Software advice needed

[Laurel]

I'm a long-time PC user who finally converted to a Mac. There are lots of great things about my new 17" iMac, but ease of software acquisition is not one of them.

I'm frustrated that I can't just walk into any software store and find a good selection of applications, (and knowledgeable staff). My husband (a dedicated long-time Mac user) tells me that the place to get Mac software is on-line, and the place to get informed recommendations is in a Mac forum. And so I have two specific requests for information:

1) I used to use Paint Shop Pro for editing imported photographs and illustrations. Adobe Photoshop Elements seems like overkill. Am I just being inflexible?

2) For the PC, I absolutely loved PrintMaster because of it's diverse and easy-to-access clipart library. Plus, I could cut and paste from there to PageMaker with no problem. However, they don't make it for the Mac (although I gather they used to). Print Explosion doesn't do the trick *at all* because it lacks a search by keyword function. Please, can anyone suggest another product with a big library plus the ability to search through the clipart by keyword -- without having to use those annoying thumbnail illustration catalogues, or looking at every single picture?

And just to top it all off, PageMaker 7.0 doesn't run in OSX. And I am entirely UNfamiliar with the Classic environment.

My gratitude to anyone who can help.

[michaelsanford]

Hi Laurel,

Welcome to the forum.

I'm not a high-end graphic designer, but at the same time, GraphicConverter (one of our very old graphics editing applications) just doesn't cut it for me.

I managed to get Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 from the Carleton U bookstore for a very reasonable price.

As for PrintMaster, I don't know it (at all). What is your application (purpose) for using that or PageMaker? It sounds like you're doing desktop publishing? If so, what kind of publication is it?

Also, there are lots of Apple retailers out there. I know of two off the top of my head (B.Mac and MicroServ) but they are both only open in Québec and Ontario... But I will grant you that it's not as simple to find a knowledgeable Apple retailer as it is to find a knowledgeable PC retailer, that's for sure.

Have a look on the apple web site ( www.apple.com/ca/ ) and the Apple Store, there is a lot of software there that you can browse through.

[fuzz]

I used to use a PC up until 3 years ago. If Paint Shop Pro is like MGI Photosuite which I used, they don't compare to Adobe Photoshop. Now, Photoshop Elements is a version that's supposed to be easier to use with fewer features. I quickly learned to take advantage of all the new features. You can do so much more with Photoshop elements vs. paint shop pro.

As for Pagemaker, I've used that too along with QuarkXpress. If you're comfortable with Adobe software, Adobe Indesign is the natural extension of that. I thought Adobe was phasing Pagemaker out. I didn't really have to learn anything new to use Indesign.

One more thing, why not just use iPhoto? It's free.

[Arden]

iPhoto doesn't do image manipulation (no, it really doesn't).

Try Graphic Converter, and if it works for you, buy it, it's only $35 or so. If you want more, then APE is definitely a good investment because it does almost everything Photoshop does for 1/6 the price.

[Laurel]

Okay, what I'm hearing here is that I should stop being so lazy and get familiar with Adobe Photoshop Elements. It came with my digital camera (Nikon Coolpix 5700 - I love it) and I haven't spent any time with it because iPhoto does almost everything I need except free rotation. (You know, for those shots where you forgot which way was up!) The camera usually gets the colour balance right.

When I got my last PC, the guy at CompuSmart suggested Paint Shop Pro because it's something like 1/6 the price of PhotoShop. It wasn't hard to learn, it did all I needed it to do, and it served my simple needs very well. So now I'm just lazy.

Michael: I used PrintMaster for two things. First, just for the fun of making greeting cards for my family & friends; and second, as a source of clip-art to liven up newsletters (some paid, some not). All the graphics have associated keywords, and typing a word or two into the search box yields thumbnails of all the pictures that are related to my topic. Although PrintMaster's [export] function left a lot to be desired, if I just [cut] from PrintMaster and [paste] to PageMaker, the quality was top-notch. There doesn't seem to be a comparable card or clip-art package for OSX. And this is the thing I most need.

I use PageMaker because I was used to it on the PC. Now I'm wishing I'd kept looking for something that actually runs under OSX.

This is off my original topic, but... I do really like iPhoto. However I've got way too many photos in it and it's bogging down -- badly. I've never burned a CD, but it's getting to be time to learn. But if iPhoto never loses track of the original downloaded image, how will it save my edited versions?