Review

Corel Print Office 2000 for Macintosh

By René Walling, Cyberwalker Media Syndicate

Corel Print Office 2000 for the Macintosh is a software package intended for an entry-level computer user who has had limited exposure to desktop publishing concepts and techniques.

Print Office includes two main packages: Corel Print Office 5 and Corel Photo House 5. Designed for small and home-office users who wish to create printed documents at an affordable price.

Print Office is essentially a layout application with more than 500 customizable sample templates that allow users to easily create everything from pamphlets and business cards to purchase orders and newsletters.

Corel Photo House is a bit-map based, image editing and painting application used for retouching photographs, enhancing scanned images and editing clip art and photos. Adding text and clip art, adjusting color, adding frames and decorative borders are some of the options available.
The templates, clip art, backgrounds, borders, photos and other source materials included are what everyone has come to expect from Corel: varied and numerous. All can be imported into a layout easily from the three CDs included in the package.

One drawback is the lack of an index. You must scroll through the files until the desired image is found.

The Print Office screen is divided in two, the Project page is found on the right and the Notebook on the left. The Project page contains the current document being worked on while the Notebook provides a step-by-step guide to creating a layout.

Navigating the Notebook in Print Office is very much like navigating a Web browser. The Notebook is billed as the center for all activity in the application, and it is. It remains open at all times and makes Print Office easy for the beginner to use.

Advanced users might want to bypass the Notebook but this is not an option, since Print Office uses the Notebook in place of the more common dialog boxes. The package as a whole is rather mouse intensive and the scarcity of keyboard shortcuts for certain operations may be frustrating to a power user.

The other half of the package, Photo House, allows the acquisition of images from digital cameras, scanners or existing files. Image editing features include most needed for basic image manipulation, from retouching to filters for effects. The interface is similar to that of Print Office and helps to steer the user through the whole process.

The import/export feature allows the suites to work with the majority of graphic file formats, thus allowing work to be sent to service bureaus and printers in whatever format they require, should the need arise. During testing, some problems were encountered while importing some Photoshop and eps (encapsulated Postscript) files, however, so some planning should be used before relying on this feature.

Printing, as with all other operations in this suite, is fairly straightforward. One nice addition is the inclusion of the Corel Print Wizard 5, a utility used to help with double-sided printing, using non-duplex printers and of a print troubleshooting guide to help solve printing errors.

The re-purposing of documents is increasingly important these days and Print Office allows for easy conversion from one layout into another. A letterhead design can easily be converted into a business card or a newsletter with the same look. Layouts can even be exported Web pages and the software will even upload them to your Web site for you.

This package is a great way to start publishing. When you get frustrated with the mouse-intensive interface and other limitations, you'll know you're ready for something more sophisticated -- or it might be time to hire someone to do the job for you.

Reviewer's rating: 3.75 / 5

Comments: The interface of Corel Print Office 2000 for the Macintosh allows a shallow learning curve, at the cost of some efficiency. This is a good package to fulfill the print and design needs of small, cost-conscious startups -- but can easily be outgrown.

System requirements: A Power Macintosh with a minimum of 32 MB RAM (Corel recommends 64 MB) with Virtual Memory enabled, Mac OS 8.1 or later, CD-ROM, Internet access, color printer, scanner and digital camera for enhanced performance.

More info: http://www.corel.com

Price: $99 US, $99 Canadian