Customer Rating: 
Summary: Good, stable product, runs fine on Vista. Took awhile to learn how to use it.
Comment: This is a good product. I was looking for a replacement for my prior photo management software which just didn't work well on Vista so I finally gave up on it. I have found Photoshop Elements to be less intuitive and than other photo management software I've used previously; however, now that I have gotten used to it I think it's great and has a lot of nice features. Most importantly it has been very stable and has worked very well on Vista.
Customer Rating:
Summary: PS Elements 5.0 Rocks
Comment: I'm totally in love with this product and can't get enough of it. It has so many amazing features. I use it for photo organization and scrapbooking and it's just perfect. Now if they only had this product for the Mac, I would be so grateful!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Photos better than ever
Comment: I love Adobe Photoshop Elements 5. It is easy to use and makes such a difference in the quality of my printed photos. Editing is so much easier. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in Photography.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It does what it claims... almost...
Comment: I'm not exactly a novice at using programs such as this. I've been tinkering with editing photos and making graphics since about 1996 using a different
editing program.
I needed to upgrade my old program, but decided to go with the flow and hop on the PhotoShop bandwagon of 'Elements' 5 because it's touted as being the best???
Well, I can honestly say that based on my experience with this program as compared to my other program:
"I do not have a clue as to how 'Elements 5' has become considered the Best!"
It's remarkable how little control that it allows. I purchased a helpful book on using the program. I understand the lingo and directions. It's not hard to understand.
I can make it do what I want... almost... My problem with 'Elements 5' is that I prefer more control than it offers over the varying degrees of editing and saving.
I learned an expensive lesson...
It won't happen again!
I gave it a 4 star rating because it does do what it says it'll do, but just not as efficiently as I like.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Powerful Software if You Can Figure Out How to Use It
Comment: Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 is one of those software packages with so much capability it becomes difficult to learn how to take advantage of its power. I'm moving from PhotoFinish 4.1 to this package and I'm finding the transition very difficult. Of course I've been using PhotoFinish since the beginning of computer time and therefore know my way around that program.
For the last two weeks I've been struggling with lifting parts of one image to paste into another. When I can do it, the results are great. My problem is I'm never quite sure what I've done that works and what I've done which doesn't work. Either I'm very dumb or the program is not very intuitive. I choose the latter. The "Help" function would be much more useful if it had a "Show Me" mode.
One major stumbling block for me are the GUI's selected for editing functions. They just don't look like what I'm used to seeing for the intended function. The fill symbol, which is supposed to look like a pouring paint can, looks more like an inverted top hat at a 45 degree angle. The symbol for creating a blank shape is a rectangle with a doohickey slightly visible in the lower right hand corner. The cloning tool symbol is a rubber stamp. And so it goes. If you are saying, "Of course," then my review is of little value to you.
A very important capability for me is the ability to select portions of images to insert into other images. Photoshop highlights their Magic Selection Brush as being the tool which simplifies this task. I'm finding the "Magic Selection Brush" to be indeed very mystical. When I use it to mark a portion of an image I want to move to another layer the program picks all items in the image of approximately the same color. I've yet to discover how to set the sensitivity of the selection process.
My computer has a Pentium 4 CPU, 1 gigabyte of RAM, and uses Windows XP Professional, SP2. This is important to know to understand what follows.
A feature of the program I had to disable was that which searches for new images in my computer and/or attached camera. The DLL which performs this function used 99% of my CPU, thereby rendering my computer essentially useless. Once I eliminated apdproxy.exe from my startup file I regained control of my computer.
Would I buy this package knowing what I now know? Yes, I think so only because I'm not sure there is anything else which would give me the editing power I seek at a price I consider reasonable. I WILL learn to use Photoshop Elements 5 and I WILL learn to love it (or at least not hate it).
Summary: Good, stable product, runs fine on Vista. Took awhile to learn how to use it.
Comment: This is a good product. I was looking for a replacement for my prior photo management software which just didn't work well on Vista so I finally gave up on it. I have found Photoshop Elements to be less intuitive and than other photo management software I've used previously; however, now that I have gotten used to it I think it's great and has a lot of nice features. Most importantly it has been very stable and has worked very well on Vista.
Customer Rating:
Summary: PS Elements 5.0 Rocks
Comment: I'm totally in love with this product and can't get enough of it. It has so many amazing features. I use it for photo organization and scrapbooking and it's just perfect. Now if they only had this product for the Mac, I would be so grateful!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Photos better than ever
Comment: I love Adobe Photoshop Elements 5. It is easy to use and makes such a difference in the quality of my printed photos. Editing is so much easier. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in Photography.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It does what it claims... almost...
Comment: I'm not exactly a novice at using programs such as this. I've been tinkering with editing photos and making graphics since about 1996 using a different
editing program.
I needed to upgrade my old program, but decided to go with the flow and hop on the PhotoShop bandwagon of 'Elements' 5 because it's touted as being the best???
Well, I can honestly say that based on my experience with this program as compared to my other program:
"I do not have a clue as to how 'Elements 5' has become considered the Best!"
It's remarkable how little control that it allows. I purchased a helpful book on using the program. I understand the lingo and directions. It's not hard to understand.
I can make it do what I want... almost... My problem with 'Elements 5' is that I prefer more control than it offers over the varying degrees of editing and saving.
I learned an expensive lesson...
It won't happen again!
I gave it a 4 star rating because it does do what it says it'll do, but just not as efficiently as I like.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Powerful Software if You Can Figure Out How to Use It
Comment: Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 is one of those software packages with so much capability it becomes difficult to learn how to take advantage of its power. I'm moving from PhotoFinish 4.1 to this package and I'm finding the transition very difficult. Of course I've been using PhotoFinish since the beginning of computer time and therefore know my way around that program.
For the last two weeks I've been struggling with lifting parts of one image to paste into another. When I can do it, the results are great. My problem is I'm never quite sure what I've done that works and what I've done which doesn't work. Either I'm very dumb or the program is not very intuitive. I choose the latter. The "Help" function would be much more useful if it had a "Show Me" mode.
One major stumbling block for me are the GUI's selected for editing functions. They just don't look like what I'm used to seeing for the intended function. The fill symbol, which is supposed to look like a pouring paint can, looks more like an inverted top hat at a 45 degree angle. The symbol for creating a blank shape is a rectangle with a doohickey slightly visible in the lower right hand corner. The cloning tool symbol is a rubber stamp. And so it goes. If you are saying, "Of course," then my review is of little value to you.
A very important capability for me is the ability to select portions of images to insert into other images. Photoshop highlights their Magic Selection Brush as being the tool which simplifies this task. I'm finding the "Magic Selection Brush" to be indeed very mystical. When I use it to mark a portion of an image I want to move to another layer the program picks all items in the image of approximately the same color. I've yet to discover how to set the sensitivity of the selection process.
My computer has a Pentium 4 CPU, 1 gigabyte of RAM, and uses Windows XP Professional, SP2. This is important to know to understand what follows.
A feature of the program I had to disable was that which searches for new images in my computer and/or attached camera. The DLL which performs this function used 99% of my CPU, thereby rendering my computer essentially useless. Once I eliminated apdproxy.exe from my startup file I regained control of my computer.
Would I buy this package knowing what I now know? Yes, I think so only because I'm not sure there is anything else which would give me the editing power I seek at a price I consider reasonable. I WILL learn to use Photoshop Elements 5 and I WILL learn to love it (or at least not hate it).