For a book about visual editing, this one is woefully lacking in helpful illustrations. The few screenshots reproduced are of such poor quality that the names on the taskbars and menus can hardly be read. The more abundant but still too few photos used to illustrate features of the software are almost useless since they fail to show the element of the feature. For example, in the section on selecting parts of the photo to edit, the lines to mark the section of the photo selected are almost invisible and things like the lasso cursor are about the size of a pinprick. Other reviewers had mentioned these shortcomings but I thought the book would be worthwhile at a discounted price since I had liked the "For Dummies" books purchased in the past. I was wrong wrong wrong. Even the text proved to be too frustrating to be of much help. The instructions were constantly referring the reader to an earlier or later section of the book to explain something or other. If this is where the Dummies series is headed, then they really are for dummies like me who waste their money on poorly illustrated, poorly organized and generally useless manuals.

I have a lot of "for Dummies" on my bookshelf that I have used to learn a lot about a lot of things. So naturally when I wanted to learn Photoshop Elements 9, I looked for the "for Dummies" book. This is the most difficult "for Dummies" book I have ever seen. It is not organized well, it lacks clear explanations of concepts and it doesn't even have the light tone that all of my other "for Dummies" books have that make it enjoyable to read. I have read it through, I have used it as a reference manual and still cannot figure out what are probably basic concepts that I need to understand. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

This book was a lifesaver when I started in Photography

I am a Dummie! Have used PSE 2 for years, and most of my knowledge cannot be transferred so the book is important! Very disappointed. I need the basics and I can't find basic topics in the index. If I happen to find it, I write it in the index, in case I need it again. Several do not appear in the book at all. I find the coverage of both operating systems distracting and confusing. Two books would be much better for the users. (I cross out the material on the other system.)

When it comes to photoshop, I am a complete dummy. Or I was until I read this book. I think it is concise and to the point. Everything is explained very well. This book has saved me from having to take an expensive Photoshop class.

The information that I need is mostly in the book, but it's not arranged as easily as I'd like. That doesn't mean it wouldn't work better for someone else. It would be difficult to write a manual like this that would work perfect for everyone. Overall, I'm pleased with it.

I spent the money for this book to get specific answers, and they are NOT in there.
Two questions everyone has that uses photoshop are not found - at least not yet-...
How to get the fill flash effect and how to FIND the stupid paintbrush!!!!

I'm a dummy about a lot of things and have always found this series a great help