It’s been years since I last used a CorelDraw software suite and jumped at the opportunity to use CorelDraw Suite X5. I consider myself a novice user in that I don’t use the software everyday or professionally. I am, however, well versed in Photoshop and a few other offerings from smaller companies like ACDSee. So first things first, installation; I installed X5 on my beefy HP laptop running Windows 7 and 8gb of RAM.

I have an Acer computer without many bells and whistles on it. It does have (much to my dismay) Windows 8. Apparently VideoStudio Ultimate X8 does not like Windows 8. Three crashes during installation made me almost give up. Finally I managed to get it installed with a lot of help from the internet and when I opened the program it looked fine. Very much like the other programs I have used - top right is the display of the video you are creating, top left are the tools, center is series of layers you can add - but then it crashed.

I love animation but haven’t done it in years - and NEVER on a computer. It thought this would be a lot of fun to play around with. And over the last several months it has been a blast - but I’m just playing. This has a bit of a learning curve that will be daunting for children who attempt this on their own - I would suggest having an adult learn it first then work with the kids to get the basics down before turning them loose on it.

I give this product a very good rating. The program was stable, easy to install and use and it is very intuitive. I feel that it is reasonably priced and offers plenty of user features and has a nice, well designed interface :) Two thumbs up

So perhaps you, like me, have been using Office for almost all of your adult life. And you know every few years they come out with a new version, and with internet connectivity, they can bug you to upgrade every few weeks. Well I go the chance to upgrade. And I did. Now you either download with a code provided by Amazon, or you buy the PC card, which come with a card that has the code you use to download from Microsoft.

Roxio used to be a well-known brand name in the editing software business. Sadly the name lives on but the quality of the product does not. I had the product as a disc. My first attempt to install on Windows 10 failed. Second attempt worked. No instructions or help are provided in the box and the website provided no help either. So essentially you are on your own for the install.

I don’t know why but I have always kinda like WordPerfect. Yes I had to use Word at school and I had to use Word at work. But there is something about WordPerfect that draws me to it. Admittedly the first computer I ever had came with WordPerfect and that is really what I learned to type on, but it is more then that. The thing I find is that while WordPerfect and the other suite programs take a little bit more time to learn and understand, once you get the basic ideas ow how things are laid out, it is so much easier to to use WordPerfect, Quattro and Presentations.

So I was supposed to learn how to touch type back in high school. I didn’t and snuck by. I should have learned how to type in college, I didnt. I should have made sure I learned how to type during my first job. Nope. I got by being a 20 word per minute touch typer, making a lot of errors, and living on the benefits of spell checker. Time for a change.

When I went to college, I actually used WordPerfect. It was what was used on my first computer at home. It is what I typed my first reports in. I craft my first term papers and kept notes in it, and did some of my first statistical analysis and graphing using Quattro Pro. Then I got a real job and joined the corporate world and found the ubiquity of Microsoft Office.

Cyberlink PowerDirector 13 Ultimate is a powerful video editing program that can let you do a ton of really cool things, the biggest drawback is the learning curve it takes to get proficient with how the programs works and how to apply the various edits tricks and effect you want to use. Installation is relatively simple, but lacks directions or instructions, you just get boxes that open up asking you which program you want to install, now I could figure out what order I want to do this in, but someone less experienced may get confused.