The Adobe Classroom In a Book books are great, I have taught myself to use a couple Adobe products. Well written, great pace

The basic question I first need answered isn't even covered in the book, when I put the CD in the drive it did not automatically start and when I did get it started there was no menu to follow to view the CD..... Very very disappointed!!

Individual lessons walk you thru how to use Elements. Tell you various ways to use the features of the product. Step by step instructions are very helpful.

A lot of information but needs to be more fully defined. Difficult for a "beginner" to use. Being new to Adobe Photoshop I found the book to not explain steps thoroughly.

This book is well organized and easy to follow. You use the files on the CD that comes with the book to do the lessons. All of the lessons demonstrate principles of working with PSE and are not difficult to follow. The book also anticipates and points out what you can do wrong, so is helpful in that regard also. I also have worked with Photoshop Elements, The Missing Manual Photoshop Elements 5: The Missing Manualwhich is much more comprehensive but takes a lot longer to work through. You may want to own both books eventually, but this one is a good start since you actually get to complete processes right away, such as touching up old photos, that come in handy whether or not you have learned everything that the program can do. If you are struggling with teaching yourself PSE, give this book a try.

I find this easy to learn rom, but it does take me a lot of time.

Also, the tutorials online from Adobe Photoshop are brief overviews, but a good companion piece,

Adobe's PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 5.0: CLASSROOM IN A BOOK is billed as the 'fastest, easiest way to learn Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0', and as such it's a fine classroom or home study pick. The title comes from the notable series of software training workbooks, and ELEMENTS 5.0 delivers what it promises; eleven quick lessons covering all the basics, packed with tips and real-world applications and techniques. Color screen shots are a big hit, here, making it easy to follow lessons based on real screen samples.

If you are looking for a book full of information with step by step guides, then this book is for you. It has every thing that you need to know about adobe photoshop elements, not only does it have before and after pictures but the instructions are simple and easy. I love this book and would recommend it to everyone who wants to learn this program fast but without the headache of lenthy reading and technical jargon.

I have tried three times so far to use this book to begin learning how to use the program.

I find that it is very poorly organized, and instead of a step by step process of learning it presents everything as a series of options of what you might want to do.

That may be fine for someone who has some knowledge of the program, but I've never used it before.

If I could I would return the book. I hate it.

Wally

As an inexperienced Photoshop user, I found the book very informative and useful. It made using the software a very rewarding experience and a valuable asset for my photo work.

I had no prior experience with Photoshop Elements or Photoshop and went through the exercises in the book from the beginning to the end. I thought they did a decent job of demonstrating the features of the software that they did use, but there are still a lot of features that were not explored. The examples worked flawlessly, except when I made mistakes or did not pay attention. Couple this book with one that targets specific tasks, such as the Photoshop Elements 5 book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby and I think you have 75% of the program covered, the rest can be learned through experimentation. My only suggestion would be to include a feature tree that shows all of the available commands.

I had no prior experience with Photoshop Elements or Photoshop and went through the exercises in the book from the beginning to the end. I thought they did a decent job of demonstrating the features of the software that they did use, but there are still a lot of features that were not explored. The examples worked flawlessly, except when I made mistakes or did not pay attention. Couple this book with one that targets specific tasks, such as the Photoshop Elements 5 book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby and I think you have 75% of the program covered, the rest can be learned through experimentation. My only suggestion would be to include a feature tree that shows all of the available commands.

Did not like this book.The CD instructions were bad, not clear. I give this book a 2 star rating

I got his guide because I had to update my photo program and thought that the Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 was one of the simplest available to use. I was wrong. It has many more bells and whistles than I need, and even doing some of the simple stuff was getting complicated. No other book seemed to be broken down into simple steps, so I thought I would try this, without having seen it. I guess I require EXTREME simplicity, because this book is helpful in describing everything available in the program, but it stops a bit short. For example, I followed along the editing process, but my problem was how to save the pics and store them, get them to a CD, etc. The book takes you through the process of everything you need to do up until saving, but then does not describe the process of what to DO with the pics once you have worked on them! I was made aware of a few things I did not see by just playing with the program, but when it came down to the SAVING process or OPTIONS once you have your photo the way you like it...there is NOTHING to help. I did manage to figure things out on my own by hours of fiddling with things...so the book was a bit of a waste for me. If you are looking for ADVANCED techniques and EVERYTHING available from the program, this book certainly covers it all. If you are looking for a SIMPLE guide to quick use of the program, this is not it. It is very easy to understand, just had TOO much info for me that I did not need while skipping over the very basics. What ever happened to SIMPLICITY?