[mg1970]

Well after comparing all the online reviews I ordered Art Explosian Scrapbook Factor Deluxe 4.0 from OfficeMax.

I started to use it tonight and I am VERY DISSAPOINTED!

The first thing I did was add a photo. It was a hi rez file but when it came in it was tiny. I expanded it to be full screen (I was using it as a title page with some captions). Then I wanted to crop it. Well the crop tool takes you to a little window where you crop it then save. You cannot see what you are cropping! I messed with it a while before I gave up trying to guess what it should look like in the little window to get it to crop to fit my page and just let it overlap. Then I decided to see what it would look like in page preview. The type looked like bitmaps. I then attempted to export my ONE-PAGE scrapbook to PDF. When I changed the resolution to 300 it said it didn't have enough memory to do that -- which I have plenty on my machine. It forced me to choose 72 DPI and the resolution is terrible. No way am I building my scrapbook with poor resolution photos.

Oh, and did I mention that the backgrounds and cliparts are CHEE-SY. I couldn't find the nice graphics that appeared in the demo.

I was thinking that maybe I could just use the clipart for another program but WRONG, it is in some weird format.

I was pretty happy with picaboo but I wanted something with a little more control over the text placement.

Very, very dissappointed.

M

[rredhead]

I actually work for the company that makes Art Explosion Scrapbook Factory. I've not used it yet, but I'm not surprised that it's "disappointing". If you're looking for a straight-up digital scrapbooking program, try Memory Mixer. It has its weaknesses, but it's easier to learn than Adobe PSE and, as I said, it just does scrapbooks, so it does them well.

PS: There is a way to get the Clipart out of the program, at least, there is if it works the same way that the other programs in the series works. It's perfectly on the up-and-up. You export the Clipart as JPG files. It should be documented. If not, PM me. I'll step you through it.

Hope this helps!

[DianeScraps]

I know how frustrating it is to have a program that just doesn't do what you want.

I still really like Scrapbook Max, and they have a free trial too. Their website is Scrapbook MAX!® - Fun and Easy To Use Digital Scrapbooking Software for Windows