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Rating: 
Summary: A Treasury of How To Information
Review: As a lifelong amateur photographer and digital image user for 8 years, I thought I knew a great deal about enhancing photos. I was pleasantly surprised to learn much more from this reader-oriented, consistently-detailed "how to" book. Especially useful were tricks for sharpening images, eliminatng blemishes, and improving portraits. Tips giving suggested parameter values were also valuable.
I thoroughly enjoyed the author's personal style of exposition. After renewing the book three times from the library and studying nearly every page, I am now purchasing it as a reference. (Yes, I have PSP 9, but 8 and 9 are similar enough to justify purchase.) Be advised that it does not stray from the subject of improving photos, so if you are looking for help in creating graphics, look for a book on that subject. If it is photos you want to enhance, and you want to really understand how PSP can be used, this is a great book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Limited use, sloppy writing
Review: I agree with a previous reviewer: this book is extremely limited in its scope, given that it's some 450 oages. It assumes that ALL you want to do is clean up or enhance your family photos. There's almost nothing on creating original graphics. For example, there's absolutely NOTHING on doing such basic things as resizing an image, using the Picture Tube function, or applying backgrounds. It's a shame because I've had SAMS books about previous versions of Paint Shop Pro that were far more useful. As a technical writer and editor by profession, much of the writing style in this book is just downright lazy - such as this example buried in a paragraph: "You can change this on the Units tab of the Paint Shop Pro 8 Preferences dialog box (choose File, Preferences, General Program Preferences)." A better version would be in the order the user would actually complete the task: "To change this, click the File menu, point to Preferences, and click General Program Preferences. On the Units tab, choose the Disply Units from the list." This book was a major disappointment, considering the publisher. If all you will ever use Paint Shop Pro 8 for is creating an online family photo album, this book is for you. If you really want to get the most out of this powerful program for other projects as well, this book is no help at all.
Rating: 
Summary: Only for photographic editing
Review: In A Snap is *totally* about manipulating photographic images. If you want to learn PSP basics, pass this up. I have used Paint Shop Pro 3 and am totally confused by version 8. I bought this book and Paint Shop Pro 8 Fast & Easy by Diane Koers because even the basics were confusing me, e.g., selecting a font to put on a blank background. Obviously, I am not qualified to give a detailed review of In A Snap, but if you want to learn editing of photographic images, you probably want this book. For basics such as creating buttons and banners for websites, check out Koers' book.
Rating:
Summary: Only for photographic editing
Review: In A Snap is *totally* about manipulating photographic images. If you want to learn PSP basics, pass this up. I have used Paint Shop Pro 3 and am totally confused by version 8. I bought this book and Paint Shop Pro 8 Fast & Easy by Diane Koers because even the basics were confusing me, e.g., selecting a font to put on a blank background. Obviously, I am not qualified to give a detailed review of In A Snap, but if you want to learn editing of photographic images, you probably want this book. For basics such as creating buttons and banners for websites, check out Koers' book.
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