The Print Shop 22 Deluxe Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I was shopping for an alternative when it occurred to me to review...I've used Printshop since ver. 10, and I know it pretty well. I use it a lot both for work and personal and usually from "scratch". A few things have improved but not enough to keep me committed to it. The art gallery directory is ridiculous, you can't search for a subject, the silly names are like "he likes ice" for a picture of a panda and it is full of old cards and really silly items (pretentiously called "premium images", maybe young kids like them) and many duplicates of images, sadly I've never figured out how to access images from earlier versions, which were superior. Some nice tools of the past like "transparency" seen to have disappeared ;-). It has a tendency to do odd things like "forget" the earlier version of a project or change font sizes when you cut and paste, or refuse to copy...I've run it on a few different computers and it does this on all of them. Today it changed my #10 envelope size every time I closed the project so I had to keep redoing it and couldn't find my address book so I couldn't use mail merge. It gets confused about using legal size paper, changing the layout when you reopen the project to fit letter. I've never been able to work the text in "table", the columns are difficult to size and print set up has a wrong page that has never been corrected. Do NOT call fee based customer support, they charge whether they know how to resolve the issue or not, after telling the tech what I had already tried he had me re-try, charging me all the time, I paid half after some argument and in retrospect should not have paid at all. There is really no technical support. It is easier to use than full programs but has surprising limitations and quirks. I use it all the time and can do a lot with it, but it can be unnecessarily frustrating.

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The Print Shop 22 Deluxe offers the best in total personal creativity.350,000+ images & graphics PLUS 20,000+ Project Templates!Packed with new features and tools, you have everything you need for satisfy your creative side.Enhanced photo editing features provide professional looking results to make your photos perfect every time.Easily add them to any project, create slideshows, burn to CD, or resize for your mobile phone.New project size options, photo quality printing and borderless print features mean your projects will have the refined look you want!Even manage your time with Calender Creator Express, the address book, and improved mail merge for effortless mailings every time!

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G7 Productivity VC08-2791 Versacheck Gold 2008 Review

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(More customer reviews)I've used VersaCheck for a long time, beginning with the 2000 edition. The product has always been extremely difficult to use and has almost no support from the publisher. I've managed to develop work-arounds for nearly all of the weird or frustrating behavior of the program, continuing to use it because it is a much lower-cost solution for printing small business checks than Quicken. The product also supports check safety features and [supposedly] postal address features that Quicken does not provide.
I've been locked in a totally unproductive struggle with Customer Support for almost four months over the matter of printing postal bar codes. It is my assertion that since VersaCheck does print bar codes when it is used as the checkbook for a business, it also should print bar codes when intercepting a print data stream from Quicken that contains a correct ZIP+4 code. It took nearly two months before VersaCheck Customer Support would acknowledge that the program would not print postal bar codes with Quicken check data. During that time, all responses to my support requests were the same: a brief tutorial on how to print from Quicken, totally ignoring my issue.
Eventually I developed a work-around that partially works, by importing a QIF file from Quicken (a function which receives several pages of treatment in the Help files!) Unfortunately, that also deletes entries from the VersaCheck address book, necessitating manual editing of each payee address every time a check is printed for a payee. Instead of acknowledging that QIF file importing was not working properly, it took six weeks to obtain a response that said "...newer versions of Quicken do not support QIF files." Duh! Quicken 2007 certainly DOES export QIF files for other programs. You'd think that for a product which is supposed to integrate with Quicken, the developers and Customer Support might actually have used the products.
Also in the 2008 version, there is a new metered usage scheme for printing checks... after you've exhausted the licensed count, you must pay G7 Productivity Systems a fee to unlock the program so you can print more! This seriously changes the economics of using the program.
Other annoyances include: A much-touted feature is the verification of US addresses against a commercial ZIP+4 code database--but without warning, the service was terminated in August 2007. Their high-capacity magnetic ink toner cartridges do NOT work successfully with several H-P printers in common use, as as the G85 All-in-One series and the DeskJet 870 and 890 series, but once the cartridges are opened and tried (unsuccessfully) in one of those printers, G7 will not accept returns. Once I received a package from G7 containing a purchased new version of the program which had an old CD in the package: G7 refused to accept a return as the CD envelope had been opened. In another instance the package label and documentation contained an INVALID serial number and G7 refused to accept a return. In both these cases, I had to pay an upgrade fee to get a current CD and serial number.
Summary: the program is difficult to setup properly to use with small business checks, especially if you wish to include logos. Help files are almost useless except for the simplest How-To entries. Despite misleading packaging and product descriptions, the product does not print postal bar codes for checks written with Quicken. Customer Support of the product is essentially non-existent, based on their total unresponsiveness to my issues. G7 quality control on software development, product packaging, and supplies is atrociously bad.


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Quicken Home & Business 2007 Review

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(More customer reviews)Been using Quicken for years, and this is by far the worst version ever. On my 2GHz PC I can see the screen redrawing because of all the fancy stuff they are trying to do with the interface - stuff that BTW adds little value to the overall application. It's a total dog!
I'd stick with the 2006 version if I had the opportunity to go back. Unfortunately now that I've upgraded I believe I'm stuck.

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Quicken 2007 Home & Business

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Marketcircle DayLite CRM for Mac OS X Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been using contact managers since the late 1980's. I've always been partial to Act! in all of it's incarnations because it was fast and flexible. Goldmine has a ton of great features but it's difficult to use and its interface STILL seems to be trying to break free from its DOS roots.
Until now, I've had to remain on the PC platform because it's been difficult for me to justify using a Mac because I couldn't find a program that could handle my contact management in a way that I was comfortable. Daylite solved that problem for me and I recently switched to the Mac.
For me, the "killer" feature was the ability to assign "roles" to various contacts in the database. I'm a real estate broker and can frequently have a contact who is a home buyer and a home seller -- two completely separate roles. I've never been able to find an off the shelf solution that would allow me to easily create a project or opportunity and assign the same contact to 2 different roles in the same database.
The depth at which you assign roles, categories, keywords -- and even create CUSTOM FORMS and data fields -- makes this program incredibly flexible! But it also means, as the previous reviewer stated, that there can be a bit of a learning curve. I'm the kind of person who never reads a manual -- I just plunk down and figure out a program. That wasn't the case here. So be warned that if you really want to experience the power, there's some book reading to do.
I'm giving this application 4 out 5 stars for a couple of reason. #1 - as was previously mentioned; you need to buy the DMI module separately. Linking your e-mails is ESSENTIAL in today's business world and not including that as part of the program just doesn't make sense.
The second reason I'm not giving Daylite 5 stars is because of its lack of easy import/export to the basic Mac OSX tools like the calendar and address book. It does have impor/export capabilities but not "seamless", automated procedures. You have to manually sync the Address Book (very simple, but should be automated!) and you have actually save an export file to import iCal items - a bulky chore if you update your calendar frequently.
I think this program should be able to be set up to use iSync and automatically sync the data I put into my contact manager with the rest of the iLife tools I use. I'd really like to be able to share my professional calendar with my wife via iSync and iCal...I have a life outside of business contacts!!
These are rather nit-picky points to lose a star over...and in my "gut" I'd love to give this program a 5. But 4 will have to do. :)

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Quicken Rental Property Manager 2.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)This will be a great piece of software one day. It is not yet. It is still essentially a "beta" version with many "known issues" (i.e. flaws and things that don't work) that you don't find out about until you visit Intuit's help site. I'm disappointed that Intuit would release a software package like this and charge full price when it still clearly needs a lot of work. The basic functionality is there, but I broke it four different ways just using it the first night. Like I said, when they get all the bugs ironed out, it will be a great piece of software. As of now, I feel disappointed and ripped off that they are charging full price for a prototype that doesn't work completely.

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Quicken Home Inventory Manager Review

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(More customer reviews)Long time-application user writing:
Home Inventory Manager by Quicken is the slowest and most awkward program I have ever used -- or tired to use. Most annoying is its non-intuitive approach to data entry, lack of flexibility, awarkward image importing, and slow, slow performance and screen-redraws. It seems as though some novice ported it from an old Cobol program routine.
Quicken might want to hang its head with shame; it does not belong in the QUICKen family, or on your PC.


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Item #: 31440G. Quicken Home Inventory Manager makes it easy to keep an organized record of your belongings, so you are ready for an insurance claim.
Product DescriptionQuicken Home Inventory Manager - complete packageCategory: Home / entertainment / lifestyle applicationsSubcategory: Home / life - personal finance / tax preparationLicense Type: Complete packageLicense Qty: 1 userLicense Pricing: StandardLanguage(s): EnglishPlatform: WindowsDistribution Media: CD-ROMPackage Type: RetailOS Required: Microsoft Windows 2000 SP3, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Microsoft Windows Vista Customers also search for: Discount Quicken Home Inventory Manager - Complete Package - 1 User - CD - Win - English, Buy Quicken Home Inventory Manager - Complete Package - 1 User - CD - Win - English Wholesale Quicken Home Inventory Manager - Complete Package - 1 User - CD - Win - English, 0028287017399, 404164, Software Suites

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Marketing Plan Pro 6.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a professional marketing manager, and this product was a great disappointment. We purchased it because of the great reviews, but I found it to be very cumbersome. The entire program is created in some sort of Web design software, and your documents are formatted in HTML. If you do not like the plain-jane layout that it offers you, YOU MUST GO IN AND EDIT THE HTML CODE to change it. In addition, the entire program was designed around marketing PRODUCTS so if you have a service based industry, or combination, you will spend great amounts of time deleting and adding categories. I finally gave up on the program and transferred everything over to Word. The only thing good about this software is the samples it provides, which I could have obtained free from a textbook. I wish I had my money back.

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Marketing Plan Pro 2003 features everything you need to write a detailed marketing plan quickly. Built-in PlanWizard walks you through creation of the plan, and forecasting worksheets help you plan out your revenue and expenses for each program. Build your strategy and implement it. Include your own graphics, automatically develop full-color, 3-D charts, and complete Microsoft Excel-like financials. Then run the numbers using the thousands of built-in industry profiles. Marketing Plan Pro includes 70 sample marketing plans.

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Quicken Lawyer 2002 Personal Deluxe Review

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(More customer reviews)When our insurance guy recommended an estate planner and told us he would give us a great deal and only charge $1500 for our living trust and wills, we immediately looked to Nolo. Six months ago, they hadn't partnered with Quicken to provide this product so we bought the Willmaker/Living Trust Bundle here on ... They ought to call it a bundle because of what it saved us. It was easy to use, easy to understand, and saved us a ton of money. I can only imagine that the partnership with Quicken has made it even better. I've used their products for years in my business, and I don't think there are any better. Get this and do yourself a favor.

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Help protect your family, your assets, and yourself, and save on legal fees. Quicken Lawyer 2002 Personal combines the latest versions of both WillMaker and Living Trust Maker with other legal tools you can use every day, all in one package. Simply launch Quicken Lawyer to create your own:
Will
Living trust
Powers of attorney
Living will
Authorizations and agreements
Child- and elder-care forms
Documents for your executor
For each document, Quicken Lawyer 2002 takes you through a step-by-step interview. Your documents will automatically reflect the laws of your state. If you have any questions, simply check out the comprehensive legal manual, online or in print. Expert tech support is also available.
Create a will with Quicken Lawyer 2002 and make sure you've provided for family, friends, and charities. Name a personal guardian to care for your minor children and select a trusted person to manage property left to young people. Also, create your living will. Outline medical procedures you want provided, specify whether or not you want your life prolonged through artificial means, and appoint someone to make sure your wishes are carried out. Grant as much authority as you wish with forms for power of attorney. Name someone to make your financial decisions, in case you are medically incapacitated, and appoint an alternate in case that person cannot serve. Plus, get a number of other legal documents for everyday use, such as child-, elder-, and pet-care agreements, membership or subscription cancellation notices, and many more.

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WinZip 15 Standard Plus Review

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(More customer reviews)I am old enough to remember using PKZIP on DOS machines and several early WinZip versions for Windows. Starting with the previous version (14) WinZip would work with Windows 7, so what does this newer version bring to the table? Basically you get a cleaner interface, a desktop "gadget" which allows you to drag and drop files on your desktop, faster speed for video encoding (extremely useful in this YouTube age!) and more email integration, including GMail and others. You can also define multiple e-mail addresses and accounts. The price is quite reasonable, but you can try it out first for a trial period before deciding to register and unlock the program. WinRar, a competing program lets you use the free version without a time limit, but adds annoying "nagware" reminders which get in the way of smooth operations. The Pro version, for $20 more, adds more file manipulation inside the zip folder, especially for photos and graphics files, but I doubt most people will need that extra functionality.


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Adobe Acrobat X Professional Upgrade Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been a user of Adobe products for 20 years. I have upgraded my Creative Suites from its origin to its current CS5 Design Premium. I have recently had trouble installing updates to Illustrator -- and after 6 hours with customer service and technical support was told to uninstall and reinstall, which I did and did NOT solve the problem. They have no answer. I was having the same problem with Acrobat 9 Pro and spent additional WASTED hours. Finally, I decided to upgrade to Acrobat X Pro. I purchased it from Amazon. I tried to install it on my laptop, put in the X serial number and copied the 9 serial number from my registration page at Adobe -- and it did not recognize my serial number as valid. So deleted the 9 serial number and typed it in exactly as it was on the Adobe registration page -- and still not a valid serial number! I finally called Adobe customer service, who could do nothing, and transferred me to technical support. After 45 minutes (!) on the phone, I was given a pin number which activated my Acrobat X Pro on my laptop. I told them that I did not want to keep calling to get a pin number for an installation on my desktop computer and for a new laptop I planned to buy shortly. They said they would look into solving the problem so that my own installation would automatically activate the program. I got a call back from technical support in India and was told that I could only install by calling technical support every time and get an activating pin number. This is TOTALLY INEXCUSABLE! Imagine your hard drive crashing and having to reinstall and spending waiting time, often over 20 minutes and then head time of around 10 minutes just to activate a program from a company whose products you have used for 20 years! The new Acrobat X Pro is NOT WORTH THE TROUBLE!

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Upgrade to Adobe Acrobat X Professional To install an upgrade version of Acrobat X Professional software, you must have an eligible earlier version of Adobe software:
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H&R Block TaxCut 2008 Home & Business + e-file Review

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(More customer reviews)H&R Block's "TaxCut Home and Business" has been a great choice for me for several years, and each year they improve the product. I ordered the 2008 version today.
This package is remarkable. It includes software for your Form 1040 individual or joint tax return, plus programs to prepare your Corporation or S-Corp (Form 1120), Partnership (Form 1065), or Estate or Trust (Form 1041). State returns for all these is included. Employment tax return preparation (W-4, 1099 and so on) is also included.
For the personal return, electronic filing for federal is included (5 returns), but you will have to either mail your state return or pay a fee (reasonable by my lights) to file electronically. I don't think electronic filing is available for the business returns.
Anyway all this is in the package. Don't overbuy. If you don't have one of the businesses mentioned, just get the appropriate software for 1040 returns. But if you need to file for a business (Corp/Partn/EstTr) plus your individual return, this deal is hard to beat.
Let me end with a few cautions:
If you are buying "TaxCut Home and Business + E-file," you don't need to buy "TaxCut Premium + State + E-file." IT'S INCLUDED. I mention this specifically because they seem to be marketed together on this site.
The forms to be used for this year's income tax haven't been completed by IRS. They will be updating items during the first couple of months of 2009, and there's no way the software I'm buying today can include all of them. So I'll need to go to the HRBlock update site a few times (the software connects and links up) to get updates from both Fed and state.
With all tax software there is a learning curve, so "read the lines," think about what you're doing, allow adequate prep time, and review the results before you file. I think you'll be pleased.
PS - I used to work for H&R Block but have not for several years. I use the software because I think it's the best for the price.

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Guidance for corporate, partnership, and payroll business returns. The Complete personal and business tax return solution from America's #1 tax preparer. Step-by-step interviews guide you through your personal and business tax situation.

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WinZip 15 Professional Single User CD EN DVD Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Note: the Pro version is the same as the Standard and Plus versions, with these additions:
* Display, rotate, and resize images within Zip files using built-in image viewer
* Transfer and backup pictures from supported cameras by clicking a button
* Customize, schedule and automate backup tasks, burn to CD or DVD, upload via FTP
* Email log files on completion of backup tasks
* Set or disable encryption methods
* Zip your email attachments automatically with WinZip Courier (also included with Plus version, but not standard version)
The additional features of the Pro version will be useful to some power users and system administrators, but most people will do fine with the standard version.
PROS:
* an essential tool for most Windows users
* allows you to create a complete set of related files in one file, while retaining the original directory structure, if any
* makes it easy for sharing files by keeping them all together, and by compressing them so they can be transferred faster
* includes an encryption capability to set a password to retrieve files you want to keep confidential
* includes a very useful shell extension for extract, add, or create a new archive
* a Mac edition of WinZip allows you to exchange files with a Mac user who has this program
* extracts from most common archive formats besides zip, including RAR, 7z, TAR, ISO, CAB, and several others
* single-user license agreement allows you to install on a second machine (for non-simultaneous use only), handy for users who have a laptop and a desktop
* can open and view a file in a zip archive without extracting it, by right-clicking on the file and selecting Open.
* works correctly with files made from my older WinZip 9 (standard zip file format), as I expected it would
* the enhanced zip file format - which cannot be read by older versions of WinZip - has a new extension, zipx, to avoid confusion
CONS:
* a couple of very minor inconveniences, described below
UPDATE: I am biased by my habit of using pkzip and WinZip for decades. Some of my friends prefer to use WinRAR and 7zip, so I have added a section describing Alternatives near the end.
WINZIP IS NEARLY ESSENTIAL...
WinZip is one of those tools that I think most PC and Mac users would find essential. The Pros above sum up the reasons. Though disk space is relatively inexpensive these days, and though Windows allows you to compress parts of your file system, it is incredibly useful to be able to create an archive of any number of related or inter-dependent files, including complete directory structures of files, for backup purposes, etc. While compressed media files (jpg, mp3, etc) do not always become smaller in an archive, it is still great to be able to keep a set of files together.
If you want to exchange files, it is convenient to have one file that contains all of the ones you want to share, and compressing it makes the transfer time (via Internet, or a thumb drive) faster. The ability to password-protect an archive makes it safe and convenient to exchange confidential files - for example, getting reports from a financial adviser using a mutually-known password.
Although the zip archive format is essentially a standard on Windows, WinZip extracts files from several other archive standards, including some that are common on Linux. And for Mac users, there is a Mac edition, so you can exchange files with either Windows or Mac users.
For people who need the features I have described, and don't have a program to do it at present, WinZip is a five-star utility.
...BUT IS IT WORTH UPGRADING TO THIS VERSION?
I have been using a licensed copy of WinZip 9.0 for several years. It does everything I need, and I consider WinZip an essential tool. So why would I need to upgrade? I decided to find out when I was offered a chance to review WinZip 15.
First and most important, the newest version still supports the original zip file format, which means that you can still provide archives to others who have an older version of WinZip. However, you need to make sure you select the option to do that, as the newest zip format is not backwards compatible.
Media files such as jpg and mp3 are already in a compressed form, and with my older WinZip 9 (and most other compression programs), it is not possible to compress them further. It is convenient to put several files into one archive, and doing that can make disk storage more efficient and use less space, even without compression. But the newest zip format claims to compress jpg files by 20-25%. I tested it with 714 pictures from India, totalling about 690 MB, and it saved 21% space, but took about twice as long (I did not time it). This only works with the zipx format. The original zip format does not compress jpgs, but it stores them more efficiently than separate files, so it saves 1% compared to separate.
MP3 files are compressed about 1% with either zip or zipx compression. For mp3, zipx takes longer to archive than zip with no obvious benefit.
A folder with 145 MS Office (XLS, PPT) and PDF files totalling 383 MB was compressed by 17% in 73 seconds to the original zip file format. The same folder was compressed by 20% in 143 seconds (almost twice as long) to the new zipx file format.
Actual performance will vary depending on files, but these results represent typical files for me. I ran my tests on a laptop with duocore processor on WinXP. I don't have the previous version of WinZip, so I cannot comment on whether the new zip engine in this version "creates Zipx files 30% to 50% faster than the previous version". Since installing this version also uninstalls previous version, it is not convenient to compare performance with older versions, and I did not. Subjectively, WinZip 15 to zip (standard) format about as WinZip 9, and somewhat slower (with somewhat more compression) for the new zipx format.
The package claims that WinZip has a streamlined interface with more intuitive menus and icons. Except for newer icons, the interface is similar to what I was used to. I don't think it is easier to use, but it was good before, and is still good.
For people who need the features I have described, and don't have a program to do it at present, WinZip is a three-star upgrade, considering benefits to price. WinZip 9 would still be good enough for me, but now that I have WinZip 15, I'll use it instead.
MINOR ISSUES
Windows allows you to select a custom directory to be used for "My Documents", for example when you want to have your home directory on a different drive from the system directory. Most programs correctly locate the new "My Documents" directory if you change it, but WinZip 15.0 does not. But this is never a problem for me, as I normally start WinZip by right-clicking on an archive or a file I want to compress, then selecting WinZip from the popup menu. It always finds the correct directory in this case.
WinZip 15 installed from the CD, and next time I used it, it offered an update for a better compression engine. When it downloaded, it also offered me an unwanted download: Kaspersky Security. Because this is enabled by default, you could get it downloaded and installed by mistake, potentially causing problems for an existing anti-virus program. If you are alert, you can easily decline. Personally, when I'm installing a program, I don't want to be offered a different program, especially when it is a trial version that will nag you to buy an upgrade later. If I wanted that program, I'd go to the Web and download it. This is effectively a paid ad, and I don't want it. But I won't encounter this often, so who cares.
WINZIP COURIER 3.0 INCLUDED
WinZip 15 Pro edition includes a program that works with a few email systems that is said to make it easy to use zip compression with email. This program supports Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, and Gmail. But because it does not support my preferred mail client, Thunderbird, I have not tested it. It is easy enough for me to open zip files from Thunderbird with WinZip, so I can already do everything I need, and I don't know how this program could make things easier than they are already.
ALTERNATIVE ARCHIVE PROGRAMS
Zip has been a standard archive format for PC since the DOS days and PKZIP. It is a defacto standard that many people use. However, there are two others worth considering, and they also support the Zip format.
WINRAR is shareware available online. It is compatible with the Zip file format, and offers a few more features over WinZip that will be of use to some power users - advanced self-extracting archive features, additional security features, and support for more human languages. It costs about the same as WinZip Standard.
7zip is a free, open source archive program also available online. It can pack many archive formats (including its native 7z, Zip, and Linux formats) and unpack many others. It claims to offer better compression in Zip format than WinZip. It is localized into even more human languages, self-extracting archive capability, and has most of the other features of WinZip.
Both WinRAR and 7zip have at least some support on Mac and Linux, which is helpful if you need to move files between these platforms and/or Windows.
If I did not already have WinZip, I would be looking at 7zip, and you might want to as well.
BOTTOM LINE: I consider WinZip to be an essential tool for most users, and all power users. But if you are already happy with an older version of WinZip (such as version 9), it may not be an essential upgrade, unless you need to compress jpg files.


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macXware Mac Pac (Mac) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This package caught my eye, much in the way the original iMacs, with their distinctive coloring captured my attention.
And in this manner, once I got into the application package itself, I was as pleased as I was with how the iMac was as much a integration of form and function.
The MacPac is described as "A Collection of Useful Applications for OS X". I'd agree. There are five programs contained within: FontManager; AppSwitch; RadicalSqueeze; MacCabinet; and, RadicalPhoto.
Initially, I pulled out the small user's manual and the CD-rom from the MacPac box. While I don't always read the manual before popping the CD-rom into my PowerBook, I stopped and perused the manual. In this case, I was very pleased by how "short and sweet" the user's manual is. Each application is listed one only one side of one page, per. Good enough, in my opinion. Each application's help and on-line help links are more than enough. I like the software developer's instinct that more would not have made the user's manual better.
My only real concern about this whole suite of programs -- at install, I would have liked to install all the programs at once! Unfortunately, each needs to be installed separately. This isn't a big deal, but a single install option would have improved my ability to get at "all" of the programs. So, I installed each application in the MacPac, and began to play.
FontManager is a nice way to review fonts, install them temporarily and/or permanently, and remove fonts as desired. While I don't generally do a lot with fonts (I have about five favorites), I appreciated the ability to look over the font TrueType formats. In general, I see this application as one I'd use only once in a great while, but when I do, its just the tool for the job.
AppSwitch is a handy way to have all open applications available in a drop down menu, from the toolbar. To a certain extent, this feature is redundant to the dock, and to the ability to "Apple-Tab" switch between open applications. But, I do find that this program might be useful if you find yourself switching between OS 9 and OS X. In this case, the AppSwitch is just familiar enough, and a fair trick. In this case, you might want to have AppSwitch open and running with log-on.
RadicalSqueeze is a quick and convenient way to compress stuff. Its options are to compress into either .zip or .tar format. Having played a little with unix in a previous life on a Sun workstation, I prefer the .tar format, but both seem to work satifactorily. This application is useful when sending files over email, or uploading files to an online directory. If you are using this program with any dial-up log-in, you will enjoy the time savings.
MacCabinet is one of those organization tools. I broke myself of keeping files on my desktop a good while ago. But, MacCabinet allows you to "pull" open a storage window (definable in the right or left side of your screen) and put/grab files from this location. Fairly simple to use, and another of those programs that, if you like it, you'd set it up to begin when you log-in. One quirk I noticed: when I started it initially, a message (which I probably misread) instructed me to go to the left side of the screen to "pull open" my cabinet window. But I found my cabinet opening on the right side of the screen. Not a real issue, because of the extremely simple way to customize the cabinet.
Finally, RadicalPhoto is one nice simple photo enhancement program. I have been using iPhoto predominately for most of my images, but sometimes, I'd like to use something a bit "more." While I have used Adobe's PhotoShop Elements, I prefer Radical Photo for both is simplicity and its price. Plus, I like the option of saving in a wide variety of formats. Finally, I had a lot of fun playing with the various effects available.
Overall, the MacPac is very nice. And I recommend it to you. As a plus, at such a low price, this collection of five programs is well worth the list price.

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Fundamentals of Law Office Management Review

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(More customer reviews)I do like how the book is designed. Although there are a few websites that are no longer available at the time of publication, the drills and practice questions really maintain a real world feel. The CD is also helpful in printing out examples from the book.
The appendices are helpful as a study guide, summarizing answers to the drill questions at the end of each chapter. Also we follow the adventures of the law offices of Black, White & Green, LLP and what they go through in each chapter of the book.
Especially helpful was the section on calendaring, how filing systems work and when are we ever going to reach the level of the "paperless" office.
You have the law information, civil and criminal. You know how to write a pleading and to research the law. But many attorneys and secretaries just "wing it" when organizing a law office.
This book solves that problem and makes for better paralegals and secretaries.
The only bad point are the occasional spelling errors, but that's the publisher's fault. Recommended.
Other books for a paralegal career:
Paralegal Career For Dummies (For Dummies (Career/Education))
Paralegal Career Starter, 3rd Edition


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BMM - Business Management Model IE 11.11; 1 User; 1 Business Scenario Review

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(More customer reviews)BMM allows - when compared with conventional methods - an entirely different approach to plan, steer and control Programs and Projects in the context of business planning.
Project deliverables and their delivery dates and cost/benefit aspects play the key role. Business case calculations, project performance and capacity planning are easily performed.
The clear and precise definitions of project organization, organizations of the external suppliers and their appropriate management roles and responsibilities give substantial support for the project and issue management.
With BMM, we have at the same time for all deliverables close control of delivery dates, quality, resource consumption and cost, budgets and cost/benefits.
BMM controls the interdependency of deliverables amongst different programs and projects, whereby projects can be owned by different companies.
BMM is in perfect coexistence with the project management tools in use by the different projects. For international projects, the concurrent use of multiple languages and the automatic conversion of currencies improve the efficiency of project management.
The learning effort which went into the tutorial was well spent.


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WinZip 15 Standard Single User CD EN DVD Review

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(More customer reviews)NOTE: look at prices for various WinZip versions on Amazon. At the time of this writing, a Plus version of WinZip 15 was available at a lower price than this standard edition.
PROS:
* an essential tool for most Windows users
* allows you to create a complete set of related files in one file, while retaining the original directory structure, if any
* makes it easy for sharing files by keeping them all together, and by compressing them so they can be transferred faster
* includes an encryption capability to set a password to retrieve files you want to keep confidential
* includes a very useful shell extension for extract, add, or create a new archive
* a Mac edition of WinZip allows you to exchange files with a Mac user who has this program
* extracts from most common archive formats besides zip, including RAR, 7z, TAR, ISO, CAB, and several others
* single-user license agreement allows you to install on a second machine (for non-simultaneous use only), handy for users who have a laptop and a desktop
* can open and view a file in a zip archive without extracting it, by right-clicking on the file and selecting Open.
* works correctly with files made from my older WinZip 9 (standard zip file format), as I expected it would
* the enhanced zip file format - which cannot be read by older versions of WinZip - has a new extension, zipx, to avoid confusion
CONS:
* a couple of very minor inconveniences, described below
UPDATE: I am biased by my habit of using pkzip and WinZip for decades. Some of my friends prefer to use WinRAR and 7zip, so I have added a section describing Alternatives near the end.
WINZIP IS NEARLY ESSENTIAL...
WinZip is one of those tools that I think most PC and Mac users would find essential. The Pros above sum up the reasons. Though disk space is relatively inexpensive these days, and though Windows allows you to compress parts of your file system, it is incredibly useful to be able to create an archive of any number of related or inter-dependent files, including complete directory structures of files, for backup purposes, etc. While compressed media files (jpg, mp3, etc) do not always become smaller in an archive, it is still great to be able to keep a set of files together.
If you want to exchange files, it is convenient to have one file that contains all of the ones you want to share, and compressing it makes the transfer time (via Internet, or a thumb drive) faster. The ability to password-protect an archive makes it safe and convenient to exchange confidential files - for example, getting reports from a financial adviser using a mutually-known password.
Although the zip archive format is essentially a standard on Windows, WinZip extracts files from several other archive standards, including some that are common on Linux. And for Mac users, there is a Mac edition, so you can exchange files with either Windows or Mac users.
For people who need the features I have described, and don't have a program to do it at present, WinZip is a five-star utility.
...BUT IS IT WORTH UPGRADING TO THIS VERSION?
I have been using a licensed copy of WinZip 9.0 for several years. It does everything I need, and I consider WinZip an essential tool. So why would I need to upgrade? I decided to find out when I was offered a chance to review WinZip 15.
First and most important, the newest version still supports the original zip file format, which means that you can still provide archives to others who have an older version of WinZip. However, you need to make sure you select the option to do that, as the newest zip format is not backwards compatible.
Media files such as jpg and mp3 are already in a compressed form, and with my older WinZip 9 (and most other compression programs), it is not possible to compress them further. It is convenient to put several files into one archive, and doing that can make disk storage more efficient and use less space, even without compression. But the newest zip format claims to compress jpg files by 20-25%. I tested it with 714 pictures from India, totalling about 690 MB, and it saved 21% space, but took about twice as long (I did not time it). This only works with the zipx format. The original zip format does not compress jpgs, but it stores them more efficiently than separate files, so it saves 1% compared to separate.
MP3 files are compressed about 1% with either zip or zipx compression. For mp3, zipx takes longer to archive than zip with no obvious benefit.
A folder with 145 MS Office (XLS, PPT) and PDF files totalling 383 MB was compressed by 17% in 73 seconds to the original zip file format. The same folder was compressed by 20% in 143 seconds (almost twice as long) to the new zipx file format.
Actual performance will vary depending on files, but these results represent typical files for me. I ran my tests on a laptop with duocore processor on WinXP. I don't have the previous version of WinZip, so I cannot comment on whether the new zip engine in this version "creates Zipx files 30% to 50% faster than the previous version". Since installing this version also uninstalls previous version, it is not convenient to compare performance with older versions, and I did not. Subjectively, WinZip 15 to zip (standard) format about as WinZip 9, and somewhat slower (with somewhat more compression) for the new zipx format.
The package claims that WinZip has a streamlined interface with more intuitive menus and icons. Except for newer icons, the interface is similar to what I was used to. I don't think it is easier to use, but it was good before, and is still good.
For people who need the features I have described, and don't have a program to do it at present, WinZip is a three-star upgrade, considering benefits to price. WinZip 9 would still be good enough for me, but now that I have WinZip 15, I'll use it instead.
MINOR ISSUES
Windows allows you to select a custom directory to be used for "My Documents", for example when you want to have your home directory on a different drive from the system directory. Most programs correctly locate the new "My Documents" directory if you change it, but WinZip 15.0 does not. But this is never a problem for me, as I normally start WinZip by right-clicking on an archive or a file I want to compress, then selecting WinZip from the popup menu. It always finds the correct directory in this case.
WinZip 15 installed from the CD, and next time I used it, it offered an update for a better compression engine. When it downloaded, it also offered me an unwanted download: Kaspersky Security. Because this is enabled by default, you could get it downloaded and installed by mistake, potentially causing problems for an existing anti-virus program. If you are alert, you can easily decline. Personally, when I'm installing a program, I don't want to be offered a different program, especially when it is a trial version that will nag you to buy an upgrade later. If I wanted that program, I'd go to the Web and download it. This is effectively a paid ad, and I don't want it. But I won't encounter this often, so who cares.
ALTERNATIVE ARCHIVE PROGRAMS
Zip has been a standard archive format for PC since the DOS days and PKZIP. It is a defacto standard that many people use. However, there are two others worth considering, and they also support the Zip format.
WINRAR is shareware available online. It is compatible with the Zip file format, and offers a few more features over WinZip that will be of use to some power users - advanced self-extracting archive features, additional security features, and support for more human languages. It costs about the same as WinZip Standard.
7zip is a free, open source archive program also available online. It can pack many archive formats (including its native 7z, Zip, and Linux formats) and unpack many others. It claims to offer better compression in Zip format than WinZip. It is localized into even more human languages, self-extracting archive capability, and has most of the other features of WinZip.
Both WinRAR and 7zip have at least some support on Mac and Linux, which is helpful if you need to move files between these platforms and/or Windows.
If I did not already have WinZip, I would be looking at 7zip, and you might want to as well.
BOTTOM LINE: I consider WinZip to be nearly essential for most users, and all power users. But if you are already happy with an older version of WinZip (such as version 9), it may not be an essential upgrade, unless you need to compress jpg files.


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WinZip Mac Edition 1 Review

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(More customer reviews)As long as there have been computers, there have been ways to compress files. One of the earliest compression programs available to consumers was PKZip, named for its developer, Phil Katz, and "zip" for speed, as in Zip Code. The PKZip format is now celebrating its 22nd birthday and is easily the most popular compression technique for the average computer user. One reason for that is that Phil Katz released the process into the public domain and also allowed any file compression program to use the word ZIP in its own name.
Enter WINZIP. WINZIP was first released in 1991, 2 years after the release of PKZip. Developed and released by Nico Mak Computing (who later changed its name to WINZIP Computing), the product is now owned by Corel Corporation. This review covers WINZIP 1.0 for Mac OS X, Snow Leopard edition.
Installation is a breeze. I chose to let it run the setup wizard, which made it even simpler. Once done, it asks for your registration code. If you don't have one, then it lets you use the program for 45 days free of charge. As I understand, the program will continue to work after that time, but with reduced functionality. Since I have not had it installed for 45 days, I can't comment on what actually happens at that time.
Once installed, the program lurks until needed. Double-clicking on a zipped file opens it. Creating a new zip file is exceedingly fast. The first time I did it, I kept looking for the "ZIP IT NOW" button only to realize that it was automatic. The file was already sitting on my desktop. A nice little feature is the "Zip It, Mail It" feature that streamlines the process of compressing files and sending the resulting archive to a friend. It's not a big deal, but it's nice.
Apart from that, there's not much to say. WINZIP works, and it's easy. Zippity doo dah.


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