Quote After several months of no longer being able to use Adobe Prem El 14 on my laptop I am thinking of switching to Power Director

Have any of you made this switch in the past, and if so would appreciate your comments on the learning curve in using PD and other differences between the two video editors

Thanks for your help

There are so many different and similar things that can be done with the two different programs that it would be impossible to give you a definitive annswer. Remember that the BEST software is the one that "thinks" the same way you do. If you do specific not standard video editing, then one may have or not have the that function.

I used (and probably others have used) Elements and now are using PowerDirector -- that should be a clue. Many of us have and use multiple software packages (in additions to Windows).

Cyberlink has free trial software that you should consider trying. They have also had some very good sales recently. That usually means a new version will be coming out soon.

There are some trial limits:

Limitations
30-day trial version
Limited template pack
NewBlue effect pack limited to 10 effects
Does not include CyberLink WaveEditor
Importing and producing H.264 video files is only supported on Windows 10/8.1/8/7 systems or hardware platforms offering independent H.264 encoding and decoding
Watermark appears at the beginning of produced videos (5 seconds)2K/4K resolution
H.264 video files are not supportedImporting and producing H.265 video files is not available

Cyberlink also has a 30 day $$ back warranty if you don;t like it. .
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The full version has no limitations but has the money-back policy as Steve stated. That is the best way to guage what you like or dislike. There are many user-made tutorials and an active forum to aid you. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
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Have you established why your current editor has stopped working for you? If not then I'd suggest that you need to troubleshoot that before going further.

I have 3 different video editing packages but my 'goto' is PDR. I came to it via a pre-installed version 11 on a new laptop I bought some years ago. I liked it and have simply upgraded each time.

I'm with Steve on his point about the learning curve. Sadly, too many people install their software and then dive straight in. Things go wrong because they haven't taken the time to familiarise themselves with a new interface and of course it's then the fault of buggy software .