Adobe Premiere Elements 4

Create and share great-looking movies in minutes with Adobe Premiere Elements 4 software. Show your style with amazing audio and video effects and share your movies on YouTube, your own website, disc, and virtually anywhere else. Visually tag video clips and photos to categorize by people, places, or events. Turn a sequence of scenes into a polished movie in just a few clicks. Adobe Premiere Elements automatically applies coordinated transitions, music, and professionally designed layouts for titles, credits, and disc menus. Create your story faster in the Sceneline, an easier alternative to the more traditional video-editing Timeline, where you can make a movie by simply dragging and dropping thumbnails of your clips, transitions, and effects. Choose from a set of world-class Adobe fonts designed to look great on video, and customize them with shadows, glows, and other effects. Add in background music and sound effects with the new Audio Mixer, which lets you easily adjust relative volumes and create slideshows and movies that move to the music. Animate titles to fit your movie's personality Mix and refine your audio and edit to the beat of a favorite song Customize your discs with interactive menus Easily add dazzling effects to impress your audience Create visual interest with eye-catching transitions Share in many ways from one convenient place Create dynamic, personalized DVDs and high-definition Blu-ray Discs Easily upload your movies to YouTube and your personal website Share movies on mobile phones and portable media players Share movies in multiple ways from one convenient place Add professional-quality animated transitions and effects System requirements - Intel Pentium 4 or compatible processor; Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista, 512MB RAM or higher, 4.5GB free space, Color monitor with 16-bit color video card, 1,024×768 monitor resolution at 96dpi or less,

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars Not ready for prime time…..
After updating my Premiere 3.0 with Adobe's updates and having the system totally die, I decided to buy 4.0. Mistake. The install required me to do some system clean up due to its large footprint. Once installed, it took so long to even come up I went and did laundry. After it came up and I loaded a 3.0 project, which allowed me to do some more laundry, the software caused my system to do the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). I literally had only entered in some text, when the system crashed. I decided to uninstall 3.0 and reinstall it without any updates and went back in order to finish my project. I would strongly suggest waiting until they figure this one out before purchasing it. I only gave it 2 stars instead of 1 because I think for the brief time it was up that the design will be better than 3.0, but then again my experience was so brief I could be wrong about that.

3 Stars Great software, when it works
I'll start by saying I like Premiere Elements. I've been using it for about 3 years now. Before you buy this software, I highly recommend you download a free trial copy from […] and see if it works on your machine. Be sure to try the main features such as capturing video and burning dvds with chapter marks. Then decide whether you want to buy the software from amazon or not.

I have 3 licenses running on three fairly new and different machines (Ver 1.0 on Pentium D XP, Ver 3.0.2 on Core2Quad Vista, Ver 1.0 new Core2Duo XP). PE crashes on all three machines at various times …particularly when burning DVD's with chapter marks. The other big thing is recorder errors when capturing video from dv-avi digital camera or from your vcr (using a dv-avi analog/digital converter). Through the school of hard knocks, I've figured out the workarounds, etc, and am able to eventually get my projects finished but it can be very frustrating dealing with the PE crashes and recorder errors.

Again, speaking for the 1.0 and 3.0.2 versions that I use, the software is very powerful and you can easily do some great video productions with it. I like it so much that I put up with the aforementioned crashes. I've heard version 4 is changed significantly so my experience may not be as relevent to version 4 as the previous versions. Still, based on my experience with Adobe Premiere Elements, this is a product you'll definitely want to try before you buy. It's worth your time to give it a try.

1 Star Too slow to be practical
I purchased this as part of a Photoshop Elements/Premiere Elements bundle. After spending some time with the Photoshop program and being generally satisfied, I tried giving Premiere a shot. I wanted a solution to create MPEG-2 videos playable on my TiVo and I'd been doing this in Windows Movie Maker and then converting the WMV files using ffmpeg. This works, but it is not the most straight-forward solution.

All I can say about Premiere is that it was simply too slow to be worthwhile. I tried to import two 1 GB clips which I wanted to trim & then splice, but after 20 minutes of disk churning, the second clip still hadn't fully imported. What's worse, something about the installation screwed up my Windows Media Player installation so that I couldn't view DVDs or MPEG-2 files in WMP.

I've uninstalled this program and will not use it again.

4 Stars An Improvement Over Elements 3
I bought Premier Elements 3 about 7 months ago and gave it a good review after trying it for a few days.

I later found it buggy and I was rather hesitant to upgrade to Elements 4 but after trying out the trial version (a whopping 2.7 gig download!!) I was convinced.

Elements 4 has a new look, is not nearly as buggy as Elements 3 and does seem to be easier to use.

Many (user) reviewers have complained that when uploading a video to Youtube it is permanently set to MED quality. This was one of the first things I put to the test and even opened a YouTube account to try it. Sure enough, you can choose whatever upload quality you want as long as it is MED, which in this case stands for mediocre compared to other videos on the website!

Other than that, it is a little faster at rendering video than Elements 3 and easy to work with.

Other reviewers have noted different issues, I did not come across any of those. my Elements 3 made me register with Adobe every time I used the progrm, this does not.

I do hope that this time Adobe will listen to the people who buy their products and keep them in business and go out and post fixes to the bugs in their software.

Elements 4 gets my approval.

4 Stars Adob e Premiere Elements
The program works well for beginning users of editing, and has many useful features such as editing video, adding titles, adding musical accompaniment, adding voice-overs. It can save products on DVDs and for web-sharing on YouTube. One improvement might be the function of saving as a html file for uploading to one's own web site.

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Adobe Photoshop CS3 Upgrade Mac

Adobe PhotoShop CS3 Upgrade Mac

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars You Know You Want It, You Know You Need It
Photoshop CS3. It's the premiere photo editing software for your Intel-based Macintosh. Insanely powerful. Insanely difficult to use. Plan on spending some extra big bucks on training classes to really get the most out of it.

Why not five stars? Because "Bridge," the including photo-browsing/organizing software is just plain weak. Feeble, even. Awful. Might as well just use Mac Finder and save the installation space on your hard drive. Or better yet, use iPhoto '08 (free on your new Mac, or an eighty dollar upgrade with the rest of the excellent iLife suite) to organize your pictures, and Photoshop for your heavy editing needs.

But Photoshop is still the end-all be-all of editing programs. Just understand what it can and cannot do.

4 Stars Happy with the software, not with the customer service…
There were considerable problems involved in installing the new software since I had previously test-run the CS3 demo, downloaded from the Adobe website and, it seems, that if something is left behind, it can block the new installation. I was passed from person to person to person as I tried to get someone to help, each time having to tell my story over from the start each time and to provide all my personal details to each new consultant, despite assurances that I need give the information once. All very frustrating and time-wasting…it's up and working now, but….

5 Stars worthy upgrade
I was at CS and wasn't impressed with CS2 enough to upgrade to it. CS3 however, has a lot of great new features making it well worth the upgrade price.

5 Stars A great upgrade
I upgraded from Photoshop 7. So far so good, I like the new changes. Right now I am learning more about the Bridge and the Raw Camera. This program makes me want to shoot in RAW.

Photoshop just continues to prove that it is the best photo editing program in the world.

5 Stars Photoshop CS3 upgrade for Mac
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Upgrade [Mac],Leopard OS. Priced right and easy to install. Well worth it. I use it to tweak old pictures, take out stains, etc.

I wish I had known that I had to download upgrade info that updated this upgrade. [Since I still have a dial up(groan), it took 36 hours to download the update that was suggested the first time I launched it after the install.] But… after all was completed, I am well satisfied.

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Ultimate X Men Complete Comic Book Collection Win Mac

Ultimate X-Men is the wildly successful relaunch that jettisons over forty years of continuity and sets the clock back to the beginning for Marvel's first group of mutant super heroes. This is a fresh start for the X-Men that begins when they're still teenagers just becoming a part of Charles Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters and chronicles their new first encounters with Magneto, the Sentinels, Juggernaut, etc. The book is published on a monthly basis and is a cornerstone of the Ultimate Universe, a separate line of comics Marvel produces all sharing the same taking-it-from-the-start philosophy. Ultimate X-men includes 70 issues from February 2001 through May 2006, including annual. It also includes bios of all characters!

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Convenient, but less than stellar quality
I have been a fan of the X-Men for many, many years. I decided to purchase this Ultimate X-Men Collection first, to see if I really liked it before purchasing larger collections on CD-ROM.

It is very convenient to have all of these comic books sitting on my laptop, allowing me to read them pretty much wherever I go. I only gave the collection 3 stars for two reasons: 1. The scan quality is poor, primarily because the colors are washed out, and 2. The PDF's can only be viewed in Acrobat Reader.

Because of the two issues listed above, I don't think I will be buying any of the other collections on CD-ROM. If you want to see for yourself, buy this collection FIRST, as it is one of the cheaper ones. But I would recommend purchasing the actual books rather than the CD-ROM version.

5 Stars X-men collector
Don't have the time to go out and hunt down the printed books , me niether so i bought this .

It's in pdf format , so sit back and read untill your eyes water , all you need is a PC or mac and adobe reader .

I like it a lot , I just copy the CD contents to my hard drive and use Adobe reader to zoom in and out on hard to read areas .

X-men fans , buy this collection.

5 Stars great book
Not only did I get the DVDrom delived quickly, it also works very well and is easy to navigate. Not to mention that the Ultimate X-Men books themselves are fantastic. Really a good buy.

4 Stars great deal for $10
I got turned on to the Ultimate Universe last year, adn when I saw this I thought it'd be a great way to catch up. Yea, they're scans of the actual books, but they look great. There's one bad page where the top is cut off and you lose a couple lines of dialogue, but it turned out it was printed like that in the first place, not a bad scan. I was confused that the watermark was appearing at home on my mac but not at work, but that turned out to be becasue my mac was using Preview to open the files. Adobe Acrobat opens them without without the watermark.

Overall, a great deal, but PLEASE put out other Ultimate series!!! As mentioned, there are big plot gaps where stuff had obviously happened in other titles. I could definately see digital distibution of comics in the near future!

5 Stars Ultimate X-Men Complete Comic Book Collection on cd-rom
Looks brand new- but haven't opened it yet. More than 70 comic books on these cd-roms. Had I purchased the comic books it would have cost more than $210.00 so I'm very happy to be able to read the coolest x-men comic book title. All the comics in a row from February 2001 thru May 2006. Plus it's nice to be able to read many issues one after the other at one sitting; instead of waiting for one story every month. I can read a year's worth of comic books in one sitting this way.

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Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Design Premium Upgrade Mac

Upgrade only; previous version of CS Premium, Standard or Studio required

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium software is the designer's dream toolkit for print, web and mobile publishing. It combines all-new versions of essential tools for professional page layout, image editing, illustration, and Adobe PDF workflows with new tools for producing engaging websites, interactive experiences, and mobile content — all in a unified, intuitive design environment. It's productive, intuitive, and tightly integrated environment with everything you need to design content for tomorrow as well as today. Import layered Photoshop and Illustrator files into Flash, animate them and export in ActionScript 3.0 for developers Preview and test your designs using mobile device profiles in Adobe DeviceCentral CS3 Easily organize, browse, locate, and preview assets with Adobe Bridge CS3 Use InDesign for direct access to Adobe Stock Photos Export InDesign layouts as XHTML to use in web designs in Dreamweaver

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars True Upgrade
I'm writing to offset some of the remarks about this not being a worthwhile upgrade. If you've used CS3 and don't think this is a worthwhile upgrade, you most likely haven't taken the time to learn about the new features, modifications and thoughtful details that add up to the great upgrade that is CS3.

3 Stars An expensive cumbersome pig of a product
I am a professional illustrator/designer/web developer and have been an Adobe fan since I discovered Photoshop (2.5?!) in high school. But lately, Adobe has given me a lot less to love, starting with the intrusive online activation of CS2, PDF overhead, and Adobe's sloppy followup to the Flash player (9 fails to install on a lot of people's OS X).

CS3, in similar fashion, seems slapdash. Photoshop and Illustrator are Adobe's cash cows, and CS3 feels like a rushed product to squeeze money out of designers. It's a PIG! It took 45 minutes to install Design Premium on my Quad Core workstation at the office. It loads slower than CS2 and takes up more resources. After opening Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash to see what Adobe changed, I promptly went back to using CS2 and never used CS3 again. I didn't see any compelling reason to switch, or relearn the interface, as Adobe seems to require you to do every new version.

I had low expectations for CS3, as I'm usually skeptical of new product releases. This perception of cash milking wasn't helped by the fact that Adobe confusingly split the line into 6 packages. Now you have to decide which version fits you. You may end up paying for something you don't need, or want one piece of software that's in another package. You can't save some money by removing something you don't want, or adding something that you do.

One bright light I was holding onto was the possibility of Flash being better integrated with the Adobe interface and workflow. One of the most annoying things about Flash was its unfailing ability to paste shapes and gradients from Illustrator all messed up. Gradients end up as bitmaps, curves get bent, and complex shapes just seem to make Flash choke. Importing from Flash into Illustrator via cut & paste would result in similar disasters.

I was also hoping for an Illustrator-styled gradient tool (drag a line from the start point to the end point to paint the object), instead of Flash's bizarre and cumbersome one where you have to rotate a circle for radial grads, or sandwich lines for linear grads. I didn't test out CS3's cut & paste compatibility, but sadly, the interface was not integrated. It's the same old Macromedia styled tools.

As for Dreamweaver being added here, that's much like every new version of Microsoft Office that comes out each year. Do you really care? It's an HTML editor, for Pete's sake. How much improvement can you make on what is essentially a text editor? For people who handcode, you can stick w/ your old DW… or GASP! Notepad.

For me, I'll continue to use CS and CS2. Personally, I see absolutely no reason for this upgrade, except to reward Adobe for a lackluster and, what I feel, is an unfinished product. It feels very much like an early-adopter product. CS just keeps getting bigger and bigger with each version, but not more stable, dangerously approaching the point of bloatware. If it's all a suite and integrated, why the need for 4 gigs of space to install? Shouldn't many components be shared between all the products, and result in less memory/hard drive use? 700+ megs for Acrobat?! Like others have said, wait for CS4 when they actually might integrate the Macromedia products properly.

5 Stars Excellent Upgrade
I cannot emphasize how much easier it has become to navigate The Creative Suite interface. The UI has evolved into one that is both clean and attractive, while becoming much more customizable. CS3 offers much better integration between applications and has some really cool new additions.

1 Star Overpromised, Underdelivered
I was hoping Adobe would fix a lot of the bugs in Dreamweaver (especially, the horrible slowness on the Mac platform) but it seems they ignored Dreamweaver altogether and focused on redoing their own products.

Avoid if you can.

5 Stars An amazing upgrade
As a huge fan of Adobe (except for Illustrator… been a Freehand user for years but am adapting to Illustrator) I was expecting a great upgrade from CS2 and I got it. All of the apps are zippy and they are jam-packed with new features. In particular, the Photoshop Extended is great because you can create different work environments. You want to work on web graphics and prototyping a site, switch to the web workspace. The menus change and the features you used to find in ImageReady are now available…all in one app. InDesign CS3 is fast and the way it now handles your tools is so much more convenient. And let's not forget Dreamweaver and Flash. These programs are the defacto standard in web development and they really shine in CS3.

I gave the whole suite 5 stars because it just deserves it. As the owner of a graphic design/marketing firm I need my software to be intuitive and easy to use so I can crank out work quickly and efficiently. CS3 helps me do that.

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Dazzle DVD Recorder

Dazzle DVD Recorder provides a simple, affordable way to make high-quality home video. Let your friends and family enjoy movies on professional-looking DVDs, complete with menus and chapters. This plug-and-play USB 2.0 device captures video to DVD, directly from VCRs, camcorders or other video equipment. Add your own menu and chapter functions for simple navigation. Burn your video to a DVD without first copying files to the PC hard drive, saving valuable time and space. Combined with the unique wizard-based, friendly interface of the Dazzle Instant DVD Recorder software, the powerful Dazzle video capture device allows you to quickly and affordably back up personal video collections.

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star The Dazzle didn't dazzle me.
I'm an animation student whose school only provides us with the ability to get our work onto VHS. Basically, this is ridiculous and I need my work on a DVD or at least in some sort of digital format. This work is what's going to get me a job some day so I can't have it getting eaten up by a VCR or anything crappy that VCR/VHS do.

Grand solution: the Dazzle. Unfortunately with animation there is a complete and utter need for each and every frame to be shown and for the sound and video to ACTUALLY be in sync. The Dazzle failed to sync the sound and failed to even record more than a few seconds without dropping frames or getting frozen.

basically if you want bits and pieces of your VHS onto a DVD and want them to have sound completely off sync then the Dazzle is your product.

I'm extremely disappointed, and I am wondering if anyone knows of a product similar to this that actually works?? Because I really need one!!

4 Stars Excellent system and unbeatbale for the price
I hesitated to buy this because similar digitizers seem to cost about twice as much (and so this seemed TOO cheap), and because several reviewers were unable to get the hardware to work at all. In fact, I did have some trouble installing the software — one of the three CD-ROM's kept hanging up during the installation, until I selected the option to install only certain programs and avoided all the sample images and video. But after that, I was able to plug in my old VHS machine and create AVI movies from 25-year-old tapes. (Eventually I'll make DVD's.) I have yet to look at any of the instructions, and I was nonetheless able to add titles and simple transitions between scenes; the movie editor seems quite similar to iMovie on the Mac. I don't know if this will work for everyone, but on my 2006 Windows XP machine Dazzle really dazzled.

2 Stars Not that great
I does kind of work. It is not really combatible with vista. After attempting to load the software numerous times I gave up. The supposed "patch" download on the pinnacle web site is incredibly hard to locate as there are numerous other options and fixes that don't pertain to my operating system. The direct to dvd burning software that came with it does work though. It's OK if all you want to do is copy vhsc direct to dvd with no editing.

4 Stars Just getting started!
So far I'm impressed. I took the Dazzle out of the box and burned my first Dvd from Home video and no problems. My computer is a year old. I haven't done anything else yet but I'm happy with the product. I haven't used the editing features as of yet but I know with any product, experimenting and practice comes perfection. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars since I haven't used the other features yet. So far so good!

1 Star No Stars for Anyone Here
Originally I bought this for an XP machine that was fried shortly thereafter. When I got my new laptop with VISTA recently I thought I'd use the Instant DVD Recorder with that. I spent two days trying to figure out just which patches I needed - the site is confusing, their product names seem to be inconsistent, and there are way too many to sort through easily. Once I picked out what I needed, each patch/update took hours on a 2.0 ghz desktop with broadband - I didn't dare try on my laptop, which is slower.

The updates and patch seemed to install correctly on the laptop, everything looked deceptively efficient, until I tried to transfer from a home-recorded tape on the vcr to a dvd, and Instant DVD Recorder software froze the video twice on two tries.

I'm thinking there might well be a setting I could alter, but that's the next story…

Ok, bad enough, but then try to get help? The manuals on line are split into chapters and download even slower than the updates. I waded through as many unhelpful windows as I could stand, then tried writing for email support. After filling out the form I was invited to create an account (no SEND button), filled out another form (still no SEND button) and got the response "There is already an account for this email address" (STILL no SEND button). Is this just Pinnacle giving me the middle digit????

I submitted a request for a password reminder and was told that tech support and two other areas required "separate" passwords. Just who are these monkeys?

So, try it, but keep the receipt and return it promptly if it doesn't work for you. I hope it does work for you, I wish it would for me, or that I could get some help.

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Ghost Rider the Complete Comic Collection Win Mac

The Ghost Rider: Complete Collection brings together every issue of the cult horror/supernatural comic. Stunt cyclist Johnny Blaze sold his soul to the Devil, to save the life of his best friend. In exchange, his soul was bonded to a powerful demon. Blaze became the Ghost Rider, using his power to fight demonic threats while trying to undo his curse. Years later, young Daniel Ketch met an angry spirit who sought vengeance on evil. This soul possessed Ketch & used him as the new Ghost Rider. Their adventures thrilled & shocked readers for three decades — now they're compiled on this DVD set. Over 200 issues in all.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Wow! A great way for fans of the Ghost Rider character to catch up!
As a child, my favorite comic book characters were always the darker, scarier types. The horror comics, supernatural heroes, and the anti-heroes were always huge favorites of mine. So it was only natural that the Ghost Rider was in my top five subscriptions.

But, as with all things from our youth, I "out grew" my comic collection and sold everything I had.

Jump forward a couple years and suddenly Ghost Rider is back in the spotlight. A major motion picture is being made. Action figures are being sculpted and produced, the comics are coming back and I'm suddenly a geek again.

So imagine my joy when I find that EVERY SINGLE Ghost Rider Comic book that I once had (and the ones I didn't have) are all collected on a single DVD! So I had to have it.

The Entire disk is pretty much Adobe Acrobat files. Scans of each and every Ghost Rider Comic book EVER. Including the covers, the ads, the geeky "letter to the editor" sections, everything.

Because of this, the scans aren't much more than high-resolution photos of the printed materials. I would have preferred scans of the original prints so that the old comic book "dot" printing was gone, but we can't always get what we want.

Aside from the image quality mentioned above this disk is a walk through my twisted, sick, and geeky childhood that brings all those fond memories which takes an honored spot in my new collection of all things Ghost Rider. Right next to my Giant 12 inch tall Ultimate Ghost Rider Action figure with it's Giant "Movie-style" Hell Cycle… Hey, I'm a geek…

5 Stars no corrupt files
I bought the ghost rider dvd rom and there were no corrupt files in issue 45.it was the first thing i checked i also have other marvel dvd roms and had absolutely no problems with them.I also look forward to the new marvel ones coming out in the future.

5 Stars Simple PDF without paraniod DRM!!!
Thank you Marvel, not only for releasing this great series on an easy to store and read meduim, but also for not including onorous, paraniod DRM on the disk. These are basic PDF files. I was able to copy the DVD to my hard drive and put the DVD away in a safe place. I can view these comics on any computer at home, and even on my Palm (although it is pretty hard to read there). If only the RIAA would take its cue from Marvel! This is a stunning product! Even the ads and staple holes are there! Just like the real thing, without having to keep it in plastic!

1 Star Files on disc are corrupt and will not open
I have had two of these discs so far and neither one would allow me to open issue #45. According to GIT Corporation tech support there is a corrupt file on the Master disc. Here is the response they sent to my email inquiry. "The problem does not lye with the discs, but with a corrupt file on the Master. The Ghost Rider collection is now in the process of being re-mastered. When they become available, we will post exchange info on the site. No definite date yet, as it an extremely time consuming process."

GIT's "knowledge base" does not even list this known problem and it appears they have not recalled the defective discs and are still allowing them to be sold.

I would be very wary of buying this product until the problem is corrected.

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Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008

Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 is a productivity suite of homework tools and trusted information designed to help students quickly and easily complete assignments in a variety of subjects and excel in school.

Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 gives students a full set of tools to help them succeed and get homework done right the first time.

Make research entertaining. Find information on just about any topic. Thousands of articles, photos, sound clips, and links to related information from trusted sources(2)-plus political, climatic, and topographical maps of the world-make discovering new information fun!

Equation Solver. Enter a problem into the Equation Solver and get step-by-step help on how to solve it. And with free online access to Hotmath(3), students can quickly find their textbook and select the problem they're solving. They'll instantly receive step-by-step guidance on how to solve the problem and what the correct answer should be.

Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 gives students a full set of tools to help them succeed and get homework done right the first time.

Full-featured graphing calculator
A full-featured graphing calculator that's simple to learn and use (similar to those costing more than $100!) helps visualize and solve math and science problems.

Equation Solver
Stuck on a math problem? Input your own problems into the Equation Solver and get a quick answer and step-by-step help on how to solve it.

Triangle Solver and Equation Library
Interact with a library of more than 100 equations and explore the relationships of triangles and their parts while viewing associated rules or graphs.

Learning Essentials
Get past the blank page. Learning Essentials helps students achieve better grades. Step-by-step writing tips and preformatted report and presentation templates give students a quick start in creating great-looking reports and presentations.

Foreign language help
A full-featured dictionary helps translate and conjugate verbs in Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Learning Essentials also unlocks tools in Microsoft Office that are specially designed for foreign language study, providing templates and tools for completing assignments in Spanish, French, and German.

Book summaries
Need to know more about that literary story? Includes more than 1,000 book summaries that help students understand some of the most commonly studied literary works from middle school to college level.

The easy, all-in-one homework assistant that helps students excel in school.
Designed to be easy to use and simple to learn, Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 makes learning fun. Whether it's a math, research, or foreign language assignment, students can find the right tools and information to get homework started quickly, get fast answers to academic questions, and complete assignments that can help earn higher grades.

Find trusted content when you need it.
Complete with Encarta Premium 2008, the #1 best-selling encyclopedia software brand(1), it's content you can trust. With editorially approved content, students can use Web Links to more than 25,000 Web sites, preselected by Encarta editors for relevant and age-appropriate research material(2). Through multimedia content, Encarta Premium 2008 provides engaging visual tools to help explore and discover historical events and places. It even includes Encarta Kids, a separate encyclopedia geared to young learners ages 7 to 12!

Get questions answered fast.
With time pressures to complete assignments, it's frustrating to get stuck without knowing where to go for answers. Whether they're stumped on a math, science, or a foreign language problem, students can quickly get the answers they need. They also get helpful ideas on how to solve problems, so the next time they're more likely to figure out the answer on their own!

Includes a full suite of homework tools to help students get homework done right the first time.

Foreign language tools help complete assignments in Spanish, French, German, and Italian

Quickly grasp the plots and themes of commonly studied books.

Encarta Premium 2008
Students can fi nd the information they're looking for-quickly and easily-with Encarta Premium 2008. With trusted content that's accurate and up-to-date, Encarta has been the #1 best-selling encyclopedia software brand for the past 8 years!(1) You'll be amazed at how much time your student will spend researching-compelled by the sights and sounds of one fascinating presentation after another.

Students can easily-and quickly-access trusted information provided by world experts. And since they can automatically download updates from the Encarta Web site, they'll have up-to-date and accurate reference software when they need it.(2)

Encarta Premium 2008 comes complete with a wide range of reference tools, including a dynamic atlas, dictionary, thesaurus, and language translation dictionaries.

Microsoft Math
Microsoft Math features a large collection of tools, tutorials, and instructions designed to help students learn mathematical concepts while quickly solving math problems. In an instant, they'll see how to solve problems-step by step! Works for many grade levels-from basic math, pre-algebra, algebra (including logarithms and exponents) to trigonometry!

Need advanced help? A full-featured graphing calculator that's simple to learn and use (similar to those costing more than $100!) helps visualize and solve math and science problems.

Triangle Solver and Equation Library. Interact with a library of more than 100 equations and explore the relationships of triangles and their parts while viewing associated rules or graphs.

Templates and Tutorials
Having trouble getting started on class projects? Sometimes the hardest part about completing a project is getting started. Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 includes the latest version of Learning Essentials.

Working with Microsoft Office Word, Office PowerPoint, and Office Excel (in either Microsoft Office XP, Office 2003, or the 2007 Microsoft Office system, sold separately), Learning Essentials helps students achieve better grades. Step-by-step writing tips and preformatted report and presentation templates give students a quick start in creating great-looking reports and presentations.

Get past the blank page. Easy-to-use tools, templates, and tutorials help students get past formatting questions to the core learning in assignments. Learning Essentials includes tips and tutorials for managing projects and creating high-quality reports, presentations, science projects, and other assignments.

Foreign Language
A full-featured dictionary helps translate and conjugate verbs in Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Learning Essentials also unlocks tools in Microsoft Office that are specially designed for foreign language study, providing templates and tools for completing assignments in Spanish, French, and German.

Literature
Need to know more about that literary story? Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 includes more than 1,000 book summaries that help students understand some of the most commonly studied literary works from middle school to college level.

Note:

1. The NPD Group/NPD Techworld, January 2000 to February 2007. Based on total U.S. retail sales.

2. An active Internet connection is required for Math Online Help, Update Encarta, Web Links, Weather and Radio Links and Encarta Premium Online. Update Encarta and Math Online Help are available through October 2008. Access to Encarta Online Premium requires a Microsoft .NET Passport (Windows Live ID) and an Internet connection. You must be 13 years or older to create a Windows Live ID.

3. Hotmath contains primarily US-based textbook problems.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Microsoft Student 2008
Homework assignments are the bane of most students I know (not to mention their hard-pressed and nescient parents). This is mainly because of the tedious and mind-numbing chores of data mining and composition. Additionally, as knowledge multiplies every 5-10 years, few parents and teachers are able to keep up.

Enter Microsoft Student 2008: a productivity suite which includes English and foreign language dictionaries, thesaurus, quotations library, assignment templates, tutorials, graphing calculator software and a Web Companion. MS Student comes replete with the entire Encarta Premium 2008 encyclopedia and its dynamic atlas and provides online access to the feature-rich MSN Encarta Premium through October 2008.

The previous versions of Encarta included a host of homework tools. Two years ago, these have evolved into a separate product called Microsoft Student. Since then, it has been gainfully repackaged and very much enhanced. This year, for the first time, MS Student can be downloaded from the Web or purchased as a standalone, packaged product (DVD only).

Among the new or revamped features: free online access to MSN Encarta Premium, Step-by-Step Math Solutions calculator, Step-by-Step Math Textbook Solutions, Triangle Solver, Equations Library, tutorials, and foreign language help.

To augment the performance of MS Student 2008, Microsoft offers "Learning Essentials": preformatted report and presentation templates and tutorials designed for Microsoft Office XP and later. MS Student's templates are actually clever adaptations of the popular Office suite of products: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. They help the student produce homework plans and schedules, science projects, book reports, presentations, research reports, charts, and analyses of problems in math, physics, and chemistry. Detailed step-by-step tutorials, Quick Starters, and pop-up toolbars (menus) guide the student along the way in a friendly, non-intrusive manner.

The Ace in MS Student's deck is Microsoft Math. It is a seemingly endless anthology of tools, tutorials and instruction sheets on how to grasp mathematical concepts and solve math problems, from the most basic (e.g., fractions) to mid-level difficulty (e.g., trigonometric functions). And if this is not enough, there's free access to HotMath, an online collection of math study aides and problem solvers.

The graphing calculator is a wonder. It has both 2-D and 3-D capabilities and makes use of the full screen. Aided by an extensive Equations Library, it does everything except cook: trigonometry, calculus, math, charting, geometry, physics, and chemistry. And everything in full color! Triangles get special treatment in the Triangle Solver. The most vexing trilateral relationships and rules are rendered simple through the use of enhanced graphics. The Equation Library, though, is disappointing. It holds only 100 equations and calculus is sorely neglected throughout.

MS Student provides a powerful English-Spanish-French-German-Italian dictionary. It helps the student to translate and conjugate verbs. The synergy between this product and the impressive foreign language capabilities of MS Word creates an effective language laboratory which allows the user to study the languages up to the point of completing assignments using specialized foreign-language templates.

For the student keen on the liberal arts and the humanities, Student 2008 provides detailed Book Summaries of almost 1000 classic works. Besides plot synopses, the student gets acquainted with the author's life, themes and characters in the tomes, and ideas for book reports.

Similar to the Encarta, MS Student's Web Companion obtains search results from all the major search engines without launching any additional applications (such as a browser). Content from both the Encyclopedia and the Web is presented side by side. This augmentation explicitly adopts the Internet and incorporates it as an important source of reference - as 80% of students have already done.

I am not sure how Microsoft solved the weighty and interesting issues of intellectual property that the Web Companion raises, though. Copyright-holders of Web content may feel that they have the right to be compensated by Microsoft for the use it makes of their wares in its commercial products.

MS Student would do well to also integrate with desktop search tools from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others. Students will benefit from seamless access to content from all over - their desktop, their encyclopedias, and the Web - using a single, intuitive interface.

Microsoft would do well to incorporate collaborative and Web publishing tools in this product. MS Student does not equip and empower the student to collaborate with teachers and classmates on class projects and to seamlessly publish his or her results and work on the Web. Future editions would do well to incorporate a NetMeeting-like module, a wiki interface, and an HTML editor.

All in all, MS Student 2008 is a great contribution to learning. Inevitably, it has a few flaws and glitches.

Start with the price. As productivity suites go, it is reasonably priced had its target population been adult professional users. But, at $50-100 (depending on the country), it is beyond the reach of most poor students and parents - its most immediate market niches.

MS Student 2008 makes use of Microsoft's .Net technology. As most home computers lack it, the installer insists on adding it to the anyhow bloated Windows Operating System. There is worse to come: the .Net version installed by MS Student 2008 is plagued with security holes and vulnerabilities. Users have to download service packs and patches from Windows Update if they do not wish to run the risk of having their computers compromised by hackers.

Fully installed on the hard disk, MS Student 2008, like its predecessors, gobbles up a whopping 4 Gb. That's a lot - even in an age of ever cheaper storage. Most homesteads still sport PCs with 40-80 Gb hard disks. This makes MS Student less suitable for installation on older PCs and on many laptops.

Finally, there is the question of personal creativity and originality. Luckily, MS Student does not spoon-feed its users. It does not substitute for thinking or for study. On the contrary, by providing structured stimuli, it encourages the student to express his or her ideas. It does not do the homework assignments for the student - it merely helps rid them of time-consuming and machine-like functions. And it opens up to both student and family the wonderful twin universes of knowledge: the Encarta and the Web. Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited"

3 Stars 3 stars for product…4 stars for tech support~!
Hey, this could have been a GREAT product!…

Math wise, their "step-by-step" concept is brilliant but the steps are ONLY for those doing Algebra and beyond..and does not help children or pre-teens needing this sort of "steps" help!

The best thing about the product is their FREE telephone support for problems that arise using the software! (unheard of, considering M$oft's other "pay-per-call" products)

My kids telephone the support team (india) and receive consistent help with inputting math problems, and I even wrote and spoke with the team regarding future production(s) of "student encarta" including "step-by-step" for ALL the mathematical stages (basic math and pre-algebra) not just College Algebra and beyond, since OTHER math programs (Solved!, Learning systems, Algebrator; etc) have the ability to show basic "steps"…but will not answer or support their products properly (no telephone/email)

Leave it to M$oft too try and give the public what they want…

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Syd Fields Screenwriting Workshop How to Write a Screenplay that Sells to Hollywood DVD Learning Series

With Syd Field's Screenwriting Workshop, you'll develop the screenwriting skills you need to be taken seriously by the Hollywood film industry! Learn how to create fantastic screenplays with the tutelage of a true master in the field!

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star NO WAY MAN
Syd Field is probably the fakest person in the industry! As far as I know he's never actually written a produced screenplay. I'm represented by a William Morris agent and Syd Field's lessons and references got me laughed at when I first approached getting an agent.

Buy The Screenwriter's Bible by David Trottier. He actually has his name on several products in the business and is also the book that my agent introduced me to.

5 Stars Great Product
Excellent addition to the book. Adds a step-by-step process to the mechanics discussed in Field's handbook. In additions answers the question, "What the heck does Syd Field look like?" Professionally produced, well worth the money.

4 Stars Excellent Stpe By Step Instructions
Syd Field provides viewers of this "Screenwriting Workshop" with organized assignments that if followed will lead to the completion of a screenplay.

Popular and easy to find movies like Shawshank Redemption, Titanic, and Thelma And Louise are used as examples to allow the viewer to see the techniques that Mr. Field competently articulates.

One would be well advised to watch the DVD once in it's entirety before attempting any of the assignments to see what will be involved on the grand scale. This way you can see what you will be commiting to.

Writing a screenpaly is not a formula, but formulas do exist to complete one. Consider this DVD covering Syd's techniques one of the formulas, or maybe recipe is a better analogy. Most people tweak a recipe to suit the taste of the people they are cooking for. You may tweak Syd's recipe, but if you stick to his original, step by step, you will end up cooking up a finished screenplay.

Will it taste good? Well, that depends on the quality of your ingredients. Syd can't give you that. No one can. Syd does give you excellent structure. That's all he can do… and he does it well.

Worth every penny.

His final speech at the end of the DVD is also very inspiring and heartfelt.

Thanks Syd.

1 Star not helpful at all ! - save your time and money for other resources!
Let's summarize my thoughts and opinion, which hopefully may assist you in making your choice:

- this course is only about how to structure a screenplay in 3 acts. This process has been highly doubted by industry professionals, cause it is copied from the theater which has it's own limitations and style. The 3-act structure might be useful to analyse screenplays but not really to encourage a creative writing process. Also is it not suitable for anybody to write the happenings of each act down on 14 cards and organize them. Syd even breaks his own system by splitting the 2nd act into 2 parts (in fact now we have 4 acts), so you have to use 2×14 cards to write down keywords. It feels like doing homework for primary school. I would rather encourage the following: Every person has their own way to make notes and structure their work and shall use their own style!

- Syd Field derives all his knowledge from analyzing screenplays not from writing them. And of course from this perspective you could force different kinds of structure on to a screenplay and will find ways to justify the chosen one.

- this DVD dedicates a lot of time to market Final Draft Software as best one in the industry. It doesn't mention that there are other software products on the market which are really good and helpful. So in fact, this is a cross selling marketing arrangement with Final Draft.

- Syd field is also good in marketing himself and his products by using associations of success. How does it help a writer to see Syd reading a screenplay, getting into his car, walking in a very self confident and proud manner with another (industry) guy on Rodeo drive, being in front of CAA and entering Paramount Pictures?

- The DVD is as disencouraging as the book is. I started reading the book and put it away before I have read half of it, cause it really killed my motivation to write a screenplay. What he illustrates is painting by numbers and was definitely not suitable for me.

I am glad that after about a year I kind of accidentially got into a weekend writing class, I regained motivation, started to work and also came across some really good literature. One of my recommendations would be Richard Walters Screenwriting which offers a lot of insights on story, character, dialogue, etc. It also presumes a threepart structure, but it doesn't just focus on that. Another good and entertaining read is "The 101 Habits of highly successful screenwriters", which tells you about the real world through interviews. I have started reading Michael Hauge's book and it seems to make sense too. Furthermore I would recommend to read some of John Truby's articles and see if his DVD classes might be suitable for you. And of course Linda Seger offers invaluable tools and advice. William Goldman is an established writer who will be able to share some valuable knowledge too (haven't read his book yet). Whatever you read or write - Good luck with it; and have fun!

5 Stars GREAT SCREENWRITING WORKSHOP!!!
This is an excellent workshop that is worth the money. If you take the time to review and do the lessons, you will get better at screenwriting. I disagree with the one reviewer who got nothing out of the DVD. There are exercises that may seem simple at first but in fact offer subtle yet significant learning experiences. And I'm sure if Syd really wanted to write a story that he believed in, he would. He loves teaching obviously.

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Microsoft Project Standard 2007

Microsoft Office Project 2007 Standard is project planning that meets the management needs of today's organizations. This suite delivers robust project management tools with the right blend of usability, power and flexibility — allowing you to manage projects more efficiently and effectively. You can stay informed and control project work, schedules, and finances; keep project teams aligned; and be more productive through integration with familiar Microsoft Office system programs, powerful reporting options, as well as guided planning, wizards, and templates. Custom metrics help you track data relevant to your project - Percent complete, budget versus actual, earned value and more Track project performance over the project lifespan by saving project snapshots in up to 11 baselines Tailor the Software to meet your needs - Choose custom display fields; modify toolbars, formulas, graphical indicators and reports; leverage XML, Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), and Component Object Model (COM) add-ins to facilitate data sharing and creation of custom solutions Get assistance when you need it - Project Standard 2007 provides a robust Help search engine, smart tags, and wizards to aid novice and experienced users

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars Project 2003 works better
I have used pretty much every version of MS Project there has been over the last 10 years. This is the first version that I have had problems with.

First, let me talk about the good. This really does help with visualization of projects. Especially when making changes to an existing project. I really like that when you make a change it shows you the effects on other items.

Now the bad, printing schedules is broken. Anytime you change the scale, things look really bad. Text gets cut off and task bars don't scale propertly. I have corrsponded on MS forums and they agree that scaling doesn't work well. For me, this is a deal breaker.

I have also had problems with Project changing the constraint types on some pretty complex projects. This is simple enough to fix if you notice it, but it is truely annoying.

I have had none of these problems with MS Project 2003 and I still prefer MS Project to other scheduling options on the market.

Basically, I recommend buying Project 2003, at least until they work the bugs out of this one.

3 Stars Rough Start
I'm running on Vista. Unlike what is specified at the top of Amazon's page for Project, the platform for Project 2007 is NOT just XP. All Microsoft 2007 products are Vista compatible (or so I'm told). At any rate, Project works on my Vista machine.

Sort of. I've never used Project before, although I'm highly experienced with Excel, Word, Power Point, and other Micrsoft products. I've always had staff doing my cost-schedule engineering, but now I'm running my own company so I thought I'd give Project a go.

First, there is very little that is intuitive about this program. I just recently received my "Project 2007 for Dummies" book and am really glad I made that purchase, because I was ready to set fire to this product.

For example, where I work we have no Sat/Sun weekends (Afghanistan). But Project doesn't agree with that schedule. It was extremely frustrating to select a Saturday to start a task, and Project automatically changing it to Monday. It would be understandable if it gave you a prompt or a warning about working weekends, but instead it simply refused to allow you to pick a weekend day for a task.

It took me about an hour going through the Help Online thing to figure out how to make Project allow me to work on a Satruday. I was fully expecting to feel like an idiot and find some simple way to tell Project to ignore weekend constraints. But I found that doing so is actually a multi-step process (about 7 steps, few intuitive) to get Project to allow me to start work on the day I wanted. Ridiculous.

And the Help that comes with the software doesn't work. When I clicked on Help, it said it has to configure and install Help. So I waited for the task bar to go all the way across after several minutes, and then it required a reboot for the changes to take effect. After reboot, I started up the program fresh, clicked Help, and went through the same thing all over again. After the third time, I was spitting nails. Hence the need to go to on-line Help (not your first choice in Afghanistan).

You know, if there's one part of any software that should NOT be messed up, it's Help.

Bottom Line: Bugs; not intuitive at all. But it does seem to work mostly, and I acknowledge I'm a PRoject rookie. I did finally produce my simple schedule, hence the 3 stars and not 2 or 1.

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Adobe Photoshop CS3

Adobe PhotoShop CS3 for Windows. Does NOT include full printed User Guide in the box; Fulfillment will include: 30-50 page Getting Started Guide in the box; A PDF of the unabridged User Guide on the CD/DVD; Generic doc fulfillment card outlining policy and our commitment to the environment in the box 2; Online help (both on web and on the desktop) which includes readily accessible training beyond what manuals include. Full printed User Guides will be available at adobe.com

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Using with Windows XP–No Bugs
I've been using the product with Windows XP Pro and everything seems to work fine. It does take a bit getting used to the new location of palette and menu items. Is this upgrade worth it? If you need the specific features sure. We bought it to put it on 2 new machines.

5 Stars Adobe Photoshop CS3…Wow!
Well, what would you expect from the industry standard in graphic manipulation? It is everything that you've come to expect and has become everything that you've ever wanted Photoshop to be! (Despite the price tag)

It's perfect for professional graphic designers, professional Illustrators, professional Artists, professional Photographers, and Professional web Designers. The keyword is "professional", but don't let the word professional stop you. Afterall, it was probably Adobe Photoshop that gave those professionals the edge so they could become "Professionals"! So even if, (especially if,) you're a novice of any of those professions, let Adobe Photoshop give you the edge so that you can take your rightful place amongst the other pros in your field. Unleash your creative side!

Want the best? Buy the best. It's that simple. Aside from a nice sized price tag and a few hiccups in Vista, Photoshop CS3 is the choice of Professionals.

John F Willis Illustrator/ Artist

5 Stars Love it–and no bugs!
Based on these reviews, it would seem that there were bugs in the versions sold in June and earlier. I just bought my upgrade (in December) and it works fine, as other later reviewers commented. (I don't think Adobe has to put fake reviews on Amazon to sell their product, as one reviewer suggested. They offer automatic free updates…use the service, eh?)

I was using CS and heard that the "File Browser" had been replaced by a stand-alone application. I loved the file browser and used it heavily to organize and flag my photos so this is why I waited so long to upgrade. It turns out that once you learn how to configure Bridge, the SA app, it is far superior to File Browser. As for the rest of the program, I can't say enough about Adobe Camera Raw 4, another application that comes with CS3–it is fantastic, AND it works on jpg files as well as RAW! Sure, maybe not with as much finesse as it can apply to a RAW file, but it still works! And the main Photoshop program is of course superior to all others on the market.

I heartily agree with the reviewer below who suggested buying an early legal version of Photoshop and then buying the upgrade to CS3. This will definitely save you some bucks! And then carefully read the reviews of instruction books to find one (or more…) that will teach you what you need to know for your particular style of photography.

Yes, the upgrade from CS to CS3 is definitely worthwhile, and from what I gather from reading various books, even CS2 to CS3 is something to seriously consider.

5 Stars Great product when you learn to use it
This is a great product, but takes grat skill to use…I gave it to my 14 year odl who whizzes right through. he claims it is better than any other similar product in terms of what it can do.

Millionaire in 365 Days: The Daily Plan to Get There

5 Stars WONDERFUL!! It would be perfect if it weren't so hard!
I absolutely LOVE this program. Only thing…I want to do soo many things, but it is so hard! I literally cannot find tutorials to do certain things ANYWHERE! Best bet would to ask how on Yahoo!Answers. I got some good answers there. OTher than that, I love it!

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