I have known Photodex since the early days of computer graphics. They had one of the best, and quickest image viewers going, Compupic. It was a mainstay of my tool box and I recommended that to my friends who adopted it as well. I no longer use Compupic but I have been using another great product they make, ProShow. It comes in Gold and Producer versions and I use them to create the slide shows like those of Hagia Sophia. As an active member of the Photographic Society of Rhode Island, I got many users there and have established good relations with Photodex. They support PSRI through discounts and door prizes and we list them as one of our sponsors and promote ProShow and train members on how to use the product. They are terrific products for this purpose, I heartily recommend them to anyone interested in creating highly polished presentations with animation, transitions, and sound.

All this well and good, but I want to narrate something else that is not easily visible unless you experience it. Last week, I created a screen saver using ProShow Producer which would not install into Windows XP. I called Photodex and the tech support person recommended a process by which I could provide information to help them trouble shoot the issue. I followed the instructions and added a little more of my empirical trouble shooting results. I downloaded the latest version of Producer and was able to create the screen saver with that which installed properly. The support person helped me try a few other things, including a screen saver he created for me to try. He then asked me to download the trial version of the latest release of Producer and try it. Since I had already tried it, I gave him the result which was positive and added I would probably eventually upgrade the software so that I could do this kind of work.

The next morning I received an e-mail from him with a license code that would activate the latest version of ProShow Producer. A totally unexpected surprise! My version was about two years old. He had no obligation to give me a free upgrade to the latest version, but realizing that there was an unexplained glitch in the software that prevented it from doing what it was supposed to do. Apparently that was unacceptable to him and to Photodex to offer that upgrade, which I consider to be very generous. He did not even know of my relationship with Photodex on behalf of PSRI.

Companies like Photodex, and the support people like the one I worked with often get unmentioned in the sea of support disasters; so, I thought it would be a refreshing change for many to hear an extremely positive experience.

Thank you Photodex, thank you Jeremy.