Go! Buy! Enjoy! you will get so much more out of this book than any other that is on the market on Adobe Photoshop Elements 4. It is in plain English, and written so that even a first time user can understand how to do whatever it is they want. Kudos for Ms. Brundage who makes everyone able to transition from novice to a pro.

For many years I used Photoshop Deluxe to alter my pictures. I was delighted when Adobe initiated Photoshop Elements because it had so much more. I was more and more impressed as time went on whenever Adobe produced subsequent editions of Photoshop Elements.

However…….let us talk about Adobe Photoshop Elements 4. With this edition, you can do almost everything imaginable, and if you look in the extensive help area, it has instructions for some things that you didn’t dare to imagine. Each edition of this application has added something that made image editing easier….but there was still a learning curve. Now they have added "push button easy ways" to do things that you would not have dared to do before.

Elements also allows you to not only make your photos look spectacular, but also organizes your photos and gives you various projects in which to use them. You were always able to crop, edit, and color correct images. Elements 4 now gives you many types of special effects to give your photos something extra. You can make your photo look like a drawing, or a painting or even a tile mosaic. You can combine photos into a panorama or a montage. Another neat thing that Photoshop Elements 4 can do is move someone from one photo to another and even remove people from a photo. Old and damaged photos can be restored, and you can add type to your images and turn them into things like greeting cards.

Other things that you can do is create slide shows, and also you can resize photos. If you are so inclined you can create digital artwork from scratch without having a photo to work from. Not to worry! Elements 4 will show you how. With this edition you can create professional looking Web photo galleries, - and how about learning how to make animated GIF pictures. Now that is really neat!

For the most part you can do anything you want to do with images, as soon as you install Elements. I generally would jump right in and play with an application. I try it all. I add filters, click around on different tools to see how they work. In other words, I go nuts trying to find different and new things. However, several of the concepts that are introduced, you really have to take the time to understand. If you want to get the most out of the application, I would urge you to take your time. Don’t plunge into those new concepts like layering or resolutions without reading the book. It would only serve to confuse and frustrate. Try to learn one thing at a time, which is explained so thoroughly in the book.