Excellent

Pros: Virtually anything I need to do graphically, Photoshop can do. I like the fact that this is a program I can grow into as my needs expand.

It's overkill however for most people - Photoshop Elements will do most of what the average person needs for a fraction of the price. I started out with an early version of Photoshop Elements years ago and graduated to full Photoshop when my needs outgrew Elements

There are ways around paying full price. When I bought Photoshop the first time, version 7, I bought it for just $85 because it was two versions behind the then current version. Adobe has an excellent policy of allowing $169 upgrades to full Photoshop from any prior version, so I could have upgraded at any time to the current version.

Adobe also offers steep educational discounts for teachers and students, which allows buying it at far below the retail price.

Cons: I don't really have any complaints. It's complex software that can be intimidating to learn. I recommend firs time users take on online class to help come up to speed quickly, but I have no complaints about the software itself.

Posted: 29-Dec-2007 12:10:55 PM

Almost excellent

Pros: I wish I could give it five stars. I've created some stunningly beautiful screensavers with it as Christmas presents, far better screensavers than I could create with any of the twelve competitors that I downloaded. I'll give the negatives in the cons section.

I'm a computer software professional. For me it was definitely worth the purchase price, but I don't recommend it for less experienced users.

If you don't need help and you're comfortable mucking about in the Windows file system, this software can create magnificent 3d screensavers. I've created screensavers with about a half dozen cubes moving in and out, with a total of about forty images. Each time the screensaver starts up, it uses a different random batch of photos. People who've seen it love it!

The best feature is the "3D Screen Editor", which apparently is an add-on. This is the feature that provides the ability to really customize a screensaver. The lack of help makes it frustrating to learn, and there appear to be bugs in it, but I got it to work beautifully for me.

Cons: If you want to make anything more than some basic spheres bouncing around, you need to be an experienced computer user. The "Help" link just leads to a webpage with general information. The only other help is by email.

The software itself has a clunky, outdated user interface that could be confusing to an inexperienced computer user. In the hands of an experienced computer user, it's excellent software, but less experienced users will find it frustrating.

There is no help, which

Posted: 29-Dec-2007 09:36:44 AM