Photoshop Elements 15 For Dummies. Obermeier Barbara

states stored to the default of 50. In Chapter 3, we show you how to increase the number of history states via Elements preferences. You can ratchet this number up to 1,000 if you like. But realize that the more history states you record, the more memory Elements requires.

       Reverting to the last save

      While you edit photos in Elements, plan on saving your work regularly. Each time you save in an editing session, the History panel preserves the list of edits you make until you hit the maximum number or close the file.

      If you save, then perform more edits, and then want to return to the last saved version of your document, Elements provides you with a quick, efficient way to do so. If you choose Edit ⇒ Revert, Elements eliminates your new edits and takes you back to the last time you saved your file.

      When you choose Revert, Revert appears in the History panel. You can eliminate the Revert command from the History panel by right-clicking (Windows) or Ctrl-clicking (on a Mac with a one-button mouse) the Revert item and choosing Delete from the contextual menu that appears.

      Getting a Helping Hand

      You probably bought this book because you’re not a fan of sifting through help files and want an expert guide to image editing. We share everything a beginner needs to get started in Elements, but Elements is too sophisticated a program to cover completely in the pages we have here. You may also need some quick help if you don’t have this book nearby.

      Whenever you need a hand, know that you can find valuable help information quickly and easily within Elements itself. If you’re stuck on understanding a feature, ample help documents are only a mouse click away and can help you overcome some frustrating moments.

      Your first stop is the Help menu, where you can find several commands that offer information:

      ❯❯ Photoshop Elements Help: Choose Help ⇒ Photoshop Elements Help or press the F1 key (Windows) or the Help key (on a Mac with an extended keyboard) to open the Elements Help file. You can type a search topic and press Enter to display a list of search results.

      ❯❯ Getting Started: Choose this item for tips and information on getting started in Elements.

      ❯❯ Key Concepts: While you read this book, if we use a term that you don’t completely understand, choose Help ⇒ Key Concepts. A web page opens in your default web browser and provides many web pages with definitions of terms and concepts.

      ❯❯ Support: This menu command launches your default web browser and takes you to the Adobe website (www.adobe.com), where you can find information about Elements, problems reported by users, and some workaround methods for getting a job done. You can find additional web-based help information by clicking Photoshop Elements Online and Online Learning Resources. The vast collection of web pages on Adobe’s website offers you assistance, tips and techniques, and solutions to many problems that come with editing images. Be sure to spend some time browsing these web pages.

      ❯❯ Video Tutorials: Choose Help ⇒ Video Tutorials to open a web page where videos for common tasks are hosted on Adobe’s website.

      ❯❯ Forum: Choose Help ⇒ Forum to explore user comments and questions with answers to many common problems.

       Tooltips can be another helpful resource. While you move your cursor around tools and panels, pause a moment before clicking the mouse. A slight delay in your actions produces a tooltip, which is a small box that describes the item your mouse is pointing to. Elements provides this sort of dynamic help when you pause the cursor before moving to another location.

When you launch the Organizer or Photo Editor for the first time, you may see the eLive tab selected by default. eLive, shown in Figure 1-9, is a new feature in Elements that offers you help, tutorial assistance, and information related to updates. When you first begin to explore Elements, take a look at the various options you have for learning more about the program.

       FIGURE 1-9: Find great help resources on the new eLive tab.

      eLive has three separate categories and a View All category (called Everything) where all options are shown in the eLive window. You select a category by opening the drop-down menu from the left side of the window. Here you find:

      ❯❯ Learn: Click this item to learn various techniques in editing photos.

      ❯❯ Inspire: Click this item to view some inspirational creations.

      ❯❯ News: Click this tab to view Elements news items such as updates and announcements.

      The eLive tab shows updated information as Adobe posts it. The interface is web-based and new updates to the individual items occur routinely. Be sure to explore eLive to keep updated with new ideas and announcements.

      Saving Files with Purpose

      When you save a file after editing it, you might save the file in the same file format, or change the format to suit your photo service center’s specifications or to ensure your image downloads quickly on a website.

      When you save, Elements also enables you to take advantage of special features, such as saving different versions of a file or including your edited file in the Organizer as well as saving it to your hard drive.

      This section is your guided tour of the Save/Save As dialog box (or Save As dialog box if you’re saving a file for the first time) and the Save for Web dialog box. In Chapter 2, you find a detailed explanation of how to choose a file format when you save.

       Using the Save/Save As dialog box

      In most any program, the Save (or Save As) dialog box is a familiar place where you make choices about the file to be saved. With Save As, you can save a duplicate copy of your image or save a modified copy and retain the original file. However, if you’re planning to upload your final image to the web, skip the familiar Save (or Save As) dialog box and see the next section, “Saving files for the web.”

      To use the Save (or Save As) dialog box, choose File ⇒ Save for files to be saved the first time, or choose File ⇒ Save As when you want to make a copy of the open file, and a dialog box then opens.

       As a matter of good practice, when you open an image, choose File ⇒ Save As for your first step in editing a photo. Save with a new filename to make a copy and then proceed to edit the photo. If you don’t like your editing results, you can return to the original, unedited photo and make another copy for editing.

      The standard navigational tools you find in any Save dialog box appear in the Elements Save/Save As dialog box. Here are two standard options you find in the Elements Save/Save As dialog box:

      ❯❯ Filename: This item is common to all Save (Windows) or Save As (Mac) dialog boxes. Type a name for your file in the text box.

      ❯❯ Format: From the drop-down list, you choose file formats. We explain the formats that Elements supports in Chapter 2.

      A few options make the Photoshop Elements Save/Save As dialog box different from other Save dialog boxes that you might be accustomed to using. The Save Options area in the Save As dialog box provides these choices:

      ❯❯ Include in the Elements Organizer: If you want the file added to the Organizer, select this check box. (For more information about using the Organizer, see Part