# A Disappointing and Amateurish Effort



## glassyeyes

Wow; that's truly pathetic. My sister taught computer science; she would have smacked one of her kids on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper for such lack of care.

And they STILL have the webpage up for a free drawing-that expired May 31, 2011.


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## Bertha

It seems like they could rescue this effort, given that they've already scanned the originals. I hate Adobe. I tolerate photoshop but I hate everything about Acrobat. An the nag popups? forget it. In the medical field, the same idiots have turned to .pdfs for large documents. I kid you not, I have one that's over 5000 pages long of hi-res graphics. I've got 16 gigs of RAM, dual processors, and crossfired gpus and Adobe still manages to claim a lion's share of resources. If you're not on a gaming PC or workstation, I don't know how you'd open some of these files.

I feel your pain.


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## PurpLev

thanks for the review. it is truly remarkable that in todays technologies of OCR scanning that this would be presented in such a manner… and I won't even start talking about FLASH.. there is a reason why HTML 5 is developed to replace the use of the power savvy flash.


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## DocHamm

While it's great these are getting preserved before being completely lost, it's a shame they only input a fraction of effort into, what could have been, a great product. Too many publishers are lagging behind in the e-world and technology. PDF is ok for a few things, but since most files tend to be huge, it's outdated. Adobe needs to step ahead of the curve, drop Flash and re-vamp Acrobat. Publishers need to create apps and files that are usable by multiple devices and not target just one device and group of customers. Adobe has long fallen behind in technology leadership and gone down the path of other software companies … greed. We don't need new software every year to shell out money, not unless it's ahead of the curve, flexible, multi-platform and user friendly. Keep poking Adobe and either they'll respond or another company will surpass them, as is the way of the computing world.


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## helluvawreck

Thanks for the info because I have considered ordering one for myself.


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## 12ftguru

I suspect that unlike Popular Woodworking and Fine Woodworking, nobody at AW is very technically savvy. This tends to lead to the hiring of "consultants" and other acts of self-mutilation.


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## reggiek

Sad to hear. With all the exciting developments of new technologies, you would think they could at least get a simple text and picture (with database search index) right. I have the FWW compilation and use it all the time with great success - it is one of my favorite reference DVD's. Hopefully, PW will get it together on the next one? Thanks for a great review and for the heads up.


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## llwynog

Thanks a lot for the review. Glad I learned this beforehand.


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## 12ftguru

Tried that. The vendor said they had no complaints from other buyers, but they would pass on "my concerns."


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## ChunkyC

I would talk to AW directly and forgo the middle man. Maybe they could get your money back.

This is to bad. I was looking forward to getting the DVD in the future but I'll take a pass.

Flash. YUK! What morons…


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## mrg

12ftguru,

Thanks for the review. I design interactive pdfs for a living. The problem is most companies do not know the technologies that are out their or a still 2-3 versions behind. PDF is a great way to publish documents provided that they are set up properly. Adobe has a platform called Livecycle ES2 which is being revamped and relaunched as ADEP which is a powerhouse of an enterprise suite for web and digital media. It is going to take some time for the publishers to catch up and get on board.

FWW has an apology in the electronic mag section for the iPad and some other e-readers do to the fact that the vendor they are using for the conversions have not kept up with the technology and are working on getting everything squared away.


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## Tomas

I know you were looking to something interesting and useful - I am sorry you had to waste your money but thank you for saving our dollars - at least you did a good deed by warning us all.

I have a related beef with popular woodworking - their illustrations are horrible - unllike fine woodworking where I can figure how things are dimensioned, put together, joined, oriented, etc - not with the grade school quality of PW illustrations - this is the only reason I will not subscribe to PW - once they improve I am willing to give it a second thought.


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## JonathanG

Unfortunately, I'm in the boat with you. I ordered this about a week ago and it showed up on my doorstep earlier this week.

I have not had a chance to look at it yet, but it sounds like it's going to be a headache. I'll try to look at it over the weekend or early next week. If it's as bad as you've described, I'll be lodging a complaint with Peachtree, which is who I ordered it from. Is that where you purchased your copy?


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## 12ftguru

Yep. I ordered it from Peachtree. I had no luck with them, but I will email AW directly before sending this off to ebay.


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