During its first trial run, I had no problems with Pressworks. From the startup screen, you can create Avery labels using the new mail-merge features, browse a selection of pre-designed home and office documents, view the tutorial files or run a "Page Pilot" to ease the creation of everything from Web sites to reports to newsletters.
Hmm, sounds great. So I run one of the envelope wizards to get a feel of what's changed in the new version. Although pretty impressive in its ease of use, it doesn't compare with the Microsoft wizards. For example, I often noticed various misplaced labels due to programming errors. To myself, such careless mishaps denote the height of company incompetence.
Nevertheless, I decided to check out what's changed in the newsletter wizard. After completing a wizard that looked strangely like the one existent in all previous versions of the product, the program simply crashed. Presuming a quick restart would solved the problem, my finger hit the power button. Five minutes later, I tried again but to no avail. Every time I attempted to create a second document, my machine stopped working-with icons throughout all of the Windows 98 OS disappearing until the next reboot.
Should I contact technical support? Nope, not yet. This ain't that kind of review. You shouldn't have to call for such a product-and as I'm fully aware, one mention of a "review" and they'll have technicians on your door begging to fix the problem, attempting to sway my undoubtedly negative review. Oh well.
On the plus side however, I took time to notice some of the new features, such as header/footer support, picture cropping, easy brightness/contrast modification, shape creation, the ability to create Web pages and neat table handling. The PowerText add-in also allows you to add 3D logos to your documents, similar to the WordArt tool.
The dodgy Pressworks to one side, the only significant tool remaining is the originally entitled Designworks. With Page Pilots for the creation of cards, certificates and logos, this package was certainly more impressive than the first offering, though more limited in its usage.
Unfortunately, however, the entire suite falls down in terms of functionality. The Ideas Team at GSP should really sit back and think about what usability really means.
