Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 Photo Management Software
If you've been checking out photo management software, you'll know that the last version of Microsoft Digital Image Suite did not have much to offer
compared to other photo organizers available when it was released.
This time around, however, Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 has many
useful features to offer that make it a worthy consideration for people
looking for a program to help edit, organize and share their digital photo
collection.
This review takes a closer look at what Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 has
to offer, and will help you to decide if it is the right choice of photo
organizer for you.
A Well-Structured Library
Many new useful features are on offer in the Library section of Microsoft
Digital Image Suite 2006 – the most useful being the ability to add keywords to
pictures to help organize them more efficiently, and a 5-star rating system
which allows you to rank your favorite photos.
The keyword feature doesn’t just have to be utilized as a long list of keywords
either – you can set base keywords and then sort other keywords under them,
creating theoretically bottomless groups of categories for your photos.
Dynamic New Features
Microsoft has decided to include their video slide-show tool Photo Story 3.1,
which allows you to create visual presentations of your photos with motion and
music effects. This far out-performs Photoshop Elements’ similar tools and
remains a nice addition regardless of the fact it can be download for free from
the Microsoft website.
New graphical features - like the addition of larger
pop-up thumbnail images that display when you hover the mouse pointer over the
smaller thumbnails – are a nice addition, and the ability to resize photos and
connect to handheld devices to perform uploads is a useful feature for those
wanting to transfer images to cell phones and PDAs. The included support for RAW
image files is well received, but this only works for images from Canon and
Nikon cameras.
Shortcomings
Although Microsoft seems to have put a lot of thought and effort into Digital
Image Suite 2006, it is far from perfect. The user interface is not as clean
looking or easy to use as other photo organizers, and the small number of new
features that were not present in previous versions do not really make it shine
above similar programs.
Sure you can make adjustments to your images in a few new ways, but there is
nothing you can’t already do with Photoshop Elements 3 or Picasa 2, both of
which seem to have more on offer overall compared to Microsoft Digital Image
Suite 2006.
Conclusion
This brings us to the end of the Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 review.
Although it may not seem to be the best photo organizer available, it doesn’t
mean that you shouldn’t give it a try.
It’s a shame that the user interface leaves so much to be desired – there is a
lot that this program can do but it probably can't beat the others available out
there. You can check out several similar programs - such as Photoshop Elements 3
and Picasa - to get a feel of what else is on offer and find the one that best
suits your needs.
Easily Organize
Your Digital Photos
If you're getting bogged down by thousands of digital photos, then you need a
good photo management program. One program that I like to use is ACDSee from ACD Systems.
This software allows you to organize your photos easily using a keyword tagging
system, while providing a full suite of photo editing and sharing features.
ACDSee is definitely worth a look if you're in the market for photo software.
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Easily Organize
Your Digital Photos