Microsoft Picture It!

Review Date
December 5, 2003

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Visitors rate this review
2.25 of 5, 4 votes

Reviewed by
Linda Saenz , Intermediate

Price Paid
$35.00 at Office Max

Summary
I don't have my recipt anymore but I have always had problems with this program. I get a message saying an illegal procedure has occured and I lose all my work. Occasionally it will work but 75% of the time it will not work.

Review Date
June 26, 2003

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Visitors rate this review
1.00 of 5, 2 votes

Reviewed by
evatgirl73 , Casual

Price Paid
$0.00

Summary
Reading a lot of the reviews here, you'd think this is a horrible program. Not so! True, it has crashed on me a few times, but nowhere near as often as some of the unfortunate souls here... On the other hand, it is a very easy to use program with all the gadgets a casual user could want. Image editing is easy and you have *some* control, but nothing compared to more sophisticated software like Photoshop. Still, for the beginner who wants to make the best of their photos immeditely w/o having to spend a few months learning the software, Picture It! is ideal. I particularly like all the images that come with it, so that I can create beautiful cards and collages etc effortlessly. I should mention that I have the 2002 Premium version, so some of the kinks from previous versions may be worked out in mine already. I have recommended it to most of my family & friends that just want to take (for lack of better word) snapshots of their family etc, and everyone I know have been pleased with both the quality and the ease of use of this program.

Strengths
User friendly

Economical

Enough "flair" for beginner/casual photographers and then some

Weaknesses
Does crash now and then saying "memory is low" when in fact it isn't...

Similar Products Used
Photoshop 7
Roxio Photosuite 4
Adobe Photodeluxe

Customer Service
haven't used

Review Date
April 18, 2003

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1 votes

Reviewed by
tdon , Expert , from Lexington, NC, USA

Price Paid
$54.00

Summary
This could be a good product but I do not have the time or care to take the time of restarting my computer because of program crashing all the time. I am lucky to get through one jod before losing all my work.

Strengths
Easy to use thats about it.

Weaknesses
The program itself it should be shareware free.

Customer Service
I tried this but said I had to pay for support. I removed the software and trashed it.

Review Date
April 10, 2003

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Visitors rate this review
4.67 of 5, 3 votes

Reviewed by
Kristin , Intermediate

Price Paid
$50.00 at Best Buy

Summary
wonderful for my business needs (cards, brochures, etc.), but only when it's working which isn't often.

Strengths
Creates professional products at half the expense.

Weaknesses
ERRORS! error CPIQDOC5.DLL., error PPEDIT5.DLL., error MFC42.DLL. I had problems with different errors on this program before, but I downloaded a patch and fixed those. Now a week later I have these errors popping up and closing out the entire program, and can't find a patch for them, or any technical support from Microsoft without paying for it.

Customer Service
Microsoft has the most confusing system for offering technical support I've ever encountered. And I don't think they should be charging you to help fix a product that they made faulty in the first place. I've seen way too many complaints about this product.

Review Date
April 2, 2003

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2 votes

Reviewed by
Geraldine , Intermediate

Price Paid
$5500.00 at Gateway

Summary
I have used Picture It! 2001 for over a year. I have found it to be a simple to use program and so far it has done everything I need it to do.
If I could just get it to quit erroring and shutting down in the middle of a project.....

Strengths
Simple to use.

Weaknesses
Errors and shuts down on "print" and sometimes just "because."

Similar Products Used
Paint Shop Pro.