Ease of Use:  

ACDSee is not very user-friendly. The options are extremely technical and in some cases there are too many things to adjust. It could be intimidating to the average home user. It appears that this program focuses more on functionality than form.

Importing:  

ACDSee starts by catalogging the images on your hard drive so it will find them faster next time. It will import files from a digital camera, scanner, and removable storage device (e.g. CD, floppy). When I chose "Aquire images", it automatically found my SmartCard (digital camera storage disk). It then gives you the option to rename the files as you copy them over and choose the destination. You can also choose to delete the files from the device after you've copied them.

Editing:  

ACDSee offers only the tools to fix the most common problems in photos. There are no tools to add to an existing photo. The editing tools consist of: Exposure, Color, Red-eye, Sharpness, Blur, Noise, Resize, Crop, Rotate and Effects. The editing is done in real time and it also brings up a separate "preview". I'm not sure why the preview box is needed because you can see the effect in real-time and even click on a tab that takes you back to the saved version. There are only about 7 effects. No layers, no clone tool, no clipart, no selection tools, etc.

Sharing:  

There are several ways to share your photos with ACDSee. There is an advanced slideshow creator that you can burn to a CD or share with others. You can create a web gallery with several customization options. Unfortunately, there are only 3 boring templates to choose from. Another great benefit from ACDSee is that you can upload your photos to a free digital image sharing service for 30 days. Then you can email all your friends to view your gallery online. You can create a custom contact sheet to print thumbnails of your albums or photos. There are also options to print photos on a sheet according to your preferences. Email sharing also has a lot of customization options. Again, the options are technical and probably overkill.

Output Capabilities:  

ACDSee provides 12 different file formats to save your images in. This is more than enough for the average user. The jpg file format has an "Options" button where you can modify its compression. This screen, however, is very technical and no "before and after" thumbnail is provided. There aren't even any compression options for GIF. If you do a lot of web optimizing, this is probably not the best solution for you.

Organizing:  

Organizing and previewing photos is one of ACDSee's strengths. The file browser is split into several tables. In one table, you can browse to the folder you would like to preview. In another, it displays all the thumbnails within the folder. If you select one of the thumbnails, it displays an even larger thumbnail (depending on how much space you give to the table). Right-clicking on a thumbnail gives you several options. You can create a slide show, rate the pictures, rotate, resize, rename, print, set as wallpaper, and view more information. If you choose "properties" it will open a new scrollable table that displays more information than you could possibly use including the EXIF (digital camera) data. You can also add keywords, rank the pictures, organize them into categories and add captions. This will help you organize the photos and perform advanced searches. In addition, you can create new albums to sort your photos or archive your photos to a CD.

Help/Support:  

The help for ACDSee is sufficient if not great. There is searchable built-in help that provides step-by-step instructions. Online, there is a support FAQ page and a community forum. There is no tutorial or searchable knowledgebase. If you need additional technical support, you can contact them through an online form or through fax or phone.

This product is only a good solution for organizing your photos. If you want the ability to creatively add to your photos, this is not the program you need. It does offer sharing capabilities but the templates are few and horrible.