Casual photographers will appreciate the straightforward organization and editing tools in Corel’s $40 Snapfire Plus, but they may be left wishing that its editing functions were a bit more flexible.

Snapfire’s user interface is well laid out and easy to navigate. You can accomplish your basic editing with just a few clicks, but only if you work on one image at a time. Snapfire doesn’t offer batch processing for such tasks as resizing; as a result, working with multiple photos will take you longer.

Corel provides some of the enhancement features, including straightening and makeover, that are found in its more expensive Paint Shop Pro application. Both tools worked well, but fine-tuning or erasing effects can be difficult.

Sharing a slide show over e-mail is easy; Snapfire automatically applies transitions and provides a handy preview. But recipients must download a copy of Snapfire in order to view your slides. (The free version that they can use lacks features for backup, resizing, adding text, image straightening, and video editing.)

Snapfire definitely offers a quick way to manage and edit photos. But if you’re looking to save money, consider a free app such as Google’s Picasa, which trumps Snapfire with its speed and lower price.