Scrapbooks are very popular these days. I think that almost everyone wanted to capture family histories and stories in any which way they can. And with the onset of digital technology, scrap booking has even extended to newsletters and journals with photos and illustrations online and in the email. They've become so popular that it's not surprising to receive an entire scrapbook from your relatives and friends and loved ones even across the globe.

With the advanced technology, people have been using graphic design and desktop publishing software to help them create wonderful and creative scrapbooks. Two of this well-known software is CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 and WordPerfect Office Suite 12.

Each of the software has their own endearing qualities. Both applications are used to create newsletters as far as I know. But what software to choose? It all depends on what you want to create.

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12

For graphically-rich family history newsletter or time capsule, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 would be the ideal software as it is the easiest graphics suite available in the market today.

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is a vector editing program. This software is definitely for illustration, page layout, and vector drawing. It has the Corel Photo-Paint for bitmap editing of photos and images for that professional digital imaging look. It has hundreds of clip art photos and images to choose from, which you can overlay your own family photos on top. It also has Corel R.A.V.E. 3 for motion-graphics creation.

With the software's features and vast collection of photos, clipart and fonts, you can create and design a professional-looking newsletter or a family history time capsule, and even a memorable album where you and your family will find the highlights of your life in wonderful and elegant designs made by you.

Corel's WordPerfect Office 12

And if you're the simple type, and you don't want too much clutter, you can use Corel's WordPerfect Office 12 to create a no-visual and text-based newsletter. The software has an array of newsletter templates you can use to help you start right away with your newsletter. This so far, is the best alternative to Microsoft Office.

Better yet, why not use both software to help you create your scrap book? One freelance newsletter designer who specializes in genealogy utilizes both software because the combination makes him complete his design tasks twice as fast. "I can create graphics in CorelDRAW 12 and quickly pop them into all my text-based WordPerfect 12 office documents because switching between files is very easy," he relates. This is made possible by the tools in both the software that reduce the number of steps required to finish his jobs.

He adds that what makes it more worthwhile is that aside from saving time, finger movements on the mouth is also reduced, thereby reducing cramps and strains from the fingers to the wrist.