You
may remember Serif from a few years back. Shopper has version
7 on its cover disk. I decided to try it. Serif is the
most
underrated software around. I am pleased with it.
Some
time ago I demonstrated Serif PagePlus something or other. It
compared well with MS Publisher but there were reasons, which
I can't recall why I reverted to publisher. Oh yes I remember
I updated Windows and it no longer worked.
A couple of weeks ago I bought “Computer Shopper”.
Page Plus 7 was among the software offered on the cover CD.
I installed and the material that you are now reading now was
produced using it. It is quite a pleasure to use but I will
demonstrate Serif sometime in the future. Let me spend a few
minutes sharing the experience of registration.
When you see the phrase “Telephone registration required”
be warned that this is opportunity for the supplier of the freebie
to sell you the latest version.
When I called the phone was answered quite quickly by a young
man who seemed genuinely interested in PCs and software. We
had an interesting conversation where he enquired what I was
going to use Page Plus 7 for. He also noted that I have a previous
version and asked how I was getting on with it. We discussed
most of my interests in a friendly way. Image editing, Video
editing, Web Authoring.
As
the conversation progressed I became interested in his description
of MoviePlus 4. It sounded like it was an exciting package. Smelling
a potential customer he made me an offer I could not refuse, so
3 days later a package arrived and I was the proud owner of MoviePlus
4.
I have installed it on my machine and run through a few of the
examples and tutorials. If it is half as good as it looks, when
I try it on my own material it will be fantastic. It enables me
to produce multiple picture in picture all animated simultaneously.
I can do many of the things only currently available to me in
image editors, like a deform tool. I can do professional split
screen effects add multiple sound tracks and produce my own masks
for framing my scenes. It will accept multiple standards and convert
to any of them. I can stream for on line applications.
I
need to use it and soon, so when I have, if it is anywhere near
as good as I expect, you can look forward to a demonstration.
Back
to page plus 7, so far so good. They tell me Page Plus 9 is much
better enabling the direct production of PDF's from within the
software so that your work can be e-mailed to anyone who can then
read it without having to print it or own Page Plus to see it.
I wonder what unmissable offer they would make me on that package?
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