After having test driven over 12 HTML editors in the past week, I wasn't
too excited about the prospect of trying out a desktop publishing program that professed
to be able to publish web documents, but I decided to accept the challenge, and was
prepared to rip the software apart. WRONG!
I-Publish 2.0 is the niftiest all-around publishing software package I've ever tried. The
first thing you notice is that the format of the screen and tools is very easy to
understand, and there is so much available help options both directly on the screen, via
clicking the help tab and via their website online that you can't help but be a publishing
wiz with this one. Helpful templates, drag and drop simplicity, clean formatting, and
quick publishing make this tool a must have for anyone who designs newsletters, catalogs,
brochures, resumes and anything else you can use a desktop publishing program for. If you
have a catalog or brochure that you've designed for your business and feel that it would
be a neat thing to have on your website, with the click of a few buttons, the HTML is
written for you and the results are previewed in your web browser for you. It is also
quick, able to function on minimal computer resources (though you should plan on having a
large chunk of free hard drive space for caching, at least 25MB). The end results I was
able to put out in my trial were impressive, looking very much like I'd paid a
professional large sums of money to produce what I did with a relatively inexpensive
software program and a little creative imagery did in just a few minutes.
The program loads fairly easily, though it did ask a few too many questions on where to
install directories, and it does have an annoying trial screen that comes up when you
start the program. But for those of us who purchase this wonderful program, we will get
many other benefits to go along with it, including more support, lots of graphics on
CD-Rom to spice up your publications, a newsletter, and the satisfaction of knowing that
we can compete with the big boys when it comes to rendering professional quality
publications. I was a sworn Corel Ventura user for years, but i-Publish has made me re
think that belief because of the ease of use and the quality of the output. Give it a try,
you won't be disappointed.