Customer Reviews

Art Explosion Publisher Pro

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Nova is a company that buys software from other companies and then they jazz it up with templates, other software, graphics, etc. For the end user this can mean a great deal. You may not get the latest version but you will get solid software with lots of extras. I usually can figure out what software the product really is, not so with this one. What I can tell you is that it is pretty high end as it offers tons of features not found in lesser packages including the ability to create PDF files and Postscript (with color separations) for professional publishing. It also has high end features like the ability to create a table on contents. Add to all of this a quality photo editor. The photo editor sort of looks like an older version of PhotoPaint. It doesn't have wizards (like automatic color balance)...it is strickly manual. With that said, it does has higher end controls like "levels and curves." Remember that your getting this program for FREE. Add to all of this TONS of professionally designed ready made templates and (they say, I have not counted!) 100,000 clip art images. Some of the images are really fun like those BW ad people from the 1950s. Nova has a $30 competative rebate going on too making Publisher Pro super cheap. For years I have used MS Publisher 2000 for most of my publishing needs (including producing a company newsletter). I think this product offers a lot more than Microsoft Publisher. A definate buy.

I purchased this software because it had the formats required by the professional printers I use. I have been even more pleased with how easy it is to use this program. It is much like the program by Microsoft I was accustom to working. Within one hour of starting this program I had a professional design laid out for my client ready to go to the printer. It is much more user-friendly than Corel Draw 12 or Adobe products. I am very pleased with my purchase. I would definitely recomment this product.

Two months ago I bought Quarkxpress 6 hoping I would be able to teach myself how to use it for my church newletter.Needless to say,after 3 weeks the only thing I became really good at was getting frustrated at how impossiblly hard it was to master it or even productively use it without some kind of professional trainning.And then I went to Bestbuy saw the Publisher Pro and decided to risk $79.Now two days later I consider myself somewhat an expert in desktop publishing.The 12 page very-first -class looking newsletter I made is at the printers and all indications are that its going to be a hugely successful project.Unless you are looking for something NASA would shop for this software is a real STEAL at the price.Highly recommended for anyone with high expectations little patience and a limited budget.

I am a youth pastor and make a lot of flyers, calendars, postcards, etc. and needed a program to do just that. I previously had experience with Microsoft publisher, but didn't want to pay the cost for the software. I decided to take a chance with Publisher Pro and was fairly impressed for the price.

The "thousands" of design templates is sort of a misnomer, they use pretty much the same designs on all the different formats: flyers, postcards, newsletters, etc. But, Microsoft Publisher does that too.

However, Publisher Pro was not nearly as user-friendly as Microsoft Publisher. And, the graphics library is indeed large, but many of the graphics are fairly unprofessional and dated. It takes a little getting used to, especially if you are familiar with the Microsoft Program. One thing that I am disappointed with is the fact that you cannot change color schemes easily in Publisher Pro (or at least, I haven't figured it out yet and it's not intuitive).

The program does come with a very detailed and large instruction manual that I'm sure would be helpful. But I don't think someone familiar with publishing software should have to use it to do basic tasks.

I couldn't decide to give it 3 or 4 stars, but decided that it was a very good value and does have a lot of potential if you are willing to learn how to use the program. So, 4 stars it is.

This is the second piece of software that I have purchased from this company. A little over two years ago was when I bought Photo Explosion Deluxe. This was when I was still learning how to use a PC and was easily flustered. I called Tech Support for some direction on using this software. I still remember that young man spent over half an hour on the phone explaining in detail everything that I wanted to do. It was a pleasurable experience dealing with them then.
Fast forward to one month ago, I bought Publisher Pro to design a website to show off my new born twins. I was surprised that designing a website was so straight forward and actually relaxing (try sitting down with twins). I did have to call tech support once while designing this. And once again, they patiently explained how to properly FTP my website to the host.
The programs are easy to use and the company is professional and helpful. I could not have had a better experience with a piece of software. 10 out of 10

I create two newsletters (16 pages, tabloid style) for a non-profit group and one of the printers required that we send the documents as PDFs. Unfortunately, MS Publisher (which is also great for small publishing like this) doesn't save to PDF, so I switched to this program -- and it's great!

I can flow text, set master pages for layout, and manipulate and edit stories and pictures easily. Although it doesn't have the automatic "continued from" and "continued to" feature I'm used to in Publisher, it has a great Resource Manager tool, where I can check which pictures and fonts are embedded. It's webpage creation is also smoother and easier. Pages can be easily previewed, either one at a time or as sets, and pages can be worked on as either one or two-page spreads. A nice touch, too, is the Studio bar at the right, which allows you to see thumbnails of each page and the master pages -- just click on the one you want to work on and you're there. The Studio bar also has tabs for routine tasks - setting attributes, styles, etc. - to speed up editing and changes.

It's a great program at a great price!

I like software that has a lot of templates and photos/graphics to work with and this program has it all!! And the templates are so easy to use and add to it is really nice. I have tried other programs and this one is the one for me. The templates are professional and easily integrated to what you need to use it for! Very user friendly!

As a small business owner, I don't have the time to learn the high end graphics programs. With Publihser Pro, most of the learning curve has been eliminated. You don't create anything as much as you assemble it. You are given hundreds of basic templates and you can change text, add graphics or change colors to your heart's content. You may not create something that a professional using expensive software would but you won't have to spend months having to learn how either. For something under $100, this is the best that I have found.

Great concept for software, but most unstable. This product required far too much care to remain functional. I finally deleted it and went back to Microsoft Publisher.

Not very user friendly, and I have been using computer desktop publishing software for over 20 years....