SYNAPSE CIRCUIT: SOFTWARE GIFTS CHRISTMAS 2013 PART TWO: SMALL OFFICE / HOME OFFICE

Look what Serif DrawPlus X6 can do in 20 minutes! 

SYNAPSE CIRCUIT:
SOFTWARE GIFTS CHRISTMAS 2013
#SoftwareGiftsXmas2013

Good evening, Synapse Circuit Readers! As always I am hoping that all is well with you and that life is treating you well – exceptionally so!

The Christmas countdown continues and a brand spanking New Year beckons! A New Year could bring about the start of a new business venture and why not? The way the world is going at the moment it is prudent to think about creating your own stream of income and what a better way to achieve this with the aid of some great software! Check this lot out...

PART TWO: SMALL OFFICE / HOME OFFICE

Serif PagePlus X7
£81.69
Almost every business needs some sort of paper based promotional materials such as a business card, complimentary slips, posters, flyers, brochures and so on. Please look no further than Serif PagePlus X7! I could very easily turn this mini review into a micro review because I can confidently say that PagePlus X7 is your only option and leave it at that. But I won’t!

Have you ever started up a business and spent a considerable amount of money on promotional materials? I promise you that you will NEVER spend money on getting these promotional items designed again! You can also minimise your costs even further by printing cards onto Avery preset / pre-cut paper / card so that you can print what you need when you need it! How many times have you had cards printed out professionally only to be forced to print ex-amount for a discount? Well, those days are thankfully over! When you’re starting out you would want to minimise your costs as much as possible and you know that much of what you print for the purpose of promotion will be thrown away! What a waste!

As your business grows you can invest more into promotion! When you are ready to print using a print shop / bureau PagePlus X7 will be there for you as it can output files that can be read at these print bureaus i.e. CMYK PDF! And because the software comes with a range of beautifully design templates you can be sure that you will find a design that you have in mind if you are not yet skilled as a designer. The templates are very easy to alter as you are taken every step of the way from inputting your business details to choosing a colour scheme, etc.

I have used this program numerous times to create flyers and I’ve had no problems in printing what’s on my screen to the bureau printers! Back in the day professional printing would sometimes result in a totally different colour scheme to what you had on your screen! Not with PagePlus X7! You can also create small websites if your site doesn’t need to be complicated. An absolute must! PagePlus is the best desktop publishing software in its price range and it will not be beaten!

Serif PhotoPlus X6
£71.48
Following on from PagePlus X7, assuming you have an interest in professional photo editing / manipulation beyond what’s in PagePlus then you ought to make PhotoPlus X6 your next investment! I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Adobe Photoshop is not the king of photo editing / manipulation software – especially in the context of the mobile application world! Today spending over £100 on photo editing / manipulation software is no longer practical on any level! It just doesn’t make sense anymore – not that it ever did! In this era of software pirating there is still something to behold about ownership! Serif makes you feel proud to own because from the start their prices of their award winning products have been very, very reasonable – sensible! Surely, such reasonable prices should be rewarded by purchasing their awesome software, yes? YES!!

Just like all Serif products PhotoPlus X6 is no exception with regards to ease of use. It is very much like Photoshop – if ever you have used the onetime industry standard photo editing / manipulation software! If you are thinking of Photoshop Elements forget it! Photoshop Elements may be a little flashy when it comes to simplifying tasks such as backward removal but it does not support the industry print standard of CMYK that is synonymous with print bureaus! Again, if you are a novice at photo editing / manipulation there are great tutorials to follow! Awesome!

Serif DrawPlus X6
£81.69
I know, I know... It does look like bias towards Serif but the fact is that Serif produces the best easy to use design programs on the market today! Yes, there are others but DrawPlus is proven software for drawing / illustration!

DrawPlus looks a little out of place in this selection because you would imagine that it is aimed towards artists / illustrators but that would be quite limiting. DrawPlus can be used in conjunction with the above programs for generating content for the promotion of your business. Of course, you could make a living as an illustrator!

I had to include this drawing software in this category as it complements the above. Many people have the tendency to just stick with their photo editing / manipulation program and skip illustration altogether and I think this is a shame! A drawing program of this calibre and asking price can boost creativity and provide content for materials designated for print or digital such as animations for a website! Check it out!

WEB DESIGN...
Every business should have a web presence as well as a social network account!

The subject of web design can send the fear into anyone unfamiliar with the arcane practise of designing web pages for any reason! But when you are designing a website to promote a business it can be very stressful indeed as there is so much to consider... With care it can be done and here are the best web design software going...

Incomedia WebSite X5 Evolution 10
£59.99
Incomedia WebSite X5 Evolution 10 is one of the easiest web design programs I have had the pleasure of reviewing. Basically, the web page is presented as sections in which to place content i.e. images, video, text and so on. Therefore you can’t miss! It features a number of templates to get you going!

MAGIX / Xara Web Designer 9 Premium
£89.99
Magix have come into multimedia in a huge, massive way that they have become formidable in amongst the competition!

Web Designer 9 Premium is a fantastic web design program with great scope for professional looking design. At first it looks daunting but once you’ve understood the interface you will be producing awesome looking ecommerce enabled websites in no time! It comes with a great range of templates, widgets – including widgets for social networks and clipart!

Serif WebPlus X6
£37
WebPlus X6 is a great web design program that is super-exceptional value because WebPlus X7 is out and I have yet to review it! Hopefully I will bring you a review soon! But if you are on a tight budget and you want an easy to use web design program that features an interface that acts like a DTP program then this is it!

I find that WebPlus X6 combines sophistication with ease of use! It’s got the lot: templates, clipart, photo and drawing tools and so much more! Not forgetting ecommerce too! Build your site exactly as you want it! WebPlus is exceptional and to get it at less than half price is something to behold! Dare I say it you can purchase WebPlus X6 and upgrade further down the line! The Serif sales team will go the extra mile – if they can!

Watch this space! Part three will focus on musical creativity!

Take good care!

Thank you for watching and reading!

Please check out the Synapse Circuit website for video, i-PDF and more! 

Synapse Circuit Dot Com

SYNAPSE CIRCUIT REVIEWS: SERIF PAGEPLUS X7

SYNAPSE CIRCUIT REVIEWS:
SERIF PAGEPLUS X7
PRICE, £81.69
#Serif #PagePlusX7

Good late evening, Synapse Circuit Readers! I hope your day was warm and eventful! London was blessed with yet another mild day! The Sun was out which is unusual for this time of year! Gosh! I can’t complain!

Hey, do you fancy yourself as a novelist? Would you like to create documents for professional publishing? Well, I have brilliant news for you in the form of...

PAGEPLUS X7, SERIF
PagePlus has long been my favourite DTP program; I have seen it grow from strength to strength over the years! Today PagePlus X7 is the DTP program of all DTP programs! Yes, I rate it above and beyond Adobe InDesign and Quark Xpress! Here’s why...

NO CONTEST
Readers, I am going to give it to you straight!

Adobe InDesign and Quark Xpress are undoubtedly great programs – they are an industry staple as you probably are aware. However, both Adobe and Quark have their heads firmly in the clouds in that they are trying to maintain that they spearhead publishing innovation and remain, for the most part, an expensive option for both paper and digital publishing. In truth Google has blown apart digital publishing due to providing inexpensive ways for the ordinary Joe or Josephine to create and publish content: YouTube and Blogger! Okay, with YouTube one requires a video recording device and an editor but aside from that miniscule outlay you are ready to go and upload your video for all to see!

Google have done something far more subtle and powerful than what Apple has done with the iPhone and notably the iPad. Google not only owns the most widely used operating system in the world, Android, they own YouTube and Blogger! So, if you were to create YouTube content you can do so knowing that the YouTube app is synonymous with today’s mobile devices. There’s no need for the recipient to download yet another app and good luck with trying to get people to download a new app!

With Blogger you can simply share your writing via email, social networking and free messaging apps! All done via the mobile phone!

Digital publications / apps are reminiscent of the CD ROM when the power of the Internet exploded and the CD ROM was one of the casualties. Speaking of the web... The web is one big application in itself as one can embed YouTube (and other videos), blogging resources and so on.

SO, WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE SERIF AND PAGEPLUS?
Glad you asked! Thank you!

TO DO WHAT NO OTHER DTP SOFTWARE DOES.
The beauty and power of PagePlus X7 is that you can get on with creating publications designated for print and it won’t cost you the Earth! If you want to print off a flyer, brochure, letterhead, compliment slip, business card, magazine, etc then PagePlus X7 is all that you need! You can also create PDF documents that can be accessed from the web via a link from your website! You can also edit just about any PDF file with PPX7!

As you may have realized, I used to produce Synapse Circuit as downloadable PDF magazine (with Adobe InDesign) but each month the PDF got bigger in not only the amount of pages but in megabytes too! I think the last one was over 100MB which is too much for some people. Therefore I went Blogger and YouTube! Now my audience has grown greatly as a result – better than I had ever anticipated!

However, there are times when I need to publish documents at a print bureau and I reach for PagePlus every time!

Oh, let me mention that I used to output Synapse Circuit as a Flash based magazine in addition to the PDF as an option which you have probably seen already; I did this with Adobe InDesign! Sadly, one of the enduring legacies of Steve Jobs is that he helped to kill off Adobe Flash both on the web and mobile devices. This has caused many people to go over to YouTube – which is Flash based – and deliver what is essentially a TV program. I was tempted to create a more interactive experience by outputting to the Flash SWF format but thought the better of it for the reasons above and the hard work it would be to maintain with each issue!

This takes us to the subject of web design; PPX7 can also put out documents as basic web pages. Don’t expect to have all the functionality of Serif’s award winning web design program, WebPlus!

But, yes, print is where PPX7 excels over any other DTP program on the market today when it comes to creating documents to be printed professionally! PagePlus has never let me down yet! I will let you into a secret... I don’t bother calibrating my PC monitor in order to ensure accurate colour reproduction to avoid disappointment when the document is printed professionally! Serif’s PPX7 creates the sort of PDF that print bureaus prefer and the prints that I have brought to a bureau came out as intended! With the likes of Adobe and Quark you’re encouraged to be anal about colour reproduction that can lead to the purchasing of gadgets to aid calibrating the computer monitor and some of these gadgets aren’t cheap!

All you need to know about professional publishing is the CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) and Pantone colour values as that’s what print bureaus deal with. Let’s say you did not realize that you had to use CMYK (and Pantone) and you wanted to produce a document to be printed at a bureau, all you’d have to do is create a PDF-X3 (X3 is the latest bureau standard and new to PagePlus X7) and change the colour value from the customary RGB to CMYK! Easy! You’ll probably notice a slight change in the colour temperature during the colour conversion process but result shouldn’t come as a shock.

Another scenario is that you produced a PDF-X3 document with the RGB colour value and brought it to a bureau the chances are that the operator will alert you and seek to charge you a sum for the conversion process when it is not necessary! The operator should do the conversion for free! So, if you know that you are going to require the services of a print bureau you ought to make sure that the document is outputted with the CMYK colour value.

eBOOKS
Another great aspect of PPX7 is the ability to publish eBooks that can be sold via Amazon! Yippie! This was also a feature in the previous version (X6) and it has gotten better with X7!

The ability to publish to the eBook format is a great boon to independent writers and if I had the time I would definitely write my first novel, output it to an eBook and sell it via Amazon! You should have a go too!

Again, PPX7 excels where Abobe and Quark costs too much when it comes to eBook publishing.

NEW FEATURES
PagePlus X7 brings a host of great new features such as a new start-up interface that allows you to start new documents with or without the great body of templates available, access tutorials, news and tutorials.

Charts - charts have been added that can come from table contents and spreadsheets.

Tables - tables can flow to another page.

Accelerated graphics technology makes it easier to render documents with large graphics within a document.

PDF-X3 output (as discussed above).

Export as picture with previews in different image file formats.

Another feature that I have noticed is that the import of video is better in that it looks more professional and allows for the display of a “poster” image taken from the video itself. The video is supposed to include a player but that aspect is not working yet and that will most likely come with a software update. Importing sound still needs some work in that one would want to specify a graphic / image file to represent the sound; the option to add a player is there but like the video player it is yet to be implemented.

VERDICT
Serif PagePlus X7 is definitely a must have for DTP publishers dealing primarily in print. Sure, PPX7 is not geared towards creating these newfangled apps outside of eBook publishing and I do believe I have discussed why creating such applications i.e. digital magazines is a waste of time, such magazines look good and can show off design skills but often they mimic a physical paper magazine and – to me – that defeats the purpose of a decent handset and / or tablet. One video can do it all. Personally, I have found that many people do not care for clever designs and prefer to read text from a blog, RSS feed and website! I don’t know about you, but I do not see the point in paying for a digital magazine. That said, I can’t help but wish for an option for PagePlus users to output documents in a HTML 5 based app that is essentially a website in app form that allows the creator to use YouTube video, audio players and so on. The app would be available for Android and iOS devices; it would be ideal to give the reader another possibility of subscribing to a blog / website.

SCORE OUT OF 5

4 .7 / 5

SUPERB VALUE!
Serif PagePlus X7 represents superb value for money and should be considered as more than just a home / small business tool.

I hope you enjoyed this review. Stay tuned for more reviews to come.

Watch this space!

Take good care!

Please enjoy the video below! Feel free to leave some comments and subscribe!

Thank you for watching and reading!

Please check out the Synapse Circuit website for video, i-PDF and more! 

Synapse Circuit Dot Com