Xequte March Newsletter: Power Print, Digital Printing Software, v3.0 Released

15 March 2006

 

 

In this Issue:

·      Power Print V3.0 Released

·      Power Print Upgrade and Introductory Offers

·      MailList King V6.01 Update

  • Program Tips
  • Removing yourself from this List

 

 

 

Dear Xequte Software User,

 

If you've visited our discussion forums then you will know that I love to hear feedback from users, particularly suggestions for improving our software.  We maintain a database of all suggestions (as well as our own ideas) and prior to each release we go through the list and decide which items to implement.

 

Of course this often leads to frustration from some users wondering why their particular feature was not added.  Often it was a small feature that could have been implemented quite quickly, so why not just add it?  The reason is that every feature you add makes the software a little bit more complex.  Software development requires a fine balance between functionality and ease-of-use.  In other words, you can have the most fully featured software in the world, but if it's too technical for Joseph T. Bloggs then no one will use it. 

 

 

In general, adding new features is easy; the hard part is adding them in such a way that it doesn't make the software more confusing.  If it can't be done, and the new functionality does not justify the increased confusion, then the feature is not added.

 

I think the very best software products are those that appear to be quite simple and it is only as you use them that you discover their depth.

 

This week, Sean delivered his third release of Power Print.  It has many fantastic new features, but the real breakthrough is the work that has been done to make it more approachable for new users.  Even if you've tried Power Print before, now is the time to try it again.

 

 

 

Regards

 

Nigel Cross

Xequte Software

nigel@xequte.com

www.xequte.com

 

 

 

Power Print V3.0 Release

 

Power Print is our complete solution for printing of digital images from your camera and computer, offering wizards to perform such common tasks as printing of images at photo frame sizes, posters and greeting cards.  V3.0 is major upgrade adding over 100 enhancements and is also much simpler to use that every before. 

 

Here are the top ten new features:

 

1.  New calendar creation wizard

2.  Borderless printing and layout

3.  Automatic cropping images of images to fit

4.  Many improvements to styling and user interface

5.  Support for IPTC comments and fields (as used by Smart Pix Manager, MegaView and Picasa)

6.  Support for many more image formats including all common raw camera images

7.  Add stylish picture frames to your images

8.  Faster printing with higher quality

9.  Support for very large files (over 100MB)

10.  Many optimizations to make Power Print much faster

 

 

More info and download:  http://www.xequte.com/powerprint/

 

V3.0 is a free upgrade to all users who purchased after 1 Aug. 2005 (a new key will be emailed to you).  Other registered users can upgrade for $19.50 at:  http://www.xequte.com/powerprint/upgrade.html

 

 

 

Power Print Upgrade and Introductory Offers

 

To celebrate the new release we are offering 20% discount for upgrades and new purchases of Power Print v3.0 for the next seven days.

 

If you have already purchased Power Print, you can upgrade to v3.0 for only $15.50 (normally $19.50):

 

http://www.xequte.com/cgi-bin/pwp6.asp?v=upg

 

OR

 

New users can purchase Power Print for only $29.95 (normally $39.70):

 

http://www.xequte.com/cgi-bin/pwp6.asp?v=pwp

 

 

Note: These offers are only available from the link above and expire at midnight, March 20, 2006.

 

 

 

MailList King V6.01 Released

 

MailList King allows you to manage and communicate with a mailing list from your own computer.  V6.01 is a minor update with some improvements and fixes for issues in v6.0.  If you are not having any issues with v6.0 then you do not need to upgrade.

 

Here are the top five changes:

 

  1. Improved layout and styling of Task Properties dialog
  2. Now much faster displaying member records
  3. Added new shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+S) to send to selected recipients
  4. Added new shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+P) to require confirmation of all automated actions (safe mode)
  5. Fixed issue where MLK may not process web forms that have a blank first line

 

Complete Change List:  http://www.xequte.com/maillistking/changes.html

 

 

Evaluations can be downloaded from:

 

http://www.xequte.com/maillistking/download.html

 

 

Registered Pro and Corporate Users: An updated download link has already been sent.  If you did not receive the link, please complete the following form:

 

http://www.xequte.com/support/serial/

 

 

 

Program Tips

 

- Power Print: Crop Images to Size

 

One thing that often confuses new users is cropping an image to a selected size.  Because Power Print preserves the proportions of the image, it may not resize exactly.  Power Print 3 now has auto-cropping.  When you select an image size, you can optionally allow the image to be automatically cropped to suit.  This is done by trimming the edges to the correct proportions.  If you are unhappy with the cropping, you can click the crop button to choose your own cropping, or you can turn auto-cropping off from the toolbar.

 

 

- DVD PixPlay: Sorting your Slideshow

 

There are two ways you can sort your slideshow. 

- When adding images/videos using the "Add Images" button you can click the sort button to change the order of just the images being added

- By selecting Edit>Other>Sorting you can change the order of all of the images in your slideshow

 

Of course you can also manually re-order your images into your desired display order, either using drag and drop, or by selecting the image(s) and clicking the Promote or Demote buttons

 

 

- MailList King: Sending Options

 

If you are using v6 you will have noticed a number of changes to the message sending dialog such as the drop down lists for the To, CC and BCC fields that allow you to quickly select recently used addresses. 

 

However there are three new options you might not have noticed:

 

- You can now display a "From" selection box so you can quickly choose a sender/reply address for your message (View>Options, Sending)

- If you always use scheduled/batch sending you can prevent inadvertent clicking of the "Send Message" button by disabling one-click sending (View>Options, Other, Advanced, Sending)

- You can force yourself to check your message before sending by display a preview when you click "Send Message" (View>Options, Other, Advanced, Sending)

 

 

- Smart Pix/MegaView: Rotating all of your Images with a Single Click

 

One of the most common image editing functions is rotation.  Here are the steps to quickly rotate a selection of images with a single click:

 

1.  Select your files (hold Ctrl down as you click on them, or hold Shift to select a contiguous row)
2.  Click Rotate Left or Rotate Right, either using the buttons on the Image Editing toolbar or under Image menu
3.  Click "Yes" at the "Rotate All?" prompt

  

Also, if your camera supports it, Smart Pix and MegaView can now automatically rotate any portrait images as you download them from the camera (using Edit>Acquire Images from Camera/Scanner)

 

Note: Smart Pix and MegaView both support Lossless JPEG rotation and cropping, which means that unlike many other image editors there is no reduction in quality when you rotate or crop a JPEG.

 

 

- Diji Album: Checking your Album with View Mode

 

You will have noticed that while editing your album certain features are disabled for faster operation, such as page and background music and high-quality image display.  Also as the viewer has less toolbars than the editor the album page is slightly bigger so may look different.  For this reason we recommend that you often preview the album to see how it will look in the viewer.  To do this select Edit>Preview Album in View mode


Note: If you want to maintain the layout of your album pages regardless of the size of the program window, use the options under File>Album Properties, Album Size.