Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 Classroom in a Book (Classroom in a Book)

Rating:
Summary: Best One Of The Lot!
Review: After purchasing ( and returning ) several other volumes, I saw this book and figured "what the hay". I wasn't disappointed. Unlike the other so-called instruction books " Adobe photoshop Elements 3.0 CIB " is clear consise and to the point. This is the only book that I made through all the way. I highly recommend this book for the beginning Adobe Photoshop Elements user.Adobe seems to have gone out of the way to make "happy users" with this product. As for me, well, I'm off to do more of the work I never thought I could do. BUY THIS BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent title
Review: For Windows users this will be a great purchase and well worth it. For Mac users, I simply would like to say, "Quit whining." After all, hasn't the Mac and its associated products always been touted as having such a sophisticated user interface, no training or support was needed? As to whether this should have been included with the product, well, that would have been nice, but what software publisher includes anything but electronic docs anymore anyway?

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed on Long Island
Review: I should have read the reviews before I bought it. I'm a Mac user. Need I say more!

Rating:
Summary: Why is there no differentiation between Mac and PC editions?
Review: I'm a Mac partisan with a screaming new G5 with dual 2Gb processors.

I ordered this book to go with the Elements 3.0 for Mac update I just purchased. Imagine my surprise and disappointment when I received the manual for the Windoze version.

No ... sorry ... I do not want to simply "make do."

Sadly, according to someone I spoke to at the publisher (Peachpit Press), Adobe has no plans for a Mac version. That's either a testament to Adobe's confidence in Mac users' abilities to simply plug and play fearlessly, or a sign Adobe just doesn't care much about the Mac market any longer.

As usual, Amazon was quite helpful in letting me make an immediate return.

Rating:
Summary: The PS Elements manaul Adobe should have included
Review: It's a shame that after paying almost $100 for Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, we are forced to shell out another $25 for a manual that should have been included in the first place.

That said, this book is probably the best one to get started using Elements 3. It's the typical Adobe "classroom in a book" format, with lots of handholding, and is generally easy to follow. The sacrifice is lack of advanced techniques, but, hey, you gotta learn to walk before you can run, right?

I, too, think Scott Kelby's book is also good. I find this book (classroom in a book) easier to understand and follow, as Kelby has a habit of skipping important information and leaving you wondering "why am I doing this in the first place?" But if you want an easy techniques reference rather than a tutorial-oriented book, consider the Kelby volume.

As a Windows user, I'm very happy that this book is for the Windows version. Macintrash users should just switch to Windows to enjoy the freedom to choose and the assurance that Adobe will keep supporting Windows applications forever (and to be free from Apple's "our users don't need or deserve tech support" arrogance).

Rating:
Summary: WARNING! Windows only!
Review: Mmm...a program whose beginnings were firmly entreched on the Macintosh platform and now a book that IGNORES that platform completely coming from the developer themselves!?

Pretty lame! Mac users go look at PeachPit press books instead.

Rating:
Summary: A good introduction to Elements 3.
Review: This book is in the same class as Scott Kelby's Photoshop Elements 3 book. They are good introductory books. Both offer step by step instructions for using the program. Kelby's book offers more techniques (e.g., replacing red eye with a color and straightening crooked pictures are just two examples) but little background information about the techniques. On the other hand, this book tells you how to do something and gives extensive information about why you are doing it. The techniques it doesn't cover that Kelby does are available through the Help system. Like Kelby, this Adobe book ignores Mac users but as someone said about the Kelby book, Mac users can work through this book without too much trouble. Mostly just ignore any mention of the Photo Organizer. The included CD has all of the pictures needed to work the exercises. The two-column layout in the Kelby book is a bit easier to work through than the full page layout in this book. However, the background information given in this book is a great selling point. You can't go wrong with either book but you don't need them both. Your choice is lots of techniques but little explanatory text (Kelby) or fewer techniques but lots of background information (Adobe).

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Summary: From the publisher: this book is Windows-only
Review: We're trying to get the official text above updated, but please be aware that this book is aimed at users of the Windows version, which is very different from the Mac version of the software. We're not trying to deceive anyone: this is listed very clearly on the cover, and ought to be on here too: it just takes a while for changes to be reflected on the Amazon page.