Showing posts with label easy to use. Show all posts
Showing posts with label easy to use. Show all posts

Norton Internet Security Dual Protection 4.0 (Mac) Review

Norton Internet Security Dual Protection 4.0 (Mac)
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Edited to add info on REMOVAL instructions. Symantec keeps this a secret. Amazon does not allow links, so search Google for the "RemoveSymantecMacFiles removal utility". It's on Symantec's Enterprise site.
I was finally able to remove every trace of the Symantec "bloatware." The uninstaller does not do this. Make sure you back up your entire system (I recommend SuperDuper) to a Firewire drive prior to doing this. I also recommend booting into Safe Mode to run the removal operation.
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I am a long time Mac user.
Reportedly in development for 5 years, this software does protect from viruses, including protecting your Mac from being a carrier of Windows viruses. However, there has never been an "in the wild" Mac virus.
My cable company is offering the Mac part of this suite as part of their service. I installed it, and discovered it was too intrusive, and blocked some programs from accessing the Internet. Unfortunately, there is no customizable firewall. It's either off or on. Virus scanning is too intrusive, too.
The only real reason for an AV on the Mac is to protect Windows users from files other Windows users may have sent you. That said, there is a much better, less intrusive product called Intego VirusBarrier that catches Windows viruses, in combination with the NetBarrier firewall which is extremely customizable. UPDATE: I've switched to the free Sophos AV software, and recommend it highly.
The problem: After testing Norton and deciding I didn't care for it, I uninstalled it. However, as I dug deeper into my system, I found the software did not completely uninstall. As with their Windows applications, Norton for Mac puts hidden files all over the place. After the uninstall, I found invisible Symantec files and deleted them.
On the next start-up, the Mac wouldn't start: gray screen of death. It would start up in Safe mode, and once after restarting from Safe mode, but not again. So, I reinstalled Norton, and it works again. This is shameful.
I do not recommend this software. Go with Intego or Sophos instead. Or, if Windows viruses are not an issue with you, then you're probably safe not running any AV. The Mac's built in firewall is excellent, too. If you really need to feel protected, go with the free version of iAntivirus which protects only against potential Mac threats (which really don't exist for most Internet users).
If you have a dual boot system, I suggest using Microsoft Security Essentials, Online Armor firewall and Threatfire (all free) on the Windows partition, especially if you use Windows more with VMWare Fusion or Parallels, due to their effectiveness and small footprints.

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PrintingPress: Wedding Review

PrintingPress: Wedding
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I've been creating invitations out of my home for a couple of years. I upgraded to printingpress extreme and am very disappointed.
The graphics are very limited and so are the fonts. The customer service is fair and they really want you to buy the $1,000 pro software, which is a stretch. I think that after using printmaster and even word, that you can do very similar work without spending what printing press software costs.

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Microsoft OneNote 2007 - Old Version Review

Microsoft OneNote 2007 - Old Version
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I've used version 2003 and enjoyed it thoroughly. I primarily used it for school with different classes and notes for each. What was great is that is consolidates everything in a way that makes it easy to retrieve your notes. It also makes it easy to generate reports based on the tagging feature. The tags allow you to highlight and gather key points of information that make writing papers a breeze. When working with paper, this was not always an easy task to take on.
Several weeks ago, I downloaded the trial version of OneNote 2007. The improvements are rather subtle, but powerful. It didn't take anything to get comfortable with the new features. After a short time with the trial version I just purchased it because it was so much fun.
Here are some of the beneficial features:
-Like a paper notebook you have sections, but with OneNote 2007 you can have as many sections as you like.
-You can easily link pages to Outlook. I have linked appointments to a series of notes and support files for various projects and meetings. It makes being organized for a meeting a breeze.
-Also, it's a great way to archive emails in a way that allows you to see them and organize them as you wish. You can empty your in box and at the same time keep a record of important emails. Well worth your time.
-It is also tablet friendly if you use a tablet PC like I do. I love it for that use. There is a fantastic text recognition feature that works EXTREMELY well. If you use a tablet, this is a great feature.
-As was with the earlier version, you can add voice content to your notes. That's right, voice recorded messages can be added to your notes. Too cool.
Before you buy, you might want to go to the Microsoft site and download the trial version. You'll be able to assess for yourself. I think you'll be pleased. I fond it to be one of the best products for 'electronic file keeping' that I've used. For the price, it's not a bad deal.


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Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 is a digital notebook that makes gathering and organizing your notes and information simple. Its powerful search capabilities so you can find what you're looking for quickly, and easy-to-use shared notebooks for teams to work together more effectively. Use and manage typed or handwritten notes, scanned documents, and audio and video recordings -- more effectively than ever. Prioritize and manage tasks and to-dos efficiently; use note flags to mark and easily track actions and important items Make meetings more productive by giving everyone access to the same information -- status updates, presentations, documents, typed and handwritten notes and more Improve productivity away from the office -Take contents of your notebook with you and view them on your mobile device Capture information, photos and text to your Smartphone or Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC devices Integrates with Microsoft Office 2007 for OneNote 2007 and other Microsoft Office system programs

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My Mail List and Postage Saver Review

My Mail List and Postage Saver
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In my opinion MY MAIL LIST by Avanquest is not consumer friendly. First, they don't tell you up front that you are licenced for only one computer. Had I read that on the package, I wouldn't have bought it. Also, It's not an easy program to use. I worked for nine hours to import a list and it wouldn't get all the data. I finally resorted to use Microsoft Word and Excel and accomplished it in 30 minutes. Everything else in the program relating to mailings is available on the USPS website. A program doesn't have to be this complicated. As far as I'm concerned it was a wasted $80.00 (I bought 2). This letter is directed to the
MY MAIL LIST software and not to Amazon.com whose service was excellent in getting the product to me in very fast time.Thanks for this opportunity to voice my feelings on this matter.

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Adobe Photoshop CS5 Upgrade Review

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Upgrade
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Turns out I'm late to this party. This upgrade will not work with a Creative Suite Serial Number even though your Suite contains a "Complete" and "numbered" version of Photoshop CSx. It says that deep in the fine print, but why would you continue reading after you see EXACTLY your version is upgradable. Complaints abound, even on Adobe site. 5-Stars to Amazon for prompt refund.

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Adobe Photoshop CS5 delivers breakthrough capabilities to help you create images with impact. Refine your images with reengineered photography tools for removing noise, adding grain, and creating high dynamic range (HDR) images. Get precise results when making complex selections. Remove any image element and see the space fill in almost magically. Paint with naturally textured brushstrokes and realistic color blends. Also work fast with cross-platform 64-bit support and dozens of other time-savers.

Upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS5 To install an upgrade version of Photoshop CS5 software, you must have an eligible earlier version of Adobe software:
Photoshop CS2, CS3, & CS4
Photoshop CS3 & CS4 Extended

For more information on eligibility, visit www.adobe.com/go/upgradeinfo.
Top reasons to upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS5
Complex selections made easy Get precise results in fewer clicks when selecting intricate image elements, such as hair, and eliminate background color around selection edges. Automatically vary selection edges and perfect masks using new refinement tools.
Content-Aware Fill Remove any image detail or object and watch as Content-Aware Fill magically fills in the space left behind. This breakthrough technology matches lighting, tone, and noise so it looks as if the removed content never existed.
Superior HDR imaging Create photorealistic or surreal high dynamic range (HDR) images with unprecedented speed, control, and accuracy. Get better-than-ever results thanks to automatic ghost removal and greater control with tone mapping and adjustments, and even give single-exposure photos the look of HDR.
State-of-the-art raw image processing Use the Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 6 plug-in to nondestructively remove image noise while preserving color and detail; add grain to make digital photos look more organic; enjoy more control as you perform post-crop vignetting; and more.
Extraordinary painting effects Achieve natural and realistic painting effects with the Mixer Brush, which offers on-canvas color blending, and Bristle Tips, which let you create lifelike, textured brushstrokes.
Puppet Warp Precisely reposition or warp any image element. Swing a raised arm to a person's side in a photo, stretch text to create new effects, and more.
Automatic lens correction Save time with automatic correction of lens distortions, chromatic aberration, and vignetting. Photoshop CS5 uses an image file's EXIF data to make precise adjustments based on the type of camera and lens you used.
Efficient workflow Enjoy productivity and creativity boosts thanks to dozens of features and enhancements requested by Photoshop users. Straighten images automatically, pick colors from an onscreen color picker, adjust the opacity of many layers at once, and more.
Better media management Easily manage media with more flexible batch renaming, and access your assets in the context of what you're working on by using the customizable Adobe Mini Bridge panel in Photoshop.
Faster performance across platforms Speed up day-to-day imaging tasks and process very large images up to 10 times faster by taking advantage of cross-platform 64-bit support. (Requires a 64-bit-capable computer with a 64-bit version of Mac OS, Microsoft Windows 7, or Windows Vista. Actual performance varies depending on amount of RAM, driver types, and other factors.)
Streamlined creative reviews through integration with CS Live services Use Adobe CS Review, part of new CS Live online services, to initiate a more secure review without leaving Photoshop. Reviewers can add comments to your images from their browsers, and you see those comments appear automatically on your screen. Adobe CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time. Visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.
New GPU-accelerated features Take advantage of GPU-enabled enhancements to everyday tools. Crop with the Rule of Thirds grid; zoom with click-and-scrub functionality; and sample colors with better visualization and an onscreen color picker.
Easier user interface management Use the collapsible Workspace Switcher to quickly navigate and choose among favorite user interface configurations. Live workspaces automatically record your user interface changes so panels will remain in place even if you switch away for a while.
Superior black-and-white conversion Explore an endless variety of black-and-white looks. Use the integrated Lab B&W Action to interactively convert color images; create gorgeous HDR black-and-whites with greater ease and speed; and experiment with new presets.
Create powerful images with the professional standard
Easy access to core editing power Get just the tools you need--exactly when you need them--as you perform common editing activities. Adjustments and Masks panels guide you in making precise adjustments and masks.
Extraordinary creative tools Achieve realistic painting effects with the ability to mix colors on canvas and create natural brushstrokes. Merge multiple exposures into stunning high dynamic range (HDR) images. Move, remove, warp, or stretch any image element.
State-of-the-art photography Easily merge multiple exposures to extend the dynamic range with more power, precision, and fidelity than ever before. Convert to black-and-white in new ways. And use Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools that intelligently preserve color and tone details.
Industry-leading raw image processing Enjoy superior results when you convert raw images with the Camera Raw 6 plug-in, which offers support for over 275 camera models plus nondestructive editing so you can experiment without harming your original photo.
Automated compositing tools Easily create a single image from a series of shots that have different focal points, smoothly blending color and shading and extending your depth of field. And take advantage of accurate, automatic layer alignment.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom integration Enjoy tight integration with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom software (sold separately), easily moving files from Lightroom to Photoshop CS5 to create HDR images, panoramas, and multilayered Photoshop documents. Roundtrip your files back to Lightroom.
Efficient media management Manage your media visually with Adobe Bridge CS5 software. Enjoy more flexible batch renaming plus the ability to access files in the context of your work using the customizable Adobe Mini Bridge panel.
Powerful printing options Get outstanding prints in less time with automation, scripting, and a print dialog box that's easier to navigate.
Broad file format support Import and export hundreds of image file formats, including PSD, AI, PDF, NEF, CRW, TIFF, BMP, Cineon, JPEG, JPEG2000, FXG, OpenEXR, PNG, and Targa, and video formats including 3G, FLC, MOV, AVI, DV Stream, Image Sequence, MPEG-4, and FLV.
Extensibility Personalize Photoshop and extend its capabilities with custom panels that developers create to accomplish specific tasks, the Adobe Photoshop Marketplace for third-party plug-ins and resources, and Adobe Community Help for tips and tricks.
Top new features of Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop CS5 Extended
Intelligent selection technology Photoshop CS5 takes the time and frustration out of making precise image selections and masks, providing you a faster way to extract subjects from their backgrounds and create realistic composites. New intelligent selection technology offers better edge detection and faster, more accurate masking results of complex subjects, like hair. Automatic color decontamination helps you eliminate background color around the edges of a selection, resulting in more seamless compositions when placing extracted subjects on new backgrounds.
Experienced Photoshop users know that the best selections are created by constantly adapting the selection technique for differences in the subject's edges--one method for hair and another for the edge of a building. With Photoshop CS5, you can produce highly accurate masks and selections faster and more simply than before with a set of new adaptive selection-edge modification controls. Smart Radius automatically matches the best selection approach with the subject's changing edge characteristics, and the extra view modes assist you in previewing the quality of your selections. The Refine Radius and Erase Refinements tools customize your masks and selections as you make them. These tools, in combination with the color decontamination settings, help eliminate any residual background color from around the edges of your selections.
Content‐Aware Fill One of the most exciting new features in Photoshop CS5 is the remarkable ability to remove an image element and magically replace it with details that match the lighting, tone, and noise of the surrounding area so that it looks like the content never existed. Now, you can make substantial changes to photo composition quickly and easily, as even large complex subjects can be seamlessly erased.
You can use Content-Aware Fill with the Spot Healing Brush or as an option of the Fill feature to replace content in an active selection. Selecting the Content-Aware setting with the Spot Healing brush changes the way the tool fills in the areas you paint. This retouching approach is designed to account more fully for the structure and detail of the image elements that surround the painted area, providing a near-invisible result when removing unwanted objects. Alternatively, you can select the object to be removed, and then replace the area with synthesized details from the area surrounding the selection, simply by using the Content-Aware option in the Fill dialog box.
HDR Pro for creativity and precision with the next generation of high dynamic range imaging With just a few clicks, you can go beyond the capture capabilities of your camera by combining multiple exposures into a single high dynamic range (HDR) photo that preserves the full tonal range of a scene with high contrast. Photoshop CS5 introduces HDR Pro for more control over the HDR merging process and greater adjustment power over the mapping of tones and the styling of HDR output, resulting in images that range from photorealistic to highly surreal.
HDR Pro offers extended controls, an enhanced dialog box, and improved image processing. New algorithms enable more accurate alignment of source files and automatically deghost any problem areas that occur when trying to merge source photos where subjects have moved during capture. You can even select a source file to be used as the sole reference for any ghosted areas or allow the feature to do this automatically for you.
New tone-mapping tools and adjustment controls give you the power to implement your own HDR vision, producing photos that range in style from fully textured images of high-contrast scenes to wildly hyper-realistic creations. Save your favorite styles as presets and apply them to multiple groups of source files to provide a common look and feel to your HDR photos. And for times when you don't have multiple source files, create the look of an HDR-processed image from a single photo with the new HDR Toning feature that allows you to mimic the tone-mapping results traditionally achieved in high dynamic range photos.
Together with the existing Photomerge feature (which allows for image stitching), the exposure-merging capabilities of HDR Pro can add up to high-bit-depth, 360-degree panoramas ideal for composite photography, video, and beyond.
The Auto Stack Panorama/HDR files option in Adobe Bridge CS5 and the new panelized Mini Bridge groups source files together into stacks for quicker creation of HDR images in Photoshop CS5. You can even start the creation of an HDR file by choosing Tools > Merge To HDR from the Mini Bridge panel inside Photoshop.
State-of-the-art raw-image processing The Adobe Camera Raw 6 plug-in, which ships with Photoshop CS5, now supports more than 275 camera models as it continues to provide you with the industry-leading conversion of raw files. In addition, the utility provides advanced, nondestructive image editing and enhancement for raw files, as well as for other standard formats, including JPEG and TIFF. Now you can remove noise, achieve better quality sharpening, and creatively apply new styles of vignettes and film-like grain.
You can now shoot at higher ISO settings with confidence, because the updated controls in the Adobe Camera Raw 6 plug-in remove the noise common in such high-ISO images (as well as in photos captured with long exposures and pictures from consumer cameras) while still preserving excellent color and detail.
New controls for adding grain and additional post-crop vignetting settings join many creative options already available in this utility, such as the Adjustment Brush and the Graduated Filter. For the first time, you can add grain-like texture to photos as part of your nondestructive editing workflow. Adjust amount, size, and roughness of grain to easily give composites a more natural, seamless appearance by matching levels of grain across all source images--or simply use the feature to make a digital photo look more organic or film-like.
Updated post-crop vignetting options offer more creative control over the corner darkening and lightening process, and your favorite vignette effects can be saved as presets for quick application across multiple files.
Upgraded sharpening options produce clearer photos with fewer artifacts while providing better control over key details, especially when working with high-resolution pictures produced by multi-megapixel cameras.
Extraordinary painting effects With a new Mixer Brush, a Bristle Tips feature, and a new mechanism for blending colors, Photoshop CS5 redefines the way you paint. You can take advantage of more natural and realistic painting effects, making it easy to take your imagery and designs in new artistic directions.
The Mixer Brush lets you define multiple colors on a single tip, and then mix and blend them with the underlying hues on your canvas, achieving creative results that rival traditional painting media. When starting with a photo original, you can use a dry, empty brush to blend the existing colors while at the same time adding a painterly effect to the image. Mixer Brush settings provide extensive control over the wetness of the canvas colors, the load rate that determines amount of paint loaded on the brush, the mixing rate between brush and canvas colors, and whether the brush is refilled, cleaned, or both after each painting stroke.
In conjunction with these new mixing features, Photoshop CS5 incorporates unprecedented control over stroke characteristics of its painting tools with Bristle Tips. Bristle Qualities define key bristle properties such as shape, length, stiffness, thickness, angle, and spacing, which affect how the color is laid on the image as you paint.
The Bristle Brush Preview feature provides a visual representation of these changes, and you can save your tip configurations for future use, allowing you to build a customized collection of Bristle Tips to experiment with when using Photoshop brush tools.
Puppet Warp Puppet Warp gives you more freedom when pushing and pulling elements within an image. The feature lets you recompose an image to make it more appealing, or to fit a specific layout, by allowing the precise repositioning of any element within a Photoshop document, or selection, by simply clicking and dragging. After you reposition an object, Photoshop adjusts the rest of the image to account for the shifted pixels.
After choosing Edit > Puppet Warp, click on your image to drop pins establishing anchor points where you want image parts not to move, and handles that you can use for warping. Then drag any of the pins to reposition the picture elements. Use Puppet Warp to swing a raised arm to a person's side, warp and stretch text to create new effects, or reposition intrusive objects in a photo to create a more pleasing composition.
Automated lens correction The Lens Correction features in Photoshop CS5 create better quality captures by removing or correcting the three most common lens-based errors: geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting. This means you can use a wider range of lenses with the confidence of producing images of the highest quality. With the aid of the Adobe Lens Profile Creator (available separately as a free download from labs.adobe.com) you can produce custom profiles characterizing the optical aberrations of your camera lenses. When installed and selected in the Lens Correction filter in Photoshop CS5, the profile automatically removes or corrects the three types of distortion.
The Lens Correction filter in Photoshop CS5 is redesigned to include manual adjustment controls under the Custom tab, and settings for locating and applying custom Lens Correction Profiles (LCP files) under a new Auto Correction tab. Installed profiles that match your camera and lens combination are used to apply precise distortion corrections to your photos. Suitable profiles can be located easily based on the EXIF data automatically recorded with the image, and if a suitable profile is not present in the Lens Correction filter, then with a single click within the dialog box, you can search online for the correct profile to meet your needs.
Individual error types can be selected in the filter's settings, as can options for handling any transparent areas that surround the corrected image.
User-inspired productivity enhancements Photoshop CS5 helps boost productivity and creativity throughout the editing workflow with dozens of enhancements inspired by Photoshop users. Some of these include:
A neutral-density preset for the Gradient tool
The ability to save 16-bit Photoshop documents in 8-bit JPEG format in a single step
An option for reversing the clone source using the flip buttons in the Clone Source panel
A Don't Show This Message Again option when saving files with maximum compatibility
Default value for Shadows/Highlights changed from 50% to 35%
The ability to move a selection while the active layer is hidden
An on/off option for trackpad gesture support on Mac and in Microsoft Windows 7
A new layer command for deleting all empty layers via scripts
A Straighten button on the Ruler tool options bar
A Close All Open Images Without Saving option
A Save As option for always defaulting to the folder to which you last saved an image
The ability to drag and drop a file onto an open Photoshop document to create a new layer
Multiple improvements in Lens Correction filter options, including:
Grid Display is off by default
Show Grid, Grid Size, and Grid Color settings are now sticky
Default grid size is increased from 16 to 64 pixels
Decimal point adjustments are allowed as values for the Chromatic Aberration sliders
A third Chromatic Aberration slider enables the correction of green/magenta fringing
The Background Color Edge setting is replaced with the Black Color entry
A White Color option is available in the Edge menu
Reset options are changed so that only the calibration settings are reset, not the Grid options

A new Cache Tile Size control in the Performance section of the Preferences dialog box
Zoom in and out with the new scrubby zoom tool
Presets for setting Cache Tile Size and Cache Levels simultaneously
The ability to use keystrokes to set values in the Adjustments panel text fields
Performance increases of up to 50% when importing OBJ files
Sample colors faster using the new on screen color ring built into the eyedropper tool
Customizable default values for Layer styles
New creative resources, including actions, tools, presets, brushes, swatches, shapes, gradients, styles, and tool presets
Window and Door shapes added to list of meshes that can be created from a layer
An option for changing the opacity of multiple selected layers
The ability to create a mask from the transparent areas of a layer
Pick colors faster using the new on-screen color HUD
Print settings saved with the image file, allowing one-button printing with user-selected values
Selecting a printer automatically lists the profiles installed for that printer at the top of the profile list
Printer-specific profiles are selected automatically when choosing a printer
Customized print settings can be recorded as part of a Photoshop Action
An overlay grid can be displayed when using the Crop tool
Layer groups can be nested more than five levels deep
New Paste Outside and Paste Inside commands, along with the previously existing Paste In Place option, are included in a new Edit > Paste Special menu

Streamlined creative reviews through integration with Adobe CS ReviewCollaborate with colleagues and seek client comment quickly and easily with Adobe CS Review, a new CS Live online service* designed to simplify and accelerate the design review process.
With CS Review, you can avoid the hassles of large email attachments, logon problems with FTP servers, and time-consuming next-day air deliveries usually associated with client reviews by instead initiating a secure, shared review. Comments are displayed in near-real time and in context, providing convenient feedback on your images and designs. You can access the CS Review service from within Photoshop CS5.
Faster performance with cross-platform native 64-bit support Tight deadlines and large file sizes make performance a high priority for many Photoshop users. Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop CS5 Extended deliver cross-platform 64-bit support, allowing you to perform day-to-day imaging tasks up to 10 times faster. Video and photo professionals, especially, benefit from the extra performance, as gains are even greater if you regularly work with very large files, where processing can be up to ten times faster when you take advantage of higher addressable RAM amounts--limited only by what your hardware accommodates.
To help you tweak the performance of your setup, Photoshop CS5 lets you adjust history, tile, and cache controls in combination.
Greater access to key resources via flexible custom panels Photoshop CS5 offers easy ways to integrate and extend your workspace with customized panels. With the aid of the Configurator 2.0 panel utility (available separately as a download from labs.adobe.com) you can produce your own panels, bringing together your most used tools and menu selections and incorporating your favorite web feeds or video tutorials.
Stay connected to the greater Photoshop community and all facets of your digital life directly from within Photoshop CS5 by using panels you create or those produced and distributed by other users. You can access anything that lives on the web--favorite blogs, video content, even your email--with these integrated panels. You can even expand content beyond a panel's standard viewing area when you need a magnified view.
Easier interface management with Live Workspaces and Workspace Switcher Creating dedicated, task-specific workspaces that mimic your individual workflow increases productivity and efficiency by hiding the features you don't use and exposing the ones you do. New Live Workspaces auto-save any changes you make to a task-specific workspace, so that if you switch to a different workspace and then back again during an editing session, your panels remain exactly where you left them. The number of entries displayed in the collapsible Workspace Switcher can be altered, and the position of each workspace can be rearranged. This provides quicker navigation between frequently used setups.
Superior black-and-white conversion Photoshop CS5 continues to support the tradition of producing finely crafted monochrome photos with the inclusion of new ways to explore an endless variety of black-and-white looks. You can use the integrated Lab Black & White Technique action, located in the Default Actions group of the Actions panel, for an easy and interactive way to convert color images. Create gorgeous HDR black-and-whites with greater ease and speed by taking advantage of the new and updated features in HDR Pro. Take your monochrome creations in new directions with conversion presets in the Black & White panel.

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Photo Explosion Deluxe 3.0 Review

Photo Explosion Deluxe 3.0
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I used to have Microsoft's Image Composer (now discontinued) that came with FrontPage '98. What a great, intuitive little program that was for cutting out parts of photos and combining them into collages or new photos! It came with no manual, yet I was able to teach myself to use it just by playing around and trying things out. It was that easy, and it was a lot of fun!
This program claims to have many of the same functions IC did: cutting out pieces of pics by tracing an outline, resizing or recoloring or otherwise manipulating these pieces, and then combining them into a new 'photo.' Unfortunately, this program is so counter-intuitive and inflexible that you can't just play with it to figure things out.
Which would be tolerable if the manual was helpful but, of course, it's useless. It spends 70 pages describing the 'workspace' and how to 'organize your photos' (as if any moron can't do that by creating directories on their PC). After all that, there are only 10 pages on how to use the selection/trace function, how to resize, etc. And it doesn't seem to explain anywhere what to do to 'select' something once you've cut it out of a photo.
The worst part of the program is that you have to create a separate file for the place you want to combine all your images. This is stupid. Why can't you just work on one base photo, add to and alter it, and then do a 'save as...'? That would be simple. This program makes you create a 'project,' which requires sifting through dozens of their templates to find one that you can twist into something like what you want. Why not just let me work without a template? Not fun and certainly not functional.
The templates are very restrictive. For example, you can't size the space of the project once you create it. So if what you create needs to be a little larger or smaller than the template size, you have to shrink everything to fit into the template.
Further, the program's logic doesn't make much sense. If I cut out a piece of a photo and then go to resize it, the program resizes the original picture only (even though the cut-out is highlighted as selected). There's no obvious way to tell the program what I want to manipulate: the original or a cut-out. This is just one example, but there are many others I could offer.
I think the program MIGHT be good if all you want is real basic photo editing (i.e. cut a square shaped piece out of a photo and plop it into some inane greeting card template provided), but otherwise this is very limited and difficult to work with.
I can't see shelling out the bucks for Adobe. And I don't understand why someone doesn't offer an inexpensive version of Adobe (like Image Composer was)? I think I'm going to hunt for an old copy of FrontPage '98 at used software stores and reload IC.

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Photo Explosion® Deluxe made history as the first software of its kind to deliver powerful editing features spectacular special effects and professional-quality photo projects all together in one program.Now Photo Explosion Deluxe 3.0 makes digital photography even easier. And it s packed with exciting new features all designed to let you get the most out of your digital camera.System Requirements:Windows 98 2000 Me XP or Vista; 32 MB RAM; Pentium 166Mhz or faster; CD-ROM DriveFormat: WIN 98ME2000XPVISTA Genre:PRODUCTIVITY UPC:727298403831 Manufacturer No:PRW

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Adobe Acrobat Professional 9 Upgrade from Acrobat Standard Review

Adobe Acrobat Professional 9 Upgrade from Acrobat Standard
Average Reviews:

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Bought this one and upgraded from Acrobat 6 standard. You need the license no of Acrobat 6 in upgrading process. One user per one license only...
No surprise, the acrobat is acrobat. I have not seen the Office 2007 add-in problem so far. It is working just as advertised.


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Communicate and collaborate more effectively and securely with Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro. Unify a wide range of content into a single, organized PDF Portfolio. Collaborate through electronic document reviews. Create and manage dynamic forms. And help protect sensitive information. Scan paper documents to PDF and automatically recognize text Save PDFs as Word documents 256-bit encryption Apply restrictions on printing, etc Examine documents for hidden information and delete as needed Merge files from multiple applications Assemble a wide range of content types Familiar commenting tools such as sticky notes Manage shared document reviews that allow participants to see one another's comments Synchronized document views and chat Digitally sign PDFs Certify PDFs using digital IDs Create fillable PDF forms from paper or existing files Distribute and track PDF forms Let users of Reader (8 or later) to fill in & save PDF forms locally, and to digitally sign PDFs Convert documents for archiving Validate documents for conformance to ISO standards Permanently delete sensitive info Compare & highlight the differences between 2 PDFs Prepare PDFs for high-end print production Create & validate accessible PDFs Insert FLV or H.264 video for playback in Acrobat & Reader Convert AutoCAD, Visio, and Microsoft Project files to PDF, preserving document layers in Visio and AutoCAD and object data in Visio Convert Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Access files to PDF Archive e-mail or e-mail folders from Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes Create dynamic XML forms Windows XP / Server 2003 / Vista Upgrade from Standard

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VHS To DVD 4.0 Plus Review

VHS To DVD 4.0 Plus
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The actual physical device included is fantastic. It's small, easy to use, and does it's job without any hassle. The software included is a little clumsy at first, but once you get the hang of it it's not a problem.
I've spent about 20 hours so far recording from all of my family's old home movies and ran into very few problems throughout the whole process. Just make sure to do a few short test recordings to find the best format before you commit hours and hours of time. For me the WMV 4GB setting gave the best quality/file size ratio. But anyway once you figure out which format to record in everything's pretty easy.
The only thing that was a bit frustrating was the editing component of the software. It's just sorta clunky overall, but it gets the job done. If it bothers you there are plenty of free programs out there that you can substitute in. The recording aspect produces normal video files which you can easily move to other programs.
Where this product really shines is the ease of capturing video with minimal mess. I'd rate it a 4.5/5 if I could, but I'm pleased enough that I'll bump it up to a 5 rather than drop it to a 4 on Amazon's rating system. I did a lot of research before buying and I'm fairly positive this is the best video capture system available right now.

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Honest Technology VHS to DVD 4.0 Plus VDP4M Business Management Software

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Kid CAD Review

Kid CAD
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We just got this and are still trying to figure it all out. We all loved the idea of building something, decorating it, furnishing it and then blowing it up! My only and main complaint is that it's too little. I want bigger pieces, they're all so small. A great idea though and maybe the next one will be BIGGER. My kids are 8 & 10 and they're having fun with it.

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SiteSpinner Review

SiteSpinner
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I've been designing and implementing websites for 7 years. Half for work, and half for fun. I am an electrical engineer and have been using Frontpage, GoLive, Dreamweaver, notepad, you name it. I've gotten pretty good at figuring out how to manipulate tables, javascript, alignment, clear GIF's for spacing, etc. HOWEVER, these programs have never been truly what you see is what you get for me. And my webpages always looked differently in Netscape, Safari, Explorer, Opera, Firefly, etc. Really different.
But now with SiteSpinner, everything that took me 7 years to learn and figure out, I learned with SiteSpinner in under a few days. The message boards are great with employees? and people who give real answers that work.
Also, I've even stopped using tables for alignment now because it's so easy to just drag and drop images and text anywhere you want. Then you can control positioning of objects by clicking below.
Bottom line: If you are a beginner wanting to make professional webpages, you gotta get this. For people like me that are pretty experienced, you still gotta get this. I am finishing up a completely overhauled company website now that I budgeted 2 months to do. 4 days so far, and 2 more days to finish.


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Sony Movie Studio HD Review

Sony Movie Studio HD
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Looked like just what I needed to edit and convert AVCHD movie from a Sony camera. The features are there but this product is pretty much unusable. It crashes A LOT, some of the codecs included don't work and others outup video files that are corrupted. Waist of money.
Runing it on a Quad Core, 4 GB and SSD. Editing video from a Sony HDR-CX500V
1 month update - After many forum discussions I found some tweaks one may be able to apply to make this product work. It gets a bit technical but apparently some of the files included in this product are not set to address memeory space over 2 GB. If you have more then 2 GB as soon as your memory ussage exceeds 2 GB, the encoder crashes. There is a 3'rd party freeware you have to download to change the settings of about 6 files in this software and after that the product works much much better. It's unacceptable that Sony can't put out a patch to fix this when others managed to find a solution.

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Adobe Premiere Elements 9 (Win/Mac) Review

Adobe Premiere Elements 9 (Win/Mac)
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I'll start off by stating that I am just an everyday dad who wants to take the HD videos he shoots of family vacations, kids' birthdays, fishing trips, etc and transfer them to DVD without any loss in quality. I am not out to produce the next "Citizen Kane" nor am I out to challenge Steven Spielberg to a directorial throwdown.
I do not want to have to convert files, combine files, or compress files. I just want to transfer my family memories to disc for future viewing. If I can also chop out those moments when I forgot to turn the camcorder off and you get a good view of what footwear everyone was wearing that day, even better. If I can also include a title screen, with a neat little visual of what's on that disc, with an area where you click "play" to start the video, better still.
This sounds like a fairly simple request, no? Nevertheless, I have had trouble finding video editing software that will do this in a straightforward and simple fashion. I have bought Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus and Corel VideoStudio Express 2010. I have also tried Windows Movie Maker and have downloaded trials of PowerDirector 8 Ultra and Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum. They all either produced bad images, required video conversions, froze up, locked up, or spit up. As far as my hardware, my PC consists of a Quad Core i7 chip with six GB of RAM and with Windows 7 64-bit.
I was scanning Amazon one day and noticed that Adobe Premier had among the highest reviews when compared to the other options and was decently priced (with a rebate). After my other experiences, I decided to download their trial version before I made the purchase. I was elated with the results.
Finding the files (which were raw, .mts files that I had transferred from an SD card to my hard drive) and loading them into the workspace was simple. Arranging them was equally simple (oldest to newest, which I chose, or newest to oldest). Burning them to Blu-ray disc (I have both a Blu-ray disc burner and a standard disc burner on my PC) was also an easy process. In no time I had the disc produced and was watching video with stunning clarity on my 67-inch HD television.
Here are some things to note:
1. Processing time for 45 minutes of HD video took about two hours. The software has to process the files prior to burning, which takes a while. It seems like slow going sometimes, but just leave it alone and be patient.
2. When it actually starts burning the disc, for some reason the process bar for this activity stays at 1 percent. Just ignore this...it is actually making progress, although it doesn't show it on the screen.
3. If you load the trial version, the disc you make will have an ugly black bar across the middle of the entire video, indicating that it was made from a trial version of Adobe Premiere. I found this annoying, but understandable. The other trial versions I tried did not do this.
4. I saved my trial project, and then opened it with the Premiere version that I bought. The full-version software retrieved it and the black bar was gone. So, if you do a project with the trial version and later buy the software, save your project to avoid re-work.
5. On my second DVD, I managed to put in a title screen and insert captions (e.g. "On our way camping," "Arriving at our hotel in Naples) just by fumbling around. This software is especially easy to navigate.
6. I like the fact that Adobe Premier has so many resources...some online, that I have not yet explored, and some in book form, including this one that was just released. Adobe Premiere Elements 9 Classroom in a Book I may end up getting more involved in this as a hobby than I thought I ever would or could. I am optimistic about this since thus far the fundamentals have proven so user friendly.
In summary, I highly recommend this product against all others. It is great for the novice, the "point-and-shoot" user, and apparently will allow you to gain more expertise with practice. Time will tell.
Lastly, I apologize for the lengthy review, but after trying so many editing software choices out there I am really pleased I finally found one that works, works well, and is so user friendly. My only gripe at this point is that by the time I downloaded the trial version and tested it, the price had increased by $10 when I went to make the purchase! Even at that, though, I still consider it a good value.
If my opinion changes (for better or worse) as I continue to work my way through this software, I will update the review.


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Incredible movies, effortlessly! Adobe Premiere Elements 9--the newest version of the #1 selling video-editing software--delivers powerful, automated moviemaking options, professional-quality effects, and optimized HD and SD editing. Share quickly via convenient web DVD viewing experiences and on disc, mobile devices, Facebook, and YouTube. Automatically organize and help protect all your video clips and photos. And now enjoy a complete solution for videos whether you use Microsoft Windows or Mac OS.
Quickly find, view, and protect your clips and photos in a powerful media-management hub.

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System Suite 10 Professional Review

System Suite 10 Professional
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SystemSuite was a great product when it was owned and run by VCOM - there was absolutely no better suite of tools to protect your computer.
But since Avanquest took over, the program's quality and features have started to slide dangerously downhill, and Avanquest would love it if you would crash at the bottom.
Remember those days when Symantec would deliberately discontinue antivirus definitions for a product in the hopes of scaring you into buying a new version? Well, Welcome to Avanquest! Once your version of SystemSuite is more than two or three years old, they will stop providing you with updated antivirus definitions. Oh, and THEY WILL NOT TELL YOU. That's right, Avanquest will DELIBERATELY leave your precious computer exposed to viruses. Sort of like not knowing your car's airbag doesn't work - until you look down and find yourself covered with blood.
Today, to celebrate the joy of this season of love and happiness, Avanquest discontinued antivirus updates for SystemSuite 7 & 8 and didn't tell anybody. Merry Christmas! Make sure you clean off the blood.
Yes, that's a program that is only TWO years old and is only TWO versions old. Don't bother begging for support from Avanquest - they want you to spend big $$$ on SystemSuite 10 (same name, but a totally different program) so that they can discontinue antivirus on you AGAIN two years from now! Imagine sitting down to Christmas dinner and the joy on your family's faces when you tell them that all their computers are now vulnerable. Imagine the yelling and the guilt they'll lay on you to buy them all new antivirus programs to replace the one you told them to trust. Imagine how much they won't trust you in the future. Imagine Avanquest's indifference.
Avanquest has two words for you this holiday season - and they aren't "Merry Christmas". It's a phrase synonymous with "Get Infected".


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