Software
Review of: |
| Canon
Software Publishing wants to know if you need a solution to organizing,
customizing, and sharing your photos. This software package is an easy-to-use
photo management tool that allows one to organize, customize, and share
photos from scanner, digital camera, photo CD, Internet, and files from
disk. It supports sixteen file formats; however, it does not support GIF.
Minimum system requirements are: 486 PC (prefers Pentium), Windows 95 or up, 12 MB RAM, CD-ROM (for installation only), 25MB of hard drive space plus another 25 for photo storage, at least a 256 VGA monitor, and a pointing device. Internet access is required for uploading (sharing) photos and albums. The conservative packaging included the program CD, ten sheets of Canon's High Resolution Photo paper, and a 24-page User's Guide that explains each icon. The program installed easily and loads fast. Photo Org's layout is entirely visual. What this means is icons and not the traditional Windows text menu to navigate around. At first it was disconcerting, but I quickly managed to overcome the need for a text-based toolbar. The program is divided into six main areas: Main Function (Capture, View, Create, Share, Options), Album Navigator, Film Navigator, Special Function Tabs (Frames, Text tools, Clip Art, Scrapbook, Trash can, Search) Album View, and Film View area. The "rolls of film" can be named and password protected. Options include making albums and greeting cards with formatted annotated text. The most difficult feature I encountered related to this ability to add comments/captions to photos. The images can be saved to the hard drive by highlighting the image and clicking on Share, Export. The Windows interface allows saving to a selected folder under any of the sixteen file formats. By mouse right-clicking on an image, options are to print image, sheets, thumbnail or to save as wallpaper. The Photo Editor window is well designed with most features: cropping, zooming, rotation, proverbial red-eye removal, enhancements. If you are familiar with photo-editing software, this has most of the standard features and is relatively easy to use. The Photo Editor can be activated by simply double-clicking the photo. If you are looking for more sophisticated features, then you will need another photo editing program like Ulead's Photo Express 2.0, Adobe PhotoDeluxe 3.0, or Microsoft's Picture It!. I have several photo editing programs and find that each usually has a unique feature that separates it from the pack. I like the drag and drop framing for the photos in the album. If you are not satisfied with one frame, then drag and drop another onto the page. Input is from digital camera, scanner, or files. Photo Org directly accepts photos from Canon-brand digital cameras and from any TWAIN-compliant digital camera. Downloading from an AFGA e-1680 was as easy as connecting the cable between the camera and the computer, clicking on the camera icon, and selecting my camera in the Source drop-down menu. The camera's TWAIN interface takes over. Since the program stores the photos as rolls of film, one is presented with a choice: create a new roll or add to an existing roll. The next step is either to create a new album or add the photos to an existing album. Transferring from the roll of film to the album is drag and drop. Deleting pages in the album or rolls of film is as easy as dragging to the trash can. However, I could not find a way to delete one unwanted picture from a roll. Another feature I like is the onscreen slide show reminiscent of a Powerpoint Slide presentation. It is as easy as highlighting the album in the Album Navigator Area (or Roll in the Film Navigator area) and double-clicking the Slide Show icon to activate the setup frame. You can set this up with transition animation and sound. It makes a nice manual screen saver. There is no Save feature so you will have to set it up each time you want to run it. The program, which serves as a good photo management tool (archiving photos), has export capabilities. According to the documentation, a created album can be exported to Canon Software Publishing=s exclusive Photo Org Web page for free 30-day posting or to e-mail in the form of a slide show or personalized greeting card. While the program indicates that it supports Netscape, Eudora, and Microsoft Exchange/Outlook Express, I found after much frustration that it does not support Netscape. I created an album and went through the process twice to export to Photo Org's Web site, received confirmation email with the UserID and password needed to access the URL. Clicking on their provided link as well as manually entering the URL, UserID, and password yielded the same error message: confirmation failed. Retry? None of the six people whose e-mail address I supplied for the program to automatically notify with the URL and password were able to enter the site. I was able to connect to the URL through Internet Explorer, but the UserID and password failed. When I was unsuccessful in publishing to their Web site, I tried to publish to my ISP, but was unable to do so. Tech support at Texas.net explained why I could not FTP to their site and it relates to how the program defines the FTP process. Since I had already setup my album with photo captions, I decided to manually create a slide show to post on the Web to show family and friends to whom the other URL had been sent. If you are curious, you can view this at http://ldp42.home.texas.net/kv/front.html. Use the arrow to advance and the scroll bar to read the captions at the bottom of the photos. I was able to e-mail a slide show via Eudora, but only one of the three people I sent it to was able to open the .exe file. Technical support is an important issue to me. My belief is that a company that produces a product should provide reasonable support, especially if there are bugs in the program. I first went to their Web site at www.software.canon.com to see if a solution, patch, or upgrade was posted. Nothing on the website provided an answer and I used their own line technical support e-mail to send two different messages. When I did not hear from them, I placed a long distance phone call to technical support, was on hold 12 minutes before a live person came on, stated my problem, and was on hold another 8 minutes while he consulted with someone. Despite his polite, helpful demeanor, I did not receive satisfaction to the problem and was told that someone would get back to me. Two days later, I received e-mail stating that the program does not support Netscape and that their passwords are case sensitive (which any computer nerd knows). How do I rate the features of this program?
Linda D. Puryear is a computer user who is tired of "bugs without a company swatter". |