Offers
Reviews
 |
PagePlus 8
by bagel PagePlus is probably the most famous product from Serif, although you wouldn't be alone if you've never heard of it. It's sold over a million copies, but is almost certainly less used than it's more famous, yet less powerful rival, Microsoft Publisher. In terms of professional features, PagePlus undisputedly tramples ... Publisher. And don't just take my word for it, many magazine reviews will back this up (some of these are on Serif's website at http://www.serif.com/company/reviews/index.asp#pp ). It's won countless rewards and is also relatively cheap, considering the features you get. If you give the Serif sales line a call on (0800) 376-7070 they'll probably offer it to you for much less than the high street shops. You won't get a box, but you shouldn't care as you'll save yourself a packet. PagePlus is a DeskTop Publishing (DTP) application, which allows you to easily create designs with complicated layouts, such as greetings cards, business cards, calendars, flyers, posters and even web sites. It includes hundreds of professionally produced 'wizards' on the accompanying Design CD, which will automatically create a document using your details. You only have to add text and change the colours if you like and you're done. Alternatively, for that personal touch you can tweak everything on the page as if you had created it yourself, adding and removing elements with ease. Who is it for? PagePlus' pricing puts it within reach of the majority of home users, although it's feature set would have you believe it's a professional application. The program is very cleverly designed so that the advanced features don't get in the way of what the basic user will need. Colour separations, for example are tabbed off into the print dialogue, so if you don't know what they are, you never need to see them. Still, the basic screen can seem rather cramped, as there are useful icons on a ll four sides of the screen. Basically, if you want to add something to the page, click something on the left. If you want to edit it, use the tabs on the right or drag a slider on the floating 'changebar'. For file options click a button on the top of the screen, and to move through pages of the document, use the navigation on the bottom. That's rather over-simplified, but I found the screen layout very intuitive. It's almost like having everything you need spread out round your desk - really easy to lay your hands on anything you need, but any newcomers will moan about the untidy desk. I have used PagePlus since I was a complete DTP novice (version 3 of PagePlus!), and found it straightforward enough to use then. Now I like to use the more advanced features, I find it able to perform those too. It seems ideal for the home user, with plenty of room to grow, or for the money-conscious professional. I doubt it can provide all the features of something like Quark XPress or Adobe InDesign, but it stands well above it's competitors in this price range. I have used Microsoft Publisher briefly and from what I saw, PagePlus leaves it struggling at the starting line. Using the program As a DTP program, everything in PagePlus goes into a frame. You drop a frame onto the page to write text into, and graphics and special 'artistic text' will go into their own frame. PagePlus then lets you shift these frames round in real-time, updating the page layout as you drag a frame around. This has the advantage over a word processor that more advanced effects can be achieved with ease. You can play around with transparency and background patterns (optionally using images for either), and add special effects such as glows and drop shadows to frames, to give your document an individual touch. If you add text as 'artistic text', you're then able to flip, stretch, squash and rotate it to your heart's content. An d you can still go back and change the original text if you like. The range of options here is pretty comprehensive - I've never found anything I've wanted from the program that it can't do. It's the flexibility that makes this program stand out - you can pick a colour scheme at any time for example, changing your document from moody greys to bright colours right up until you print (it's a little late to change it after you print!). If your artistic text looks a bit small, it's not a problem - just drag the sizing corner out until it looks right, or fine-tune spacing and other things with the changebar. I find it very intuitive, almost like having a collection of stretchy squares of paper on a table, ready to be slotted into position to make a page. When creating blocks of text, PagePlus allows you to 'wrap' them around objects, as you would expect. In addition, you can place text in frames of different shapes - if you've always wanted to fit some text into a circle, now you can! And on the subject of fitting, PagePlus can 'auto fit' text to any size frame, adjusting the text size and spacing for the best effect. This is useful in a magazine-style article where you may want the text to flow right up the end of the page. Eventually, you will probably want to print your document, and PagePlus has this well covered too. It can organise your pages into a booklet ready for folding, resize pages, print thumbnails, and spread your document out over many pages, like a banner. For professional printing, features such as the ability to produce colour separations and add prepress information like crop marks, colour bars and registration targets will be invaluable It makes web sites too? PagePlus has traditionally been aimed at making paper based publications and more recently it has been able to save anything as a web page. The functionality goes further than this, however, by providing a special & #39;web publishing' mode allowing you to place webby things such as hyperlinks, image rollovers and Javascript on the page. PagePlus has a comprehensive selection of web page wizards on the Design CD, any you could have a basic website up and running within a few hours. It can even upload the website to your web space on the internet (you almost certainly have some web space if you've got internet access). PagePlus will intelligently compose the pages of your site using the latest web standards so the file sizes aren't huge. Compared to MS Word, for example, the pages it produces are very tidy. Of course, if you can write web pages by hand you can archive more efficient results, but PagePlus' drag-and-drop approach will save a lot of time. Creating a web page in PagePlus really is no more difficult than creating a poster or door-hanger. Is there anything wrong with the program? The only thing I think PagePlus is lacking is support for alternative file formats. You can save documents as images (JPEG etc), but there are no options to export to files readable in rival DTP programs. However, the latest versions of PagePlus can also save to PDF, which is almost the standard way of exchanging documents over the web. Unfortunately, I do not have the PDF edition, but I believe that all new copies of PagePlus 8 sold now include PDF functionality, allowing you to add hyperlinks to PDF documents and configure the compression to your requirements. Also, once you're a registered Serif customer, you'll get sent 'special' offers by post and e-mail. Some of these are pretty useless (see my op on Serif in general for more info). You can opt out of these mailings, but you'll miss out on fantastic upgrade offers on their software and gadgets if you do. Other than that, there's really nothing more I could want from the program. It has all the features I could need, it's fast, it very rarely crashes (the latest patch fixes this) and is cheap to keep current as the latest versions are heavily discounted for previous customers. PagePlus even has a fantastic user manual (yes, they do still exist). It leaves the boring stuff to the help system in the program, and gets you started with a tutorial and advice on printing. And you can download it should the goldfish eat your paper copy. I'm still not sure... Serif offers free downloads of old software at http://www.freeserifsoftware.com , so you can try it out for yourself. If you decide to upgrade to the latest version, you can get hundreds of wizards to make creating documents much quicker. Personally, I tend to start from a blank page, but the wizards are still a good source of inspiration, and the latest versions are much slicker (they re-engineered the program from scratch at version 7, I believe) 03/01/04 EDIT: I've just upgraded to PagePlus 9, and am suitably amazed by the improvements. It's had a gorgeous new facelift and now makes PDF files (accepted by professional printers - 'tis true, I've done it). Along with more professional features like text along a path and 3D text, you'd be mad to buy anything else. I must go now, I'm busy making a Serif shrine... Overall, this is a fantastic package. I've used it to create posters for various events, numerous cards, and even a few magazines. The posters, incidentally, got stolen and pinned on walls as a souvenir - it's possible to make things indistinguishable from what a design agency would make. If you can think it, the chances are that PagePlus can make it. Read the complete review |
 |
Adobe Acrobat 4.0 in general
by arunroy Adobe Acrobat is one of the most essential tools to exchange documents by electronic media. In India it is widely used and I have not come across any other similar software. ------------------------------------------------------- Why it so popular? ------------------------------------------------------- # It ... has small file size and independent of platform. # PDF is a perfect system for distributing undistorted documents by electronic media. One can distribute the documents through the Internet, Intranet of organizations. Floppy / CD also can used for storing. PDF documents can be sent by Email to other users directly from Acrobat, as attachment of Email # Added advantage is its compatibility with online navigation. According to its guides it is independent of platform. However, other than Window I have not used PDF files in any other platform. Acrobat can convert practically any document from any application to a compact and searchable PDF File (Portable Document Format). Documents in PDF file maintain the exact look of the originals with fonts and graphics. Acrobat Reader (Size: 8.41 MB) is free software available or may be downloaded from Adobe Web site at http://www.adobe.com. With the free Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0, one can view and print Adobe PDF files across a broad range of hardware and software. Adobe Acrobat software with PDF maker is not a free package. One has to purchase it. This software is required to convert files of MS to PDF document. ------------------------------------------------------- System requirements ------------------------------------------------------- For Adobe Acrobat 5.0 with PDF Maker - I prefer Pentium III or above with operating system Microsoft Windows. Window 95 OSR 2.0, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or 6 (Service Pack 6 recommended), Windows 2000 are well suited. They are sup posed to update it for XP but I have no information about such development. Hard disk with 32 MB of RAM (64 MB is recommended) and 120 MB of available hard disk space is minimum. Additional 32 MB of space if someone go for other additional fonts. CD-ROM drive is required for installation. For Acrobat reader 5.0 - Hard disk with 16 MB of RAM (32 recommended), 15 MB of available hard disk space. For Asian fonts (optional) additional 32 MB of hard-disk space is required. Operating system as mentioned above. ------------------------------------------------------- Reading a PDF Document ------------------------------------------------------- To open a PDF document – # Click the Open button or choose File than Open. In the Open dialog box select the filename and click Open. PDF documents will have the extension .pdf and the icon. # Double-click the file icon in your file system or explorer. Adjusting the view of PDF documents - You can change the magnification level of a PDF document. One may set a page layout that determines whether you will see one page at a time or a continuous flow of pages. One can use view options from menu bar. PDF document maker can set the document to open in a variety of ways with option like Full Screen, document might open to a particular page number, at a particular magnification, or with the bookmarks or thumbnails. In case of Full Screen view, the toolbar, command bar, menu bar, and window controls are not visible. To suit your requirements you can exit Full Screen view by pressing Escape and adjust as per your choice. ------------------------------------------------------- How to convert files to PDF ------------------------------------------------------- The default Acrobat installation in Windows includes a macro Adobe PDF Maker that allows creating a Adobe PDF file very easily from Microsoft Office ap < br>pl ication s like Word document, Spread sheet of Excel, Power Point presentation. One has to just press PDF Converter icon on the menu bar of application to convert MS file to PDF. PDF Converter works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Excel 97, Excel 2000, PowerPoint 97, and PowerPoint 2000 and installed automatically. By default Adobe PDF files created with PDF Maker generate tagged PDF and preserve hyperlinks, styles, and bookmarks present in the source document. Acrobat supports an extensive list of various formats including movie formats. By pressing PDF converter with Email option will open your default Mailer after converting MS file to PDF. ------------------------------------------------------- Playing movies and sound clips ------------------------------------------------------- Not yet tried but writing this based on the information in the CD. Apple QuickTime 3.0 or later, or Microsoft Windows Media Player is good enough for this application. QuickTime 5.0 or later is required for working with MPEG files. QuickTime 4.0 is included in their software package. ------------------------------------------------------- Why I use PDF Maker? ------------------------------------------------------- I am not a very advanced user of Adobe Acrobat so cannot share any such experience. My experience is limited to conversion of Word, Spreadsheet or PowerPoint files # Main purpose of making PDF files is to distribute undistorted documents electronically outside the organization. # It is very easy to convert a file to PDF and cannot be changed that easily. (Your are helpless if someone is determined to do so by making a new file with the help of Adobe Acrobat software.) # Receiver of PDF file can cut and paste useful information to share with others. Whole document may be cut and paste to make a word (Spreadsheet or PowerPoint as well) file and one can make nec < br>essary changes to s uit ones requirements. # Acrobat Reader is a free software so one need not feel help less after receiving files in that format. Can be downloaded from many sites. # PDF files can be sent by Email as an attachment and it does not lose its original look. The receiver of PDF file is sure of receiving original document with right format. All hyperlinks remain active in PDF file. This software is having option of digital signature but I have not used it so far. ------------------------------------------------------- From the Dictionary ------------------------------------------------------- Adobe - Brick made of clay baked in sun used for building or building made of such bricks Acrobat - A person who can swing on a trapeze or do other feats of bodily skill and strength So friends, software build by tested resources does all acrobatics for you to save you from forged or distorted documents. Read the complete review |
 |
PageStream 4.1
by When I joined the 21st century just over a year ago I missed not having a DTP package on the PC and considered the options available to me. QuarkXpress was out of my reach financially and even Adobe PageMaker, at nigh on four hundred quid, was far too expensive for my needs. Then I discovered that PageStream that I use on the Amiga had ... been ported over to the PC at a price that was more within my range. PageStream made by Soft Logik first put in an appearance in the early nineties on the Amiga platform and promptly wiped the floor with its competitors on that platform. Virtually on a par with Adobe’s PageMaker 4.5 on the Mac, it served the Amiga community well although the upgrade to version 3 was a bit of a disaster, as it needed many revisions (up to rev j) before it was stable enough for use. After a three years absence Soft Logik, now called Grasshopper LLC, came up with PageStream 4 now at 4.1 not just for the Amiga platform but also for the Apple Macs and Windows. Available from www.grasshopperllc.com. at $299 or from http://www.pagestream.de/ at €349 + €10 p&p (about £220) PageStream has a few features not even incorporated in QuarkXpress, the industry standard and is in English, German and Dutch. Just a small aside. How did I get the € sign on my machine running Windows ME that is well over 12 months old? Try AltGr and $. Much cheaper than the current competition, PageStream is an excellent DTP package for domestic and professional use alike and fully capable of producing what is needed from a DTP package. Four days after placing my order with http://www.haage-partner.com/ the parcel arrived and as is usual these days the box containing the software is far too big but the package contained the CD and a hard copy manual of some 220 pages, although this was for PageStream 3. Also included was a card that contained the Serial Number and a letter with the Password that are required when first running the program me. Thoughtfully there are two boxes on the first page of the manual where the user can make a note of these numbers. As is my way, I curbed my enthusiasm to install PageStream straightaway and made a copy of the CD first, put away the master and used the copy to install the programme. Having forked out £220 I wasn’t taking any chances of a disaster happening to the master CD. I also made a jewel case for my copy that included the Serial Number and Password. The CD does not have auto install in the classic manner as I had to open the CD and find the appropriate executable file that would install PageStream. On opening the CD I was faced with two folders, AmigaOS Dokumente and PageStream Installation and four files. Two of the files are in German but there is a ReadMe text file and also a digital copy of the manual for version 4.1 in PDF format. The install file entitled SETUP.EXE can be found in the PageStream Install folder. Double click on this and hey presto within a minute or so PageStream was installed. All I had to do was to copy the rather unimaginative icon to my desktop for ready use. Being very familiar with PageStream from the Amiga it was like meeting an old friend and my first query was, would the documents produced on the Amiga version of PS import into the PC version? We…ee...ll I have to report that indeed they can and that is going to save me an awful lot of work. This implies that a document produced on any platform can be used by other platforms running the same or higher version of PS. Time to get my Amiga to ‘talk’ to my PC and transfer all my PS files. This is not the place to detail each and every aspect of PageStream, you need to read the manual for that, but it is a first rate Desk Top Publishing package at a price, which is much cheaper than the definitive commercial programmes. Indeed on the Amiga I was able to lay out, publish and print a couple of books that I have written not t o mention a variety of other projects. I produce my own calendars - you know those long ones where you can write in birth dates and the like. Thus I have the advantage of having the birth dates etc printed on the calendar and do not have to write them in each year. PS will use whatever fonts you have installed on your system and is a WYSIWYG system. In other words what you see on screen is EXACTLY what is printed out. To aid this I have arranged that the screen display is the actual size of a piece of A4. That is on my 17” screen I have set the display to be 83%. On running PS the user is faced with the programme window and a smaller window entitled PageStream Navigator, where the user can select to start a New document, Open an existing one or set the Preferences for the documents. The window also displays hints and tips. Clicking on Prefs opens Preferences where the user can set the parameters of a new document and where it will be saved. I have a special folder in my data partition that I have imaginatively named PageStream with sub folders for the various type of documents that I will work with. Clicking on New, a window opens where you can set the parameters of the document to use. Portrait is by default and the paper size can be set to any one of 20 sizes- plus custom. Margins too can be set in here as can the number of columns and the gutter. Landscape documents can also be set as can Double-sided. The New document can also be named at this stage although this can be done when saving it for the first time. Whatever settings are made, clicking on ‘Remember’ will ensure that the set parameters are used each time a New document is opened. Now we get to the page proper with rows of tiny black grid dots and the margins in cyan, a ruler across the top and down the left side. As is usual with most programmes there is a set of menus across the top and underneath just above the ruler is the Toolbar. Down the left s ide and overlaying part of the ruler is the Toolbox although it can be dragged to any part of the screen. Right at the bottom left is the Custom Palette the contents of which change with the tool in use. This too can be dragged to any position on the screen and it would be prudent to move it up a bit so that you can get at the Zoom In and Out buttons, the button to adjust the screen page size display and the forward and backward arrows. One thing that I noticed, that unlike in other PC programmes like Word etc. when you rest the pointer over an icon a tiny box comes up stating what the icon is for. This does not happen on PageStream. Not really a downside as the icons are standard and some will be ghosted until you can use that particular facility. For instance the copy icon will not become clear until you have text to copy or an object has been selected. Also the Right Mouse Button is not functional on PageStream, which some people will find a bit of a handicap, although the scroll wheel works. Another aspect that is different to the run of the mill Windows applications is that hitting return whilst in one of the many small windows that appear will not be the same as clicking the OK button. You have to click on OK. When PageStream opens a ‘New’ document it also opens unlimited pages but these do not come into play until required. That is until you actually put something on them. I got to 500 pages before I got fed up trying to find the limit. I doubt if there is one. No memory is used until a page has something on it. The pages are just there. The grid dots can be set to any spacing that you choose and objects and text boxes can be ‘snapped’, or not, to any of the grid dots. This enables easy lining up of objects. So what’s all this about objects and text boxes? PageStream handles text in two different ways. You can create a text box by accessing Menu/Layout/Create Text Frames and import or type in t ext and in effect use it as a word processor. If you alter the size of the text box the text will auto justify. If there is more text than the box can hold a small plus mark in a square appears just below the bottom right-hand corner of the text box. To see all the text you just grab an ear and increase the size of the box. Text can be arranged to ‘flow’ from one text box to another in any order that you choose be it all on the same page or on different pages. You just have to show the programme the path that you want the text to take. A text box can also be created by clicking on the text box icon in the toolbox and click, hold and drag on the page to create whatever size you like. A text box can always be recognised by the fact that there will not be any grid dots in it. The text box is still an object and can be moved around to your heart’s content. However if you select ‘A’ from the toolbox and click the cursor anywhere on the page and type in whatever you want, it then becomes a real ‘object’ and as such, if you alter the size of the ‘text box object’ the text will also alter in size. Thus you could type in your name, select the Arrow from the Toolbox and elongate the object downwards, upwards or sideways and the text would be stretched accordingly. Objects can be rotated, slanted and twisted in increments of at least 0.1 degrees as well as flipped vertically and horizontally. As you would expect from a DTP package text can be manipulated for its ‘kerning’ and ‘leading’. Don’t ask unless you want to read another 1,000 words. An object, apart from a text object, is a drawing, be it just a straight line to a shape or an imported picture. Thus if you draw a circle you can shrink or enlarge it PERFECTLY and there will be no “jaggies” as although PS displays on screen in bitmap (pixels) and you may see ‘jaggies’, the printed version will be a smooth a s a baby’s bum. All objects can be manipulated in a variety of ways and can be grouped together or locked into place. Just a final word about the manual - it is well laid out, clear and jargon free with a couple of tutorials to help the newcomer get started. I may even read it one day. There is no end to what PageStream can be used for and once registered, owners can expect updates from the web site at http://www.haage-partner.com/ as they happen and support when they need it for FREE. Read the complete review |
Desktop Publishing |
||
|---|---|---|
|
1 review Desktop Publishing / Complete package - 1 user - DVD - Win - English - European Union - 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. Include in... |
|
|
1 review Focus Multimedia Ltd / Desktop Publishing / CD-ROM |
|
|
1 review Platform: Windows Vista / Desktop Publishing / XP, Mac OS X / - Inspired by the designer's passion for perfection, QuarkXPress 8 complements the way creatives work. Move freely through QuarkXPress 8 using its modern, intuitive interface; be adventurous by sharing your print content across media with built-in W... |
|
|
Desktop Publishing / Complete package - 1 user - DVD - Win - International English - Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium software is the ultimate toolkit for today's designer. Express yourself in exciting new ways and deliver rich creative experiences across print, web... |
|
|
Manufacturer: Serif - PagePlus X3 Publisher Professional is Serif's award-winning Vista certified, desktop publishing powerhouse. With outstanding graphic design tools, professionally-produced business templates, flexible layout capabilities, full PDF-editing and high-end output options, P... |
|
|
1 review Desktop Publishing / Adobe Acrobat Standard - ( v. 9 ) - complete package - 1 user - DVD - Win - International English - Adobe Acrobat Standard software enables business professionals to easily convert any electronic or paper document - even a Web site - to a reliable Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file ... |
|
|
Desktop Publishing / Adobe Acrobat Pro - ( v. 9 ) - complete package - 1 user - DVD - Win - International English - Protect documents and accelerate information exchange with PDF. Communicate and collaborate more effectively and securely. Unify a wide range of content in a single organized PDF Portfolio... |
|
|
Desktop Publishing / Complete package - 1 user - DVD - Win - International English - Explore more creative possibilities and experience new levels of productivity using Adobe InDesign CS3 page layout software. Built for demanding workflows, InDesign integrates smoothly with Adobe Photoshop... |
|
|
1 review Desktop Publishing / Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard - Complete package - 1 user - DVD - Mac - International English - Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard software is the indispensable toolkit for professional design and print production. It combines all-new versions of essential tools for page layou... |
|
|
1 review Desktop Publishing / QuarkXPress Passport - ( v. 7 ) - complete package - 1 user - CD - Win, Mac - English - QuarkXPress Passport software is a complete, fully-functioning version of QuarkXPress that includes additional features for multilingual publishing. QuarkXPress Passport supports hyphenation and spell-c... |
|
| Desktop Publishing recommendations 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... back next | ||
| dooyoo Results 21 - 30 of 121 | ||
