I am so confused

[didunoitsme]

A new user of Photoshop Elements 5.0. I have made a slide show from my organizer i also have tagged and made collections of other photos which i plan to do something with as soon as i scan more photos etc.
My question is, now what do i do with the photos after i have made what i wanted to make. Is it best to delete from organizer, put in ?folder? (which i don't quite understand) Because; without knowing i scanned into the organizer instead of "My Pictures" therefore they have no home and i don't know how to give them a home. my slide show photos do have a home on my pictures, but others do not.
Also, i learned that if you group "stack" too many photos (to lessen the viewing on the organizer, that is those 300 or so photos that got scanned into the organizer; they do not show up when you open up a collection or a group of tagged photos because they are all mixed up. I have edited them and saved some in a folder but not sure how to find which ones were saved and how.
My little pea brain does not compute and Help does not tell me what to do with all the photos. I did a back up on a cd somewhere sometime and would do another one before messing up too much stuff.
I might be jumping around too much and that is my problem. Anyone think they can give me step by step with easy to follow directions. I would appreciate it.:p

[Joba]

I'm confused too. I just spent the last hour reading help in the organizer. I had trouble editing my photos because some of the edits don't have a apply or done button and it took me awhile to figure out that just going back to full edit applied the fix.At least I think it did! I tried scrapbooking and when I wanted to add another photo from the bin it kept making the photo as the background till I figured out to double click the photo instead of dragging it to the scrapbook page. I guess it just takes lots of trial and error to learn the program.I see there are online learning classes but I just can't afford to take them all and subscribe to the pet newsletter and scrapperquide lessons and pay for my new computer and buy scrapbook kits. I am trying to figure out what is best way for me to start to learn Elements--besides trial and error.

[landofoz]

Hi , i feel as if i am in the same Boat as you!I have elements 4 for 2 years now and i seem to be going nowhere,I agree with the organizer and it dosent work they way i would like it too.I know its trial and error,but thats all i seem to do then i get on the forums and read read and still going nowhere,i bought Scott Kelbys Book elements 4 that cost $75 and now everyone has moved to elements 6.I feeli dont want to do that untill i learn 4. Does anyone know if 6 is any easier?
Sorry i sound like one big whinge,but it is so frustrating

[Wendy]

Maggie ...

No one version is easier to learn that another ... so just tell us where you are stuck and we will all help you :)

Wendy

[NickLewis]

My question is, now what do i do with the photos after i have made what i wanted to make. Is it best to delete from organizer, put in ?folder? (which i don't quite understand) Because; without knowing i scanned into the organizer instead of "My Pictures" therefore they have no home and i don't know how to give them a home. my slide show photos do have a home on my pictures, but others do not.didunoitsme,

So many questions.....

The first and most important thing to grasp is that none of your photos are in Organiser at all. All of them are in folders somewhere on your PC. Even the ones you scanned. Organiser's catalog is just a database of your photos. It records where they are, what tags you've applied, details of any collections, stacks etc. Like an index card system.

When you scanned your photos "into Organiser", you were prompted to save them somewhere. To find out where they are, right-click on a photo, and choose "Show Properties". This will open up the Properties pane (it may already be visible in fact). At the bottom of the General Properties tab of this pane is a little folder icon, alongside which is the full filename and folder path of the image. If the path is too long to display, then hover your mouse pointer over it, and the entire path will appear in a popup.

This is the actual image file. All you see in Organiser is a thumbnail view of your image. DO NOT DELETE the actual image files unless you really want to get rid of the image forever!

Now that you've finished your slideshow, there's no need to do anything to Organiser at all. Their entries in the catalog are taking up hardly any space.

Moving on, the "stack" function in Organiser isn't really for tidying up the view. The sort of thing it's intended for is, for example, a load of nearly identical portrait shots, from which you intend to choose the best. You can stack them together, put the best one at the top of the stack, but still keep the others in case you want them in future.

There's another similar function - version sets - which is intended for grouping the various edited versions of a photo together. When you edit a photo in Editor and then save it, you are asked whether you want to keep it in a version set with the original. If you do so, you can always find the two (or more) versions together in Organiser. You can only put an edited photo into a version set at the point you first save it. (You can always take it out again afterwards, so the safest option is to do it.)

Version sets and stacks are superficially similar, but there are subtle differences in how tagging is handled, reflecting their different intentions.

Does that lift some of the fog? If not, post back and I'll try and explain further.

Maggie - I don't think v6 is any easier or more difficult than v4, so I wouldn't change for that reason. The different versions add and subtract some features, but the fundamentals remain the same. Personally, I'd stick with v4 and your book. There are plenty of people here who have used, or are still using v4, who will be pleased to help you.

Joba - you will find it hard going to learn Elements from the help guide. Adobe doesn't do "help" very well. Again, plenty of people here will help, but you'll probably find it easier if you buy a book, or take a course, or something just to get you started. Which is best for you is a personal choice depending on how you learn best, just as much as it is a financial decision.

Above all, don't give up! Any of you!

Nick

[lisabee]

Joba,

welcome to the forum :)
there are some 'training' videos that are available for free and those are the Elements killer tips, you can download them and then view at your leisure, here are the links (you don't have to subscribe)

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/subscriber/podcast.php?action=recent

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/subscriber/podcast.php?action=archive

hth,
Lisa

[didunoitsme]

Thank you for your help, it took me awhile to figure out how to find my messages, i was feeling a little left out.
I will decipher what you told me and try to figure it out.
I appreciate it very much

[didunoitsme]

Maybe i am not computer literate, i was having trouble finding and answering the messages. I best "tune in" to what i am doing. Good luck

[didunoitsme]

Appreciate the comraderie, nice to know i am not in this alone.

[JulieM]

didunoitsme,

If you click on Quick Links in the blue bar above, then select Subscribed Threads, you can see all the threads you have posted to. That should help you find replies to your queries...

[NickLewis]

Thank you for your help, it took me awhile to figure out how to find my messages, i was feeling a little left out.
I will decipher what you told me and try to figure it out.
I appreciate it very muchDon't hesitate to post back with questions.

Organiser is fundamentally straightforward but can definitely be confusing if you haven't grasped what it's doing.

Nick

[Joba]

Thank you for your replies.It is greatly appreciated.I will not give up. I am just getting started! :) I am eager to learn to fix my photos better and scrapbook them.

[rayswife]

Dear Didunoitsme,

Being as I started digital scrapbooking as a an older computer illiterate, I can tell you that you are not alone in your confusion. The one thing that helped me the most was the tutorials I found by Linda Sattgast. Now even if you aren't interested in the scrapbooking side of digital photography, her tutorials teach you everything there is to know about PSE. You can choose a tutorial that corresponds with your software (3, 4, 5, or 6). Her style of teaching was perfect for me. I would set up the tutorial, then I would set up PSE and get my picture in the Editor, start the tutorial, pause and go to my Editor and do the procedure. You learn so much and have it all at your fingertips ..... well, I just can't say enough. I have no affiliation with her or her company, it's just that she can lift that weight off your shoulders and you can start to enjoy what you spent so much money on. The website is scrappersguide.com

Rayswife

[Joba]

Would it be best to sign up for Linda's tutorials first and then PET ? Or sign up for both?

[didunoitsme]

Thanks, i can't wait to check into some of this. I have a plan, but it tends to mushroom in my mind and then I kind of lose motivation. do you scrapbook on a dvd or how much do you create? What I had in mind was to take my photos and do a yearly theme, and do it by year and what the family was doing for that year. It is tough to pick a photo out of all the boxes (I have organized quite a few photos) and scan it, then decide how to create something (I am not creative in that sense, but I am trying) and eventually I think I will get something done. I just think sometimes I bit off more than I can chew.Dear Didunoitsme,

Being as I started digital scrapbooking as a an older computer illiterate, I can tell you that you are not alone in your confusion. The one thing that helped me the most was the tutorials I found by Linda Sattgast. Now even if you aren't interested in the scrapbooking side of digital photography, her tutorials teach you everything there is to know about PSE. You can choose a tutorial that corresponds with your software (3, 4, 5, or 6). Her style of teaching was perfect for me. I would set up the tutorial, then I would set up PSE and get my picture in the Editor, start the tutorial, pause and go to my Editor and do the procedure. You learn so much and have it all at your fingertips ..... well, I just can't say enough. I have no affiliation with her or her company, it's just that she can lift that weight off your shoulders and you can start to enjoy what you spent so much money on. The website is scrappersguide.com

Rayswife

[didunoitsme]

Thank you for your replies.It is greatly appreciated.I will not give up. I am just getting started! :) I am eager to learn to fix my photos better and scrapbook them.

It certainly take a lot of time. A weekend here and there just doesn't seem to do it. I am not "hooked" yet so it has not become an obsession(sp)!