Saving money on landscaping mistakes with this software.
589725
I have had this software for about a week. I am very happy with it. It didn't take me very long to build the floor plan from measurements I took and had a 3D model to work with in less than an hour. I created a second floor plan of a relative's house and it took a little longer because of the more unique design of her home. Once you have the floor plan set you are ready to add details. You can adjust walls, add doors and windows, texture and paint walls, add flooring and of course design your landscaping. There are wonderful tutorials to help you learn the software. If you are at all familiar with design software, then learning this program is a piece of cake. If you have no experience with such software there could be a learning curve. If you just follow the tutorials one step at a time you should do ok with it. If you have no aptitude at all for drawing or spacial perception, or have limited computer experience this software will be difficult for you. There is a 90 day refund available so there is no harm in trying it out. There are some minor quirks but over all I'm very impressed. I highly recommend that you set the age of growth to a midrange, around 8 years and then set the age of your plants individually. Because of pruning, it is unlikely that all of your bushes and hedges will ever reach full size.
I primarily purchased this software because I was having trouble deciding what trees I want to add to my landscape and where to plant them. For that purpose it is excellent. It provides a wide variety of trees, shows you how they will look at full growth, and tells you what requirements they have (light, zones, soil, etc,) It cost me less than $60 for software that has already saved me hundreds in trees I don't need and mistakes I might have made in planting or choosing the wrong species.

The reasons I didn't give it a solid 5 star rating are mostly just because I'm picky.
I'd like to have hedges that I can adjust size and shape of that are not affected by age progression and an age stop option for other plants. For bushes and trees that have pruning options it would be nice to have more customization, crepe myrtle, coupon holly, etc.
So far, I have only found one glitch in the program and have not yet contacted Punch to discuss it. Some of the furniture I placed in the house is no longer showing up in the floor plan where I can manipulate it but still shows up in the 3D render.
(Edit: I just discovered that I placed the furniture objects in the landscape tab, not the floor tab which is why I could not see them. Remember to add elements in the right tab. I am glad this is an option because many furniture objects would be nice to have available as landscape elements.)

I am happy with the software. I would recommend it to a friend.
108294
I used to spend hours in post editing to get the correct color and temperature of photos I took.  This product just solved that issue for me.  It is a little costly but the amount of time you will save. . . is the money you will earn.
4620543
Most people have no idea how much water they waste. Up to now, the only way to save water was to constantly monitor and adjust your sprinkler controller which is not quite practical if you have a life.  This product is incredibly easy to install and use.  However, it will forever change the way you have been watering your plants.  Instead of knobs and complicated dials, it lets you program your watering schedule graphically from the PC with really cool user interface.  But where this unit shines is that after initially setting your schedule, you can forget about your sprinkler watering.  It checks the weather forecast daily and adjust the watering based on how hot/cold or humid/dry the weather is.  It stops watering when it rains.  These guys have turned one of the most boring devices into a cool gadget that helps you save water and keeps your plants healthy.
On the down side, there is no Mac OS version and the prices can get get  expensive if you have more than 8 zones unless you can get rebates where you live.
2760704
Excellent software that continually examines files coming in off the Internet and scans through files - mostly running in the background and not interfering with programs running in the foreground. As I'm off a couple of months from the Norton introduction date, I'm able to pick up the software about $15-25 cheaper than off the Norton site and still get a year's worth of coverage.
2035239
This is a pretty nifty piece of software. I worked my way through the the tutorials that come with it and then went on that evening to design and begin working with my block.  Yes, there is a learning curve, but the tutorials are very well done and the software is fairly intuitive. I really like being able to import my own fabrics into the designs and try them out before a single cut is made. I see myself using it a lot in the next few years.
2675757
This is a great buy.  Golfers who have more expensive ones have told me they are going to get this one because of being easier to use, and the programming feature for correcting yardages for front and back of individual greens on any course and saving them is a big plus.
3032039
Unless you've used this sort of app before, plan to put in some time viewing the tutorials, and learn how to search the knowledge base when you run into a snag. It's a great piece of software for creating a home design. I've run into a few snags with some of the features, but their resources for resolving them are quite good. Overall I'm happy with the purchase and feel it was well worth the money just to be able to see the design in 3D.
4268416
This slim little book did everything it said it would.  I needed help with determining the slope of my property and I needed to brush up on my geometry for curves and pinpointing existing trees.  I love landscaping, but am not a professional, and I love to garden.  Though I hoped the book would help me improve my meager skills, I was happy to discover that it provided me with much more than a tool box to refresh my landscaping interests.  It's written clearly, has sketches that convey ideas well and lays out in manageable steps how to go about tackling one's garden or starting a design consulting business.  Like a bud opening to full bloom, this book will meet the reader's interests and provide encouragement and clear direction on the possibility of achieving more than one may have originally thought possible.
1213351
You know it's awesome when an accomplished landscape designer sees you using it and goes "Whoa, what's that--it's awesome." We love the, Rachio! My husband installed it and he would tell you he sits well between beginner and intermediate when it comes to home repair abilities. Being able to take pictures of your zones and use them as labels makes things so easy. And best part is this thing works like it says it will. So much easier than running down into the garage to turn on the sprinklers. Just whip out your phone and you're in business.
858320
If you want to do your owe taxes it's nice to have a software that keeps up with the current tax laws.  Saves a lot of time and money.
911756
I have a relatively simple situation that repeats each year, so I usually just do my own.  This year I decided to give this program a try when it was a gold box offer and in the end, I was impressed.  I bought the boxed version.  It installed easily.  It took a few minutes to figure out how to navigate, but not bad.  Entering my information was a breeze.  I really appreciated the little help boxes that I could click on to find out about a particular thing I was working on, eg. what was eligible for a deduction or credit or why the program did something.  I actually calculated my taxes by hand first to see how well I did.  For federal, it was pretty close.  For the state, the program alerted me to a credit I would have never found, especially as the state now does everything by pdf and who can read the whole instructions that way?  So this program got me almost $600 by catching that credit. Needless to say, I'm very happy.  After all was entered, the program checked the returns for a number of parameters (including audit risk) and then walked me through e-filing for both the state and federal.  It offered to print a reminder so that I wouldn't forget to include the state's add-on donations as charitable deductions next year, which is easy to forget.  It seems to be a well thought-out program that is very user-friendly. I will use this program in the future.

Update 2015.  Turns out I won't be using it again. The 2013TY version made a mistake (it changed a value back to an incorrect default when I reviewed the document.  Fortunately I caught it in time. I was able to reproduce the problem, confirming that it wasn't due to my being careless).  Even worse, using the software I made a mistake that IRS caught a year later.  The amount I underpaid was significant to me.  I would have had to pay it anyway, whether at the time of filing or as it turned out a year later, but it was shocking to get the notice (and penalty, though it wasn't so much).  Fortunately (?) my income the following year was much less so it didn't matter that I should have adjusted my withholding.  I'm going back to using a calculator and reading the IRS documents.
4768206
This is a fun and useful piece of software. I enjoy planning and working in it. The organizational tools are easy and intuitive. There's a bit of a learning curve, but, so  far, it's a pretty solid and reliable program.

If you're on the fence, give it a shot. It's worth it.
4056106
This was so easy to use. I also bought a box of landscape staples to help hold it down.  It prevented the mud  I usually have right at my back door step in late winter and early spring.  I threw down some grass seed and a little fertilizer also and the area is very green with beautiful lawn right now. It was easy to pull up also.  I actually rolled it back up and plan to use it again next year if necessary.  Love this.  Seemed like a reasonable price also.
4695631
I kind of stumbled on the idea that a greenhouse might help me as most things I've tried to grow usually end up dying in relatively short order.  Although most of that may be due to the caretaker (me), I got a lot of helpful tips from this book.  I've almost finished a little "starter" greenhouse already on my back porch and this book saved me several costly errors in the process.  I think once all is said I will have something that works for what I would like and I won't end up baking my plants- which would have been the result if I used the materials I had orginally planned.  So already this book has saved me a good amount of money and a ton of frustration too!  Excited to see the results!

The book is really easy to read too, and really spoke to me as a layman.  You definitely don't need to be a professional green thumb to get great value here!
4292995
found it easy to use.and very good results.  will continue to use.  saving money by not going to a shop.
1054388
I can do my own 2+ acre yard at a rate that will pay for itself in less than 2 years. Also I use it for the blacktop drive to clean it before top coating and light snow removal. Does it all.
1937563
TaxCut offers individuals a powerful option for preparing an income tax return that is relatively easy to use. TaxCut assumes that you know little or nothing about income tax law. The software will ask a number of questions and will prompt you for information based on your answers. It will help tremendously if you gather as many of your tax documents as possible before starting. This software is significantly cheaper than paying a service to prepare it and much easier than doing in manually.

The e-file option has been around for some years and is a great way to get your refunds faster. But if you owe money, there's not as much of an advantage.  Still, you get five free electronic filing so you might as well use one.  In the unlikely event that you plan to prepare more than five returns, make sure you use the e-file for the ones due a refund and file the ones with money due manually.  The program will print all the forms you need so it's easy to do and it will save you the cost of the fees for the additional e-files.

There are a couple of issues to take note of if you buy this version of TaxCut.  First, this version covers only federal tax returns and does not include a program for state taxes.  If you live in a state with no income tax, this is the version you want.  But if you do need to file with your state, you'll want to buy the&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/H-R-Block-TaxCut-2008-Premium-Federal-State-e-file/dp/B001HOD50K/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">H&R Block TaxCut 2008 Premium Federal + State + e-file</a>&nbsp;version.  Second, there are some tax tools not included in this package that would require the&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/H-R-Block-TaxCut-2008-Premium-Federal-e-file/dp/B001HO6Q7O/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">H&R Block TaxCut 2008 Premium Federal + e-file</a>&nbsp;version.  These probably won't be needed by everyone, but take a good look at the chart in the product description area to see if you will miss the features or not.

If you don't itemize your deductions and have a very simple return, you might be better off preparing the forms manually on your own. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you have a return with major league complications, you should probably go to a good CPA. For everyone else, this is really a no-brainer. It's inexpensive, easy to use, and accurate. I've been using TaxCut for quite a few years and would not even consider giving it up.