In a Sea of Digital Photo Software, an Affordable Pearl O'Reilly's Newest Missing Manual Explains Everything You Need to Know About Photoshop Elements 5

SEBASTOPOL, Calif. -- If you love scrapbooking, arranging photos in galleries, or creating cool slideshows set to music, you'll definitely want the just-announced Photoshop Elements 5. And for those serious about photography, the new version of Elements now includes Photoshop's most sophisticated drawing tool, Curves. This major upgrade combining Photoshop's power with Elements' simplicity gives digital photography enthusiasts the tools the pros use to make their pictures shine.

"The new version helps keep photos organized, makes top-notch prints and truly nifty creative projects," says Barbara Brundage, bestselling O'Reilly author and Photoshop Elements' expert. Adobe is really jumping on the scrapbooking bandwagon with this release. It's the must-have software for the scrapbooking hobbyist."

Indeed, the affordable Photoshop Elements 5, which starts shipping at the end of the month, has everything a digital photographer needs but a manual, adds Brundage. Adobe only provides a pamphlet and some help files. Enter Brundage's newest book, Photoshop Elements 5: The Missing Manual (O'Reilly, US $39.99), to bridge this information gap.

"If you have an earlier version of Elements, you'll find a fair number of similarities in the basic editing functions, but Elements 5 gives you a lot of new ways to tackle old projects," says Brundage. Her new book clearly and concisely explains how all the new tools and commands work and when to use them. "With so many appealing new features, Photoshop Elements 5 is definitely a welcome, even essential update, no matter which version of Elements you might have used before."

And with Brundage's fun, easy-to-grasp approach, readers are sure to enjoy learning all the insider tips and tricks. This new Missing Manual explains in plain words how to use the new tools and state-of-the-art functions in Elements 5, including:

• Scrapbooking tools. For the first time, users can create multi-page documents, fancy photo arrangements with realistic-looking digital frames, and customized layouts for scrapbook projects.

• True black and white conversion. You could always remove color with Elements, but in Elements 5 it's easy to create stunning black and white shots from your color photos.

• Curves. Not a drawing tool, but one of the most sophisticated color adjustment tools from Photoshop. It's come to Elements in a simpler, easy-to-use form.

• Flash Web galleries. Wonderful, interactive photo galleries that let viewers do things like scroll through pictures (as though on a gallery wall), or "turn" the pages, book-style.

• Mapping tools. View photos like pins stuck in a Yahoo map, and share maps with friends so that they can click a spot on a map to see the photos you took of a particular location.

• Burst mode storage. If you use your camera's burst mode (multiple shots in quick succession), you can tell the Organizer to automatically create stacks of the photos from each burst.

Readers also have the option to head over to the Missing Manual web site (www.missingmanuals.com), for links to downloadable images for the tutorials mentioned in this book, to practice without using their own photos.

Digital photographers and scrapbookers aspiring to improve their presentations will welcome this timely new title in the Missing Manuals series. This is the hands-on, desktop reference Photoshop Elements 5 users are sure to refer to again and again.