My first Print Shop project was to create a birthday card, something very familiar to me as a former user of The Print Shop. However, in this version , I was able to customize a card by importing favorite photos from iPhoto to my greeting card. The Text feature now offers more effects, such as shadows and shapes.

My next project was to test the first NEW advertised feature in The Print Shop. So I created a CD label complete with artist, title, track sequence and duration. It couldnąt have been easier. Once I selected the Avery label I wanted, I was off and running. I checked the box to import iTunes and my iTunes Library showed up in a window. Once I selected the album or song, the label had all the information I had checked. It was that easy, seamless, and the effect was a really cool CD label. I didn't see any other CD label stock supported besides Avery.

II love iCal, so the next feature to try was to create a custom Calendar by importing my iCal schedules with The Print Shop. If you check the box Use iCal Events, The Print Shop window opens ready for you to check what calendars to import into your custom calendar; one click and itąs all done for you. (Using the application CD for the templates saves disk space on your computer.) You can then customize the calendar either by using the ready-made features or you can start from scratch. I wanted to use a photo from my iPhoto library and that worked seamlessly. You can incorporate your favorite iPhoto pictures into your greeting cards, banners, and more. Friends will think you spent hours designing your masterpiece and making it special just for them.

I had to use the HELP for merging the Address Book in OS 10.3.3 after failing at several attempts on my own. It was very useful and explained clearly what I had to do. The Help system is divided into several categories, making it easy to find the answers to your problems; and the user has easy access to Help everywhere in The Print Shop.

To merge the Address Book to projects simply create a master project which uses address fields. Once you insert multiple fields in any text block in your project, you can select Address Book from within the Print Project dialog and let The Print Shopdo the rest.

To save a project as a PDF file, choose Export from the File menu and choose the appropriate file type from the Format pop-up menu. When I tried doing it from the Print dialog, choosing Save As PDF, I lost all the graphics from my project.

Reviewer: Maria O. Arguello Maria O. Arguello is a native-born Nicaraguan, American naturalized citizen, who is serving her first term as president and vendor liaison of the Main Line Macintosh Users Group (MLMUG). She also served for several years as Member-at-Large and as Special Events Coordinator. She is an active member of several MUGs such as the Macintosh User Group of Southern New Jersey (MUGSNJ), Princeton Macintosh User Group (PMUG) where she serves as a board member, South Jersey Apple User Group (SJAUG), and the Macintosh Business Users Society (MacBUS) where she served as secretary for a year, and Macs@PACS. She is a member of the Apple Consultants Network and the Apple Regional Liaison. Maria enjoys learning about the diversity of the user group community and loves to attend conferences for the Mac to represent her home group, MLMUG .

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© 2004 by Maria O. Arguello & MLMUG
Posted 06/24/04
Updated 09/15/04