Photoshop Elements 5: The Missing Manual

Chapter 1: Finding Your Way Around Elements 15

Organizing Your

Photos

• Edit and Enhance Photos takes you to the Editor, which is the digital dark-

room/art studio where you can perform your most extensive edits.

• Make Photo Creations starts you up in the Editor with a new Photo Layout

page to work on (see page 397), a great shortcut if you’re into scrapbooking.

If you start in the Organizer, once you’ve located a photo to edit, you have to wait

while the Editor loads. And when you have both the Editor and the Organizer

running, quitting the Editor doesn’t close the Organizer. You have to close both

programs independently.

Adobe has built Elements around the assumption that most people work on their

photos in the following way: First, you bring your photos into the Organizer to

sort and keep track of them. Then, you open your photos in the Editor to work on

them, and save them back to the Organizer when you’re finished making changes.

You can work differently, of course, like opening photos directly in the Editor and

bypassing the Organizer altogether, but you may feel like you’re always swimming

against the current if you choose a different way of working. The next chapter has a

few hints for disabling some Elements features if you really find they’re getting in

your way.

Organizing Your Photos

The Organizer is where your photos come into Elements and go out again (when

it’s time to print or email ...