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Time:
01:00 EST/06:00 GMT | News Source:
ActiveWin.com |
Posted By: Brian Kvalheim |
Brian has just posted his review of Microsoft Publisher 2003. For a second version in a row, Publisher has won our Premier Choice Award. Here is an excerpt:
1991 brought us Microsoft's first incarnation of Publisher, 1.0. While considered to be a very basic DTP application, it introduced thousands of people to the world of greeting cards, newsletters, WordArt and text boxes. 12 years later, Publisher has changed, matured, improved and grown. Not only has it grown in use, but in size. Originally Publisher 1.0 fit on 3 floppy disks (2 if you didn't add the clipart). Microsoft Publisher 2002 weighed in at 1.2 GB. Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 now only measures at under 450 MB. But that comes with a price. No longer is Microsoft including the clipart CD, and requires web access to the Office 2003 only clipart. The Commercial Printing environment of Publisher was introduced in Publisher 2000 and has found yet another version that has opened up more possibilities for commercial printers with improved CMYK support as well as improved spot colors. I personally have been using Publisher since the Publisher for Windows 95 version (3.0) was released and find that Microsoft has been very typical with it's history of adding and removing well used features.
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#1 By
143 (199.35.33.169)
at
1/14/2004 8:14:52 AM
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Just got it out in time...
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#2 By
37 (64.109.31.106)
at
1/14/2004 8:20:21 AM
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Why is that?
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#3 By
37 (64.109.31.106)
at
1/14/2004 10:46:19 AM
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At $99, Publisher is not aimed at competing with Quark, InDesign, PageMaker or any of the other high end commercial printing applications. Since Publisher is in a completely different league, the 93% rating is accurate. The only product that I am aware of that is in direct competition with Publisher is Serif PagePlus.
Publisher is aimed at the SOHO and Small Business who would have someone publishing simple tasks, catalogs, flyers, raffle tickets, newsletters and business cards. There is also no reason why an office worker couldn't design a simple print publication for prepress work. We have been taking Publisher files for YEARS and YEARS from office workers, SOHO's and the likes and printing anywhere from 100 to 100,000 prints from their files.
The Publisher team has made it EASIER for the commercial printing industry to accept Publisher files for ripping by adding true CMYK support, which Publisher has failed to do in the past.
The top dogs that you speak of are in a big league that nobody is currently trying to compete with. There have been many years of development and improvement in those products, and trying to do so with a small product like Publisher just isn't worth while. The Publisher team is not interested in building their product to such an advanced application and then in turn have priced out of reach of the target audience. Publisher is welcome into peoples homes and small businesses.
It would be nice to see a Publisher Pro someday where they would have such advanced features, and keep Publisher standard as a home/small business friendly application.
Who knows what will happen down the road ;-)
This post was edited by AWBrian on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 at 10:52.
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#4 By
37 (64.109.31.106)
at
1/14/2004 12:44:50 PM
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Obviously stubear, you have zero (or maybe just limited) knowledge of DTP as a whole. Not trying to insult you at all of course. My 10 years in the commercial printing business has taught me plenty.
Catalogs CAN and ARE simple to put together, depending on the complexity and what you are looking for in your catalog. The Catalog Merge feature in Publisher 2003 even improves this process. We have printed numerous catalogs using Microsoft Publisher, and continue to do so.
You appear to be making a blanket statment about office workers and their abilities to create effective well thought out publications. There are thousands, if not millions of office workers who ARE completely capable of doing so (we do printing for quite a few actually).
A second fact is that the numerous of PROFESSIONAL templates in Publisher that people use make it that much easier for those that are less inclined to do a design on their own from scratch. We also have customers who come in with a request to print their letterhead, flyers and business cards all of which use the templates and layout that is included in Publisher. All they have done is enter in their name, address and their own wording. It comes back to them professional and beautiful as they expected....and we are the ones who helped them become successful at what they enjoy doing.
It's people like you (I won't say LIKE you, but who MAKE statements such as yours) who are demeaning to others, and it's rather sick. Professional design is at the heart of the person who creates it. Insulting someones design or graphic abilities because they don't suit your taste, or the industry over priced "standard" of design is truly pathetic.
I am waiting for the first person who looks at my fridge and sees my 4 year old's drawings from preschool and tell him that it's not professional, not acceptable, not effective or not well thought out, and I will be the first person to knock their @ss to the floor.
This post was edited by AWBrian on Friday, January 16, 2004 at 08:30.
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#5 By
2960 (156.80.64.137)
at
1/14/2004 4:08:15 PM
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#5,
What the printed page looks like is what matters. How it got there, or who put it there, doesn't mean anything as long as it's well done.
TL
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#6 By
37 (64.109.31.106)
at
1/14/2004 4:09:42 PM
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<cluestick>
You have confirmed my suspicions about you then stubear. Thank you!
</cluestick>
(BTW, you are not at my house...however, if you were, I would ;-)
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#7 By
37 (64.109.31.106)
at
1/14/2004 4:11:07 PM
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Exactly TL.
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#8 By
37 (64.109.31.106)
at
1/14/2004 4:25:18 PM
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ROFL # 8
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#9 By
3339 (64.160.58.135)
at
1/14/2004 7:59:20 PM
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This comment has been removed due to a violation of the Active Network Terms of Use.
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#10 By
37 (68.185.170.82)
at
1/14/2004 9:06:35 PM
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Sodajerk,
How many times have you used Publisher for commercial press?
I have a son, not a daughter.
A hosed print dialog box doesn't make for such a low score. The VBA of Office Tools allows me to put in a free add-in available from the Microsoft Support center that gives me the updated print features that I need. I would just like to see this as the standard for Publisher 12.
I would back out of this conversation unless you are ready to take me on :-)
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#11 By
3339 (64.160.58.135)
at
1/15/2004 12:58:25 PM
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I've told you several times before, Brian... I would NEVER use Publisher for commercial needs!
Certainly, a print dialog that cannot handle fundamental print needs cannot possibly get a 93% rating. It should get no better than 70% rating.
I don't care if you are playing around with VBA to improve... I would hope MS developers know enough VB to add the features themselves. You were rating the application, not your own ability to use VBA to take an app to the point where it is functional for you.
If you cannot print even and odd pages or non-consecutive pages, it is not even worthy of your son.
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#12 By
37 (68.185.170.82)
at
1/15/2004 10:25:09 PM
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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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#13 By
37 (64.109.31.106)
at
1/16/2004 8:32:00 AM
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stubear wrote in #15 (not a violation because he censored his words):
It's one thing to say it's not a pro app... It's a whole 'nother thing to say that a page layout app with a completed fscked print dialog deserves a 93%.
Anyone with any experience, even your 4 year old daughter, couldn't give such an app anything better than a 70% overall rating.
...and that's just based on one feature.
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