As a long-time reviewer for Macworld UK magazine, I originally used Suitcase 3, then switched to ATM Deluxe in July 2000 after reviewing ATM Deluxe 4.6 and Suitcase 9. Suitcase X didn't really change my mind but on moving to OS X, I had no choice. And Suitcase X1 has been a nightmare.

Turning individual fonts on and off takes around 20-30 seconds. Opening an InDesign or Quark doc with lots of fonts can take 20-30 minutes. I've followed Extensis' guidelines to the letter regarding clearing font caches, making sure only one version of each font exists (yet I still get daily warnings of duplicates), etc. I've binned the preferences and rebuilt the library countless times. I've also had various email "conversations" with Extensis. Their advice?

"Have you checked how many weights are contained in the font Suitcase? If the font suitcase contains a large amount of screen fonts it may be taking longer than normal to activate all the screen fonts. What you can do is scan the font through FontDoctor and set to to remove any Extra fonts within the font suitcase."

The last time I emailed them it took 4 months to respond - and that was with a pile of URLs for me to work my way through.

Font Agent Pro is very different. Set up took 5 minutes. Fonts are switched on within Quark, InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop without problems. They're also turned on at system level with an unobtrusive on-screen dialogue informing me.

If you're suffering with Suitcase 11.0.6 (or earlier), buy Font Agent Pro. It works. Period.

Vic Lennard