Image Is Everything…

Entrepreneur, Jan, 2000 by Cassandra Cavanah

So don't let yours Fall by the wayside. The right software can do wonders for your look.

It's all about image, so they say (the "they" your mother told you not to listen to).

Still, a truer statement was never spoken when it comes to marketing your company. The images featured in your presentations, on your Web site, in your brochure and in your sales or media kit are a direct representation of your company. And you'd better be sure they represent the real you.

When selling yourself, you can't afford to use schlocky photographs, renderings, charts, graphs and the like. Here we look at a few Windows-based programs that can help you get the most out of your graphics without spending a ton of money or facing a huge learning curve.

AS EASY AS ...

Microsoft's PhotoDraw 2000 is designed to make the manipulation of common business graphics just as simple as possible. In this program ($109 street)--which comes with some versions of Windows 2000 and is also available for a free 30-day trial period from Microsoft's Web site (www.microsoft.com/office/ photodraw)--you'll find all the basic graphics tools you need, including photo-editing, drawing, painting, flowcharting and 3-D capabilities.

When the program launches, you're presented with an option to open a blank page, dive into design templates or access existing graphics files. Choosing "Templates" prompts an impressive list of design categories and templates. For example, in the "Web Graphics" category, you're presented with ad banner graphics and various Webfriendly buttons and icons. With the easy step-by-step guide, you can create and implement simple designs within minutes.

There are several tutorials to walk you through importing graphics (digital photos and scanning), enhancing photos (removing red-eye, scratches and so on), creating text art, painting and drawing, and exporting images for use in all documents and on the Web. If you're a Microsoft Office user, PhotoDraw's menus and toolbars will be familiar, and the plain-English instructions should make using PhotoDraw a pleasure. This program needs plenty of resources to run effectively, including 32MB RAM, 190MB hard-drive space, a Super VGA monitor and a CD-ROM drive.

THE SWEETEST SUITE

CorelDRAW has long been a favorite among sophisticated graphics and image editors. Now Corel (www.corel.com) has developed CorelDRAW 9 Graphics Suite ($470 street) which includes CorelDRAW 9 for illustration and page layout, Corel PHOTOPAINT 9 for image editing, Bitstream Font Navigator, Corel TEXTURE for texture creation, CorelTrace, Corel CAPTURE for screen capturing and more. Corel has also developed a userfriendly version dubbed CorelDRAW 9 Office Edition ($129 street). At press time, Corel didn't have review copies of Office Edition available. However, according to a company spokesperson, this version promises to deliver creative graphics in a short amount of time. CorelDRAW 9 is compatible with Corel's WordPerfect Suite and requires 32MB RAM and 100MB hard-drive space.

INTERNAL OPERATIONS

In business, the most important graphics can be the diagrams you create to help your company run smoother, such as organizational charts, project timelines, and presentation charts and graphs. Visio Corp.'s (www.visio.com) Visio 2000 Standard Edition ($199 street) makes this process easier than ever. The leading diagramming software program, Visio 2000 is Microsoft Office-friendly. (At press time, Microsoft announced plans to acquire Visio Corp., which will most likely further Visio's integration with Office.)

Visio was created to help businesspeople visualize and communicate information easily, regardless of a user's drawing ability. Upon opening Visio 2000, you're presented with numerous diagram, flow-chart, layout and timeline options. Clicking through to a template brings up a blank graph page with that template's SmartShapes. For example, an office layout template offers up corresponding shapes, such as a desk, chair, sofa and filing cabinet. In the "Project Timeline" folder, you'll find a calendar template that gives you access to a full-month calendar to which you can add graphics to illustrate key dates. Flow-chart templates can be used to illustrate product points to colleagues. The program is relatively simple to use and includes basic help functions. However, it's missing a fill tutorial and the wizards found in traditional Office products.

Advanced users will appreciate Visio's ability to import database information from programs like Excel and Access to automatically create their

organization's charts. Visio is Internet-enabled as well, making it easy to publish diagrams in HTML, GIF, JPG or VML file formats. Visio requires 16MB RAM and 80MB hard-drive space.

MASTER KEY

ACDSee32 ($40 street) is a shareware program from ACD Systems (www.acdsystems.com) that will change the way you browse and view images. This program is a must for those who store and receive images in various file formats and need one simple program for viewing and cataloging them. With ACDSee32, you can open almost any image file format and save it as a BMP, JPG, PCX, TGA or TIFF. This tool lets you attach descriptions to your images, making cataloging easy.