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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book. NOT!!, June 15, 2001
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Paint Shop Pro 7 in 24 Hours (Sams Teach Yourself...in 24 Hours) (Paperback)
I had just finished learning FrontPage 2000 through the use of a wonderful book called "Create FrontPage 2000 Web Pages In A Weekend". I had my web site ready, well, in a weekend and thought now was a good time to create some graphics. I turned, with some anticipation, to "Teach Yourself Paint Shop Pro 7 in 24 Hours". What a disappointment! I found 3 pretty obvious errors within the first couple of hours. Also, the author assumes that you can read his mind and therefore does not provide adequate explanations during the "Tutorials" (and I use the term loosely). I consider myself a fairly intuitive student, and I was able to get through the book. I've learned how to use the software, not because of this book but in spite of it. Would I recommend this book? Under two conditions. One, the person using the book has an infinite amount of patience and has a logical mind. Those are the only qualities that will enable you to get through this book. For example, you have to be willing to do some investigation to understand what the author means when he throws a term such as "stroke" color at you without any prior explanation or definition. Two, if there was not a better book out there. And there are two others, "Paint Shop Pro 7 for Dummies" and "The Complete Idiots Guide to Paint Shop Pro 7". So, with these two solid selections available, avoid SAMS "Teach Yourself Paint Shop Proj 7 in 24 Hours". You'll be much happier and much less frustrated.
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Still the best, November 21, 2001
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Paint Shop Pro 7 in 24 Hours (Sams Teach Yourself...in 24 Hours) (Paperback)
I was prejudiced against the book due to the very low readers' rate and overwhelming negative reviews at Amazon. But I was in a need of a decent book on PSP 7. I even bought "Idiots Guide" some time ago, but returned it instantly (see my review on it). After that I went to a store and spent some considerable time comparing the books on the software. Finally I decided to buy this book, and I have not regretted the decision. Now I am trying to restore justice. Yes, the book is far from being perfect. It bears many drawbacks pointed out by other reviewers. But it contains a lot of information on the software, it covers almost any menu, any tool. Yes, there must be better books. But where are they so far? Are they "Idiots Guide", "For Dummies" or "Solutions" (see my review on it)? Not a bit! They all have much less information than "Teach yourself". Just look into and compare some topics. I did this, and I state that this is the best book on PSP 7 so far, and I recommend it to everyone who is serious about learning the program, who wants to have a sort of a printed tutorial on it, and who can not wait until the better books appear.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Two Steps Forward Fours Steps Back, February 20, 2001
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Paint Shop Pro 7 in 24 Hours (Sams Teach Yourself...in 24 Hours) (Paperback)
As a new user to Paint Shop Pro, I was hoping this book would be enlightening. Instead I found it very disappointing and confusing. Perhaps it's biggest drawback is it fails to note important points that you really need to know. For example, nowhere does the book tell you that when you use the preshapes tool, you need to uncheck "Retain Style" (which is how the software came: with it checked) or the shapes you create won't fill with color. In doing the early exercises in the book, I tried for over two hours to figure out why the shapes wouldn't fill with color. Only after I called the Paint Shop Pro hotline the next day did I get the answer immediately. Although "Retain Style" is a PreShapes tool checkbox option, this isn't even listed in the book's index. Here's another example: in chapter 4, it discusses how you work with selections to expand or contract them. It advises you to choose "Selection, Modify, Expand or Contract" but fails to tell you how to get to those options. I know how to activate the selection tool, but I'll be damned if the tool options box lists those options on my screen. Where they are is anyone's guess, and the author certainly isn't shedding any light on how to find them. So, why buy the book? Frankly, I found this book hurt more than it helped me. Based on its potential for confusion and its ommission of useful information, the title should be Teach Yourself Paint Shop Pro 7 in 24 Days, (not 24 hours). Even though I got the book pretty cheap, it was an almost total waste of money. If you want to spend your time figuring out difficult puzzles, do the NY Times Crossword rather than try to figure out this software from this book. If you want to learn Paint Shop Pro 7, I suggest you find another book than this one.
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