Today, lets take a look at how a highly regarded U.K. based software developer, Serif Software – a company which understands that the World Wide Web is indeed, World Wide – generates interest in their product line. With over 6 million customers, Serif is a strong player in the application marketplace.

Recognizing, that restrictive download policies are a non-starter – Serif seems to be driven in this respect by – You live where? We don’t care! You want it?  You got it!

Serif had, for years, provided free access to slightly older full versions of  their full product line – top quality popular products which I’ve reviewed here many times. Here’s a stat which helps put some perspective on how just popular Serif products have been on this site alone – 71,000+ download clicks in the last 3 years, or so.

Now here’s the puzzler – virtually all of those clicks came from European and Asian users. I suspect, that’s a factor of name recognition in local markets.

There’s been a major change since I last had an opportunity to drop in on the Serif site (a visit prompted by the Acronis offer) – a very positive change, I think. Serif’s focus is now on providing Starter Editions of  all their current software.

I use Starter Editions of several popular applications – including Microsoft Word (who can afford MS Word on every machine  ). While Starter Editions do not have all of the features of the full product – generally, I’ve found these applications meet, or exceed, most of my needs. Realistically though – that is not always the case.

Application available for download include – desktop publishing, image editing, graphic design, web publishing, and more.

As an added bonus – free web templates, as well as free print templates, are available for download.

Please note: As is so often the case – you will be required to “open” an account.

Following which you’re good to go – as illustrated below.

Subsequent downloads will require you to sign into your account. Having downloaded several applications this morning, including MoviePlus and PagePlus, I was pleasantly surprised to see how simple subsequent downloads are.

Just another day in Toolbar land – so, caution is the byword – as always.

All Serif applications are Wizard driven so, don’t worry if you lack experience in using a particular application – here’s a quick shot of MoviePlus Starter Edition which I’ve just opened to take for a quick spin.

System requirements: Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download at: Serif Software