Mark Me Switched!!!!

[nateko]

Due to some responses from this forum a few weeks ago.... I purchased a 17 imac with 512 memory (with an additional side purchace of 512 more from crucial ), also tossed in a AIO epson printer, MS (oops, since I'm an apple person now, its M$) office, and .Mac.
My wife and I are excited about getting it and are hoping for delivery late this week or early next week. Fed Ex shows it leaving the sort facility late last night. Sweeet.

I have one more question though.... Any suggestions for a 'print shop pro' type program. I've seen a few possibilities and wondering if anyone is rated better or is easier to use. We will not be power users of the software.... just b-day cards, banners, calenders, etc.....

Thanks in advance.

Bye Bye blue screen.......

 

[Coca-Cola]

If you have .mac, you said you bought it. So you can use your .mac account for lots of good stuff. You can publish your calenders to the web. and send out invitations and other useful goodies. Very cool things can be done. The iLife apps are great too. Be sure and make a iMovie and post it to your .mac web page. As for doing print work, I have heard some good things about photoshop elements 2.

 

[wordmunger]

I've been using Ragtime Solo for just the sort of functions you mention--cards, invites, etc. It's good, *free*, and easy to use. Your .mac subscription entitles you to download Photostudio X, which is a serviceable photo editor. If you're doing a lot of photo editing, Photoshop Elements is a good choice.

 

[johnnyjibbs]

I will also say go with Photoshop Elements 2. It's almost the full Photoshop for very cheap ($50-100). It's very powerful but still easy to use.

Sounds like you're just about sorted. Most of everything you'll need is already included in iLife and stuff. Have fun with GarageBand and iMovie, use iPhoto for your photos and then of course there's iTunes. You have Word and Excel for office stuff.

Enjoy your new Mac!

 

[zamyatin]

OpenOffice on the Mac is not a complete and polished product, but it is usable and I recommend you give it a look. It can replace MS Office, of course, but it also has a component called Draw which would handle your page design needs. (Draw is a vector graphics editor.) Of course, OpenOffice's Writer component is also quite capable of page layout-type work.

You can download the test version, I recommend "NeoOffice/J," from www.neooffice.org/java/

Good luck with your new iMac!

 

[mwjd299]

Congratulations nateko;
I bought the 20" imac in November. It's everything I hoped it would be. The first application I bought was The Print Shop for Mac OS X. It's worth it. I have made several greeting cards and a few calendars. It's easy to learn and I'm sure you will like it.
Here is a description of it.


]http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/detail.asp?dpno=345960[/URL]

 

[flyfish29]

. As for doing print work, I have heard some good things about photoshop elements 2.

Photoelements is a photo software program and not a "print shop" program. You will want to be sure not to buy PhotoElements unless you have quite a bit of digital photos to edit...but of course try iPhoto first and see how you like it before spending money on something else you may not need.

I have not used Print Shop for the Mac for quite a number of years. I stopped using it as the color cartridges, paper, and hassle of printing cards became almost as costly as buying them...expecially since you can get decent gift cards for cheap now a days. Not to mention they kind of looked cheap and were not very funny.
Good luck with the new mac- I love mine and acutally have not purchased any extra software yet except for what came with .Mac.

by the way, speaking of .Mac, if you have already paid for your membership then you can download a great little photo program for free called PhotoStudio. I have not used it much, but would take care of plenty of photo editing beyoned iPhoto which can 't do much beyond reducing red eye, cataloging, etc. There are also many other free software programs available on .Mac so check it out often as they change the offers.

 

[JasonL]

Congratulations and welcome aboard! I'm loving my new PB and can't believe I didn't switch years ago. After nearly 20 years I'm back with Apple, my last Apple being an Apple IIC.

You will be up and running in no time. Everything seems to be quite intuitive.

Jay

 

[johnnyjibbs]

You can do a hell of a lot more than edit photos in Photoshop Elements.

 

[rdowns]

Due to some responses from this forum a few weeks ago.... I purchased a 17 imac with 512 memory (with an additional side purchace of 512 more from crucial ), also tossed in a AIO epson printer, MS (oops, since I'm an apple person now, its M$) office, and .Mac.
My wife and I are excited about getting it and are hoping for delivery late this week or early next week. Fed Ex shows it leaving the sort facility late last night. Sweeet.

I have one more question though.... Any suggestions for a 'print shop pro' type program. I've seen a few possibilities and wondering if anyone is rated better or is easier to use. We will not be power users of the software.... just b-day cards, banners, calenders, etc.....

Thanks in advance.

Bye Bye blue screen.......

Welcome to the club.

As someone else recommended, Print Shop should do the trick for you.

As a new member of the club, don't forget your responsibilities. Spend at leat one day a month at airports with shaved head trying to convert Windows users to Mac and at least twice weekly prayers to Apple. Just lay your prayer mat on the floor, face Cupertino and hail the god Jobs.

 

[Opteron]

As a new member of the club, don't forget your responsibilities. Spend at leat one day a month at airports with shaved head trying to convert Windows users to Mac and at least twice weekly prayers to Apple. Just lay your prayer mat on the floor, face Cupertino and hail the god Jobs.

That's the kind of banter that scars sane minded people off.

Hope you purchace goes well.

 

[flyfish29]

You can do a hell of a lot more than edit photos in Photoshop Elements.

I am sure you can , but Nateko simply wanted Print shop to help him design gift cards and make banners for parties and stuff. Not do things with photos.

 

[hvfsl]

I am sure you can , but Nateko simply wanted Print shop to help him design gift cards and make banners for parties and stuff. Not do things with photos.

Well I design all my stuff like that in photoshop.

 

[flyfish29]

Well I design all my stuff like that in photoshop.

I could see doing this for sure, although this person said they would not be a poweruser of this software which I took as meaning (and maybe I am wrong of course) they don't use digital cameras much and therefore don't have many digital images to use to produce cards, banners, etc. So print shop pro might be the best product for them. I suppose they should know that if they have images and I maybe some clip art Cd's laying around that PhotoElements might be of use, but I would imagine it is not as easy for a non power user to design a card using elements when there is a program out there that can do it very easily with formats already figured out and how to fold the cards,e tc. These programs have many of the sayings already created for the cover and inside of cards as well, not to mention specific clip art like birthday pics and clip art. I personally don't like those "printshop type" programs but it sounds like what they want.

 

[nateko]

Flyfish and hvfsl you are both correct. The program is more for my wife. She owned print shop delux for the PC and liked using it. It had a lot of clip art and was easy to use. On the other hand we are FINALLY getting into the digital age with a soon to be purchased mini DV camcorder and digital camera. The (pleasant ) exchange between you two has sparked my interest for a more extensive photo program such as elements. (In addition to print shop) I will try the free download of photostudio from .mac first to see how it is. But it sounds like elements is an excellent program if that doesn't pan out. I've used photoshop at work for tweaking files so it would be an easy transition.

Thanks again to everyone.... This site is a great resource.

Only 2 more days until delivery of the Imac. The .Mac disk, 3 year service disk, M$ office and printer have shown up...... All eady to play but the kid with the bat and ball haven't shown up yet....