I received Digital Image Pro under the ICON agreement that I would write a review to be published in the ICON newsletter. The learning process began. The book of instruction that comes with Picture It Pro (PIP) starts with a lot of information about photography, film cameras, digital cameras, and many things that can be done to improve your pictures. Some of the information in chapter two covers file formats, zoom features, battery life, exposure both automatic and manual, aperture, shutter speed, ISO equivalent, portrait and panoramic modes, and many tips for taking great pictures. The next chapter is titled "Successful Scanning." This covers many things you can do with a scanner and tips on buying the right scanner. Chapter four "Optimizing Your Monitor for Photos," explains exactly what the title says. What does chapter one cover? You guessed it, installation of the program on your computer. All of this before opening the program.

The installation was quite easy but I wish it had provided an icon for the desktop. In order to open the program I had to go to Explore and find the executable file that starts the program. There were three executable files and the one I least expected to be was the starter. Its name is PIP and the icon does not have a curved arrow on it to indicate it is a program shortcut. I copied this file to my desktop so I could start the program from there.

If you have ever opened a file to use with a word processor you can open a photo in Digital Image Pro. However, chapter 5 is in its entirety devoted to explaining how to open a photo in Digital Image Pro from a camera, a card reader, your computer, a web page, a photo CD or other disk, a photo received via E-mail, and scanning a photo.

Chapter 6 covers the fundamental basics of Digital Image Pro, beginning with the Startup Window. From here you can start everything from editing multiple pictures to creating a new project, and take a tour of the product. It also has links to the different videos available. These are excellent instructional videos on how to manipulate a photo. Once you get to the Workspace it contains the usual Microsoft Menu and Tool bars that provide access to all of the Digital Image Pro features and shortcut buttons to access some of the most common commands.

One of the tabs on the menu bar is Touchup. From here you can correct common problems such as red eye, lighting, and remove distractions in the photo. Because light sources have their own unique color you can end up with a cast to your photo that differs from the actual color. From Touchup you can adjust the Tint, and Hue and Saturation, to get the correct color. Facial blemishes and clothing stains can be removed. You can crop and sharpen your photos. If the subject in the photo was too far from the camera for the flash to lighten it you can add flash to lighten the foreground and bring out the detail. All of this is covered in chapter 7.

When you insert an object into a picture the object becomes a "Layer." A picture can have many Layers and each Layer can be edited, repositioned or changed in any way you wish. Each element that is added to a picture is considered an individual object; text, clip art, and some effects are considered separate objects. Within the Workspace there is an area called the Stack and each object (Layer) is represented by a thumbnail in the Stack.

To create projects, Digital Image Pro offers greeting cards, calendars, business cards and more. Calendars are available in weekly, one month, 12 month and one-year formats.

There are other chapters titled "Batch Editing and File Management," "Adding Edges, Mats, and Frames," "Saving Photos," "Sharing Photos." and "Printing Photos." Their title is self explanatory of what they cover. The last chapter, "The Best of Tips and Tricks" is by far the longest chapter in the book of instruction. It has articles on subjects for the photographer no matter what his skill level might be, and Technical articles about how to use cameras and camera equipment for best results. At the end of the book is a glossary and index.

The learning curve of this program is practically a straight line. The book of instruction is written in a straight-forward manner and in terms that anyone can understand. I have used digital imaging programs by Adobe and Corel Draw that I never really mastered or understood. This program is so easy to learn, I believe if you happen to be one of the people who have a hard time learning from a book, you could learn to use most of it from the videos that are included. I started using it just by viewing the videos before I ever read the book of instructions. Of all of the programs that are designed to accomplish one end, (in this case digital imaging) this is one of the best. Microsoft really got this one right.

Now that you have read my review, I can hear some of you say, "That Charles Roberts would say how easy a program is to use because he has been using computers for twenty years. It would be hard for me to learn it." If all of you will attend the March membership meeting of ICON you will be able to see just how easy it really is to use Digital Image Pro. I will demonstrate the program at that meeting.

By the way, the door prize for the March meeting will be Microsoft Picture It Digital Image Pro. Y'all come, ya hear! CER