Wednesday 18 December 2013

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!


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