Professional level desktop publishing software is expensive. Reading reviews and getting the opinions of others are great tools to help you decide where to spend your money, but hands-on experience is even better. Fortunately, many software publishers make it easy to testdrive their products through free trial versions (which usually have some features disabled) and fully-functional time-limited copies. Before you start downloading all those free trials, get some tips on evaluating software with trial versions then go download.

Trial software is a great way to get a feel for what programs work best. Generally I like the ones that just have a function or two disabled. For some reason those 30-day trials (such as for QuarkXPress) make me feel pressured although if you're in a hurry they are a good option because they are fully functioning.