Amazon.com Product Description

Transform your reports, spreadsheets, memos, presentations and Web pages with just a few mouse clicks. Harvard Instant Charts coordinates the graphic elements for you wit layouts, colors, textures, illustrative charts, and graphs to create powerful, high-impact communications. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A chart is worth 1000 words & this program is a bargain!
This has to be one of the most valuable graphics utilities I own - and one of the most amazing.It sits in my system tray waiting for me to invoke it, and when I do I'm greeted by an instant chart menu that pops up regardless of what application(s) I happen to be running.From there I select the chart type I need and make the chart.

There are eight categories of chart types provided with this program: Groups (accents, headings and categories), Relationships (org charts, orbit, triad, pyramid and puzzles), Processes (flow, fan-in and -out, flow-in and -out and cycle), Comparisons (pro & con, ratings, quadrant, and stock arrows and tables), Tables (simple, grid, rows, columns and totals), Charts (bar, column, pie, pyramid, line and area), Lists (bullets, checklist, paragraphs and quotes), and scheduling (agenda, time line, Gantt, and various calendar types).

Because I am a consultant who does a lot of writing and need to convey the most information with the least page count I use this program all of the time.My favorite tools are time lines and Gantt charts, which are intelligent enough to add dates and watch them auto adjust bars.Comparisons are another group that I frequently use.If you are familiar with the Boston Quadrant, then you will love the fact that you can produce one in mere minutes.Also, you can enter labels and select a different display type and the program automatically transforms to what you select.This is great for quickly examining the best way to display information.After you have your graphic laid out to your satisfaction you can add textures, select color themes and backgrounds with a mouse click and selection.A finishing touch is the ability to add callouts and other graphic elements to add flair to your graphic before saving it.Once you are done you save your masterpiece as a Gif file and insert it into your favorite application. I have inserted my graphics into Visio, Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint.I have also used them in web pages.

If you spend a lot of time writing and need a quick and easy way to show with pictures what may take the proverbial thousand words, then this is a "must-have" program.I don't know how I ever got along without it. ... Read more

Features

• Choose from 36 pre-made chart and box style templates
• Easily import and manipulate pictures to give life to boxes and backgrounds
• Create phone lists, salary tables, head count rollups, directories and profiles
• Perform spreadsheet functions on data in chart boxes, such as rollup totals, averages, fractions and standard deviation
• Create, view and edit OrgPlus-created files from within Microsoft Office

Features

• Organize your ideas, focus your team and prove to investors that you have a real business
• Forecast your costs, profits and cashflow and present them a powerful and artfully designed set of charts
• Cover all the bases -- allow for market size, demographics, financing, ROI and other important business issues
• Five different types of plans available for your business' specific needs
• Drag-and-drop tools let you add tabs, formatting, text and all kinds of other options

Reviews (4)

Used the BizPlanBuilder 2004 version
I've just used the BizPlanBuilder 2004 version and it is the best business planning software out there. (I purchased the leaders and found this one to be the most flexible, usable and real.) I was also blown away by how much is included to help me implement my plan, as well as the extra info is available on their website! I even called a few times with some questions and they were always right there. (Even one time on a weekend!) After I watched th evideo, I was convinced that the JIAN people really know what they are doing and are solidly behind their products (looks like an entire suite!).

Beware - 2004 New Version Does Not Work
I purchased the newest version of BizPlanBuilder on 1-09-2004 and I have been unable to open the Word documents to edit. I've tried this software under Windows 98SE and Windows XP Home. I updated Microsoft Word to the SR-2 version as per the authors web site and the software still does not work. I was surprised to find a company which is supposed to know so much about business does not have a patch or update availabe on it's web site. You have to email the company and ask for the update (if available).
It could be an anti-virus software program is interfering with BizPlanBuilder. But again, how much can they know about business if they don't understand how many people have anti-virus programs running nowadays.
If I could make my purchase all over again, I would go with another program. I'd rather pay $99.00 for a program that works than $49.00 for one that does not.

Fast and easy
For me writing a business plan is like pulling teeth. But I need the investment capital for my business and my investors want a good plan. BizPlan made it all sooooo much easier. The financials alone are worth many times this price. A consultant wanted to charge me $3,500 for the plan and twice that for the financials. I've done it myself in a few days and more important, BizPlan helped the numbers make sense so I could talk intellegently to my investors. Awesome product...I'll be checking out your other tools in a few weeks.

Entrepreneurs hate to plan
Planning is that which many entrepreneurs like least to do as they feel it is confining and subjects them to the rigidity of a fixed projections. Unfortunately, it is the lack of disciplined planning which is responsible for the failure of many projects which might otherwise have succeeded. The Jian BizPlanBuilder is an excellent product and I have found it useful... ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Quick Flowcharts 2 - not worthy of even one star
This product crashes unexpectedly.Micrografx does not even support the product any more.There are no patches available and the customer service people at Micrografx will tell you themselves that this product is not any good. ... Read more