 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Corel Print Office Bernadette Houghton bernieh@iaccess.com.au |
 |
The number of ways Corel finds to repackage the same old software programs
would surely win it the prize for Most Persistent Marketing Effort. Remember my review of Print House Magic
back in June 1998? Print House Magic Deluxe in August 1998? Now comes Corel Print Office, yet another package
based around the Print House Magic programs. The difference this time is that the individual programs are
fractionally later releases, and the graphics are aimed at a different market - business users.
The main program, Print Office, is a 3.1 version of Print House and includes new capabilities such as Web
publishing, multiple page document support, the ability to turn off the ubiquitous Notebook, and
snap-to-grid. Photo House is at version 2.1, although the only new feature I could find is the ability to
switch the Notebook on and off. Colleagues & Contacts 1.1 is really Corel Family & Friends in
disguise, and retains many (if not all) of its problems and weaknesses; even down to retention of the same
field names (e.g. Family Name). Apart from these changes, the weighty assortment of clipart, graphics and
sample documents are more business-orientated, with a series of stationery theme sets and business identity
clipart offering good value for businesses.
|
|
|
There is not really much to say about the
Print Office suite that I haven't already said in my Print House reviews. It's worth mentioning, though, that
Corel has aimed Print Office at small businesses where users have limited desktop publishing skills and
limited time and money to produce professional printed materials. Ideally, from Corel's point of view, Print
Office will act as a stepping stone to Corel's more advanced graphic applications such as CorelDraw and Corel
PHOTO-PAINT, once users have become proficient enough to move on.
My verdict for Print Office remains the same as for the Print Magic series. To recap - Print Office is a very
good graphics program, Photo House is a good but basic image-editor, and Colleagues & Contacts is a bit
of a lightweight. And, as always with Corel products, the graphics offer excellent value.
Reprinted from the November 1998 issue of PC Update, the
magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
