Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good and cheaper alternative to Visio 2007, February 27, 2007
The other reviews you read here will tell you all the good points about this program. The only reason I gave this program a 3 star rating is due to lack of help documentation and no searchable index for topics. One very SECRET way of finding help on their website is to use their SEARCH bar and type in the term you need help with. Typing ROTATE will get you all kinds of material. This is good but if I did not tell you, you would never have known about this! SmartDraw does not make it clear or easy for you to get help.
Example - You want to learn how to ROTATE a group of objects on the screen. Good luck. You won't find any help in the users guide or online at the website. This is a program that you really do have to roll up your sleeves and bleed a bit to learn it. Many features are easy and quick to learn. Many features will make you go crazy due to lack of documentation.
Also, I give this company a thumbs down for not having a user's forum on their website. A user forum would help other SmartDraw users to help each other and share ideas, templates, etc. SmartDraw claims to have over 10 million copies downloaded. I will be very conservative and assume they have at least 250,000 paying customers. I certainly would want to keep 250,000 people happy by creating a forum for them.
Instead of providing great documentation and guidance, SmartDraw takes the easy way out. They have tons of links to OTHER websites! HA! Talk about letting others carry your water for you!
Overall, SmartDraw 2007 is a great program. Visio 2007 Professional definitely is the clear winner and it is also twice the price of SmartDraw 2007. SmartDraw also requires fewer resources and is not as intrusive.
If you're a hobbyist or a bit of a regular user for work reasons, this program will be a smart purchase. If you due charts, diagrams, etc all the time...you will definitely benefit from buying Visio 2007 Professional.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THIS ONE IS A KEEPER, December 30, 2006
Every now and then a software program comes along that really grabs you. The kind of program that is intuitive, functional and fun to use. The latest update is a 'gotta have' item because you really want to see what improvements the developers have added this time. For myself, SmartDraw 2007 is one of those rare 'gotta have' programs.
SmartDraw has always been a solid well-designed graphics program. With it you can create forms, calendars, fliers, certificates, flow charts, family trees, floor plans, landscapes, timelines and more. I have been using SmartDraw since version 4 and have worked with every version since then. Each upgrade has added new features and improvements. The latest creation from the folks at SmartDraw is version 8, christened SmartDraw 2007.
The graphic and symbol libraries have been enhanced and expanded in this new version. They are high quality and professionally done. You get both blank templates and ready-made examples. All of these can be customized. The templates and examples give you plenty of ideas and cover most of what you would want to do. I would like to see templates for Avery labels added to this collection. I think this would be a nice addition to a great graphics collection.
SmartDraw 2007 is fully integrated with Microsoft Office. Icons in the tool group allow you to export drawings with one click to Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Word and Excel also contain a SmartDraw icon that allows you to import SmartDraw projects. You can also save your work as an Adobe PDF file. This has allowed me to store and reprint my SmartDraw projects at work and share them with others.
Unlike some software which has a steep learing curve because of its complexity, SmartDraw has gotten easier to use as the sophistication of the program's features have expanded. With SmartDraw 2007, the interface has been completely redesigned. The opening screen has two tabs; "Open a New Document" depicting a graphic listing of all your saved projects and a "Create a New Document". The new document screen is divided into three panels. The left side is set up similar to Windows Explorer and lists all the project types available. It also includes a Favorites folder and a search bar. A single mouse click on any topic brings up graphic examples for selection. Once a project is selected, it appears in the center panel work area. The left panel switches to contain related symbol libraries. More libraries can be added from the main collection, stacked in this area and opened as needed. A single mouse click selects the graphic. To place the selected graphic in your work, just move the mouse cursor (changed to a rubber stamp icon) where you want to insert the graphic and click. No more drag and drop, just point and stamp, pretty cool. Across the top of the screen are six tool groupings. These contain the appropriate menu commands and tools for the selected template. These are logical and functional groupings, the icons are familiar, no guess work is needed to figure out what each one does. There are forward and back buttons to switch screens as well as an undo icon.
SmartHelp is located in the right hand panel. This is a wizard that guides you through your project from start to finish. Hyperlinks lead you to related topics for more information and the back button allows you to return to your project. I found SmartHelp to be an excellent way to work with the different templates. It is a great learning tool.
Printing your projects is just as seamless and easy as all of the other features of this program. If your design is larger than one page, and you want to print on a single page, no problem. Just check the Print on One Page box and it is done. Print margins can be set to whatever you require. Projects that span several pages are printed with overlaps for easy assembly.
Customer support is excellent. When I was using an older version of SmartDraw I had a problem converting some files into Adobe PDF format. I contacted technical support; they got right back to me with the solution to my problem. I feel that their customer support is built around the same user friendly philosophy as their software.
Am I excited about SmartDraw? Definitely. After years of frustration trying to use other programs to do what SmartDraw does so easily, I thank the day I first tried this software. This one is a keeper.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easy to get started, April 4, 2007
I bought SmartDraw out of desperation when I was completing a report. I was was working with materials that included a number of charts which I needed to redraw and modify, and I wanted to include visually compatible charts and flow diagrams that I developed from scratch. I loved that I got going with very little difficulty, and that the range of templates covered a lot of the work that I do. The charts enhanced the readability of the report, my clients liked them, and I have gone on to use other SmartDraw templates in creating new charts and mind maps. A refreshing change from the frustration that starting to use new software often provokes.
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