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Software Reviews & Tutorial Links

Here you can review software which may be helpful on TROCADERO. Where available, we offer links to online tutorials and reviews. TROCADERO is fully automated (including compression and creating "thumbnails") to reduce your dependance on photo editing software, but you should still become comfortable with an application to improve variables such as size, cropping, oreintation, brightness, contrast, color-balance and sharpness. You don't need the ones listed here if you are happy with another product

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Browser Software

This is not an extraordinary requirement. If you are surfing online you are already using a browser. As mentioned earlier, you need to be using Netscape Navigator 3.0+ or Microsoft Explorer 4.0+ to use TROCADERO's interactive maintenance features. Most of you are probably already using versions of these and will just need to be certain you are using the minimum required version in order to upload images and text to your online catalog. We are not going to get into the competitive fray existing between the two browsers. Please do your own comparative study. As a matter of service, we offer the observation that Explorer causes difficulties with its purported "security feature" of not reloading form results when you back-track your path with your browser. When you manually reload such pages, Explorer automatically resubmits the results - causing unwanted actions at times. We offer download links for both below. For purchased versions of the packages you can probably get support from Netscape for Navigator or Microsoft for Explorer.

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Adobe Products Help

Most of you should (or will) have Adobe PhotoDeluxe Home Edition as it comes bundled with practically any imaging equipment available on the market. You can now download an affordable Business Edition which Adobe has told me, via email, includes a compression capability (let me know if you try this). Of course, you can always purchase Adobe's full blown PhotoShop which does have compression capabilities. We have found little in the way of online help.

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Paint Shop Pro Tutorials

Paint Shop Pro is a "shareware" which can perform much of what PhotoShop offers. You are asked to purchase an affordable license after a 30 day trial. You may find several of the features strange if you learned on PhotoDeluxe, but Paint Sho Pro does offer a good compression application.

"Web Graphics on a Budget", by Mardi Wetmore, offers "Paint Shop Pro Tips & Tricks", "General Web Graphic Tips", "Free Graphics, Buttons and Fonts" and "Links to Web Graphic Pages" where you can find more links, bargain prices on software, and free stuff.

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Image Magick Links

Image Magick is a copyrighted "freeware" which addresses all photo graphics and compression needs. The page we refer you to has instructional links and links to related web pages. You may download Windows or Macintosh versions from there. We have reviewed and tested the features of this program and have found it to be quite effective and capable. You may have to get used to the compression scale being expressed in reverse (the usual "safe" level of 15 to 25 is, instead, 85 to 75 on Image Magick) and the control panel looks like an airplane cockpit. But if you aren't yet comfortable with a different application we highly recommend this as a 100% free solution to all your graphics editing and compression needs in a single package.

Review Further Before Downloading

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