Chapter 2: Getting to Know the Tools
In This Chapter
Looking at the Tools panel
Understanding the tool groups
Automating your image edits
You edit photos by using menu commands and tools. Elements knows that, so it provides you with a toolshed chock-full of tools to perform all sorts of editing tasks. These tasks include selecting image content areas, refining and sharpening photos, drawing and painting, adding text, and more.
In addition to using tools for manually changing the characteristics of a photo, you can use a number of different tools to magically automate tasks. In this chapter, you take a look at the Tools panel and all the tools at your disposal for modifying photos in many ways.
Examining the Tools Panel
The Tools panel opens by default when you enter Expert mode in the Editor. As you may recall from Chapter 1 of this minibook, you can open the Editor directly from the Welcome screen by clicking the Photo Editor button or by clicking Editor in the Organizer.
The tools you see in Figure 2-1 are listed by name and their keyboard shortcuts. If you press the key adjacent to a tool name shown in Figure 2-1, you select its respective tool. (See Chapter 1 in this minibook ...
