Photodex ProShow Gold may not be the easiest-to-use presentation program on the market, but it's the best tool for creating professional-looking slide shows in which pictures and video dominate.
Because of its focus on content and effects, this program is the key to a memorable, media-heavy presentation; however, it relegates text to a supporting role. It also lacks a charting feature for turning numbers into a graph, making it a poor choice for sales-oriented presentations. ProShow Gold is a bargain at US$69.95 (via download, US$79.95 boxed), but if you need support for text and charts, it would behoove you to spend a bit more for a product that can support your needs, such as PowerPoint. Luckily, you can download a free trial version of ProShow Gold before committing to the full licensing fee.
Installation and interfaceFrom the start, Photodex ProShow Gold is like no other presentation program. It occupies a mere 11MB of RAM, installs in less than a minute, and is easy to jump right into. If you do need help, Photodex includes a massive 362-page manual. Keeping in line with ProShow Gold's focus on pictures and video, the main interface has a prominent time line at the bottom and a preview screen on the right, much like a video-editing program. Overall, the main interface feels cramped, particularly if you're pulling components of your presentation from several open windows. Features
Photodex ProShow Gold places the priority squarely on audio, images, and video; text is almost an afterthought. Many presentation veterans will feel like ProShow Gold makes them do everything backward, but the results are spectacular. Rather than starting with canned templates full of clichéd backgrounds, you can start with any image as a background. The focus of the program is the File list, which shows you the resources you have on hand, such as audio, video, and image files. The program works with just about every file format you could need (it supports about 100 formats). Just click items in the File list and drag and drop them into the thumbnail of the correct slide on the Slide list below. You can add text by typing it in, but your options are very limited, especially compared to those in programs such as PowerPoint. Next, add transitions and music, and you're done.
You can customise just about every aspect of your presentation. For instance, double-click an image to adjust its colour, brightness, and balance, and even rotate it -- all from within the ProShow environment. While we like the autocorrect function for fixing low-quality digital snapshots, you can't crop images.
ProShow Gold provides hundreds of transitions and effects, and you can control their speed at a very granular level. You can even mesh two effects for a custom look. If you don't like the effect you just created, you're in luck: ProShow Gold allows for unlimited undos and redos, so you can go back and forth while deciding whether you like the effect.
Strangely enough, you can't do some basic things, such as put two images side by side on a single slide or print slides -- the latter of which is a key drawback when it comes to creating handouts. Output options are plentiful. You can instantly convert any show into a self-contained Web site or a screensaver; you can also burn it to various types of discs.
PerformanceWith so much emphasis on media, we were surprised at how nimble the program is. It never slowed us down, and in a thoughtful touch, the designers included a slider that shows the size of your file as you create it. Our test slide show took up 9.4MB, including the viewer. Support
Photodex provides lifetime support for the product -- a rarity in the software world. Photodex's Web site has downloads and tips as well as a link to e-mail support.
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Rob
09/07/2008, 02:51 AM
rating
9/10
Had tested different programs but not one gave the imagequality I got with ProShow. Great slideshowbuilder, worth the money.
Pros: - imagequality is great
- easy to use
- layers
- lots of possibilities
- easy to put music with the slides
Cons: - not to good with text, but acceptable
- separate timing for the different layers is only available in the Producerversion
- no gradient background
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Ross
28/12/2007, 05:18 PM
rating
3/10
like the reviewer said, the text function is so poor and it's difficult to use. I like using other photo slideshow software, such as DVD Slideshow Builder, Showbiz, phtodvd
Pros: multiple functional
Cons: too complicated to use for me, and the user interface is also bad.
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akuhata
05/04/2007, 12:34 AM
rating
8/10
i think that this a good program for family photo`s on dvd and slide show
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Patelmg
19/03/2007, 01:55 PM
rating
9/10
its very useful s/w for photo slide show
Pros: slide show with mpg song playing back side is very nice
Cons: In demo version there is stripe, which is very bad
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georges
10/03/2007, 01:44 AM
rating
2/10
ProShow Gold installed as administrator does not start up when I log in as another user. Please help
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Richard Earl
24/10/2006, 03:54 AM
rating
9/10
Neophyte user pleasantly surprised!
"Know how" is the key to using almost any tool. ProShow Gold may be likened to a Steinway Grand Piano... in the hands of talent, the result is superb... but even "Chopsticks" sounds better. ProShow Gold doesn't teach HOW to create a good slideshow, which is instruction that many of us need, but the Photodex site does at least provide examples of WHAT it can do. Perhaps expecting any software to teach us how to tell a visual story well is expecting too much!
Pros: ProShow Gold's "smarts" greatly assist us less talented "artists" to look more accomplished and polished than we really are. When I select a motion or transition I'm often thrilled to see a result far better than I expected. I doesn't matter that I don't really know what I'm doing... ProShow Gold does! I love it!
Cons: I'm too new to slideshow production to point out faults that are most likely MY ignorance rather than limitations of the program. So far I've found ProShow Gold does what I TELL IT TO DO... it's not the program's fault if the result may not be what I WANT.
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AmandaRadders
03/09/2006, 10:59 AM
rating
2/10
IF IT COULD ACTUALLY BURN AND PLAY ON DISC OR ONLINE IT WOULD BE OK
WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY - AND I WASTED PLENTY OF IT ON DISCS AND SO MANY FRUSTRATING HOURS INSTALLING, UNINSTALLING, COPYING THIS OUT OF THIS DIRECTORY ETC ETC BURNING AN ISO IMAGE FIRST THEN BURN WITH NERO - BLAH BLAH - CRAP.
Pros: easy to use, great effects, professional looking slideshow
Cons: It is temperemental to put it mildly. I HAVE WASTED HOURS & HOURS AND PLENTY OF MONEY $$$ ON DISCS that didn't write. I spent months in collaboration with the techies to overcome this and no matter what they suggested IT JUST WOULDN'T WORK. They sent me a spindle of dvd's to appease me but when after over 12 months of 'giving it a real go' they REFUSED to refund my purchase price stating that it was over 12 months since my purchase. I pointed out that I had been in 'discussion' with them since the very start with documented emails to prove this - but got no further response from them. I COULDN'T GET THE SLIDESHOWS TO WORK ONLINE EITHER - NOT EVEN ONE
So....if you have got spare MONEY TO THROW AWAY then I suggest giving it to charity as they need your money more than Photodex.
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ampvic15@yahoo.com.au
25/08/2006, 12:29 PM
rating
6/10
Some cons on Proshow Gold
It would be nice to have a "save to tif format" to increase archival length.
Cons: 1. the trial version does not tell you that you will have "evaluation" on your show (this was also not stated on the "Digital Photo Magazine" Edition which I paid for. So don't waste a lot of time on your trial.
2. When adding titles the trial version default is set to "add to all slides". Changing it to the individual slide means you need to save the title and then reopen it and change the setting in the left hand top corner.
3. finding your saved presentation via file open is not so easy
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Canadian Dude
12/08/2006, 04:24 AM
rating
10/10
awesome
Great for creating a vacation video to share and show. Got 150 digital pics and some movie clips from vacation? Use this baby and make a DVD movie out of the pics, movie clips and add some music.
Pros: Takes 1 hour to make a movie from your vacation pics and clips. - just add music.
Cons: took a bit of tome to figure out how to turn off the video clip sound as it interferres with the music you add - just makes an annoying sound if you mix video clip sound to music.
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