Click 'N Design 3D

Review by Charles DeVore

As I started out to review this product, I had to force myself to run the program. To tell you the truth, I started out disliking this product; but after playing around with it for a while, it grows on you. After all, it's only a CD/DVD labeling program-what could be exciting about that? Well it's actually a pretty neat program with lots of hidden features.

Click 'N Design 3D uses 291 MB of space on my hard drive to store the things it needs to work. However, I tend to load everything I possibly can from a CD to the hard drive. This means there are no slowdowns as the product looks for items still on the installer CD. After I had used the product for a short period of time, I was not impressed with the re-draw of the screen when changes were made.

Contacting the company Stomp Inc., www.stompinc.com, they sent me a file to update my application from version 3.1 to 3.3.3. This helped the speed for the re-draw. So this is one of the first things to do if you are an owner of this product. I did this test using a Blue&White 350MHz G3 with 512MB RAM. This is a pretty old system; compared to the new computers Apple puts out now, it's pretty slow.

On first glance Click 'N Design 3D seems pretty simple because they have the QuickStart Wizard. After you have grown used to what it can do (which is a lot) it's time to move to the create-it-yourself mode. This is where the program shines-you can make just about any kind of label you want with this program.

With all that behind us, on with the review. Click 'N Design 3D always starts up with a hint on how to use it. These are nice reminders for the beginner or the new user. If for some reason they don't appeal to you, they can be turned off. One of the things that I did not like is the fact that the CD/DVD template always defaults to the Avery labels. It seems to me if you're going to use this everyday, you should be able to have it default to the labels you use. I happen to use Neato labels because I can find them locally in packs of 100.

Unless you are a graphic designer, using the quick designer is an easy way to have the program do all the work. So with "quick designer" checked you will be presented with the QuickStart Wizard's default CD/DVD selection boxes. Here is where you select layout, color scheme, font and background for your project.

My second label is a build-it-yourself not using the presets. I started out with a blank CD label and applied a horizontal gradient of the two colors of my choice. I then inserted circular text at 0 degrees and 16 point type. I also inserted a bar code, and Janet's name. All of this was pretty easy to figure out by poking around in the menus. Since most Mac users learn by doing that very thing, it should be fairly easy for new and old hands alike. As you can see by the examples of the menus, you can design just about any label lettering type you want. You can import almost any picture file into the template, so the only limit here is your own creative ability. The big failing of the program is when you want to have two pictures on the same CD on different layers, the transparency does not function (you get one picture or the other).

All in all I would rate Click 'N Design 3D as a must buy for people who wish to make formal labels for their CDs. The cost of the program is $19.99; it sells at most retail outlets and if you can't find it, contact the company at www.stompinc.com or by phone at (949) 263-8550.

Product requirements

• Power PC or greater,System 8.6 to System X
• 32 MB RAM minimum
• 30 MB free hard drive space but up to 320 needed if all the clipart is loaded
• a 16 bit color monitor that can do 800 by 600 or better resolution
• a mouse or other pointing device