Customer Reviews

PhotoExpress My Scrapbook

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Just got this about two hours ago and I've been glued to my chair. I have two other scrapbook programs (Creative PhotoAlbums & Ultimate Scrapbook Creator) and this is hands down the best.

First off, it works and it has tech support (something USC doesn't do and doesn't have). I contacted tech support to question something prior to buying and they emailed me back in two days.

Next, you can actually design and print on 12" x 12" paper (something you can't do with either of the other programs...no, you can't do it with CPA, their claim is totally misleading...it prints strips and corner objects on a 8 1/2 x11" page and you cut them out and paste them on 12" paper..there is no way to design your own 12" pages with that program).

As if that's not enough, the design capabilites are seemingly limitless. Each "area" (for instance, masks) gave a dozen or so basic templates, but then you have the option of changing them in limitless ways (such as color, transparency, focus, edges, etc.) I was boggled by the many options, and ways to transform those options, giving me limitless possibilities. Text options alone were amazing...wrapping text around the edges of the paper, warping, transforming, texturizing...it just went on and on. Background textures, colors, tiles, frames... it too, seemed limitless.

The clip art that comes with it is kinda hokey, but I had no problem cutting and pasting from my own collection and then using the programs options to resize or shadow it. You can even change the transparency of clip art. Amazing.

So, as far as I can see, this is a wonderful program.

Hi, it's me again, the one who wrote the first/previous review. As a service to all scrapbookers out there, I must revise my previous review to reflect some things that I have since found out.

When I wrote the first review, I had sat and designed away for hours, enthralled with the program. The next day though, when I tried to print those pages out, trouble was found. When I send a 12" page to print, the program superimposes on my page four red lines, which tech support claims are Print Margins. These margins are at the top, left and right edges of the page correctly. But the bottom "margin" is at least a 1/2" too high. I have written many emails to tech support and while the first two were at least answered (though no solution was offered) the rest have gone unanswered (even though I wrote I would come back here and warn fellow scrapbookers!) Tech support verified that this "margin" line is not changeable, moveable, or removeable, but that's it. They have been unable to tell me how to get a 12" page to print top to bottom. Therefore, since recieving this program I have not been able to print so much as a single 12x12" page. Not one.

I also discovered a design flaw in the text box. The text box is very small and only displays two lines of type, about 20 characters per line. This was fine for making captions under photo's. But the first time I tried to journal a story, it was a mess. Lines will continue to type indefinately so you have to hit 'Enter' to drop down to the next line, but since you only see 20 characters or so in the text box, you can't line up the lines in the paragraph as you can't tell where the other lines end.

Being unable to journal or print has forced me to go back to my other programs. I'm so sad, this program has such great features it's a shame not to use it. Hopefully, they will develop a patch that will correct the printing problem and journaling design flaw so that they will truly have the best scrapbook program out there...that works, anyway.

I was given this software as a freebie and I find it very very basic. I'm after something to create digital scrapbook albums for all my digital camera shots and whilst it has some neat little features and can do some good things, it has problems completing the most basic tasks such as creating a triangle from scratch or a square with a pattern if you want to make your own design...it just cannot be done easily. I have created them in Publisher and pasted across but they go all stupid and it has a hard time recognising transparency. Also had same prob as previous reviewer about copying things into this program, I measured something in Publisher to be an inch but pasting it into this software it became miniture.

Clipart is very limited and there is no way to import your own clipart unless you copy/paste from another program. Same with backgrounds, very limited ... no way of importing your own collection to use. I expected that their site would have heaps more templates and goodies to download and they have SOME stuff but it is nothing to write home about and the file sizes are huge for just a handful of add-ons.

I don't mind using it but I find it very fiddly and dicky when it comes to completing the most basic task such as making something transparent or just creating an everyday shape like a triangle. I'd really like to be able to get my hands on some more templates but just can't seem to find any apart from the limited addition on their site.

Michelle

I bought this software because the software I was using (Creative Photo Albums III) is no longer supported and I was having problems with it on my new computer. My Scrapbook Edition is very difficult to use and I consider myself very computer literate (I write software for a living). I tired to import some clip art from a disk and it came in very tiny. Ok, I can resize it right? Only if I want it to be very blurry. Creative Photo Albums took the same clip art and resized it great. Another problem: The image I was importing was a chess piece. I wanted to place it on top of a border. My Scrapbook Edition would not place just the chess piece but would add a white box around it. Creative Scrapbooks would place just the chess piece. I would not recommend this software to anyone.

This was the first scrapbook program I bought and the first thing I noticed was that it doesn't come with much of a manual. It is not user friendly, but once I tinkered with it, right clicked here and there, and basically experimented, I discovered all the possibilities it has. The browse option has allowed me to bring in almost all of my clipart without losing quality, and if there is a white backgound, I simply cut it out. The collages I have created have been so awesome that I am beginning to get requests for side jobs--nice to get paid for something I love to do! My only request (something I have read in another review) is to be able to add frames or shapes in varying colors to border my photos with--the real basic scrapbooking techniques. Other than that, I have to admit I absolutely love it and the final projects are amazing!

I should start by saying that I love using software to scrapbook. I've used Creative Photo Albums for years. However, it's not available or supported any longer, so I thought I'd better look for something new.

This is the first program I have run into in a long time that is so unintuitive that I actually had to look at the instructions to figure out how to get to the scrapbooking. It starts up with (extremely limited) photo editing as the main desktop and I actually exitted the program and restarted it, thinking I had somehow installed the wrong program!

So I finally get to the scrapbooking and all of the templates look really gawdy and awful but I'll load one and give it a try. Only they won't load -- it keeps telling me to insert my CD again. The same CD I loaded the software from, only one drive, no tricky mapping and the thing doesn't even try to access the drive before shooting out an error message.

I paid very little for the Creative Photo Albums software and it was great. I paid a little more for this stuff and it is just useless!

I use to cut and paste pictures by hand for Creative Memories. Now i can do all my scrapbooking on my computer and print it out. It is a timesaver compared to Creative Memories work. Id love to lead classes on scrapbooking with this software!

I just got off the phone with a Hobby Lobby manager who thankfully will allow me to exchange this product, which I'm going to do first thing tommorow. Words cannot express how disappointed I am with this product. I did a lot of research to find a package I liked and several reviews gave this one good marks. The only thing I liked was the photo editing features which were pretty limited. (I guess you get what you pay for!)
I agree 100 percent with Software User from Tampa. It is difficult to maneuver around in, prints badly and tech support was pretty unhelpful. In addition, after I installed it one of the features (paint/clone) would not work at all, even after I unininstalled and reinstalled. I consider myself a competent, computer literate person, but this system had me pulling my hair out.

My Scrapbook Edition is just what I was looking for. It is perfect for almost everything, except I still love my real die cuts and page borders.
I messed around with my copy of Scrapbook Edition just to see if it really could do what it claimed. My biggest concern, based on other software and reviews was, "Can it really output 12 x 12 pages?" And, much to my surprise - it could! I printed some of the templates included out to an HP 1220C.
At first the preview showed that the print would take two sheets of paper. This was definitely not acceptable, and I almost gave up. Then I went into the printer properties from my control panel in Windows and changed some of the default settings and came up with an almost perfect 12 x 12 page. There is one little problem though, with that setting it leaves about 1/4 inch margin around the page. I am going to try setting the defaults to 13 x 13 and see what happens from there.

I've just started using this and it's not bad. I did have to read some instructions to find the parts I wanted to use (I hate to read instructions), but so far so good. It is the best scrapbook program out there for the serious scrapbooker.