DISAPPOINTMENT CITY!!! An odyssey into the world of click art.  I’m really into graphics.  I love them, and do a lot with them, so that when Broderbund came out with Click Art 35,000, Click Art 65,000, and Click Art 125,000, I decided to go for the middle of the road and purchased the Click Art 65,000.  I found that there were five disks in three formats, WMF, JPEG, and TIF.

Their packaging indicates that "using the images is as easy as pointing and clicking or quickly importing them into a variety of applications such as Adobe PageMaker, Print Shop, Corel Print House, Print Artist, Print Master, etc."  It sounded like it was something that I would really enjoy having...being able to point and click 65,000 images, especially because I had all the applications that they listed.  As the packaging further indicates, all you add is imagination.

Well folks, - it just doesn’t work that way.  I did something that no one should do.  I ASSUMED that all 65,000 would work in all the apps that they listed.  It doesn’t.  After opening the box, Broderbund was kind enough to put a "Reference" sheet.  Part of it indicates that "different computer applications or programs are able to import SOME image formats, but not others.  Look to the CompuPic Image Browser section of your Users Guide andVisual Catalog to find instructions that will allow you to use your Image Browser as a CONVERTER."  AH! HAH!  Now is when you find out that it is no longer just a point and click, and you have to go through all kinds of gyrations to convert.

After many emails back and forth to the Broderbund Tech, I finally got the message that "The TIF files in our 65,000 Image Pak are in a LZW compression format.  This format is not accepted in some software packages, including Print Shop.  The JPEG files are new and not many programs support this yet in their IMPORT feature.  The latest Print Shop program does."  (I have Print Shop Ensemble III, - and it doesn’t).

I sent this application back to Broderbund because as the box says "Satisfaction Guaranteed - 90 day money back".  This was not smoke and mirror advertising. Indeed, they did refund, and I was very grateful.