Digital Scrapbook Programs?

I'm very behind on keeping track of DS's first year! I'm looking to start, on the computer. I've made cute things in my geriatric version of photoshop, but it is very time consuming. I'm looking for a versatile program that will let me make different page sizes among other things.

I've done several searches and seen fabulous links to sites such as http://www.princesscrafts.com/
and other sites that have downloadable graphics/page kits as listed in other threads. I haven't tried any of these yet.

I am interested in hearing from folks who may have used the above tools versus
A) Photoshop and images from something like print shop
OR
B) Packaged scrapbooking software that is commercially available such as
--Nova Scrapbook
--Creating keepsakes
--American Greetings Scrapbooks
--HP
--My scrapbook
I've noticed that several scrapbook titles are on a sale at www.nothingbutsoftware.com.

What has been useful?
What has been time efficient?
If you liked a particular program, why, and which version do you have?
Thank you!
Nupe

Or have you tried something you did NOT like?

Nupe it sounds like you have really done some research!! I haven't even heard of half of those things, although I'm starting a small search of my own to check them out!

I have worked with Corel Draw 10 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I used Corel at work and loved it but I had a lot of clip art at my finger tips and never tried to scrap with it. It allows you to work in layers which is what, I would think, would be essential to scrap on the computer.

Photoshop is what I use at home and though I have never done much scrapping with it, it is an excellent program. It also works in layers and there are MANY MANY websites that offer free tutorials to do things with it, even "kits" that have paper, embelishments, fonts, for your LO's. IMHO it's worth the upgrade if you have an older version and are already familar with the way the program works.

I don't know much about the other "scrapbook" programs but I doubt there is much that they offer that you can't do in Word or what you are using now.

I'm sure I've said a lot of nothing but I wanted to offer what I could :) Please post some of your work, I'd love to see what you've done and be sure to let us know what prog you go with! I'd love to hear more about this on this board.

HTH
Heather

Dear Heather:
Thanks for responding. I thought no one else was interested in this topic! I haven't made my decision about which program yet. I recently found this website:

http://scrapbooking-software-review.toptenreviews.com

which has some reviews and ranks the Nova (Art Explosion) Scrapbook Factory Deluxe v 3.0 (why such long names??) at the top of the heap. Reviews here and elsewhere say that it is markedly better than v 2.0, (which is available for about $10 on nothingbutsoftware.com). The best price I have found for v 3 is about $30 at Amazon (after rebate).

Anyway, looks like there are several Art Explosion packages, some MAC only (and I don't have a MAC). I'm not familiar with this series, but looks like it has a lot of potential.

My old photoshop is v 5.5, and I recently received some books about some fancy things to do on PS 5.5 and 6.0, so there may be a lot more I could do in PS that I have not tried as yet.

I'll keep this post updated as I progress.

Nupe

Just an fyi for bargain hunters. One of my friends makes her scrap book in power point! It looks great. She finds free clip art on the internet and created a file just for it with descriptive subfolders then saves it. I am not sure what she edits her photos with, but nothing expensive. I thought it was a clever alternative if you already have power point on your computer.

Karin and Katie 10/24/02