PSE Editor

Photoshop Elements 6 - Editor

Written by: Siegfried Seierlein
Last Updated: 2nd May 2008

Many books has been written on Photoshop Elements and almost every camera magazine you open has a new technique on Photoshop. Why writing about it on the MyCanonG7 web site? The answer is simple, by writing I am learning myself and that is huge fun and secondly the more value I can present to the average photographer on this site the more people will visit

I am not planning to write about the absolute basics plus I am not planning to write in depth articles on specifics aspects only. The articles will be very functional and very hands on, how to do things in a simple but fun way.

Yes, the guys at Adobe did a lot off effort making the interface friendly plus they added a lot to this basic editor package. The first thing I did was to get rid of this friendly welcome screen.

Click on the pull down window to the left bottom of the welcome screen and select how you like Elements to start. If you use the Elements organizer, then select it, if not go directly to the editor.

Personally I use the latter choice....

When the Editor starts up for the first time, the picture on the top of this page is what you typically see. I did open a few picture frames or pictures before copying the window so that you can see what the working area looks like when a picture is opened.

In the next few paragraphs we will briefly discuss the working area to help you to find your way around. Having a brief look at the picture at the top you will see that the working area has the large picture editing area in the middle and on all four of the sides you will find specific information that will assist you with editing your pictures.

In fact from this window you can launch any activity you like to do with Elements. You can access the organizer, the different photo editors (Quick, Full and Guided) plus you can go into the Create, Edit or Share areas. Just a short comment at this point. Yes, Elements is not as powerful as for example PaintShop Pro but what makes it so unique is all the different things you can do with one basic package, its awesome....

Lets have a look at what you will find on each of the 4 sides of the Elements working area...


	1. The top menu bar and drop down menus




		The first area of interest is the top menu bar. From here one can open a file, select the main Editing drop down menu and various other functions. I will be referring to the menu bar and the drop down menus often in the different articles on Elements that will follow.


	2. The Task Pane

		From here one can really access all the different areas of Photoshop Elements. The Edit Menu for example gives three different options, Full Edit, Quick Edit and Guided Edit. The Create Menu will open two areas, Projects and Artwork and in the Share menu one will find various options of sharing your pictures or videos. Just above the Task Pane menu one will find a button for opening the Elements Organizer.


	3. The Elements Toolbox

	From this menu one will select the function the mouse will take on. For example with the Hand Tool selected it will be possible for the user to hold the mouse over the picture, click and hold the left mouse button and if the mouse is moved then the picture will move in the screen. That is if the picture is for example zoomed in to full size. If one for example click on the Select Tool, then the mouse will become a select instrument and it will be possible to make a selection of a specific area in the picture. To start with one does not use all the tools, I would say typically beginners will use the hand, the crop, red eye and the text tools. As one gets more comfortable more tools will become of interest to the user.


	On the left you see two select tools. On the right bottom corner you will see a small black arrow. That means there are more tools below the first tool.

		Tip How to select the tools below the first or shown tool: Hold the mouse over the tool and click on the right mouse button, from the drop down menu select the next tool, or with the tool selected go to the options bar on the top of the screen and select another tool.


	4. The Elements Toolbox - Option Bar



			When the Gradient Tool is selected then the above Option Bar will appear on the top of the screen, just below the Menu Bar. In a similar way all the different tools in the Toolbox will have its own Option Bar at the top of the screen. With the options bar one can specify how the selected tool should behave.


		5. The Pallet Bin

	The Pallet Bin is found on the right hand side of the screen. The pallet bin can also be regarded as a window into the elements program. For example it is possible to work in different layers when working on a picture. Layers are stacked one above the other. One can have the basic picture layer and right above the picture layers one can position a transparent, see through, layer. On the transparent layer one can add text without effecting the picture itself. How does one “see” these different layers a picture can have? The answer is by mastering the Pallet bin. The Pallet Bin has many other functions and as we go ahead discovering Elements you will see much more interesting aspects of the Pallet Bin.


	6. How to modify the work area

		From the Menu Bar, select the “Window” menu and the drop down window on the right will appear. With this drop down menu you can customize the look and and feel of the work area of Photoshop Elements. Personally I prefer to clean the work space 100%. The reason is simple, when you have all the different pallets and help areas selected then the editing work space is relatively small. Personally I only keep the Tools selected. If I need to see the layers bin then I only open the layers bin. The same I do for any other function or info screen I might need while working on a picture.


7. My preferred working area



	When you compare these two working areas then you will clearly see the advantage of the top working area. The picture is much bigger giving a much better view into the picture.If you really want to work on a picture then its much more fun having the larger view of the picture on the screen. One can always call up a specific pallet as and when its required and one can close it again when not any longer required.



		From the above picture, the last area I did not discuss above is the Projects Bin. It is positioned at the bottom of the screen and in there one can see all the pictures and projects one currently work on. Next we will have a brief look at the organizer and then its fun time looking at various Photoshop techniques.