Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual

Creating a New File

You can create a new blank Elements document. You may want to create a new blank document when you're using Elements as a drawing program or when you're combining parts of other images together, for example.

To create a new file, go to the Editor, and choose File → New → Blank File (or press Ctrl+N) to bring up the New File dialog box. You have lots of choices to make each time you start a new file; they're all covered in the following sections.

Note

You can't create a new blank file in the Organizer, but Elements gives you a quick shortcut from the Organizer to the Editor so you can open up a new, fresh file there. To open a new file, choose File → New → Blank File, and the Organizer creates a virgin file for you and automatically hops you and the new blank file over to the Editor. If you want to create a new file based on a photo that's in the Organizer, select the thumbnail, press Ctrl+C to copy it, and then choose File → New → "Image from Clipboard". Elements switches you to the Editor, where you'll see your copied photo awaiting you, all ready to work on.

Picking a File Size

The first thing you need to decide, logically enough, is how big you want your document to be. In Elements 6, there are two ways to do this:

• Start with a Preset. Preset, the first menu item in the New File window, lets you choose the general kind of document you want to create. If you want to create a file for printing, pick from the second group in the menu. The third group contains choices ...