Microsoft Publisher 2007 (PC)

I have always had a soft spot for Publisher and still use the 2003 version for my teaching and for producing teaching handouts. I haven't bought the 2007 version but have looked at it and it all seems very similar to what has gone before.

For the money, it looks very expensive these days and very poor when compared to products from Serif and the like. Also, remember the latest version of Word makes a good stab at being a half decent DTP application, at least for simple projects. Buying both really is bordering on duplication.

I think I would need a lot or persuading to part with £140 for something which is really a tarted up version of 2003. Most of the time I use a Mac and an application called Swift Publisher, which knocks the socks off Publisher and costs £25! If they can produce a quality app for that money then Microsoft are having a laugh asking for so much for such a dated and basic app as Publisher.

Other than an Office 2007 feel about it, strip away the eye candy and there's little new. Save you money and keep the 2002, or even earlier versions.

There is no denying that MS Publisher is one of the greatest programs ever written, and an essential component of any office package. I have been privaleged to beta test office 2007 including publisher for the last 6 months, and I am sad to say that although word, excel, and powerpoint have been radically redesigned, other than the fact it is now a garish blue, pubisher remains identical to the version Microsoft released in 2000. There is no flashy new ribbon or any attempt to integrate publisher into the vista backdrop. Instead it resolutly maintains the old menu interface, along with a distinctly windows 98 feel.

As I said before, this is a decent enough program, but it does no more than all the older versions did, without any of the new eye-candy we have come to expect from vista-era Microsoft.