If all you want to do is rotate your picture, lighten it up a bit and crop out what doesn't belong, in other words if you are a point-and-shoot person, don't get PSE or this book. There are easier programs that do such elementary chores. To get involved with PSE you have to be more serious about your pictures than that. But, now, let's say that you are serious, that you are willing to invest some hours to learn a little more about the possibilities of digital photography. In that case, there really is nothing better than the combination of this excellent book and a sophisticated camera. (I use the Nikon D-70, which has provision for interchangeable lenses. Canon makes something similar.) This book, while written in simple language and not requiring any particular background to read, does require effort. You need to spend quite a few hours to study this work. But the rewards of this effort are great. The book takes you through every nook and cranny of the PSE, and, believe me, there are quite a few such nooks and crannies. Once you have studied this book, you will be a better person -- well, a better photographer anyway. But if you are not serious about spending the time and effort, forget it; just click with your point-and-shoot and let it go at that.

I'm not trying to be contrary -- in fact, I do echo much of the praise heaped upon this book. The tutorials are very well-organized and fun to do. Graphics are great and the book is high quality. I guarantee that you will be able to do many cool things with this program. My small gripe (which really isn't the author's fault) is that I really only wanted to learn how to fix photos from my digital camera. I don't really need to know all that other stuff. Sure, it's cool, but the emphasis of this book and the tutorials are on creating new things, not necessarily fixing up regular photos. Even the tutorial on photos pertain to fixing up old photos that are in bad shape. I am looking for more of an "idiot" oriented book on fixing my photos. So yes, I enjoyed it, but buy it only if you're interested in all the other aspects of photoshop, just just digital editing. Now I'll feel guilty if I just fix up a photos without creating multiple layers - I'm still not convinced you absolutely need layers to do simple lighting adjustments or other basic edits.

First of all, I want to thank all of you who contributed reviews on this book. I purchased PSE2 a few months ago and struggled with the steep learning curve. I researched all the books I could find on PSE2 using amazon.com. The reviews convinced me to purchase this book. The books' size and weight immediately intimidated me. Once I installed the software, opened the book, and worked on the first lesson....it became very clear that the author did a fantastic job putting this together. The lessons are very easy to follow with clear instructions and screenshots of what the projects you work on in the lessons are suppose to look like. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has PSE2 or intends on obtaining a copy.

Why am I giving this book 5 stars like the rest of reviewers? Just to conform? Of course!! Ah...but I don't mean with the star rating thing, but with the uniformity of praises. I'm totally new to anything that starts with the word, Photoshop... All I wanted was someone to guide me through the program in step-by-step, no nonsense fashion, and Jan did a superb job of systematically fulfilling my very need. No more frustration!!

Although I'm totally new and uninitiated, I had no problem whatsover going through Jan's Confidence Builder. So I slightly disagree with another reviewer who thought the Confidence Builder wasn't for a beginner. But I do very much agree with another reviewer who stated that this book is far better than Kelby's. My first book on PSE was by Kelby's, but after having had enough of frustration trying to figure out "in-between-the-steps" with Kelby's style of instruction (when you're frustrated, none of his incessant attempts at humor helps!), I purchased Jan's delightful book. With each of her tutorial segments, my knowledge of PSE grows and builds. For the first time I feel like I know what PSE is like and what I can do with it. Yet I've only touched on the surface!! So let me get back to the tutorial...

I just travelled through this book, Photoshop Elements Complete Course, and it was a great journey. I saw a few books on Photoshop Elements the past year and must say this was the best, but for all most enjoyable, book I saw. I learned a lot about the program and it makes me want want to put things in practice.