4 comments about AutoCAD LT 2006.

1. I've been using AutoCAD off and on since it was a DOS program and it has continued to improve in ease of operation with each subsequent release that I've used from AutoCAD11 to the present. they haven't all been huge jumps in quality, but it has been at least a slight improvement with each one. I guess the only complaint I might have with this release is that the instruction manual might have gone into more depth; some one who is going to be using AutoCAD for the first time might still be lost with some of their explanations and examples, but then I suppose that's what all those aftermarket AutoCAD manuals are for.



2. You can download this program for a free 30 day trial at the autodesk website. I have used Autocad off and on myself since 1985. I tried this version and I still prefer Autocad 14. It's really hard to beat it for 2D capabilities. For 800 bucks, I laugh at Autodesk for still trying to make this kind of money off license upgrades. It definately has bells and whistles, but in today's economy, it's lacking in competive price, in spite of the fact that Autodesk is sabotaging sales by releasing information on their own website that the LT versions in the near future will be released for free. If you only need 2D capable CAD Package, I would look toward other packages like Intelicad or Turbocad. Maybe even try to get an old copy of Autocad 14 which would have some 3D capability. If you are wanting an elite CAD package, you better go visit the Bentley website for Microstation. Microstations Raster capabilites totally blow away Autocad Products and imaging overlays are far superior to Autodesk.



3. Prior to using LT 2006 I had a full version of 2005. Most of the things missing between LT and the full version aren't a big deal if you don't do rendering or write code, but some of the absences are noticeable on a day-to-day basis (most notably Express Tools and polygonal viewports).
   
   2006 has some neat new features, like the "dyanmic command-line input" which puts the command line at the cursor and actually has a clickable version of each command's options. They've also cleaned up some of the enhancements to 2005. For example there's now an undo feature built into the copy command, so it actually makes sense to default to multi-copy mode.
   
   In addition to that, I've noticed that finally with AutoCAD 2006 and Acrobat 7.0 making PDFs is much easier. Font embedding is simple enough (though disabled by default), but more importantly all vecotrs in AutoCAD are rendered as vectors in Acrobat. This yields much smaller file sizes while providing much more professional-looking PDFs.
   
   Finally, I must say that 2006 is the least-buggy annual AutoCAD release I've experienced. There is a service pack available, and it fixes some issues. But even without the service pack, while I would crash pervious versions all the time I think I've killed this version two or three times.
   
   There's still room for some improvement, particularly in the online features (including downloading patches) but overall this is a decent upgrade... if you can afford it.



4. Previously I had AutoCADLT1998 so I had to adjust to some program changes. I am pleased with my new software.

5 comments about Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 (Mac) [OLD VERSION].

1. Although I own Photoshop 7.0 for the Mac, I use it so rarely that it takes too much time for me to re-learn the functions. Photoshop Elements brings a host of the most used features from the full version, into a streamlined easy to use application. It works very well on my Mac and does everything I need a photo editing application to do....without clutter and confusion.



2. A very early version of this software was included with the first Mac I bought about 12 years ago. Wow! How nice to be able to use this upgraded version which has more features but still serves up an easy-to-use interface.
   
   Software loaded fast, installed in one try, and has neither crashed nor gotten "the slows" during my first three months of use. (I'm running it on a Mac iBook G4.)
   
   This is a fine program for the beginner because the basics of photo editing, card making and some other graphic tasks can easily be done even without extensive reference to the help sections. But if help is needed, the help section is decent.
   
   The intermediate user will find lots of useful features including multiple graphic layers, several layers of edit undos (boy, I love undos--:) ), and good tool palette.
   
   I strongly recommend this software for beginners who don't want to pay the higher price and face the steep learning curve for programs like Adobe's full Photoshop program. For the average, non-professional graphics creator or even for the less sophisticated pro photographer, this program is excellent.



3. Beware...this and all earlier versions of Elements will NOT work on Macs with Intel processors, i.e., the majority of newer Macs. However, Elements 6.0 for Mac due out at the end of March is created to work with the Intel processors so make sure you buy the product that matches your Mac's PROCESSOR TYPE .rather than its operating system.



4. I'm not real impressed with this vers. of Photoshop Elements. I thought version 1 was better. This is good for basic photo editing and that's about it. Looke for version 6.0 for the mac in 2008.



5. I'm not a graphics professional, just looking for a modest editing and image browsing program for my new Mac, something comparable to ACDSee and Photoshop I used in Windows. Elements is not it. It does reasonable editing, and at about the same level of technical detail I need, but the software denies access to the bridge browsing program, saying I have to have other Adobe programs installed! Duhhh. . so now I can't even browse thumbnails of my image files with it!

5 comments about Hallmark Card Studio 2005 Deluxe.

1. I am just learning to work with this product, "Hallmark Card Studio 2005 Deluxe...I am enjoying what I can do with it so far.



2. This software is the best I have ever heard of or tried. I'm having a ball making cards for my friends and family special occasions. It is remarkably easy to use and it gives you the ability to change just about everything. My only suggestion to Hallmark is to issue a larger databank of selections to add the already extensive one that comes with the package. I have hundreds af friends and relatives on my list. This Christmas will be exciting, especially when I add photos to the cards.



3. I am using Hallmark card studio 2005 not the deluxe version. Maybe that would be better but this version is extremely limited to what you can do as far as the cards are concerned and their clip art leaves much to be desired. Prior to this I had Amercian Greetings Createacard platinum 8 and was in love with the flexability and ease of creating and found their clip art endless and wonderful. The disk I used just stopped working for me and I could not find an updated version so thought the good name of Hallmark would be better. Big mistake would not recommend the Hallmark version. I am only interested in making cards so don't care to pay for alot of things I do not use as in some of these programs. Sorry Hallmark but very disappointed.
   
   sandy



4. I love this software. It has made my life so easy. With such a large family I always need a card and this is fast, simple, efficient and a great value for the money!!



5. Got this for my Dad and he liked it at first. But it keeps choking and will not run. I've tried to uninstall/reinstall many many times--this worked once but no longer. Program just fails to load and stops responding. When it did work we could not get the card images to align properly on standard non-Hallmark cardstock. I'm looking for a replacement program but will STAY AWAY from Sierra/Hallmark programs! Even the latest versions have been reported to have similar problems.

5 comments about Apple iLife '06 (Mac DVD) [OLD VERSION].

1. I'm joining the other 5 star people. It's a fantastic product. I wasted my money buying an instruction manual. It was never needed. I bought it for iWeb, and yes, you can have sites on the web in mere hours. One glitch is that you don't get to choose your own domain name, so I bought a name and set it up to forward to the name that .Mac assigned me. Fine, but the forwarding doesn't work for 10-20% of the people I've asked to check out my website. I have to then give them the "awkward" assigned name. Since I'm using it for my small business, this isn't good. So far, I haven't found a solution. All first generation products have issues however, and I still love it (iphoto, iTunes, iDVD, as well).



2. I purchased iLife '06 ONLY because iPhoto was maxed out (even though '05 states it supports 25,000 photos and we only have 14,000+). Well, the new iPhoto does work great and is fast, however... the way it organizes the photos on your hard drive is a nightmare. No longer are the photos stored in yearly folders, with month and day sub-folders. Now it stores everything by roll number - which is created when you upload the photos. So if you upload two photos that's a roll if you upload 2-weeks of photos, that's a roll, etc. If you post a lot of photos to the internet, you'll know why this is a HUGE pain. Their solution: save copies of the photos you want to upload into a new folder on your computer. How does that SAVE time?? I'm pretty disappointed and HOPE this is an issue they revisit going forward. As it is, it's screwed up the prior folders also so it's a good thing I have it all backed up on an external hard drive up to the point of installing the new version.



3. Apple has created a new version of iWork, and they provide no upgrade pricing, effectively sticking it to customers and vendors. If you buy this product, you will be stuck with the old version and have to pay FULL PRICE for the new version that contains a spreadsheet application.
   
   And, yes, Apple deleted any comments complaining about the upgrade policy on their discussion boards.



4. Apple iLife 06. I had iLife 05 working well on an eMac, and then upgraded the operating system to Mac OS 10.5. That seemed to kill iLife 05. Version 06 is doing all that I expected and wanted, as I work on editing slide shows and videos. A good piece of software that is easy to use.



5. I am not going to buy any more iLifes, I believe they are just about useless and cost too much. My other software applications take care of everything, so iLife is useless. Apple is making some big bucks off of these things. Wake up people! There are better applications out there for the MAC.

5 comments about Pinnacle Systems Studio 9 - Video Editing.

1. I own this software and it is worse than Windows Movie Maker. They give you a bunch of lame samples to use and then spam you to upgrade to use the ones you thought you were getting. I was very mad when this first happened because I felt ripped off, and I still do. I have made a couple movies using Windows Movie Maker and it was much better than this $100 POS software. It freezes the computer quite often and it is hard to navigate the various tools you need to make a good video.



2. This is stunning software and I have wowed my family and friends with true movies that don't bore them. But this is only WHEN it works! It bombs out, needs patches all over its body and unless you disable everything and install software on separate drive, it winds down to nothing. Studio also lies - they recommend Althlon processor, but anyone who has worked with this says it needs Intel and nothing else! Thanks. Its favourite trick is to edit, save, burn dvd movies, and then refuse to make movie once a fresh edit has been completed. I've tried 25 times with three different movies. No go! Bought Ver 10 - thought this will sort it out. Loaded it - would not recognise previously made movies (came up in strange colours) and then told me to fetch a patch! Imagine buying a new car and then being phoned by the garage to say come in because the car needs to be patched! These software designers need to learn some manners!



3. Do not buy. I used it for several years; loved the features, hated the crashing and bugs. When it worked it was great. When it didn't you wanted to burn your computer. I "upgraded" to Studio 10 when it came out, and it was much much worse. Two stars for Studio 9, Zero stars for Studio 10. I switched to Sony Vegas Movie Studio 6.0 - very stable, hard to learn to use, but once you get there, it's a great program. Not for the novice though.



4. Don't be stupid like me and waste your time with Pinnacle. If there was ever a worse piece of software, I have yet to find it. If you like enjoy a two-day rendering process, lock-ups every few minutes, and unknown errors, this is for you, otherwise look elsewhere...I wish I had.
   
   I only rated it a 1 because there is no "0"



5. Love the features and user interface for this program, but it's full of bugs that lockup and ultimately prevented me from rendering a move that I had put a lot of work into. You would be wise to look at other packages.

5 comments about Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Design Premium Upgrade [Mac] [OLD VERSION].

1. I am a professional illustrator/designer/web developer and have been an Adobe fan since I discovered Photoshop (2.5?!) in high school. But lately, Adobe has given me a lot less to love, starting with the intrusive online activation of CS2, PDF overhead, and Adobe's sloppy followup to the Flash player (9 fails to install on a lot of people's OS X).
   
   CS3, in similar fashion, seems slapdash. Photoshop and Illustrator are Adobe's cash cows, and CS3 feels like a rushed product to squeeze money out of designers. It's a PIG! It took 45 minutes to install Design Premium on my Quad Core workstation at the office. It loads slower than CS2 and takes up more resources. After opening Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash to see what Adobe changed, I promptly went back to using CS2 and never used CS3 again. I didn't see any compelling reason to switch, or relearn the interface, as Adobe seems to require you to do every new version.
   
   I had low expectations for CS3, as I'm usually skeptical of new product releases. This perception of cash milking wasn't helped by the fact that Adobe confusingly split the line into 6 packages. Now you have to decide which version fits you. You may end up paying for something you don't need, or want one piece of software that's in another package. You can't save some money by removing something you don't want, or adding something that you do.
   
   One bright light I was holding onto was the possibility of Flash being better integrated with the Adobe interface and workflow. One of the most annoying things about Flash was its unfailing ability to paste shapes and gradients from Illustrator all messed up. Gradients end up as bitmaps, curves get bent, and complex shapes just seem to make Flash choke. Importing from Flash into Illustrator via cut & paste would result in similar disasters.
   
   I was also hoping for an Illustrator-styled gradient tool (drag a line from the start point to the end point to paint the object), instead of Flash's bizarre and cumbersome one where you have to rotate a circle for radial grads, or sandwich lines for linear grads. I didn't test out CS3's cut & paste compatibility, but sadly, the interface was not integrated. It's the same old Macromedia styled tools.
   
   As for Dreamweaver being added here, that's much like every new version of Microsoft Office that comes out each year. Do you really care? It's an HTML editor, for Pete's sake. How much improvement can you make on what is essentially a text editor? For people who handcode, you can stick w/ your old DW... or GASP! Notepad.
   
   For me, I'll continue to use CS and CS2. Personally, I see absolutely no reason for this upgrade, except to reward Adobe for a lackluster and, what I feel, is an unfinished product. It feels very much like an early-adopter product. CS just keeps getting bigger and bigger with each version, but not more stable, dangerously approaching the point of bloatware. If it's all a suite and integrated, why the need for 4 gigs of space to install? Shouldn't many components be shared between all the products, and result in less memory/hard drive use? 700+ megs for Acrobat?! Like others have said, wait for CS4 when they actually might integrate the Macromedia products properly.



2. I was hoping Adobe would fix a lot of the bugs in Dreamweaver (especially, the horrible slowness on the Mac platform) but it seems they ignored Dreamweaver altogether and focused on redoing their own products.
   
   Avoid if you can.



3. I cannot emphasize how much easier it has become to navigate The Creative Suite interface. The UI has evolved into one that is both clean and attractive, while becoming much more customizable. CS3 offers much better integration between applications and has some really cool new additions.



4. Be careful!
   
   Adobe seems to have gone out of their way to infuriate their long time customers through an arcane, illogical and ultimately deceptive upgrade offer. You can spend hours on their website trying to make sure that you have the required products for an upgrade. Besides the obvious CS1 and CS2 versions that will let you successfully install CS3, you see listed everywhere you can upgrade from Macromedia's Studio MX or Studio 8 all over their website and marketing materials. Well, guess what? If you buy any of the print focused CS3 Design Suites you can't use the Studio MX or 8 serial numbers! After a long phone call with a polite Adobe rep who had to spend quite a bit of time himself checking with others to make sure the information was right, I was told that the ONLY CS3 upgrade package that will work with the Studio serial numbers are the CS3 Web Design packages. Not the regular print focused Design packages.
   
   By the time I got off the phone I was totally perplexed at their lack of logic not allowing Macromedia Studio customers who use Freehand to upgrade to a product that has Illustrator included. If you buy CS3 Design Standard or Premium and expect to upgrade from a Macromedia Studio package you can get stuck with an unusable upgrade that costs nearly $400.
   
   I've been working with Adobe's products for since beta testing version .7 of Illustrator over 20 years ago. Obviously, I've been a supporter of them for a very long time. Today I walked away from Adobe furious.



5. Great software. I give it 4 stars because Bridge is a bit CPU hungry and has some bugs. But looks like Adobe keeps fixing them so it seams working smoother after few updates. As usually a great upgrade and I love using all the programs.

3 comments about Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Production Premium [Mac].

1. CS3 finally brings together most of the tools that video and Web nerds need. While I still don't care for Premier Pro compared to Final Cut Pro, this suite provides a consistent user experience from one product to the next. Flash is more approachable than ever, and if you've used After Effects before, you'll find it especially inviting.



2. I mostly use Photoshop and illustrator in my work but I got this package so I could play with after effects and all the other software included. I like how integrated all the programs together so they work more fluidly. It makes it easier to move from one program to the other.
   
   
   
   Photoshop: I really like all the new features they have in Photoshop CS3 like this stitch plug in, it really makes it easy to make wide landscape pictures. The new smart filters are really great because you don't destroy the underlying photo. The new interfaces also a big plus everything is still at your fingertips but it's more off to the side and not cluttering up your screen.
   
   
   
   Illustrator: I hadn't played a whole lot in illustrator yet but I have tried the live trace feature and I really like it, it makes it easy to get something from real world into the computer as vectors and then you can use the new live paint and color in your work.



3. The product received is what I expected. The price I paid was less then retail. And we are using it/enjoying it everyday without any problems.

No comments about Acoustica Mixcraft 4 - Windows.

5 comments about eMedia Rock Guitar Method.

1. This is way better than the eMedia Guitar Basics CD-ROM because you actually know what the songs are supposed to sound like when you play them. They have rock songs that you've heard before, unlike the "folk" songs and spirituals that Guitar Basics teaches you.
   
   Unfortunately this does not work with Windows Vista, so I have to use it on a computer that uses XP.



2. So me getting this was kinda moot, but all in all it's really beneficial if you're just starting out. For anyone who's played more than 2 years even... Don't get this. I give it a 5 star for the beginner, cause this thing is packed with some really beneficial stuff for you all to learn. Everything from chord finder "all the decent sounding ones anyways" and a built in tuner and a good deal of lessons are what you'll find on this disc. You have to have the disc in order to access alot of the video and audio, but it's still alright... All in all I'd endorse it for anyone wanting to learn the guitar. This'll have you playing some pretty good sounding progressions within' hours.



3. The best product I have ever found for learning guitar, almost better than paying for lessons!



4. I began with eMedia's beginner CD-ROM and next moved to the Rock Guitar. One of the things I enjoyed most about the former was that it taught lessons with entire songs. However, in Rock Guitar, you only learn bits and pieces of songs--and fewer ones at that. Many are not titled songs, but something like "a Nirvana-like song." So if you loved the amount of music on the beginner CD, you may be a little dissatisfied. Additionally, some chords are taught with different fingering than in the beginner CD.
   All in all, I learn very quickly with emedia. I really enjoy playing along to their riffs and pieces of songs. Putting the voice to the songs to play with is probably my favorite feature (don't tell anybody that I sing along while playing in the privacy of my room).
   This is certainly a really great step towards learning the basics of rock guitar, but should not be your first eMedia CD-ROM (buy the beginner one first!).



5. I would really prefer a lesson were the video plays most of the time. This is mostley reading the screen, which is very small and they are so paraoid that you will copy it that they disable printing, The video really does not help much and i have been through half of the course. I personally would reccomend metal method with doug marks over this.

No comments about TurboCAD Deluxe 14.