Showing posts with label bad software. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bad software. Show all posts

Abbyy FineReader 5.0 Pro OCR Review

Abbyy FineReader 5.0 Pro OCR
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I scan books that are in the public domain, which is a demanding task for OCR software. The bottom line is that the Abbyy FineReader Pro v5.0 is THE BEST OCR software on the market right now. It far surpasses Scansoft's Textbridge Millennium. The only thing that even gives FineReader Pro 5.0 any competition is Scansoft's OmniPage Pro 11, but FineReader is still far better. Since Scansoft bought out Textbridge (from Xerox) and bought out OmniPage (from Caere), you would think they could develop a superior product, but that's not so. Omnipage appears to be billed as an upgrade to Textbridge (I'm guessing that Scansoft is sending Textbridge to the graveyard). Scansoft claims in an advertisement that they spent a YEAR combining the programs. However, Scansoft did not even include rudimentary features of Textbridge in OmniPage 11. For instance, if you scan a book two pages at a time with the binding flat against the scanner (this is very common for older books that need to remain intact), Textbridge Millennium could split apart the pages using a dual-page mode. This was an extremely helpful if not critical feature for scanning books. However, this feature does not exist in OmniPage 11. FineReader on the other hand, can do this and more. It works great with Auto Document Feeders and it is far more accurate than OmniPage 11. Finally, FineReader's error/spell checker is once again far superior to OmniPage 11. The only single advantage that OmniPage 11 has over FineReader 5.0 is that it can import Adobe PDF documents for further OCR work. Otherwise FineReader Pro 5.0 is the way to go.
Also, regarding a former review, FineReader allows you to exclude optional-hyphens in the output file. Check in the advanced section of the output format. Including them is not a mistake. It's actually quite impressive that the program knows those that are optional-hyphens and those that are not.

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Abbyy Fine Reader 5.0 Pro is optical character recognition (OCR) software recommended for home use. A built-in editor lets users edit the image layout manually. Edit recognized text while looking at an image of the source text in the Zoom window. The built-in spell checker will search text for misspelled words in mere seconds. Version 5.0 supports batch document processing allowing users to save source images, batch options, and recognized texts in the same folder. The system supports direct launch from Microsoft Word and background recognition. Users may also train the system to recognize new characters.

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Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection V14 Review

Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection V14
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This is my third iteration of Pinnacle Studio, having owned versions 11 and 12 as well. I also own and have used several other video editing packages running from high to low end. At the top of the low end range, Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection 14 comes in as a solid five-star performer - if you are willing to tolerate some minor stability issues. For reasons I don't pretend to understand, all video editing programs seem to have stability issues to one degree or another. Sometimes I think I may be part of the problem as I rush ahead performing other operations while the CPU is still rendering what I've already done. Other times, I just plain don't know: like Adobe Premiere Elements 7 simply not running on a Vista 32-bit system while it ran on a 64-bit version without problems. Given time, I could probably narrow down the issues, but I'm not that concerned. With Pinnacle, I am politely informed that the program has malfunctioned and given an option to close the program. Do that, restart Pinnacle and I'm back in business within a few seconds. Do frequent saves and the occasional crashes don't hurt.
Pinnacle runs about a 12 month cycle between new major releases. Frankly, every other release could probably be skipped because the improvements are not generally that earthshaking.
I am glad, however, that I upgraded to Version 14. There are three variants, each having a few more features than the others. Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection is the top of V14 line. The only drawback is that some of the bonus content, such as the SoundSoap program, are no longer included and earlier versions will not run in V14.
The good news is that the user interface has been simplified again. Pinnacle uses context-sensitive functions. In other words, double-clicking on a video clip brings up a different menu than you'd get by double-clicking on a still image. I've found the current interface to be somewhat more sensible and easier to use. There are three primary tabs: import media, edit and render output. Import gives you the choices you would expect, covering the waterfront from analog video to AVCHD. It's pretty simple to use with some good on the fly scene selection options. There are also options for directly importing from a digital camera, and interesting, a stop motion option that lets you build something resembling a flip book. Automatic scene detection is available for those who want it. Personally I find it more of a nuisance than a help.
The editing section has everything you could want in a solid low-end program. The user interface offers a storyboard or timeline or text listing formats. I am generally in the timeline view. There are scrubbers both in the movie preview window and at the bottom of the timeline, so reviewing video is an efficient procedure. Lots of keyboard shortcuts permit a speedy workflow. There are dozens of ordinary transitions and a couple of dozen other effects that will probably see little use. Plug-ins offer special features such as pan and zoom on still images, RGB color correction and so on. There is Picture-In-Picture and Chromakeying. Pinnacle provides its own custom music program called ScoreFitter, which as the name implies will generate music of a sort to fit the time of your clips. There are also some sound effects.
There are tracks for primary video, overlay video (which can also be used for dual camera shoots), titles, music, sound effects and voice overs. All in all, it's a nice, functional layout.
Pinnacle provides two competent, if not brilliant, titling programs. One creates static text which may be kerned and otherwise adjusted. It may be used to create DVD menus and the like. The other, called Motion Titler, allows more dynamic titles. Third-party titling programs run rings around it, but it is still quite usable for those who don't want exceptionally elaborate titles.
Pinnacle includes something they call "Montage Themes" which the user can customize with clips, photo and captions. They are pretty hokey, in my opinion, and not something I would use.
You can output to just about anything. DVD menu layouts are included and you can create your own. Almost all common codecs are included for video output, which is nice.
Overall, Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection V14 is a very nice video editing application that I would rank at the top end of the low-end programs. It has everything the average hobbyist videographer and, in a way, functions are more accessible than in Adobe Premiere Elements. But there's a caveat: buy the printed manual if it isn't included with your Pinnacle package. The manual itself is somewhat difficult to deal with, but comes in extremely handy as a ready reference when you need it. I have several low-end video editing packages and Pinnacle is the one I find myself using most often. It offers, I think, good value for the money and an unusually good user interface.
Jerry


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The complete package of everything you need to make amazing movies. Everything you need to make great movies.

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123 Copy DVD Gold Review

123 Copy DVD Gold
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I just puchased the latest version of this product; 123 Copy DVD Gold v7.0.0.25. It has failed to work at all. After visiting the website forum for the company, I discovered that there is a known problem that the software will not work with some external drives.
So, if you are a laptop, notebook, or netbook user (as many people are these days) it's likely that this software will not work on your machine.
I am currently waiting for the company to release another update that they say is supposed to fix this problem. If and/or when this update becomes available I will update my review of this product.
In the meantime, be warned...
Update...
Since I posted my review of 123 Copy DVD Gold (2010 version) a couple of days ago, I have been told by the company that the updates that they are releasing are in attempts to fix the problems with the 2009 version of the software. So, apparently there are no immediate plans to update the 2010 version to fix the problems with it since apparently not enough users have yet upgraded to the 2010 version. I recommend avoiding this software. Unfortunately, there don't appear to be many alternatives to this software for DVD copying, nevertheless, this software has not worked for me at all.
Further, I was curious about the positive 5 star review that was also posted for this product, given the problems I've had with it, and the problems that others have posted on the forum at the company's website.
In checking all the reviews that this individual has posted it is interesting to note that they are all for this company's products and they are all five star reviews. Perhaps this individual is an employee of the company? If so, I would consider this a deceptive practice and would ask Amazon to look into it.


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123 Copy DVD Gold is our flagship product. It can do anything you can think of when it comes to copying, converting or transferring all of your favorite DVDs and video files to any device or media you wish.

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Hallmark Card Studio 2011 Deluxe Review

Hallmark Card Studio 2011 Deluxe
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I have used Hallmark Card Studio software for several years but from the day I bought the 2011 version, it has given me nothing but problems. It seems to have some kooky bug(s) that cause some text and images to randomly disappear when you bring a card back in to edit it, even after you have designed and saved it. As you go through its various features, the program crashes on a regular basis after displaying a message about encountering a problem. I contacted HCS about the problem and they told me that there could be some software running in the background causing the problem. Is that my problem? - I have plenty of application software that runs with active background programs but they still function properly. What am I supposed to do, shut off all background programs to accomodate HCS's 2011? There are other smaller issues that I find annoying like not displaying the title of the card on the highlighter like 2010 did so you always know what card you are working on. It makes it very easy to overwrite a previously designed card that you are trying to personalize for a new design. They also have removed 2010's ability to add a border around an image although I must admit, I've had my share of problems with that program feature in the 2010 version. I also use Greeting Card Factory software and with HCS's 2010 version, I could drop clip art into Hallmark from Factory using just a copy and paste procedure. With the 2011 version, I get some kind of message about vector images or something and so I am forced to export the Factory clip art image to My Pictures folder and then re-import it into Hallmark. There's no point in going on and on about all the shortcomings of the HCS 2011 software. Suffice it to say that I became so frustrated that I tried to return it but I was told I was beyond the 30 day return period. Bottom line - this software needs a huge patch.

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Acronis Disk Director V11 Home Review

Acronis Disk Director V11 Home
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This product caused me a lot of problems yesterday. While I have never made a review like this before, I felt like I should offer this cautionary tale:
I bought this product after receiving several emails the upgrade from my previous version of DD 1o, which would no longer run on my laptop. Tried the trial version first and it looked like it would do what I wanted. My laptop was partitioned by DD 10 in 2 and I wanted to give the OS a little more space as I had used up the 37GB I had initially allocated that partition. And, it worked! Next I installed it on my 2 Desktops. On both of them it caused my computer to not boot up correctly until I selected "Start from last known good configuration." Next I tried to merge a small unallocated bit of HD space into the Partition of my older PC, which required a reboot.
Thant is when things started to go terribly wrong.
I got an error message during the reboot that process 2 failed.
And, the system failed to boot after that. Just a message about "Verifying DMI Pool Data."
So, I took the drive out and tried to use the included "Recovery Expert" module from DD 11 loaded on my other PC to restore the old partition.
But, the Recovery Expert module would not load. If I tried run it directly, and not from within DD I got a snapapi.dll not found error.
I went to the website, found how to chat with tech support, and was on with Ankur very quickly.
And, put immediately on hold. While I was clear about the situation, his advice to me was far less than helpful. ""Recovery Expert is for recovering deleted partitions." He said after several minutes. Yes, that is why I want to use it I explained. Kinda thought that was obvious. Several minutes later he came back with this; "You do not need to verify the product, it should work." YES, I KNOW IT SHOULD WORK, BUT IT DOESN'T. (No alt caps when I explained this to him.
So, I tried uninstalling, with the intent to reinstall. Got an error there too.
Next, I ran the installer again and choose repair.
That did it! I was able to use the Recovery Expert!
And, it looked like it worked.
But my joy was short lived, since when I put the drive back in my older PC, I still could not boot. After several hours of trying this, updating my Bios settings, etc I got nowhere.
Eventually I had to give up and wipe the drive. Now that rig is out of commission. :-(
Sad especially since I had a lot of expensive software on there. Fortunately I didn't have any critical files.
In conclusion:
The older Disk Director Suite was not very stable, at least by my own use, and a number of reviewers here on Amazon that gave it one star and called it dangerous.
This product may be better, hard to tell from my limited experience.
I found the free chat support fast but useless, I had multiple issues with instillation on my PCs, and the product itself performed a resizing of the partition on my laptop successfully, but and when I tried a simple merge of a small file it ended up ruining the OS and destroying all the data on the disk. Was it worth $30.00 to upgrade? After spending 9 hours trying to fix the OS on my PC that this program destroyed.... in a word. NO!
If you are going to use Disk Director 11 Home:
MAKE A BACKUP OF ANYTHING YOU VALUE & USE WITH EXTREME CATION.

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With Acronis Disk Director 11 Home, the ultimate Disk Management Solution, it's never been easier to create hard disk partitions, resize, move, or merge partitions without data loss. Optimized to offer maximum freedom without impacting your current system!

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Quicken Starter Edition 2011 Review

Quicken Starter Edition 2011
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I purchased this product because I upgraded to Windows 7 and my old Quicken Deluxe is not W7 compatible. Nowhere in the product description did it mention that I would not be able to open my old files with this product since they were created on the "Deluxe" version. I no longer need any of the "Deluxe" features, that's why I chose this most basic version. So, if you have used any product other than "Basic" in the past, this product will not work for you. They should be clearer in their product description.

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Quicken Starter Edition 2011 gives you money management and budgeting tools to help you watch your spending and increase your savings, with step-by-step guidance along the way.
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Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac Review

Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac
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I have been a Windows user for 25 years and I have made the leap and replaced my Dell laptop with a MacBook. I am an application developer on the PC and Unix platform, and thus I run a lot of industry strength development packages and tools. I use Virtual PC to host different server environments on my Vista desktop, and on my laptop I run all kinds of server applications, from a Sybase database to a WebLogic web server. So when it came time for me to move to a Mac as my mobile platform, I needed a virtual environment for environment. With the adance of hardware assisted virtualization, now is the time.
I tried three virtualization packages - the Sun VirtualBox, VMWare Fusion, and Parallels. After hours experimentation and testing, I have decided on Parallels. Here are my findings.
VirtualBox is just not for prime time, lots of graphics corruption right out of the box. For instance, when you switch from full screen Windows to the OS X desktop, some of the Windows desktop would be left on the screen, obscuring the OS X screen. The interaction between the Windows desktop and the OS X desktops is not as seamless as that provided by Fusion and Parallels, and numerous other little things that detract from the overall user experience. So even though VirtualBox is free, it's not worth what I need to put up with.
VMWare Fusion and Parallels are actually very similar in how they work, and I don't see any difference in terms of performance. But after extensive usability testing I have found that Parallels gets more of the little things right. And it's the little things, the attention to details, that differentiates the excellent from the merely good.
For example, when you maximize a Windows application in Windows full screen mode under Fusion, the application would maximize to cover the Taskbar. Under Parallels, however, the application correctly maximizes to cover only the client area of the desktop not cover by the Taskbar. I know VMWare must know how a correct Windows application should behave, and I attribute this behavioral error to either that they were lazy or that they hoped people don't notice. Neither speaks well for the code that runs underneath the surface.
Another example, when you task switch using command-tab in OS X, you can tell which applications are Windows native applications because Parallels would superimpose the two vertical bars Parallels logo over the Windows application icons. Parallels gets credit for extra effort. Fusion on the other hand not only does not show you which applications are Windows apps, but cmd-tab is simply not implemented correctly in virtual Windows and thus task switch is almost impossible when you're not in unity mode (Windows and OS X apps side by side). Very bad.
Yet another example, you can access the entire collection of Mac applications right from the Windows desktop because Parallels sees fit to create shortcuts to all the Mac application right on the Windows Start menu and you can of course duplicate those short cuts anywhere in the Windows environment.
Example number four, you can control the boot sequence of the virtual machine using the Parallels application menu, while with Fusion you need to get in to the virtual machine's BIOS to do that - and the BIOS screen flashes by so fast you need to manually edit the configuration file to slow down the welcome screen so you can actually see which keys to hit to enter Setup or choose the boot device. This is another example of lazy application development.
And not to belabor the point, example number five, VMWare only emulates multiple processors, NOT MULTIPLE CORES, so that Core 2 Dual you got there is useless if you run XP Home which only supports a single processor.
Now I don't know about you, but speaking as a developer, I think thoroughness and thoughtfulness on the part of the user interface is a good indication of the amount of effort that has gone under the surface to make the application work right.
As far as Parallels' performance is concerned, this is what I found. Now I can't speak for gamers, as I don't play games on my laptop. But Parallels is able to run industrial strength servers and development environments on my 2.0GHz, 2GB dual core MacBook faster than my 1.7GHz, 2GB single core Dell. So it definitely does what I want it to. And if you only run Office or Quicken, then you have nothing to worry about.
If you have made a transition to OS X and need a virtual environment to run your Windows apps, I encourage you to go download the trial versions of both Fusion and Parallels and do the testing yourself, using the applications that you want to use. Give it some time and don't get too excited by the initial wow factor of seeing your Windows application and your OS X application coexist side by side. Be thorough and dig deep, and you will find the choice you really want to live with day to day. And mine happens to be Parallels.

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Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac makes it easy to run Windows, Linux, and more side-by-side with Mac OS X without rebooting. With Parallels award winning virtualization technology, you can run Mac OS X and critical Windows applications such as Outlook, Access, QuickBooks, Internet Explorer and more, all at the same time. This new release of Parallels Desktop for Mac comes packed with 50+ new features and enhancements including the ability to drag-and-drop files between desktops, run Windows programs like native Mac applications and migrate your existing PC to your Mac. And with the Installation Wizard to help you get started, youll be up and running in just three clicks of the mouse!

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Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Standard Edition Review

Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Standard Edition
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I bought the 6.0 upgrade without reading the reviews. Woe to the foolish. It slowed WORD to a crawl, brought DtSearch to it's knees, and twice locked my system up so tightly I couldn't get the task manager open.
I didn't waste any additional time seeing how slow it was at its own tasks. I'll take everyone's word for it.
Less than one day on the machine. I've gone back to 5.0.

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Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Standard software lets business professionals quickly and easily convert any Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, or other paper or electronic document to a reliable Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file. Adobe PDF files preserve the visual integrity of documents so that they can be e-mailed to colleagues and then viewed and printed on a variety of platforms using free Adobe Reader software.
Acrobat 6.0 Standard software’s intuitive review tools allow business professionals to comment on documents electronically and make it easy to track, manage, and incorporate feedback into original documents. Acrobat’s full set of features help you streamline communications and reduce the costs and inefficiencies associated with paper-based review processes.
Password protection lets you secure files to prevent unauthorized users from opening and viewing sensitive documents. Apply permissions with 128-bit encryption that control whether users are allowed to view, edit, comment on, sign, or print Adobe PDF files.And with digital signature support you can approve final documents, verify authenticity, and build a list of trusted certificates.

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PaperPort 12 Review

PaperPort 12
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I'm a long-time PaperPort user, and I made the mistake of upgrading the the newest professional version last weekend. Like so many others, I'm now unable to scan to PDF format without the DocuCom Trial watermark appearing on all scans, which is flatly unacceptable. Nuance has a couple of lame "work-arounds" on the Web site, but they DON'T WORK -- at least, they've not worked for me. Even worse: their Technical Support doesn't seem to exist -- I reported the problem and requested a real fix a week ago, and I've still not heard from them. As an experienced user, I have a pretty high tolerance for technical problems and working through solutions; but I have ZERO tolerance for a company that's known for over a month the program has a fatal flaw yet continues to sell that product.

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PaperPort 12 the world's favorite document management software for the PC, is the fastest and easiest way for home users to scan, organize, find and share documents and photos. It combines the power of document scanning services, the efficiency of digital desktop organization and search, and the convenience of high-quality PDF document creation, assembly and sharing in one easy-to-use application. Eliminate paper clutter, go green and organize your home office once and for all with PaperPort 12. You'll wonder how you ever managed without.

Scan, organize, search and share documents and photos quickly and easily from your home PC With your PC, a scanner and PaperPort 12, you're on way to achieving new levels of personal efficiency:
Scan paper documents with a single click--works with any scanner or all-in-one
Turn paper, photos, and digital files into high-quality searchable PDFs
Store documents as PDFs so they'll never be lost, damaged or accidentally thrown away
Use Windows or Google Desktop Search to find any document on your computer instantly
Assemble multiple PDFs into a single document by dragging and dropping
Fill out forms automatically
Clean up and enhance digital photos
Break the costly, wasteful cycle of printing, copying and mailing paper documents

Time is your most valuable asset. For about the cost of one lost document you can get the fastest, most powerful and easy-to-use PaperPort ever.
The Personal Organizer in a Box Getting and staying organized doesn't have to be a chore. PaperPort 12 is a combination file cabinet and digital document desktop that organizes scanned paper and PDF documents better, faster, and more easily than Microsoft Windows alone. Even more incredible, PaperPort 12 brings all these files together in one convenient place on your PC desktop. It provides large, clear thumbnails for everything already on your computer--with support for over 150 file formats--so you don't need to open files to figure out what's inside. Choose from 29 folder colors for organizing files and see only those file folders where important documents or pictures are stored. No more wading through every folder on your computer to find what you're looking for. PaperPort 12 combines power with ease of use, making it the perfect document management solution for home-based businesses, personal finances, school work, photo collections, hobbies, and more.
Scan Your Way Out of the Clutter Use your scanner or all-in-one printer with PaperPort 12 to quickly produce high-quality digital files of all your paper documents and photos. With the simple push of a button you get perfect scans on your desktop or directly into the included PDF Viewer or another specific application--email, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and more. PaperPort 12 is so smart it will straighten, crop, rotate, and enhance your documents automatically to improve document quality. And you can take advantage of PaperPort's ImageViewer for further enhancements to scanned documents or photos.
Create and Fill Out Forms Often times the documents you need to share must be accompanied by some sort of form, or in many cases, lots of forms. With PaperPort 12, you never have to fill out another form by hand. The FormTyper feature accurately converts scanned paper forms into neat, searchable electronic forms you can fill out on your computer. It even recognizes check boxes automatically. You can quickly tab to a fillable form field and type the information. Add your scanned signature using the transparent stamp feature. Then save your completed PDF form and email it along with your other documents. It's faster and cheaper than faxing or mailing. And you don't have to worry if your handwriting is legible!
Gather and Share Documents Quickly Need to gather up a bunch of different documents for a school assignment, a tax consultation, an insurance claim, or another pressing matter? Maybe finding your files isn't a big problem because you're already organized. But collecting and sharing them with the right people can be a real chore. You could print what's on your computer and make copies, but faxing, mailing or lugging around folders stuffed with information is inefficient, costly, and insecure. Why take chances? Avoid the hassle by using your computer and the power of PDF documents to gather, assemble and quickly share information by email. PaperPort 12 lets you create PDF files from your digital documents and combine multiple scanned documents into a single file. Add, delete or rearrange the pages within any PDF file. Extract editable text from scanned documents and put it into a word processor or an email message. No more tedious retyping or overloading clipboards. Just drag, drop ... and voila!
Find What You Need Fast Stop wasting your time looking for documents. With PaperPort 12, you can create searchable PDF files from any scanned paper documents so you can find them quickly whenever you need them. Digital documents stored in PaperPort 12 are there to stay. No more lost receipts, misplaced records, or recycled assignments. Need something fast? Just enter keywords or phrases into Windows or Google Desktop Search to quickly locate a specific file.


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Quicken Home & Business 2011 Review

Quicken Home and Business 2011
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I was not a beta tester and was not "encouraged" to write a glowing review by Intuit. This review only speaks to the question of whether this is a worthwhile upgrade from the 2010 version. The 2011 version contains very few new features when compared to the 2010 version. Whether you find these new features worth the upgrade price is debatable. The quicken site is a bit misleading in their "new features" list since many of the items they mention were already in the 2010 version. As with past Quicken upgrades, they largely give you MORE of a existing feature, and not much in the way of new features. So, for example, MORE banks are supported for direct connect. MORE transactions can be automatically categorized since auto-categorization already existed. So in these cases, if your banks are already supported and you don't use auto-categorization, then these enhancements are irrelevant. So for those thinking of upgrading from 2010, here's the list of only NEW features in the 2011 version:
- All Transactions register: This could be handy if you use many accounts and want to enter, maintain and view your transactions in one place. However, if you download transactions from your banking and investment institutions, the download window does not show up when you are in this mode, so you will be forced to continue using the individual account registers anyway.
- Register customization: You can decide which columns appear in each individual register. Transaction Notes can now be shown/edited as a column instead of treating them like an attachment.
- Attachment Encryption: I'm fairly certain this wasn't in the prior version. I guess you can now password protect attachments.
- The usual "Where's Waldo" changes to the program: They've moved menu items and eliminated speed button lists in registers. I imagine they did this to make the interface "look" simpler/cleaner, but now you have to rummage through the menus to find them. So, for example, the "Live Community" speed button was eliminated; It is now found as a "Help" menu item. Also, each account's "Overview" speed button has been eliminated; You now find that in the "Account Actions" menu. Since it is likely that the eliminated speed buttons were rarely needed by most users, the changes will be well received.That's it! Is it worth the upgrade? You decide.


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Quicken Home & Business 2011 gives you the personal finance features found in Quicken Premier plus tools that make it easy to see how your home business is doing.
Always know how your home-based business is doing.

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Quicken Premier 2011 Review

Quicken Premier 2011
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I have a love hate relationship with Quicken. It is a great concept; it is very helpful in managing personal finances and is a program I use daily. I don't buy the upgrades every year, if they can be called upgrades, but the last version I had was Quicken 2006. I held off buying 2010 for a few months knowing 2011's release was around the corner. I learned I don't like not having access to my finances daily. During that time I tried all sorts of other types of financial programs, but none were close to Quicken, which is scary because as much as I like it, the actual program is TERRIBLE - for length of time it has been available. Mint.com(Owned by Intuit/Quicken) was the only program I thought was very good, but it is terrible for investments. Overall, I see very little difference in this version than my 2006 one; clearly there are a few new features but certainly nothing that made me jump up and down. This is pretty amazing considering the price and the 5 version "upgrades" between, but very little has actually improved. Clearly this is the benefit of having a monopoly; you can do virtually nothing for years and still have the best in breed. In 4 days of using Quicken 2011 it has crashed about 4-5 times a day, same old Quicken.
Quicken 2011 is the best personal finance program available, but the lack of innovation and true upgrades is shocking. The graphical displays are very outdated, and I find the lack of being able to increase text size mind boggling. I hope this version holds me over till the long awaited, fabled, complete overhaul. Or maybe a new company will evade being bought out by Intuit and deliver a superior product. I assume the acquisition of Mint by Intuit will start to actually improve Quicken in the next couple of years.
In conclusion, I give Quicken Premier 2011 3 stars, I can't see it being anymore and am baffled by people upgrading from an older version giving it a higher rating.
EDIT 3/12/11 - Upgrades to Quicken 2011 improved stability a couple months after I purchased. I can say this is a Stable program now on my platform. Does not change the rating.

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Quicken Premier 2011 has all of the features of Quicken Deluxe--plus investment management tools to help track your portfolio performance and help maximize your investments, with step-by-step guidance along the way.
Comprehensive investing and planning tools help you easily track, analyze, and optimize your investment portfolio.

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Quicken Deluxe 2011 Review

Quicken Deluxe 2011
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
It was bad enough when Quicken simply littered your desktop with icons linking to Quicken Loans, Free Credit Reports (which are never free) and a sundry of other financial pay-to-play products. Now they've taken things to a whole new level with ads literally BUILT INTO the GUI (Graphic User Interface: the 'skin' with which you engage with the program). An example: in the new 'refinance calculator' there is a large banner ad for CHASE BANK. The refinance calculator itself is poor and majorly inferior to free ones available online, but more on that later. I don't expect to pay upwards of $50.00 for a piece of software that contains banner ads! That is simply unacceptable. In freeware, I understand it, but not in something I paid full retail for!
Adding insult to injury, INTUIT has actually removed one of the best features of previous Quicken releases, the CASH FLOW monthly chart. They've replaced it with a projected balances chart which is ugly, harder to read, and doesn't convey nearly as much information as the previous version. A line chart is inferior for the purpose, and INTUIT hasn't even managed to make the data points (low and high balance points along the chart) display the actual balance when you mouse over them. This is a miserably bad design--they've managed to take a very useful tool and turn it into garbage.
The supposed new features are junk. The refinance calculator is extremely simplistic compared to far better online versions (check out Equitrend Financial Calculators if you're looking for sophisticated, free calculators). It doesn't allow the user to enter current mortgage interest rate or PMI, and instead makes you enter the total payment and then the "impound / escrow amount." If you have your mortgage set-up to be tracked in Quicken, the tool cannot incorporate that data into your analysis. You must manually enter everything. The tool also does not take into account the tax implications of your refinance. Overall it is a tacked on, basic calculator that is nearly useless.
The obligatory re-skin of the program (which INTUIT trots out each year rather than making substantial or meaningful changes) is adequate, but unnecessary. Every year they tweak fonts, colors, and layout, and design elements. This year is no exception. None of the changes make the program more efficient for the end user. I don't have a problem with utilitarian designs, as long as the underlying software is substantial. INTUIT seems to leverage much of their development budget into GUI tweaks, while doing little to improve the software itself.
Another major issue is that INTUIT cannot manage to keep their data file consistent from year to year. 2011 is no exception and required me to convert my 2010 data file. Admittedly this was much more painless than the massive difficulty many experienced with upgrading from 2008 or 2009 to 2010. I wish that the developers at INTUIT would make a forwards compatible data file type and just stick with it.
SUMMARY:
PROS:
1) Potentially better GUI (depending on your preferences)
CONS:
1) Ads built into the GUI itself
2) Removal of a significant feature (cash flow and balance chart)
3) No substantial improvements to the underlying programs
4) Added 'features' are poor quality, even when compared with free alternatives
5) Requires yet another data-file conversion
6) Expensive! Especially considering the ads built into the program
FINAL THOUGHTS:
What am I getting for my money here? If you love this version of Quicken, can you kindly explain to me why it is worth upgrading? I have yet to find a single compelling reason. Am I missing something or did I just flush my money down the toilet?

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Quicken Deluxe 2011 gives you money management and budgeting tools to help you watch your spending and increase your savings.

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