ACDSee 6 wasn’t just bad—it was vindictive; it was a clunky monstrosity that buried unstable features beneath an interface resembling something you might find on a 1950s’ Russian submersible. But it seems that ACD Systems pulled a Silkwood on those responsible, because ACDSee PowerPack 7 is a dazzling, elegant return to form and functionality.

On launch, ACDSee 7 offers to catalog and thumbnail the images on any combination of folders, subdirectories, and drives, all without insisting that they be moved to conform to its own directory structure—it leaves the files just where they are.

When it’s finished cataloguing, it defaults to a simple, three-paned view: A Windows Explorer-style view appears in the top-left pane, a folder and thumbnail view appears in the right-hand pane, and a preview pane takes up the bottom-left. Each window is resizable, moveable, and configurable.

From here, every conceivable image-browsing task is a mere one or two mouse clicks away (thanks in part to a context-sensitive toolbar that monitors what you’re doing and then presents the most logical set of tools for that task). Our favorite feature is the Image Basket, a dumping ground where you can resize, rotate, convert, copy, move, or even email images. The effortless nature with which every image-management task can be accomplished is unparalleled.

ACDSee 7 falls short of a perfect 10 only because we feel its launch speed can be improved, and because we think the developer should have bundled its underrated PicaView application with the product. PicaView lets you instantly preview multimedia files with a simple right-click. Aside from that, ACDSee 7 renders image browsing, manipulation, editing, and sorting so easy—and so fast—that you’ll wonder how on earth the company will improve upon it. Skeptical? Download the trial version and see if you don’t agree.
—Logan Decker

Month Reviewed: September 2005
Verdict: 9 Kick Ass
URL: www.acdsystems.com

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