No comments about FLIPALBUM 5 STANDARD (CANADA).

No comments about BYTESIZE SOFTWARE PC Musician, 2nd Edition (Windows).

5 comments about NAMO WebEditor 5.0.

1. Say goodbye to FrontPage when you can get all the functionality right here. Don't worry about FrontPage extensions anymore. Namo has everything in one package - create your page, FTP your work and you are published! Highly recommend.



2. Especially when it was priced so cheap. My problems started when I actually tried to use it.

   The site functions are potentially really nice, but I found that there were too many missing pieces that made it frustrating. For example; I wanted to apply a style sheet to the site, but I found no way to apply it to the entire site. Instead I had to go through each page and set the style sheet. There were several cases where making a change that should be capable of propogating through the site structure don't.

   The last straw was when I tried to setup a horizonal under a navigation bar. I wanted to put them close by using the break tag instead of a paragraph. If I went from the source tab to the preview it looked fine, but each time I went back to the edit tab the application insisted on inserting a paragraph tag.

   This editor has great potential, and if you can live with the supplied templates I'm sure it would work fine. If you have a design in mind you may find it frustrating as I did.

   I have no other product to recommend because I have found something irritating in each other product I've tried.




3. I was a loyal user of Frontpage. Yeah I used Frontpage 2002 a lot before. But I found this great software: NAMO accidently during web surfing.

   NAMO completely blows Frontpage 2002 away. Bye bye frontpage. You only pay less than 1/3 price of Frontpage, but you get far more superior, 300% more powerful, reliable and elegant web editor.

   Yeah I don't see any reason for Frontpage 2002 to exist.




4. Overall, Namo WebEditor version 5.5 is amoung the best available. However, don't bother with version 5. It has bugs, and is missing many of the great features in version 5.5. Also, the price is nearly the same. Please see my review of version 5.5.



5. If you're interested in NAMO WebEditor 5.0, consider that Namo is offering a free upgrade to WebEditor 5.5 to those that have purchased 5.0. The upgrade comes in the form of a downloadable patch available on the Namo web page. Go to: www.namo.com/products/webeditor/
   Save money, 5.5 is more expensive than 5.0.

1 comments about ACDsee 5.0 Power Pack.

1. ACDSee 5.0.1.006 is a powerful, but crash-prone (at least on the two Windows XP Home SP1 / NTFS systems that I use) consumer-oriented digital imaging manager. ACDSee PowerPack bundles the base ACDSee 5.0 image manager with FotoCanvas 2.0, an image editor; and FotoAngelo, a slideshow and screensaver generator. Compared with rival Adobe Photoshop Album, ACDSee is focused on file-level manipulation and organizational processes, while Photoshop Album is more focused on creative projects. Consumers that primarily want to *use* their photographs to create calendars, photo books, video CDs, greeting cards, e-cards, etc., should purchase Photoshop Album. ACDSee PowerPack does not have tools for these sorts of projects. Consumers that place importance on metadata should also consider ThumbsPlus 6.0.

   (Consumers should beware the trial version of Adobe PhotoShop Album. The trial version installs Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.1, but is then unable to uninstall Acrobat Reader, which has since been surpassed by Adobe Reader 6.0.)

   It is in the use of ACDSee that one acquires an appreciation of the program's file-level management and organizational facilities. Although ACDSee's interface may look complicated at first, its design enables one to manipulate multiple files quickly. Photoshop Album is less skilled at file-level management in part because it abstracts collections of images into a catalog-based user interface. ACDSee's small touches may be easy to overlook, but are appreciated when compared to other programs. CompuPic Pro 6.22, for example, allows Shift-Click mouse operations to select multiple files, but omits ACDSee's keyboard support for similar operations.

   Support for metadata in an image manager is important. Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but not always. Without aid, the casual viewer may not understand a picture's content or context. (E.g., What is this a picture of? Who are these people? What the (blank) was I drinking..?!) Even the photographer himself may not remember these things himself ten or twenty years later. Metadata helps by capturing camera setting information and providing a way to embed picture caption information inside the picture itself.
   
   ACDSee does a fair job of supporting metadata. ACDSee can read all, and edit selected (but not all) EXIF metadata fields present in a picture, but cannot add EXIF metadata to a picture if those metadata fields are absent from the picture (i.e, scanned pictures). The program also uses an internal database to store notes up to 4,000 characters, keywords up to 1,000 characters, and category information about pictures. While ACDSee's batch operations support the addition of keywords, category, and database information (these are all to the ACDSee internal database), batch support does not extend to EXIF metadata editing operations.

   ACDSee unfortunately does not support the more useful IPTC and XMP metadata standards. (For example, the online photo sharing site Fotki.com automatically displays IPTC title and caption information.) Users with files with IPTC metadata will have to take care in using ACDSee. While ACDSee JPEG filters are IPTC-aware, the program's TIFF filters are not. ACDSee's TIFF filters have a bug - adding EXIF metadata to an 8-bit grayscale TIFF image will mangle the image with some sort of Emboss effect.

   Most of ACDSee's competitors do worse at supporting metadata. Photoshop Album truncates metadata caption text to 63 characters, and limits internal database entries to 1,000 characters. CompuPic Pro 6.22 can only read (but not edit) EXIF metadata, and does not have internal notes or keywords facilities. Picasa uses EXIF datestamps to only sort images. ACDSee users can supplement ACDSee's metadata capabilities with freeware programs like Exifer (http://www.exifer.friedemann.info), a EXIF and IPTC metadata editor; and PixVue (http://www.pixvue.com) , a freeware Windows Explorer extension that provides IPTC/XMP metadata handling capabilities. ThumbsPlus 6.0 is a notable exception, supporting both EXIF and IPTC metadata. However, ThumbsPlus' interface is less adept than ACDSee's interface, and not have a Calendar view.

   ACD FotoCanvas 2.0 and ACD FotoAngelo 2.0 are very basic programs not worth the extra cost. One would almost be better-off saving money towards the purchase of Photoshop Elements (or Paint Shop Pro) and ProShow, respectively. FotoAngelo's output options are limited to Microsoft Windows executable (.EXE) files and screensaver (.SCR) files. Users that want to share their memories with a wider audience will have to go elsewhere to create video CD's. While FotoAngelo supports captioning, caption text import from embedded metadata (EXIF, IPTC, or XMP) and ACDSee's internal database are all unsupported, so caption text must be manually entered for each image in the show.

   As a basic image editor, FotoCanvas is on par with the very basic Microsoft Photo Editor that has shipped with Microsoft Office for several years. The base ACDSee product itself has a far better image rotate tool than FotoCanvas, which splits the tool in two: Rotate and Flip. FotoCanvas, however, does have a far better Crop tool than Adobe Photoshop Elements. FotoCanvas also supports Adobe PhotoShop plug-ins.

No comments about 25k Clipart Vol 3.

No comments about SONIC FOUNDRY designer.dance.tools: ddt (Windows).

No comments about Pc Camera 100K Pixel.

No comments about Neo DVD Plus 3.0.

3 comments about Screenblast Music Studio.

1. Creating music has never been easier. The interface is very clean and easy to follow. This is a great product if you want to make music. The editing tools are great. This program even comes with some cool loops to get one started. Check this product out!



2. It's great software at a great price. I bought the program so I could rip and burn CD's but soon found that using the ACid program (2 software apps come in the box- Acid and Siren...I think these are the Sonic Foundry engines)I could also add a soundtrack to my home movies. The box also came with audio clips that I used to sequence a Blues song and that was fun too.



3. Do not bother with this program the same program different name.I would highly suggest this if you do not have Acid Music 3.0.One of the most stable music programs around.Alot better then any Magix program I have used. The publishing to the net is unbeatable and a great file rendering program too boot.

5 comments about Screenblast Movie Studio.

1. No mention of the fact that you will have to pay an additional $... to get an MPEG plug-in until you try to use the program (which by the way both my Sony Digital Camcorder and my Sony Digital Camera spit out in the MPEG format - but their software won't work with it).

   You had best compare this to similar products that run around a $... because once they're done with you at Screenblast that's what you'll have into it!




2. I purchased the product hoping to burn family videos to DVD. I found that you had to purchase the MPEG add on to do so. I also wanted the ability to add menus to the DVD so it doesn't play like an old fashioned video tape...the product doesn't do that. I found that this product does not offer any more functionality more than Windows Movie Maker which is available for free download from the MicroSoft site. I'm sending the product back.



3. The product lacks some of the features that I love with Pinnacle Studio 8. The DVD tools in Pinnacle Studio 8. Having used Pinnacle 7 & * pretty extensively, I was curious about this product based on feedback I had received.
   authoring in MovieStudio (MS) is lacking, compared to the awesome
   If DVD & VCD authoring and making basic videos is your thing, don't stop at MS. Use Pinnacle 8. For basic video editing and creating videos from pictures, it does not get much easier.

   However, once your imaginations starts to run wild, you are going to need something more power. I bought MS for that reason, realizing that I will still use Pinnacle 8 for DVD authoring.

   Pinnacle 7/8 provides only a single Video track. Splicing in video is possible, but much more painstaking than having multiple tracks (like most decent video editing tools.) MS has two tracks, but even on a single track you can overall (and blend) multiple video tracks! Pretty neat in concept.

   Cool features:
   * Chroma keyer: pretty much the big winner for me. This allows you to make solid color backgrounds (though not limited to backgrounds) to become transparent in a video (or image) that is to be overlaid unto another track. (Now you can be in a scene with out having ever been there.)

   * Much better collections of transitions and video filters out of the box then Pinnacle 8. (MS has 23 dissolve type transitions versus the single one in Pinnacle Studio 7/8). Although lacking 3-D object type transitions, the collection quality is on par with the Pinnacle Hollywood Effects add-on (non-pro version.)

   * While Pinnacle 8 is one of the easiest to use editors out there (that I have tried), I prefer the general layout of WS. There seems to be less wasted space.

   From the video editing side, I am hard pressed to see what Pinnacle can do that does not seem possible in WS. (I can definitely see the other way.)

   As for DVD/VCD authoring, I will not waste my time trying to do it in WS. Now, if you do not have Pinnacle 8, then what I might suggest you consider is to get MS plus a stand-alone DVD authoring kit. Both Pinnacle and Ulead have great packages.

   I am interested in seeing how well the codec in WS works. The rendering process in Pinnacle is among the slowest!!

   There's more, but I will stop here until I log more time in WS.

   Hope this is helpful.




4. If you're looking for special effects at an unbelievable price, you can't go wrong with Screenblast Movie Studio. Before purchasing this product, I used Pinnacle Studio 8 exclusively. While I like Studio 8 alot when it works, it is riddled with bugs and very unstable (it's constantly crashing). Screenblast Movie Studio has NEVER crashed on me.

   The features I really like about Screenblast Movie Studio that Pinnacle Studio 8 does not have (without buying their Hollywood FX upgrade):

   *two video editing tracks
   *chroma keying (works great with good lighting)
   *masking
   *transparencies (you can overlay two clips and change the "transparency" of one to get a "ghost" effect)
   *zoom in and out
   *basic "animation" abilities (using zoom and fly path features)

   After playing with Pinnacle Studio for a year, I was ready for more, and this package gave it to me.

   This package does the basics just fine (I bought of copy of this for my father rather than Studio 8), and it also have some awesome special effects features that will not disappoint.




5. This program is easy to learn and intuitive. I did have to refer to the manual a couple of times. I have made great videos of trips and family. I did purchase the MPEG converter for authoring DVD's. Kinda reverse salesmanship there.
   
   My only complaint is that importing tape is limited to large, hard drive consuming files. I want to import as MPEG as some others do. I have two 60 GB HD's on my laptop that works well for 1 movie at a time. If I could do MPEG the computer wouldn't have to work as hard and I could store material for 2 movies.
   
   It is still usefull today (1/06) as I contemplate upgrading to Vegas.