Product: ClickBook MMX
Publisher:BlueSquirrel
Version Reviewed: 13.0.2.0
Class: Pseudo-printer. Creates banners, booklets, flip charts, brochures, greeting cards, posters, PDF files and more.
License: Commercial product. Free trial. Upgrade pricing (from earlier versions) available.
Operating Systems: Windows XP, Windows Vista , Windows 7 (32- and 64-bit)
For years, my choice of programs to create PDF files was BlueSquirrel’s Click2PDF. Ever since I saw it demonstrated at our local computer user group in the 1990′s, it’s been my choice. I used Click2PDF from Windows 98 days through Windows 7 32-bit on my old notebook.
I’ve tried a number of the free "print to create a PDF file" programs, but none were as powerful or flexible in the creation process. Not even Adobe Acrobat, granddaddy of them all, is as easy to use for printing from multiple documents or even multiple programs as Click2PDF is.
However, Click2PDF is not compatible with 64-bit Windows 7. For that, I finally had to try ClickBook.
ClickBook is Click2PDF on steroids. I’m sorry I waited to try it. In addition to creating PDFs, it can create booklets, flip charts, brochures, greeting cards, posters, banners and more — all by printing from any applications (note the plural) that will print. When you "print" from an application to the ClickBook Printer, the ClickBook program stores the output and displays it in
The license installed with ClickBook MMX, although strangely not the license displayed on the web page (which appears to be a more generic BlueSquirrel license), allows installation on a second computer for use by the same user as long as they’re not used at the same time.
I finally switched from BlueSquirrel’s Click2PDF to their ClickBook MMX program for my new desktop and notebook. I’m running 64-bit Windows 7 on both of them (Ultimate on the Desktop and Home Premium on the notebook). ClickBook has the same interface as Click2PDF had, plus it has a lot more — I’m quite impressed.
Clickbook MMX (ClickBook 2010) is the latest upgrade to ClickBook and works with Windows XP, Windows Vista , Windows 7 (32- and 64-bit). There’s a 15-day free trial, too, so you can try it first…
(click on the image for a larger version)
Note the table in the lower left-hand corner of the image above. This is showing multiple print jobs, all waiting within the ClickBook program. As you can see, I have un-checked two of the items; this will prevent their pages from being saved or printed in the ultimate document. I can re-check them to add back, if I want. I can also drag-and-drop the items to change the order in which they print or are saved (in the PDF file).
One of the optional settings, but not the default, returns you to this same window after printing or saving from ClickBook. That’s nice because it means you can save in multiple different ways (but the default doesn’t do this, so it drops all the temporary storage). You need to change one of the PDF options to make this work.
There is a strange bug that gives an error message when you try to print (via the Print button) or save as a PDF via the PDF icon in the toolbar. The message header says "Location is not available" with the detail "C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\Desktop is not accessible. Access denied." This would be Windows 7 blocking the access into the system directory, as it should.
The effect differs, howver, when you click ok and select where to save the file. ClickBook still shows you the standard File SaveAs dialog box so you can save the file. That’s fine. If you clicked the Print Button or the Print icon in the ClickBook toolbar, the program crashes. However, if you click the PDF button in the ClickBook toolbar, it creates the PDF without any problem.
There’s also a big improvement in the PDF from ClickBook versus one from Click2PDF. Click2PDF saved the print as multiple page images. ClickBook saves the outputs as the mix of text and images that was "printed." That means we can highlight and copy text from a ClickBook-created PDF that was impossible from Click2PDF.
How about the banner, booklet, poster, etc. creation capabilities? I really don’t know. I’ll probably use them one of these days, but that’s not why I bought the program. I wanted the ease of use of Click2PDF in a program that worked under 64-bit Windows 7. The answer was ClickBook.
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