How has it been for you?

[montevale]

Hello everyone,
I have not purchase Actinic, yet.
Doing some homework before I do the plunge.
Would you please comment on your experience with the product.
What you like, love or hate.
Any comment here would be much appreciated.
Thank you and have a great day.
Mike.

[chrisbrown]

I was sold on the product back in the days of version 3. We've come a long way since then and the product continues to impress. Every major release has incorporated great new features and they have always been ahead of the game.

Version 6 provides an excelent point of entry for users of any level. With the Actinic Catalog product both novice and advanced users can set up a sophisticated, fully functional on-line store. Integration with on-line payment services has already been done for you. The large selection of standard themes, colour schemes. etc. allow you to achieve a highly personalized result.

Actinic also offers incredible flexibility in visual design which can be exploited by the more adventurous. There are many on-line stores out there which only an expert could identify as Actinic driven. The possibilities are endless.

Actinic Business provides even more features for users requiring integration with other computer applications for stock control, order processing, etc. For example, you can set up accounts so that your regular customers can login and see special discounted prices that apply just to them.

This reply is already long but I have only just begun to describe what Actinic offers. You should be able to tell that I am a fan. I have not come across any other product that even comes close to providing what Actinic does so simply and cost effectively.

[fleetwood]

Hi Mike

I would back up all that Chris has said.

We are a year and a half down the line with Actinic, and this was my first attempt at putting together a web site. I looked at several shopping cart packages before settling with this one.

What you get in the box is excellent value for money - how you use it is up to you. You can literally use it straight out the box and have a good looking, functioning site up and running in a matter of days.

However, if you want to make your site look a bit less uniform, be prepared to get your hands dirty. I would allow a good 2-3 months to explore the software prior to going live, to see just how the templates work, and allow you to tweak them to achieve the look and functionality you are after.

I didn't find the process of adapting the templates that intuitive, in fact it was hard work finding what went where, and what did what at first, but if you are prepared to put in the work, then the software provides you with a lot of possibilities.

The exisitence of this forum is a great plus, as the wealth of freely offered and knowledgeable advice here is invaluable.

Good luck

Martin

[Mike Hughes]

I love using actinic. Sure it has it's downsides like everything else but the benefits are just too good to miss out on:

1. It does the whole lot. Creates the catalog/website, takes orders and processes them (right down to printing the shipping notes).

2. The pages it produces are very search engine friendly. No dynamic urls and session IDs.

3. The ability to customise the templates is a major bonus (but does require you to get your hands dirty with HTML).

4. The database is held on the PC and can be accessed using access and/or excel. Great for adding extra functionality if needed (either by yourself or using others such as Jan at mole end).

5. In my opinion the support from the Actinic team and other users is second to none and underlines their customer driven focus and the high level of user satisfaction.

The downsides are relatively minor and I won't make a big thing of them as Actinic usually know what they are and have a great habit of fixing them in their next release.

The one thing I wish they'd change is the need to buy Crystal Reports if you want to change the format of the Packing Notes and invoices/receipts.

Mike

[montevale]

Thank you for you info

Thank you for your information.
I appreciated your comments very much.
It is time to download a trial and give it a test.
Thank you.
Mike.