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It's no longer enough to have a Web site and a list of statistics. To make your listings and your business stand out from the crowd, consumers will judge you on how you present your information. It's good to hand potential sellers a list of recent home sales in their neighborhood. It's better to hand them a full-color chart. But it's best to present them with an animated, 3-D graphic -- a presentation that could animate that chart, or spin it, or make it clickable for more information on each statistic.

A strong marketing product is more than a luxury -- it's your representative in the business world. Often, a CD or Web site presentation gives potential clients an initial introduction to you and your services. Consequently, you want a professional high-quality Web site, newsletters, flyers and brochures. And, of course, you want that creative service at a fair price.

The creative process starts with presentation software. Good software creates something with style and pizzazz that people remember. Presentation software combines ideas, digital photos, facts and figures into polished professional marketing materials. It gives you access to a variety of graphics, fonts, charts and tables that can be used to customize presentations that reflect your personality.

The Tech Team waded through a number of presentation software packages and selected three for your consideration that have excellent applications for business use. The following chart compares Macintosh's Apple Keynote, Microsoft Publisher 2003 and Silent Flyer, part of the Silent Partner Suite:

	Apple Keynote	Microsoft Publisher 2003	Silent Flyer and Silent Partner Suite
Features	Professional caliber presentations with 3D quality graphics	Professional marketing and business materials. Updated headers and footers, toolbars, art and autoshape	Professional quality brochures. Silent Partner Suite allows CMA *
Best Use	Business use and Educators	Business use	Real Estate Professionals
Compatibility	MAC	PC with Pentium 133 MHz or higher	IBM PC or compatible 486 or higher.
Operating System	Apple Macos 10.2 or later	Microsoft windows 98 and windows 2000	Windows 98 or later
Size Requirements	1 GB Hard Drive and 128 MB Ram	180 MB Hard disk space	16 MB Ram 20 MB Hard disk space
License	1 user	1 user	1 user
Support	Online support options	E-mail and phone support options available	Maintenance agreement. Phone support Mon-Fri 9-5
Price	$88 - $100	$70- $150	$99 - $245**
Web site	http://www.apple.com	http://www.microsoft.com	http://www.rpis.com

* Competitive Market Analysis
** Silent Partner Suite/All three products

Have questions? Give the Tech team a call to discuss your needs.

Disclaimer: Product specifications are provided by the manufacturer and retailers, and may not be consistent with real-world performance. User experiences may vary. The Tech Team does not endorse or recommend any particular hardware or software; the items included in this feature are listed solely for your reference.

Copyright 2004 FAR