Create

I used to really like Create. Unfortunately, the developer has effectively disappeared into the world of iOS, concentrating on Twitter clients and the like. Create relies deeply on built-in Mac OS X technologies, but those technologies have changed in the past couple of years, and Create is frustratingly out of date. I thought Free Upgrades For Life was generous, but I also thought it would last past the introduction of the iPhone. Unless this goes back into active development again, do not buy. I hope for the best, but don't expect much anymore.

I used to really like Create. Unfortunately, the developer has effectively disappeared into the world of iOS, concentrating on Twitter clients and the like. Create relies deeply on built-in Mac OS X technologies, but those technologies have changed in the past couple of years, and Create is frustratingly out of date. I thought Free Upgrades For Life was generous, but I also thought it would last past the introduction of the iPhone. Unless this goes back into active development again, do not buy. I hope for the best, but don't expect much anymore.

Running a small business I do not have the luxury of being able to outsource my web, brochure, manual, leaflet design to someone else. I have to keep a careful eye on cost. Some years ago I was lucky enough to find Stone Designs Create. I first rebuilt my company web-site then moved on to leaflets to promote my products. After this brochures and technical manuals. Today I am designing a logo. Create is also great for doing homework. Being able to do all this in one program means only one user interface to learn. Free upgrades, the important part here is upgrades, not only is Create ready to use the latest version of OSX when it is released. It is kept up to date and new features/requests are added. Take the latest version 13 updated to use CSS and output XHTML 1.0 to the web. All I had to do was open the site I had originally built in Create and output the web files as XHTML 1.0. Andrew Stones attention to detail made it simple for me to do and Creates new features keep my site up to date with the latest web thinking. Andrew is totally in tune with his client base, how they are using his software and what they wish to achieve through a thriving forum where you can quickly get answers and share ideas. Couple this with a quality manual included which is continually kept up to date. Free would be worthless without the above but in this case free is a bonus. This total product support allows me to concentrate on what I need to do to make my business work. Create has allowed me to communicate with my customers far more eloquently improving my business. Yes I can honestly say Create is part of my business success, thank you Andrew.

Everything looks great, except the Info inspector. Why does it have to be that big? There's so much unused space. Look at how Apple does the inspector in Pages and Keynote. It's so much smaller, and much nicer looking! Come on, how much time does one need to change that inspector to something with Mac aesthetic excellence?