Now for the good stuff.

If you were a member back in October, l997, you would have read my review of the previous version of American Greetings CreataCard2, a Micrografx product. I quite literally raved about it. This time around it is almost a question of "Can You Top This". And, believe it or not, American Greetings, (bought by Mindscape, a Division of the Learning Company) has topped the previous version in their latest creation, American Greetings CreataCard Gold 3.

This newer version has more of everything. More Greeting Cards, more clip art and designs, more products. You can do envelopes, labels, stationery, signs, stickers, gift tags, postcards, awards, business cards, calendars, banners.......all this in addition to multimedia cards. The multimedia cards are wonderful. You have great animation together with appropriate, pre- recorded sounds and music. The cards are fun to create and a joy to receive. This version also allows you to import your own photos and place them in a card. This is a great idea for photography fans who want to send photos along with greeting cards.

In addition to the "More Of Everything" that this application has, it has something that I consider super special, and that is the ability of creating your own card from scratch, or changing a card already made to ‘tailor‘ it to your special requirements, and then email it. This email feature did not work well in previous versions. This one however, worked extremely well.

Their description on the box indicates that in addition to the 14,000 projects and designs included in the application, you can choose from thousands of additional designs by opening the special Content Variety Packs, that come on the second disk, for a nominal charge, just by calling them, and they will give you a special code that unlocks added content on the second CD Rom. The charges for the Variety Packs cost anywhere from $12.95 to $17.95. There are about 30 different variety packs, each containing anywhere from 50 to 300 different projects. The amazing thing that Mindscape has done, is that they allow you to preview the packet that you want to buy. You have to be in the application, and then change disks, and before you buy you can preview the packet that you are looking to purchase. This allows you to be sure that you never send the same card twice to the same person. If the kids in your family want to use it, they can use the Beavis Collection or the Popeye Collection, - and the list goes on and on. Incidentally, for the more risqué population, they even offer a "For Adults Only" collection. In addition, CreataCard recognizes many extensions such as .bmp, .fpx, .jpeg, .pcd, Kodak Photo CD, .pcx, .psd, .wmf, and uncompressed .tif. It also allows you import from Hallmark Connections as well. In other words, you can take a card from CreataCard and use something from Hallmark Connection, thereby making it a truly unique creation.

It goes without saying that it has many of the bells and whistles of past versions, like giving you choices on how to fold the card, whether it be quarter fold, trifold, or half page, etc. This application also does envelopes, which truly gives your card your stamp of creativity.

Mindscape also has a 30 day money back guarantee. On the box they indicate that theyare so confident in their product that if you are not totally satisfied, you just have to mail the software, original packaging bar code and an original or copy of the sales receipt back to them and they will fully refund.

You will also be interested to know that there is a $20.00 rebate on some specially marked boxes while supplies last - and that the rebate is until 12/31/99 - so you may have to scout around to get this special deal.