AT LAST, AN ALL IN ONE PROGRAM. (MS Picture It! 2001 Studio Photo)

Member Name: thingywhatsit

Product:	MS Picture It! 2001 Studio Photo
Date:	14/08/06 (188 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Super program that eliminates the need to have many different programs. Does it all.

Disadvantages: Hard drive space that is needed.

Microsoft have a habit of taking ideas, and improving upon them, and give them their due, have done marvelously well in that with this program, they have taken the best of Home Publishing, and one of the easiest programs for Photographic work, and combined them to make a program that is seriously user friendly.

It's a five disc package, and beware here. It takes a very long time to load fully onto the computer because of its' whacking size. You do get a choice between a minimal installation or a full one, although the minimal one requires the user to keep putting in CD's as and when they are required, and frankly, I had the space required and couldn't be hassled with changing over CD's all the time. Loading is fine, though lengthy and you are prompted every step of the way, in true Microsoft fashion, giving the user very little responsibility for choosing the bits that they install, which suits me, as my expertise is limited.

The original concept of Picture It 2000 has been combined with a publishing package, and is set out a little like a web page. What I like is that I am offered all the editing facilities that I was accustomed to with Picture It, and as well as this, got so many other options of things to do that I was able to uninstall the older versions of Publishing and Photographic programs, and let this one become my main program. It helps because in the past, I was always switching from one program to the other in order to achieve the many tasks that I wanted a program to perform.

What does the program do ?

For Photographs.

This is only a small part of the program, though what it did for me was enable me to play with photographs and produce first class, innovative results. I have tried Photoshop and other expensive programs, but always got lost because they were too complex for a user like me. This one isn't. The options that I am offered is staggering, and has been enhanced since the last version of Picture It, with a more modern layout that offers you the opportunity of importing photographs from varying sources such as scanner, digital camera, or file and enhancing colour, contrast, brightness, focus, etc., in such a simple manner. I very much like the special effects as well, and was glad to see that the new program has not done away with the features such as “picture putty”, which is a means of manipulating an image, and pulling and dragging on parts of the picture in order to lengthen hair, or even a feature like a nose, for humorous pictures.

One of the features I did like a lot is the incorporation of special effects to make your pictures look like paintings, and to touch up things like wrinkles. Handy at my age.

The printing of photos has been made simpler, and the choices of size are good. Printing multiple photos on one sheet is a super way of saving paper.

The projects within this program have been enhanced and I do like the greetings card feature that enables you to use your own photographs to make cards. This was always something I did with a publishing program, but now I can do it simply within the one program, which saves me so much time.

When comparing this with Roxio, this package is better because it does everything now that Microsoft have added enhancements. I can save photographs in a small form so that they send easily by email, and what I particularly like is that the program does not assume that you are an expert. Everything is clearly explained, from making collages from your photos, to making calendars. It's all clear.

A newer feature of the photographic package is that you can eliminate items that you find annoying in the background of photos, and here it is much simpler than Photoshop. What I found particularly useful with this feature was that I could actually colour the background of a picture the same colour as a T-shirt, and then print onto T-shirt transfers and get a very professional looking finish without the square edges that a photo would give me. I have never found a program that so simply produces such wonderful results.

Add ons.

What I like with this program is that Microsoft have incorporated so many extras within the program and the clip art is amazing, together with the number of templates for ideas.

Publishing Area

Now this is where the old Microsoft Home Publisher used to come in handy, but having the program all incorporated into one package is superb. You don't need expert knowledge of HTML nor complex software like Dreamweaver, because Microsoft take you every step of the way into the creation of a website. There are numerous possibilities here and the templates that are available are very professional looking, though easy to use, and to change and to make your own. What I liked particularly here is that I can not only create a web-page, but I can add sound, and movement simply and easily, using the Wizard provided, and the ease of use really is amazing. An 11 year old that was staying at my house actually achieved making his own web site and was totally absorbed in making sure that he had all the right buttons and transitional features to make the site work. Yes, it takes time, but it really is simple when you compare with the more professional programs around that simply leave me baffled.

Brochures

These are very simple to create and extremely effective and what I liked about this feature was than frequently, I have to send out newsletters to my students, and here the program actually integrates being able to multi send brochures to various email addresses, which ultimately saves me time.

Overall conclusion.

There are so many areas to explore on this program and it never ceases to amaze me how you can switch from one job to another easily, which is great for a multi-tasker like me. The old Picture it was slower and less streamlined. This one is more modern and offers extreme flexibility. It is good for older children as well as adults who can produce professional results. I love the program and am very enthusiastic about its' capabilities. My only disappointment was the hugeness of the software, taking up a massive 1GB of hard drive space, although when you combine the space that the alternative programs took that I can now eliminate because of the efficiency of this software, it's a pretty even balance.

It's a good price too from 54 Euros (around the 35 Pound) mark, and I think that here, Microsoft were not too greedy when you compare what you get with other packages and their combined price. Having it all in one package certainly makes life easier.

Pentium 166MHz or higher,
All Windows from 95 to XP
64MB of RAM
985MB of free hard disk space
Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher.

Updates available automatically.

It certainly has me hooked.

Rachel

Summary: A superb program at a good price.

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