Customer Reviews

American Greetings CreataCard Platinum 7

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I own Creatacard Platinum 6 and tried Platinum 7. I returned the product after I discovered that you have to download the 8,000+ thumbnail images every time you clear your IE Browser's cache. That's half of the 16,000 thumbnails. Also, any thumbnails that you have looked at using the "Show Detail" says it is downloading to your hard drive. NOT! It downloads to your IE Browser's cache. Unless you have saved that image you viewed in detail by exporting it, you have to spend a lot of time trying to find the thumbnail (more download time) then download the image AND export it unless you save it in a project. The v6 comes with 3 disks but v7 comes with 2 disks. I cannot believe this company thought it was a good idea for people to have to always download the thumbnail of images and detail images. This product wastes your time trying to view images that you paid for by having to download the thumbnails and the larger detail image. Avoid v7 of this product.

As a previous owner of Creatacard 3, I jumped when Creatacard 5 came out. What a disappointment. It was merged with Printmaster, the wonderful easy to use interface was all botched up and most if not all the cards were duplicates of Creatacard 3.

However, I bit the bullet, kept Creatacard 5, sold my old version of 3 and then kept my eye out for a new deal. Then Creatacard 6 came out. I thought great, but when I read that that number of cards were not an incremental change over 3 or 5 I said forget it.

Well now Creatacard Platinum 7 is out and here's some stats.
This from the Broderbund site:

more than 6,800 creative possibilities
Note this means:
Projects on CD: 2,381+; Projects Online: 4,419.
more than 11,300 premium quality images in every style
Note this means:
Images on CD: 3,101+; Images Online: 8,199.

However I received this in an email from Broderbund. Presumably, they are referring to Version 6 when they say more than?
Enjoy over 600 NEW projects and images (18,100 total)
NOTE this means:
Images and Projects on CD: 5,482+;
Images and Projects available online: 12,618.

More than 400 NEW greeting cards (4,300 total)

Over 900 NEW sentiments to add to any project!
more than 9,100 exclusive sentiments

So armed with this information, I look up the stats on Creatacard Platinum version 6.

6,300+ greeting cards
15,000+ art images
9,400+ projects
8,200+ sentiments.

From above Creatacard Platinum 7 (not including items online)
4,300 greeting cards (400 new I guess, but 2000 less overall)
3,101 images on CD (11,300 overall)
2,381+ projects on CD (6800 overall)
9,100 sentiments

It would seem from Creatacard Platinum 6 to 7 there are
2000 less cards
12,000 less images on the CD (not including online)
7,000 less projects on the CD (not including online)
900 more sentiments.
Even considering the online images and projects the numbers come out less than Creatacard 7.

Needless to say. I'm still not buying.

Don't waste your money on this product. This software is garbage. It is archaic software with a crude, inflexible, disorganized user interface. It was next to impossible to get this software to print correctly. I tried it on HP, NEC, and Cannon printers and it has never worked correctly. Broderbund customer support is unable to offer any useful assistance. Don't waste your money on this product.

Dont buy this software. It appears to have alot of card templates on the package; but when you open it, you have to connect to the internet to get most of the cards and then you have to download them to your hard drive. It is extemely annoying to have the "do you want to connect to the internet" keep popping up all the time. Save your money. Buy another greeting card software that actually has the cards on the disk you buy and not the internet.

Create A Card gold 7 has a lot of the same artwork for your cards, yet it is not sold as an upgrade. Gold 6 has 2 cds; one with most of the artwork. Gold 7 has 1 cd; most of the artwork must be downloaded online. Create A Card Gold 6 competes nicely with Hallmark Card Studio Deluxe...Version 7 does not compare. To their credit what is new is of course up to my American Greetings expectations...there just isn't enough for the money. It adds to my work time on a project to have to download it. It would have been so much more considerate to just include the 2 cd.

So incredibly disappointed with the Platinum 7. Lots of the things that have to be downloaded were on the disc from the old Create Card I had. Thought I was getting more for my money! HA!
Waste of my time and my computer space. I ordered it from a phone call made to my home. The one really important thing she neglected to tell me during the sales pitch, was the internet thing. Make sure you know this before you buy. Unless you want to spend hrs on the internet trying to see what you want. and then finding it isn't, ignore this product and buy the one put out before it! It is good, but with one flaw, can't do as much with pictures. I do my photos in Microsoft Picture It! and then transfer them to AGC. But I'm definitely going to return this one if they let me.

I was very very pleased with the changes in the program. They made it a lot easier for people that do not have lots of space on their computer to download all of the artwork. In the Art Gallery and the different card catagories, there are somethings that are availiable on-line. The only draw-back is that while you are using the program, you may have to go back & forth-on & off the internet. I must say that really isn't that much of a problem. Although, someone who is not able to go on line-it could be a problem for. There are many many more pieces of art in the Gallery (different from ver.6 platinum). There are more selections of cards and you can actually change the color scheme of a card if you want to. They also give you more places to explore. The process of finializing a project is much easier. You can save, print, e-mail the project, have them print your card all from the same little pop-up window. I am very glad I made the decision to get version 7 Platinum. I guess the one piece of information that I should add is that my husband bought this program for me as an anniversary gift (since it's the program I love the best). Unknown to me he bought it directly from Broderbund. I received it on August 8th. I would recommend it to anyone. As with any program, it's got it's ins & outs. But even so, it always take time to get use to any program. If there weren't differences in the progressing versions, American Greetings wouldn't put out any newer versions. I have had programs from other companies but have always returned to American Greetings CreataCard.

P.S. I have a response to all of the reviews that reference complaints of not liking the part of having to download a tremendous amount of the art work, etc. People who have computers that don't have a lot of memory space, it makes it easier for them to work this version of Creatacard. Even if you don't install the full version, a lot of people do not have enough memory. Not everyone who owns a computer is able to afford to put added memory in their machines. At the same time, I realize that it costs money to have an internet connection but a lot of folks just plain don't have the extra money it takes to buy added memory (along with having to pay to have it placed in their computers). At least this program gives the little people the chance to experience how wonderful it is to have a program like this!

This program is a good card program but one must be online to make selections of cards or images to use. I did not receive a manual which would have been very helpful as the HELP section cannot answer questions. I already own versions Gold 3 and Gold 8 and still like version Gold 3 the best as all pictures and cards are available off line and great when you have "dial-up" connection.

Check out the program and you will find a button to click on to turn off the go to the web sight thing. I did and I am much happier with the program.

CreataCard Platinum 7 retains the same annoying user interface as the original 1997 version I got free with my greeting card paper, and then takes away the ability to view a group of cards (and their inside messages) as a group, but then adds the need for you to download most of the content from the Internet. Most annoying: the software did not ask (or check) to see if I had an existing Internet connection, but assumed I was on dialup and tried to dial my modem (I then had to use Task Manager to end the program.) I found the humor in the cards to be crass and insulting, with very few "sentimental" cards appropriate for an older person. After wrestling with the program, trying to find a card I could even modify to my liking (ArtStudio is even more difficult than it used to be to use), I gave up and wished I'd read the reviews on Amazon first.