3 Different Review
Review 1
newnovelist isn't worth anywhere near fifty dollars. The story types/categories are extremely limiting and don't even come close to portraying the full range of possible genres that a novel can fall into. Once you finish the "wizard" (which is where you title your story and choose a category) the program isn't interactive at all. There are no prompts and the help is vague and doesn't cover more than the most basic principles of how a novel is structured. You learn more about writing a novel by reading good books than you do from newnovelist's help sections. There's no text/grammar editor. There's not even a spellcheck. The one saving grace is that it does allow you to take extremely detailed notes about every possible element of your novel, and to access them conviently while you're writing. However, it doesn't offer any help in creating a timeline or outline for your story, so there's no real way to bring those notes together. All it has is a universal notes section where you can write your own timeline without any help from the program. It's slightly more convienient than keeping your notes in Windows Notepad and having it minimized while you work, but outside of it's organizational properties, it does virtually nothing. Microsoft Office 2000 offers more in depth and useful advice about writing structure and style than newnovelist does. Because I already have it, I'll keep it just because it DOES help me with my notes, but given the choice again, I wouldn't buy it.
EDIT: I would like to add that when I emailed the people at newnovelist to complain, their response was fast and courteous. They actually went to the trouble of calling me on the phone to remind me that newnovelist comes with a money back guarantee. When I told them that I had done too much work on my story with newnovelist to return it, they offered me a free copy of the upgrade, which is coming out later this summer. They also told me that the 30 day guarantee is basically a guideline and that if I still wasn't happy when they send me the upgrade, I could return both for a refund. I've never encountered a company that took the satisfaction of its customers so seriously. Although I haven't gotten the upgrade yet, I've been told that it not only has a spellcheck and editor, but that it also addresses several other concerns that I had directly. I look forward to using the new program, and I'll come back and let everybody know if it's any better.
Review 2
I ordered this a few days ago, the package arrived yesterday and I'm absolutely thrilled with this program. I consider myself to be an experienced writer, but it has taught me many new things and I'm very pleased with it.
It takes you right from the beginning of writing any kind of story, and takes you through each step. It doesn't give you all the answers, and the finished result won't be a clichéd or formulaic story. Don't think that this program will just hand you the skeleton for your story. Rather, it shows you examples of other skeletons and informs you about what pieces you might think about including. At no point does the program restrict your creativity.
The software is divided into sections, where you can design the book's different worlds and locations (including sections with everything from economical history to creatures to the smells of the place), your own characters (with lots of helpful hints to get you started and many different screens to develop your characters in), the storyline and much more.
I'm very glad I bought this product and I think that any future author needs this useful piece of software. It's turned about two hundred documents of scrappy, disorganised notes into one neat file and my writing is storming ahead. I fully recommend this product.
Review 3
This program is really good for organizing your thoughts. If that was all I wanted to use it for I would have given it 5 stars. However, there are some vast deficiencies. The biggest problem in my opinion is with the text editor. There is no spell check, you cant tab to begin new paragraphs, you can't change your font or write anything in bold, italics, or underline, cant set margins, cant indent, etc. Basically the text editor is non existant. Its a shell and thats all.
Aside from that I feel like it doesnt really fit for all kinds of writing. The descriptions in the story creation part are vague. They say that they are like that to give you room for imagination. But the problem is that they are so vague its almost as if it told you nothing at all. They kind of dont make any sense.
It seems to only offer one view point to a story. Their process is stuck on Hero vs. Antagonist. There is no story line for two heroes or two antognists. Plus the antagonist is assumed to be bad when not all books have a bad character in that sense. For example, this doesnt really work for romances.
I found that as I wrote and then moved on to the next stage, that stage turned out to be what I thought I was already writing, or that I wasnt sure what stage what I wrote belonged in. I ended up abandoning that part of the program all together and went back to using MS Word. Now I just use it as a place to store ideas and organize my characters.
Their website says you can get a full refund if you arent satisfied but they offer no phone number or email address to do that and the support people dont write back. I started trying to get my money back over a week before the time ran out and no one contacted me. Now its past the date and I'm stuck with a program that doesnt quite do all it boasts.
Showing posts with label software Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label software Review. Show all posts
Thursday, September 11, 2008
ChemTutor Excalibur Software Review
3 Different Review
Review 1
In the product description and most of the reviews below, this software is presented as an interactive course and the Holy Grail for success in high school or introductory college chemistry. I made the mistake of ordering this software for my high school kids based on the product description and many of the 5-star reviews.
After I received the product from Amazon, I realized I should have paid more attention to a review posted by "marco" on July 4, 2004, who said: "I actually felt like a dupe for buying it". It also raised a question in my mind about the validity of the 5-star reviews, many of which have been posted in quick succession.
As pointed out by the previous review and also by "marco", ChemTutor assumes that you ALREADY know chemistry well. My opinion: ChemTutor is NOT a course, but a collection of multiple choice chemistry test questions with solutions, with the questions presented in random order of difficulty. One can get similar questions/solutions from the usual Chemistry test prep books, and most prep books also cover the basics. "ChemQuiz" might have been a more appropriate title for ChemTutor. I would have returned this product, but with opened software, that's not possible.
Unfortunately, even the ChemTutor software box says "A Complete Interactive Chemistry Course On CD", and has a quote printed on the back which says that with ChemTutor, "I could pretty much throw away my textbook".
This is probably the only instance in a few years of shopping on Amazon, where I felt misled by both the product description and "reviews". For that reason I feel compelled to post this, my first review on Amazon. For the misleading product description, I give this software a rating of 1 star; for the multiple choice questions, I give it 3 stars, resulting in an overall rating of 2 stars.
Review 2
I am a student of Chemistry AP course in high school. I took regular chemistry course during summer two years ago. Honestly, I forgot everything I learned. My memory's not so good. I was very worried when my teacher said we have a first big test coming up. Then, several of my friends recommended me ChemTutor Excalibur. They said it's great, so I tried it, and it was amazing! It explained many confusing stuffs in a very easy way, and "learn" and "explain" sections helped me more than my text book. Everything is organized very well. It was a great opportunity to experience many types of probolems. Also, great solution and explanation for every problem! I felt like I became a master of Chemistry! Indeed, I got 107 and 102 out of 100 in my two big tests that I took this year. I was very happy about that.
It is also very interesting to study with computer! It's not boring~!
I strongly recommend all of you to get this great helper!!!
ps: since it has very concise explanation, it's also very helpful for the international students!
Review 3
I have progressed quickly through loads of material in my Chemistry class, using only ChemTutor Excalibur. The "Learn" function effectively replaces your standard Chemistry textbook, and is all a student needs to learn either basic or advanced chemistry. Many students, including myself, have found the information on ChemTutor easier to grasp than its textbook equivalent.
ChemTutor is also wonderful for test preparation. It's the only tool I need to study! The textbook, the quiz preparation, and the sample term exams are all included in a single CD-ROM!
I wholeheartedly recommend ChemTutor Excalibur for the fastidious chemistry student, and for the teacher who wishes to do away with heavy textbooks. It's a lifesaver!
Review 1
In the product description and most of the reviews below, this software is presented as an interactive course and the Holy Grail for success in high school or introductory college chemistry. I made the mistake of ordering this software for my high school kids based on the product description and many of the 5-star reviews.
After I received the product from Amazon, I realized I should have paid more attention to a review posted by "marco" on July 4, 2004, who said: "I actually felt like a dupe for buying it". It also raised a question in my mind about the validity of the 5-star reviews, many of which have been posted in quick succession.
As pointed out by the previous review and also by "marco", ChemTutor assumes that you ALREADY know chemistry well. My opinion: ChemTutor is NOT a course, but a collection of multiple choice chemistry test questions with solutions, with the questions presented in random order of difficulty. One can get similar questions/solutions from the usual Chemistry test prep books, and most prep books also cover the basics. "ChemQuiz" might have been a more appropriate title for ChemTutor. I would have returned this product, but with opened software, that's not possible.
Unfortunately, even the ChemTutor software box says "A Complete Interactive Chemistry Course On CD", and has a quote printed on the back which says that with ChemTutor, "I could pretty much throw away my textbook".
This is probably the only instance in a few years of shopping on Amazon, where I felt misled by both the product description and "reviews". For that reason I feel compelled to post this, my first review on Amazon. For the misleading product description, I give this software a rating of 1 star; for the multiple choice questions, I give it 3 stars, resulting in an overall rating of 2 stars.
Review 2
I am a student of Chemistry AP course in high school. I took regular chemistry course during summer two years ago. Honestly, I forgot everything I learned. My memory's not so good. I was very worried when my teacher said we have a first big test coming up. Then, several of my friends recommended me ChemTutor Excalibur. They said it's great, so I tried it, and it was amazing! It explained many confusing stuffs in a very easy way, and "learn" and "explain" sections helped me more than my text book. Everything is organized very well. It was a great opportunity to experience many types of probolems. Also, great solution and explanation for every problem! I felt like I became a master of Chemistry! Indeed, I got 107 and 102 out of 100 in my two big tests that I took this year. I was very happy about that.
It is also very interesting to study with computer! It's not boring~!
I strongly recommend all of you to get this great helper!!!
ps: since it has very concise explanation, it's also very helpful for the international students!
Review 3
I have progressed quickly through loads of material in my Chemistry class, using only ChemTutor Excalibur. The "Learn" function effectively replaces your standard Chemistry textbook, and is all a student needs to learn either basic or advanced chemistry. Many students, including myself, have found the information on ChemTutor easier to grasp than its textbook equivalent.
ChemTutor is also wonderful for test preparation. It's the only tool I need to study! The textbook, the quiz preparation, and the sample term exams are all included in a single CD-ROM!
I wholeheartedly recommend ChemTutor Excalibur for the fastidious chemistry student, and for the teacher who wishes to do away with heavy textbooks. It's a lifesaver!
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Software Review
3 Different Review
Review 1
I'm a windows user. Always have been. But i'll definitely be looking at Macs in the future.
What i don't understand is how this OS only receives an 8.0. Ubuntu doesn't compare with either Vista or this one. Vista has so many versions, its unreal and a crappy security policy when you go to install it.
What's not to like about OS X? You can boot up much quicker, don't have the drivers mess, has more features, and is easier to use. It's much more secure and is just a seamless OS without the bloat Vista has and doesn't suck the resources.
Review 2
First of all, I have OS X 10.5, don't ask how. I've used everything from Windows 3.1 to Vista Ultimate, and I can tell you with all certainty that OS X kills them all. Tiger killed them all. Leopard is just over kill. And you have the balls to give it an 8.0!?
What is this 'Apple Complex' you idiot reviewers have against Apple? You can't give an apple product more than 8.3 NO MATTER HOW GOOD IT IS. NO MATTER HOW IT COMPARES TO VISTA. You're so full of **** it's indescribable.
Either raise the rating to it's well-deserved 9.0 or higher or this site has no reputation anymore. For anything.
Review 3
As a long time PC user, I was excited last year to purchase my first Mac. I went with the Macbook Pro since I frequently need to multitask and I occasionally enjoy a 3d game. After almost a year of use I have had 0 major problems with OSX 10.4 and have never needed to turn it off without shutting down. So I purchased and installed Leopard on its release date of Oct. 26th expecting it to be as stable as its predecessor. But after just few hours of playing with its new features I started to notice MAJOR bugs. First is that if I run on battery for more than 20min the computer immediately powers off. The second problem is that every time I have a problem with a wireless network the computer locks up and informs me to hold down the power button until it shuts off. The final major problem that I have encountered is that after just eight days of use the computer began to lock up every time it started and I eventually needed to reformat the main disk. These problems along with a laundry list of other minor glitches are problems I would expect with Windows, not OSX. But Leopard is not all bad; as a heavy miltitasker I find spaces and the preview feature to be VERY useful, and Time Machine seems like it would work well if you have a large backup hard drive (500GB+). Overall Leopard is a brilliant and an ahead of its time operating system, but I would not recommend it until Apple works out the many bugs.
Review 1
I'm a windows user. Always have been. But i'll definitely be looking at Macs in the future.
What i don't understand is how this OS only receives an 8.0. Ubuntu doesn't compare with either Vista or this one. Vista has so many versions, its unreal and a crappy security policy when you go to install it.
What's not to like about OS X? You can boot up much quicker, don't have the drivers mess, has more features, and is easier to use. It's much more secure and is just a seamless OS without the bloat Vista has and doesn't suck the resources.
Review 2
First of all, I have OS X 10.5, don't ask how. I've used everything from Windows 3.1 to Vista Ultimate, and I can tell you with all certainty that OS X kills them all. Tiger killed them all. Leopard is just over kill. And you have the balls to give it an 8.0!?
What is this 'Apple Complex' you idiot reviewers have against Apple? You can't give an apple product more than 8.3 NO MATTER HOW GOOD IT IS. NO MATTER HOW IT COMPARES TO VISTA. You're so full of **** it's indescribable.
Either raise the rating to it's well-deserved 9.0 or higher or this site has no reputation anymore. For anything.
Review 3
As a long time PC user, I was excited last year to purchase my first Mac. I went with the Macbook Pro since I frequently need to multitask and I occasionally enjoy a 3d game. After almost a year of use I have had 0 major problems with OSX 10.4 and have never needed to turn it off without shutting down. So I purchased and installed Leopard on its release date of Oct. 26th expecting it to be as stable as its predecessor. But after just few hours of playing with its new features I started to notice MAJOR bugs. First is that if I run on battery for more than 20min the computer immediately powers off. The second problem is that every time I have a problem with a wireless network the computer locks up and informs me to hold down the power button until it shuts off. The final major problem that I have encountered is that after just eight days of use the computer began to lock up every time it started and I eventually needed to reformat the main disk. These problems along with a laundry list of other minor glitches are problems I would expect with Windows, not OSX. But Leopard is not all bad; as a heavy miltitasker I find spaces and the preview feature to be VERY useful, and Time Machine seems like it would work well if you have a large backup hard drive (500GB+). Overall Leopard is a brilliant and an ahead of its time operating system, but I would not recommend it until Apple works out the many bugs.
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