Software Review of:
Microsoft PhotoDraw 
2000 

The program comes on three CD-ROM disks, and you need to have the disks on hand to be able to use the most useful and exciting features of the software. It sucks down a lot of memory. On John's computer, with an AMD 350 K6 chip and 64 MB of RAM, it crashed constantly, although this is well above the 166 MHz minimum recommended by Microsoft. On my system, with a Pentium II 400 MHz chip and 128 MB of RAM it was stable, but slow. I take back that bit about stable - in the middle of writing this article, PhotoDraw seized up my computer. PhotoDraw 2000 comes with an adequate manual, an online tutorial and typically extensive Microsoft help files. 

Photo Tools
You can, in theory, use PhotoDraw as a gateway to your scanner or digital camera. I have both, and wasn't able to configure either one of them to work with PhotoDraw. When I selected the scanner, It initially found my Visioneer Paperport, but then said it wasn't configured properly. I ran the Paperport software to make sure it was working, and all systems were go. I also ran the scanner software through some other photo editing software, and the TWAIN drivers worked fine there. The same thing happened with my camera. This wasn't a show-stopper - both the camera and the scanner come with their own software, and I can scan elsewhere and use the results in PhotoDraw - but it was an irritation and a disappointment. 

Next, you can edit your photos once you have them digitized. There are tools for rotating, fixing redeye, removing dust and scratches, despeckling cloning, and all the other standard touch-ups included in other programs, such as adjusting brightness and contrast, adjusting the hue and saturation, etc. The effects all work with interactive sliders so you can see the result immediately and back out of it if it looks nasty. 

I liked the menu of artistic effects. There must be close to a hundred of them, from charcoal sketch to craquelere and embossing. Although fun, I suspect most of them are as useless as tits on a boar hog. As with the touchups, you can easily poke around all of the effects and select the best one. 

The cropping tools are outstanding. There are about 40 different cropping shapes, from boring squares and circles to the puzzle pieces. The cropping shapes can also be used to cut out a section of a photo. 

The neatest photo features are the templates. There are four categories: web graphics, business graphics, cards, and designer edges. There is also a catalog of 20,000 pieces of high-quality clip art. I especially liked the photo edges - high-end programs that add artistic edges cost twice as much as PhotoDraw 2000. The process for applying an edge is simple: open your photo, open the template, then replace the template's stock photo with yours in a simple click. The web graphics allow you to make banners, icons and buttons easily, incorporating your own photos. Business graphics include such things as labels, fliers - much of the same stuff you find in Microsoft Publisher, but focusing on photographs. 

I still prefer using either Adobe Photoshop or JASC Paintshop Pro for my basic photo editing. They seem to offer more control and precision. I will probably reserve Microsoft PhotoDraw for its special effects, especially for the photo edges and cropping tools, which are top-notch. 

Drawing Tools
PhotoDraw contains the usual palette of drawing tools - circles, squares, lines and squiggles. Again, it's in the special effects where the program shines. The program has a menu of more than 50 line effects such as charcoal, chalk, conte crayon and sumi-e. are also picture line, such as dice, chain and paper dolls, ivy, rope, and about 25 more. Very cool! The artistic effects that can be applied to the photos can also be applied to your drawings. 

There are also some stock effects, such as drop shadow, transparency, fade and blur. There are intriguing 3-D effects. You can also add gradient fills, texture and photos to text. There is a palette of artistic text effects that can make text look chrome-like or hairy and place the text on a curve. All of this is incredibly easy to do. Another drawing effect is distortions, including bulges, waves kaleidoscope and fun house mirror. 

Again, I will continue to use another program, Corel Draw, for my serious graphics work because the precision and control seem to be greater. However, when I want a funky crop or a jazzy line, I'll turn to PhotoDraw. 

The interface
When you look at the screen, the skinny pane on the left is a visual archive of the graphics that are currently opened. A big panel in the middle is the current project. The panel on the far right is the effect that is currently activated. All of the effects are applied by wizards, which walk you through the procedure. I found most of the controls to be intuitive, and the more I use the program the better I get at it. A couple of neat features are hidden in the menu bar. When you open a graphic, you have a choice between getting a list of the graphic file names or opting for "visual open" which gives you thumbnails of your pictures. Very handy! Saving is also clever - there is a save wizard that asks you what the graphic will be used for - a web site or printed brochure, for example -- and then selects the appropriate file format and resolution for your project. 

PhotoDraw, as part of the Office 2000 Suite, uses a compatible interface and should be especially easy to learn for Office users. 

Availability and pricing
Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000 is part of the new Office 2000 suite. It only comes bundled with the highest-priced Premium edition, $499 for the upgrade. This is the same version of the suite that includes Front page 2000. You can buy it alone for $149, which also includes a $40 rebate coupon for current users of Microsoft Office 97 or later, Microsoft FrontPage® 97 or later, or CorelDRAW6 or later. It should be available everywhere that software is sold. PhotoDraw has its own web section, at www.microsoft.com/office/photodraw/default.htm. A download trial version is available but be warned that it is a huge program. 

PhotoDraw is positioning itself as a business graphics package, which means it's more than a toy and less than a professional tool. For serious graphics professionals it will not replace the high-end tools such as Photoshop or Corel Draw. However, it's fun to use and its easy to apply effects make it well worth the reasonable price tag. I'm glad I bought it.