodak Digital Science color management system, and QuickTime 6.0 Player. Microsoft Office and WordPerfect Office Compatibility When you create graphics in CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12, you never have to worry about Microsoft Office or WordPerfect Office compatibility. CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 is a perfect companion to these office suites, making it possible to easily preview and import graphics files into text documents, slide presentations and spreadsheets without needing to worry about file format compatibility. This gives businesses the assurance that their graphics can be incorporated quickly and seamlessly into all business collateral. In effect, CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 is an entire creative design agency in a box; businesses can now produce their own business and marketing collateral, and can easily create animated graphics for use in presentations and Web sites. The suite also offers improved file compatibility, allowing users to open and save more than 100 file formats, including Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, EPS, PDF and more.Save Time and Money With CorelDraw Graphics 12 Windows-based interface, businesses can be assured that users will learn the advanced features quickly and easily. Also, the included interactive lynda.com training CD offers design tips to help users get up to speed quickly on all the suite's new features.Note: This product provides a full upgrade for CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12. To purchase the upgrade version of this product, you must own a previous licensed version of CorelDraw, CorelDraw Graphics Suite, CorelDraw Office Edition, CorelDraw Essentials, CorelDraw Select, CorelDraw Classic, Corel Designer, Corel Photo-Paint, Corel Painter, Corel Picture Publisher, Micrografx Designer, Micrografx iGrafx Business, Micrografx Graphics Suite, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, ACD Canvas, Jasc PaintShop Pro or Macromedia FreeHand. The trial version, Not for Resale (NFR) version and CorelDraw 8 LE for Macintosh are not eligible for this upgrade.What's in the Box Four CD-ROMs, including lynda.com interactive training CD, CorelDraw 12, Corel Photo-Paint 12, Corel R.A.V.E. 3, CorelTrace 12, CorelCapture 12; user guide, and quick-start/registration card.

Buy Now

Click here for more information about CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 Upgrade

Read More...

Quicken 2004 Premier Review

Quicken 2004 Premier
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I have been a loyal Quicken 99 Deluxe user for five years. In the past, I have tried the 2000 and 2002 versions but have always returned to '99 for various reasons. After trying 2004 Premier, I am throwing in the towel on Intuit and going elsewhere.
In the first two minutes of operation, there were several apparent problems. Reports would only print if you manually printed each individual page seperately. The program failed several times, abruptly shutting down for no reason. I would enter my entire portfolio into the setup account function only to see all the work disappear when I hit "done" (I guess the software takes "done" literally). The import/export function never worked properly, often omitting portions of transactions.
To add injury to insult, there is no email support and phone support is $$$$/minute (a free chat is available but, for some reason, is closed on Thursday and Fridays). Nothing like having to pay to have Intuit correct its own problems.
Intuit seems to have abondoned the concept of creating decent products. After the TurboTax disaster of last year, one would have thought they would have learned. Take it from me, they didn't - run away from this software as fast as you can.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Quicken 2004 Premier



Buy NowGet 33% OFF

Click here for more information about Quicken 2004 Premier

Read More...

Final Draft 6 Review

Final Draft 6
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
The use of a script formatting programme such as Final Draft 6.0 is a bit of an indulgence if you simply want to generate a decent looking piece of work. Setting up a Word template and a set of paragraph styles will do the job very adequately. Beats a Selectric anyway.
What Final Draft 6.0 is all about, is the automatic adjustment of a script's format so that when re-writes or revisions are made, the document will be appropriately modified.
For example, working with a Word template and you have included the (more) and Joe Blow ( continued) tags, to get the dialogue across a page-break, these will remain in place even if they are not required after an edit or an addition or a rearrangement of scenes. Final Draft 6.0 will delete or include these tags as you proceed. And with line spacings kept as they should be.
Final Draft 6.0's other big feature is its analysis capability. So if Harlan Ellison and Bll Shatner had been running this application when Bill was reading through `The City on the Edge of Forever' script at Harlan's house, Bill could have, with a click or two of the mouse, discovered how many lines that he and Leonard Nimoy had between them and saved a lot of reading and mental arithmetic time. Which is what Final Draft is all about for the serious or professional writer. The saving of time when you need to know what,where, and how much of, a script contains, and the avoidance of a lot of tiresome manual tweaking.
At its most basic, Final Draft, will dispense with the need for a multitude of keystrokes in a word processor, since mostly the tab and enter keys are used. Most of these formatters use this approach in one way or another.
A file can be saved as an RTF ( rich text format ) for delivery to those not running Final Draft, and you can also export a script to PDF for peace of mind, if you want others to see and print the script as you do. Another useful feature is the ability to take text created in a Word template and copy and paste it into Final Draft for it to apply the correct text styles to the, scene-heading, dialogue, parenthetical, and action sections, etc. This means that you don't have to worry about re-doing your pre-Final Draft scripts in Final Draft.
There are cheaper options to Final Draft 6.0, but I have found them to be either lacking in features or simply confusing and awkward to use. More time being wasted getting one's head around their idiosyncrasies, than doing anything useful.
The documentation for Final Draft 6.0 is the best of all the options that I've seen and they have even gone to the bother of creating their own font - Courier Final Draft. This font is different to Courier New 12 Pt in Word, etc. At high zoom levels, on screen, it looks good and beefy, not thin and weedy like Courier New 12 Pt . It also prints much more strongly making your script more easily readable. It's a fair simulation of a type written page. Other fonts can be substituted, but it's highly recommended that you stick to Courier to be consistent with expectations. Courier Final Draft also looks pretty much the same on PCs and Macs.
Final Draft 6.0 won't write you a better script, but it will allow you to keep your mind on the job.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Final Draft 6

Designed for scriptwriting, Final Draft 6 software is favored by award-winning film, stage, and television writers alike. It combines word processing with industry-standard script formatting, a robust tools suite, and an improved interface.
Key among Final Draft 6's bevy of features is its complete cross-platform compatibility with Microsoft Windows and Mac, letting you work seamlessly on both platforms. Its industry-standard formatting automatically creates,edits, and inserts required script cues. The SmartType tool remembers and completes names, scene headings, transitions, and locations. Final Draft's Format Assistant identifies script-formatting errors and any inconsistencies, while a 120,000-word spell checker autocorrects spelling errors. And when it's time for rewrites, the Scene Navigator reformats your script as you write. Other tools include script suggestions that appear as pop-up windows, scene bookmarks, and outline or index-card scene views. You can even assign a voice to each character and your text turns to speech for a scene reading at your desktop.
Exclusive to Final Draft 6 is an online script registration process that lets you register and submit your screenplay directly to the Writers Guild of America. So, when your script makes it into production, use Final Draft 6 to revise and number scenes, generate reports, and export your script to other creative, editing, scheduling, and budgeting programs.

Buy Now

Click here for more information about Final Draft 6

Read More...

DavkaWriter Platinum Hebrew English Word Processor Review

DavkaWriter Platinum Hebrew English Word Processor
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I have been using my DavkaWriter (Platinum 6) word processor every day since I received it. The ONLY reason I haven't rated it 5 out of 5 stars is that I have not found a mono-spacing option for the general text. It does have a mono-spaced typeface (DavidfixD) which does the trick for my immediate needs. However to be able to mono-space other faces by command would make this software package absolutely 'the top of the top!'.
But enough for the minor things. This software is a built from the ground up HEBREW word processor... no trying to get reverse direction by this or that coding option or macro, it's in there! And with the click of an arrow you can reverse direction or switch English to Hebrew - Hebrew to English. Not to mention the fact that included in the Platinum 6 is the Mishna, both a Sephardic and Ashkenazi Siddur and the complete Tanach. It has nikud options bar-none! And a real nice set of basic graphics in the package with the option of adding ones own. The package interfaces with WordPerfect according to the Company, though this I have not yet tried out. (WordPerfect 8 was the last version of a Corel product I attempted on my PC of the day... Had a real nice Hebrew font feature but it was a 'write it backspacing type trick).
Now the second reason it doesn't rate a 5th star... unfortunately the writer hashes the text with hidden text (processor commands and info) thus far my attempts to read the text I have saved in something like notepad for conversion into data for .wrl scripts has been a bit testy... to say the least. (this may be a processor/XP issue I do get error messages occasionally upon exiting the software)
BUT I should complain! eh? I find it all in all, for my research purposes and Hebrew word processing a wonderful tool! (I would still like to see a bit more options for file extensions and the mono-spacing feature availability for all fonts...). I am sure with enough time in on the software and working with its variety of nuances I may find workarounds or that I may have just overlooked some feature.
For my money... I would buy it again, and recommend it to all who need such software, hands down.
One P.S.: Check out the variety of Hebrew Fonts!!!

Click Here to see more reviews about: DavkaWriter Platinum Hebrew English Word Processor



Buy Now

Click here for more information about DavkaWriter Platinum Hebrew English Word Processor

Read More...

Extensis SUITCASE X1 (Mac) Review

Extensis SUITCASE X1 (Mac)
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
This program is buggy. Stick with font book that comes with OSX. This release has problems with:
Not saving settings, not loading fonts correctly for use, constant conflict problems, Ive had multiple problems with the program crashing on startup requiring me to go in and manually clean out fonts. I never write reviews but the amount of headache this program has given me prompted me to spread the word. AVOID SUITCASE AT ALL COSTS!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Extensis SUITCASE X1 (Mac)

Suitcase X1 helps your organize and manage your fonts, to make your writing & font management quick and easy! Auto-activation support for QuarkXPress 6 -- turn on fonts when QuarkXPress is opened

Buy Now

Click here for more information about Extensis SUITCASE X1 (Mac)

Read More...