Help choosing charting software

Donna, there is a Demo at this site (and most other sites that offer this software). A demo is your best bet to find exactly what you want at a price you can afford.

For my money - if you aren't planning on being a professional publisher, PatternMaker Pro is tops. Even to publish designs.

Dianne

D> Hi,

The only one I've tried is PatternMaker. I have an old version on floppy disk.

Their customer service is superb!!! When I bought my new computer (without a floppy drive), most of the files transferred over, but not the one that I needed to be able to run the program. I discovered this on a holiday weekend. E-mailed them, had a response within an hour, I told them which version I had, and they e-mailed the missing file, again within an hour or so.

Not only was I impressed that they had customer service on a holiday weekend, and the speed of it, but even more so by the fact that they were willing to send me the missing file for the old program instead of telling me to go buy a new program on CD. All I *really* wanted from them was the name of the file I needed, and I would've had a friend who still had a floppy drive e-mail me the file from my own floppy, so I was impressed that they went above and beyond what I asked of them.

It was probably a hidden file. Software makers always have a crucial file or two hidden to discourage illegal copying and transferring. So having the name alone wouldn't do you much good if the didn't also tell you how to locate the file.

But, I agree. They were outstanding in their service.

I don't do much designing, and I was fumble-fingered doing the little I've done, but Pattern Maker Pro has been perfect for my needs. Pattern Maker Pro seemed to give me the answers before I quite understood what the questions were. I don't think it's all that expensive either, so you get a lot of bang for your buck.

John

Another vote for Patternmaker Pro here. I also use Easy Cross.

Back when I started designing I bought StitchCraft for a lot of money. I was annoyed when I found out that Easy Cross would do want I want better and much, much cheaper. In the end I bit the bullet and bought Easy Cross, relegating Stitch Craft and its dongle (hardware that plugged in to the back of the computer to make it work) to a bottom drawer in my desk.

I now use Easy Cross for everything except my Little Ones cross stitch kits which I design in PatternMaker. I use the latter as it has a better export facility for the charts. You can check my site for the quality of patterns these two programs produce.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Carol Leather

Me 3. Or 4. Whatever.

And I heartily second Karen C.'s assessment of their customer service. I sent an email asking about a certain capability and while they said they didn't have it, they'd try to include it in the upgrade AND they answered my email promptly.

Just getting the response that it doesn't do something I needed it to do was better than getting no response it all.

I use Easy Cross since years, and am happy with it. I have tried numerous others, but never got comfortable wtih them.

Happy Stitching Sibille

Don't speculate -- I know for a fact that they will! :)

I miss 3.x.