Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 is a photo image enhancement program that runs seamlessly on the Windows platforms. Photoshop Elements 7 provides a new streamlined interface yet also contains many of the powerful features found in Photoshop CS4.

Creative artists from Hollywood, brochure designers, as well as casual users turn to Photoshop Elements for its easy of use and proven ability to create special effects and image composites; however, Photoshop Elements’ ability to manipulate digital images, restore photographs, as well as create digital artwork from scratch, has made it a popular choice in the digital industry. When it comes to digital photography, Photoshop Elements is literally the best the computer industry has to offer.

Photoshop Elements accepts images created with any digital camera, or traditional photographic film images, converted to the digital format through the use of a scanner. Once an image is opened in Photoshop Elements, the designer can manipulate the image thousands of ways, everything from color correction, reducing dust and scratches in an old image, to removing a tree, or adding a missing friend.

To perform a standard program install, insert the Photoshop Elements 7 installation disc into the drive on your computer or download the software online and start the setup program, and follow the onscreen instructions. Make sure to have your serial number handy because you’ll be asked to enter it during the installation process. If you’re updating from a previous version of Photoshop Elements, you’ll be required to verify the older version by instructing Photoshop where on your hard drive the old version exists, or by inserting the previous version’s install disk. Adobe, in an attempt to thwart software piracy, now requires online or phone activation of the program. The process can be postponed for 30 days. However, at the end of 30 days, the Photoshop Elements program will shut down if it has not been properly activated. You can’t blame Adobe for attempting to protect their products, since some surveys suggest there are more pirated versions of Photoshop than those purchased.

You can launch Photoshop Elements like any other program. When you launch Photoshop Elements, a Welcome Screen dialog box appears, displaying easy access buttons to organize, edit, create, or share your photos. When you click one of the buttons, the Photoshop Elements Editor or Organizer workspace appears with options you need to work with images. After you dismiss the Welcome Screen dialog box on first use, the Adobe Updater Preferences dialog box appears, asking you to select options to update Photoshop Elements and other Adobe related software. If you want to access the Adobe Updater Preferences dialog box later, you can use the Updates command on the Help menu.

The Welcome Screen dialog box appears when you launch Photoshop Elements or you click the Welcome Screen button on the Shortcuts bar in the Organizer or Editor. The Welcome Screen displays easy access buttons to organize, edit, create, or share your photos. When you click one of the buttons, the Photoshop Elements Editor or Organizer workspace appears with options you need to work with images. You can also click buttons on the Welcome Screen to create a new Photoshop.com account or sign in to your existing account.

Photoshop Elements provides two workspaces—the Organizer and Editor—in a compact user interface with a dark background that is intended to make it easier to work with your photos. The Organizer allows you to find, organize, and share your photos and media files, while the Editor allows you to create and edit photos. The Organizer and Editor include a tab-based layout with tabs for Organize, Fix, Create, and Share to help with organization and reduce clutter.

Organizer Workspace

After you import your photos, media clips, and PDF files into the Organizer, you can find, view, and share them. The Photo Browser displays all the files in the Organizer using different thumbnail size views, which you can sort by date, keywords (which includes People, Places, and Events), or other options using the Organize tab in the Task pane. If you can’t locate a file, you can use the Search box (New!) or the Find menu to search for files by filename, caption, history, media type, and details, also known as metadata, which describes how and when and by who a particular set of data was collected, or how the data is formatted.

If you want to fix an image, you can use the Fix tab in the Organizer to open the image in Editor, or open the image file directly in Editor. The Editor provides three ways to create and edit images: Full Edit, Quick Fix, and Guided Edit. If you want to add special effects to an image, Full Edit provides the most control. If you want to quickly fix or alter an image, Quick Fix works the best. If you are not sure where to start to edit an image, Guided Edit walks you through the process for making different image alterations.

After you have fixed an image or two, you can use the Create or Share tab in the Organizer or Editor to create or share different types of projects, such as a photo book, calendar, collage, online gallery, slide show, greeting card, CD/DVD jacket, and more.

Editor Workspace

In the Organizer and Editor, commands are organized in groups on the menu bar. Next to the menu bar is the shortcuts bar, which displays frequently used buttons—such as Undo, Redo, Minimize, Restore, and Close—that you may be already familiar with from other Windows programs. In addition to menu commands and buttons, you can also open a context menu, also known as a shortcut menu, with a group of related commands by right-clicking a program element.

After you launch Photoshop Elements in either the Organizer or Editor window, you can quickly switch between the two workspaces. In the Organizer, you can use the Editor button to open an image in the Editor workspace in one of the three edit modes: Quick Fix, Full Edit, or Guided Edit. In the Editor, you can use the Organizer button to open the Organizer workspace. Some buttons on tabs in the Editor or the Organizer open the other workspace. For example, the Slide Show button on the Create tab in the Editor opens the Organizer.

In the Organizer, a task pane appears on the right side of the Photo Browser as a separate window. The task pane displays various tabs for each of the main photo tasks: Organize, Fix, Create, and Share. If you need a larger work area, you can use the Window menu or the Show/Hide Task Pane button on the border edge to hide the task pane, or drag the task pane border edge to resize it. Some tabs in the task pane, such as the Organize tab, are divided into sections, known as palettes. Some palettes are always appear on the task pane, such as Albums and Keyword Tags, while other palettes are removable, such as Quick Share and Properties.

In the Editor, Photoshop Elements uses the bins—Palette and Project—to make it easier to select options and work with photos. The Palette Bin organizes and stores related options into individual palettes, while the Project Bin displays thumbnails of open photos. By default, the Palette Bin appears along the right side of the Editor workspace, while the Project Bin appears at the bottom of the workspace. If you need a larger work area, you can use several different methods to hide a bin, or drag the bin border edge to resize it.

Palettes appear in both the Organizer and Editor and give you easy access to many task specific commands and operations from general fixes to color control. A palette appears with a header, which includes the Open/Close arrow button, palette title and other varying options, such as the More and Close buttons. You can use the Window menu or click a Open arrow button to display a palette, and then select options on the palette or choose palette specific commands from the More menu or other available buttons to perform actions. Instead of continually moving, resizing, or opening and closing windows, you can use the Open/Close arrow button (triangle) to the left of the palette name to collapse or expand individual palettes to save space.

If a palette is not located in a position that you prefer, you can move it to another location. You can attach and detach, also known as dock and undock, palettes in the Palette Bin (in the Editor on the Edit/Full tab). When you drag a palette’s header bar out of the Palette Bin, the palette detaches and appears in a separate window group. When you detach a palette, you can also drag it into an existing window group, where the palettes appear as tabs. When you drag a detached palette’s tab to the Palette Bin, the palette re-attaches. When you move palettes, they remain as you left them until you reset or change them. In the task pane of the Organizer, you can dock and undock the Properties palette, which works differently than the palettes in the Editor.

Photoshop Elements has an abundance of tools; located in the toolbox of the Editor workspace, they give a photo editor tremendous control over any creative designing problems that may crop up. For example, the toolbox contains eight selection tools (you can never have enough selection tools), 11 painting or shape tools, 4 type tools, and 12 tools dedicated to restoring and manipulating old images. Add to that mix the sampling and and view tools, and you have a total of 48 dedicated tools. When you work on an image, it’s important to know what tools are available, and how they help in achieving your design goals. The Editor likes to save space, so it consolidates similar tools under one button. To access multiple tools, click and hold on any toolbox button that contains a small black triangle, located in the lower-right corner of the tool button. Take a moment to explore the toolbox in the Editor workspace and get to know the tools.

The toolbox contains the tools needed to work through any job, but it’s not necessary to click on a tool to access a tool. Simply using a letter of the alphabet can access all of Photoshop Elements’ tools. For example, pressing the V key, switches to the Move tool, and pressing the W key, switches to the Magic Wand tool. In addition, if a tool has more than one version, such as the Eraser tools, pressing the Shift key, along with the tool’s shortcut lets you cycle through all of the tool’s versions. You can point to a tool to display a tool tip with the tool’s name and shortcut key or you can refer to Adobe Photoshop Elements Keyboard Shortcuts (available for download on the web at www.perspection.com) for more information on all the letter assignments for the various tools. To really get efficient in Photoshop, you need to learn to use both hands. Use one hand for your mouse, and the other on the keyboard to make quick changes of tools and options. Think of playing Photoshop Elements, like a piano—use both hands.

Using the Options Bar

The Options bar in the Editor workspace displays the options for the currently selected tool. If you are working with the Marquee tools, options such as Feather, Mode, Width, and Height appear. When working with Brushes, tool options such as Brush size, Mode, Opacity, Style, Limits, and Tolerance appear. The Options bar for the Airbrush and Paintbrush tools shows some of the Brushes options, but also includes Flow. The Pencil tool shows Auto Erase, along with the standard Brushes options, while the standard Shape tool includes Fill Pixels, Geometry, Blending Modes, Opacity, and Anti-alias. The important thing to remember is that the Options bar is customized based on the tool you have selected.

You may realize you’ve made a mistake shortly after completing an action or a task. The Undo feature lets you “take back” one or more previous actions, including data you entered, edits you made, or commands you selected. For example, if you were to apply the Graphic Pen filter and then didn’t like the results, you could undo the filter instead of having to start over with a untouched image. A few moments later, if you decide that you like the filter’s results after all, you could use the Redo feature to restore its effects.

If you want to find out more about Photoshop Elements, you can go to several helpful Adobe web pages directly from Photoshop Elements. You can select commands on the Help menu to visit the Adobe product support centers page, the Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 product page, or the Adobe Idea Gallery page in your default browser. The Online Support command provides support information about Photoshop Elements, which includes top issues, recent documentation, and installation instructions. You can also search the Photoshop Elements Knowledgebase. The Photoshop Elements Online command provides information on Photoshop Elements along with related products and services. Finally, the Online Learning Resources command provides access to the Adobe Idea Gallery web page with great ideas, examples, and videos.

Working in Photoshop Elements can be a rewarding experience, but it can also be frustrating when you’re looking for that specific piece of information to complete a project. Adobe understands how important it is to have access to information quickly, so they created the Adobe Help Center with different types of help options on the web (New!). You can also download a PDF version of the Photoshop Elements 7 help files, which you can view when you’re not connected to the Internet or even print.

As time passes, Photoshop Elements—like any other program—will change. There are two types of changes to an program: updates and patches. Updates are enhancements to a program such as a new feature, option, or command. Patches are fixes for problems discovered after the public release of the program. The good news is that both updates and patches are free and self-installing. Adobe gives you two ways to check for changes. You can check on your own from the Adobe web site, or directly through the Adobe Updater. The Adobe Updater Preferences dialog box allows you to set update options for Photoshop Elements and other installed Adobe products. You can set the update preferences to check for updates monthly and automatically download them or ask before performing the download.

When you finish working with your photos and media in Photoshop Elements, it’s time to exit the program. When you want to exit Photoshop Elements, you need to exit both the Editor and Organizer workspace windows. Exiting one doesn’t automatically exit the other. You’ll want to make sure that all of your documents have been properly saved and closed before you exit Photoshop Elements. Photoshop Elements performs a bit of memory management, saves the current location of the palettes and toolboxes, and then quits.