Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive, yes - but comprehensible?
Review: After dabbling in Photoshop for a while the thing that has become most clear to me is that it isn't an easy program to learn, and no doubt it isn't an easy one to explain either. So I won't blame Deke McClelland for not turning me into a Photoshop genius overnight (which he didn't) - but even if that is too much to expect of any book, this one is a mixed bag in more ways than that. On the plus side, it certainly is comprehensive. Just about every option available in Photoshop is explained - and that is the major downside at the same time. This book is very much written from the viewpoint of the program, not that of the user. If you want to know how to achieve a particular effect, you will just have to browse the 1000+ pages hoping you will stumble on the right tools. Reversely, you may read many an explanation of a tool without ever getting into the clear why you would want to use it. For instance, the chapters on selections, paths and masks made it abundantly clear to me that there are some 5,000 or so ways of selecting part of an image in Photoshop, but I remained in the dark as to which ones are useful under which circumstances. Much of the text on paths and masks actually seemed highly esoteric to me. I can understand that it is impossible to illustrate each and every option visually, but unfortunately the illustrative examples that are given often don't seem to be very compelling (e.g., the possible use of stroking a path is demonstrated by the creation of a tapering line underneath an image of a planet, an effect that could just as easily have been achieved with a simple paint brush.) In fact (and ironically), the graphics are one of the major weaknesses of the book (just take a peek at the hideous cover!). I found them mostly unimaginative, and often too small and badly printed to show up the differences between several effects they were supposed to demonstrate.
The accessibility of the book is not helped by the fact that after introducing a function, the author stops naming it and reverts to a mere mention of the keyboard shortcut - so when you're new to this, soon enough you no longer know what he is doing (also, I would urge the publisher to please create separate Windows and Mac editions of this book: the ubiquitous additions of the Mac alternative to Windows shortcuts is highly irritating!).
The order of chapters/subjects doesn't seem to be guided by any pedagogical considerations. Layers are not discussed until page 633, even though (as everyone who has ever tried Photoshop or any similar program knows) you really can't do anything at all without an understanding of this function. The style of writing is informal and chatty, and by page 500 or thereabouts the author's facetiousness started to wear thin on me. Maybe after I have gained more experience with Photoshop I will come to appreciate more of McClelland's suggestions. However, as a novice, plowing through this book yielded to me no more than 8 or 9 new insights that I found directly useful.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant reference book!
Review: Deke McClelland has done it again! As an Adobe Certified Photoshop Instructor, I felt compelled to write this review in lieu of the others. This book does what it is supposed to and that is explain why and how things happen in Photoshop 7 (YES, it is a reference book - similar to an encyclopedia). There are two types of books you can buy for graphics programs: reference and tutorial. Those that try to combine both come up short. This one sticks to its purpose and is written in a humorous/ fun way, not with the typical `put me to sleep encyclopedia method'. It is a must have for the Photoshop library.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant reference book!
Review: Deke McClelland has done it again! As an Adobe Certified Photoshop Instructor, I felt compelled to write this review in lieu of the others. This book does what it is supposed to and that is explain why and how things happen in Photoshop 7 (YES, it is a reference book - similar to an encyclopedia). There are two types of books you can buy for graphics programs: reference and tutorial. Those that try to combine both come up short. This one sticks to its purpose and is written in a humorous/ fun way, not with the typical 'put me to sleep encyclopedia method'. It is a must have for the Photoshop library.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely NOT the bible
Review: First of all it's very disappointing that the publisher has stopped adding a cd with 'the bible' (which used to be the case in previous editions). As 'the bible' aims for beginner and intermediate users it's always nice you've got the pictures in the book on cd, so you can compare your results with the result you should aim at.Secondly there is not nearly a word about 'Image Ready' in this book. When you bought this book expecting to learn how to make animated gifs or weboriented design you will be very disappointed because knowing Image Ready is necessary to complete this task. The title 'the bible' is there for misleading, as Image Ready comes standard with Photoshop for weboriented tasks. Thirdly, Deke has a chapter by chapter approach which although he throrougly explains all the functions of a certain item, this does not lead to exercises in combination of all the parts. Combining the parts is exactly where Photoshop is at it's best. Motivating new users of Photoshop is best done by project approach, as you learn more and will be more motivated to experiment when you understand the interaction between different techniques, but this is where the book fails miserabely. Deke has certainly an enormous knowledge about Photoshop, but the approach he takes for leading new users into the graphic domain will only lead to boredom. Definitely not recommended for new users, as you will very easily get bored by the academic approach. Go for a basis project oriented approach and you will gave fun learning Photoshop, go for this book and you will get overwhelmed and demotivated. It's not a holy book, except if you only use it as a reference point (and in this case I would go for the professional edition).
Rating:
Summary: it's not the "wanna be" edition
Review: I am shocked by the handful of bad reviews I've seen here. I am going to suppose the bad reviews are written by people whose idea of using Photoshop means applying enough filters until it looks cool. My friends, it's called the "Professional Edition" for a reason; if you would take the time to read the Preface you would find it clearly explained. Deke McClelland is the best Photoshop instructor, period. This book deserves more than 5 stars!
Rating:
Summary: it's not the "wanna be" edition
Review: I am shocked by the handful of bad reviews I've seen here. I am going to suppose the bad reviews are written by people whose idea of using Photoshop means applying enough filters until it looks cool. My friends, it's called the "Professional Edition" for a reason; if you would take the time to read the Preface you would find it clearly explained. Deke McClelland is the best Photoshop instructor, period. This book deserves more than 5 stars!
Rating: 
Summary: I love his human side of technology
Review: I must say, as much as this book takes VERY LONG to get through, because I have to stop, try the stuff out myself and really try to understand it, I find myself motivated by Deke's humor. As much as he contradicts himself after saying that he'll be concise in the beginning but half the time he's talking nonsense (funny nonsense that is), you can't blame him. That's his style after all! I have found myself loving the book because I'm always curios to see what silly thing he's going to say next? I love it how he knows when to be serious about the tools and when to make a good joke about it. My favorite has to be the one about using the healing and cloning tools with a picture of a baby's bottom that heals the dents on his forehead.
Absolutely a good laugh after a painful 1 hour of reading...
Painful...yes because this is intense, and it's not for a beginner user, and relatively dangerous if you havent been using photoshop for at least half a year if you ask me.
Otherwise I say go for it, read this book and learn some really advanced stuff, but beware, it's intense to the point you could get tired of learning...
Rating:
Summary: Teaches by concepts and examples
Review: I was SO glad I bought this book to supplement our textbook for a PhotoShop 7 class last semester! The text frustrated me because it used the "Do step A, step B, step C" approach. For some of us, that approach does not make it easy to learn WHY we're doing the steps we're doing, so that we could apply the concepts in real life. In contrast, the PhotoShop 7 Bible explains the concepts, shows graphic examples of the differences between features, and shows samples of how a feature is affected by different user-selected values. The author also does give step-by-step instructions in situations where needed, and explains what each step accomplishes. Since I didn't have to have the computer in front of me while reading this, it was possible to redeem time spent away from the computer, for instance, in the cafeteria or a waiting room. In short, for "concept learners" (vs. "rote learners," who like the step-by-step, low explanation approach), this was the book to buy!
Rating:
Summary: Great Pictures
Review: I'm a visual learner and love the illustrations in the book (the reason I bought it). If your an experienced Photoshop user you can probably just go by the picture and read the blip underneath it for the effect you want. I am a beginner... so I had to read up on most of the areas I needed because I was unsure of what each tool is/does. There were places some detail was left out... but not that I couldn't figure out.
Rating:
Summary: Great Pictures
Review: I'm a visual learner and love the illustrations in the book (the reason I bought it). If your an experienced Photoshop user you can probably just go by the picture and read the blip underneath it for the effect you want. I am a beginner... so I had to read up on most of the areas I needed because I was unsure of what each tool is/does. There were places some detail was left out... but not that I couldn't figure out.
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