Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Organizer is a big disappointment, May 2, 2023
I already use Photoshop, so I was looking for a lighter weight version with a great organizer for my 20,000+ images.
1. Elements may be a lighter version, but it seems to take longer to start and using it turns out to be less intuitive than Photoshop. I find myself turning to the (very poorly organized) Help for answers to basic issues.
2. The Help is terribly organized. For example, I needed information about adding folders to my collections. Searching on "folders", "adding", "import", "organize", provided no usefull information.
3. The Organizer is supposed to automatically add images that I place in its "watched folders". It does not, and the Help is no help.
4. The worst problem is moving files with the Windows Explorer instead of the built-in Organizer. It loses track of the files and will ask you to locate them manually one by one (all 1000 files I moved). Trying to move the files within Organizer is a major pain. Completely non-intuitive. You are supposed to be able to drag-and-drop, but the Help says that an alt-drag is required. Niether worked for me.
5. Basic commands are hidden in unexpected places. To see the "organize bin" you have to click on a arrow at the right-bottom. I would expect it to be in the "view" menu.
I could go on and on, but the list is too long. Prepare for a major time waste learning to use a program that is supposed to make your work more efficient.
To summarize - this may be a great program, but the interface and controls make it too frustrating to use. Add the inadequate support and/or Help, and you have a program that barely deserves 2 stars.
All the above are even more frustrating when you compare it to a free program like Copernic that makes locating images fast, easy and painless.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
 Good product suite - OK upgrade if you already have 2.0, Apr 28, 2023
After reading the reviews on here, I was undecided on whether to upgrade from Elements 2.0 or not. I was swayed by two rebates offerred by Adobe and Amazon, and now that I've used 3.0 for a while I would say it is worth my (discounted) upgrade price.
Big Plus - the Healing Brush is great, and has make working with damaged photo scans much easier for me.
Big Plus - the Red Eye removal tool is much improved from earlier versions. Since I'm not an "image professional" I really don't want to spend 10 or 20 steps to remove red-eye, and this version of PE does a good job almost every time with a single click.
Don't Care (for me) - not interested in the Organizer tool.
Minus - PE 3.0 forces install of Organizer whether you want it or not. Once installed, the Organizer assumes that any file you edit is to be added to it. This tool simply gets in my way, and there is no way to disable the Organizer tool or prevent it from being installed.
Overall, I am happy with PE 3.0. But the high upgrade price and forced Organizer tool prevent me from giving this product the best rating.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
This is an upgrade of 2.0, but not by much, Apr 28, 2023
This review is written mostly for those who have been using Photoshop Elements 2.0 and are considering moving up to 3.0
I have been a long time Photoshop user (starting with something like 3.0) and have been using Photoshop Elements 2.0 since it came out a year and half ago. 2.0 was an efficient "lean machine". It can't do everything the full Photoshop can do, but for the average user, it is more than sufficient.
After I read some magazine reviews of 3.0, I decided to purchase it. But I am very disappointed with 3.0. It is a MUCH bigger program. It feels "clunky"--the organizer and the editor are two separate programs (and the calender/card creator is yet another program).
In 2.0, the photobrowser takes up most of the screen. In 3.0, it takes up about 1/4 of the screen--one can narrow the other windows, but can't really close them off to make room for the browser. For people who use the photobrowser frequently in 2.0, this can be very annoying.
3.0's new "tag" and "collection" features, which is supposed to make keeping track of photos easier, are part of the organizer program, not the editor. One cannot use the "tag" feature in the editor to find a tagged file.
Also, because the editor and organizer are not integrated at all, in order for files to be tagged and put into collections, one has to "import" one's image files into photoshop. Although this simply means that Photoshop needs to know where one's image files are (and no files are duplicated), it seems rather cumbersome that one has to go through all of one's files and import them all before tagging any of them. It would be vastly more convenient if one can do it all in the photobrowser.
Just my 2c.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Powerful, easy to use, but watch out if you turn pro, Apr 27, 2023
We use a number of Adobe products, elements, photoshop, illustrator, and acrobat. I love elements, it is intuitive and has most of what you really use in photoshop.
However, the upgrade path with Adobe is pretty tricky. If you think you might want to turn professional consider going with the suite.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Mail-in Rebate: Read the "Fine Print"!, Apr 16, 2023
It appears by the "Special Offer" for a $20.00 rebate that this is available with the purchase of the software. However, you must read below at the bottom of the page where it says a $20 rebate is for "upgraders". Very misleading to the buyer of new software!
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Based on 54 reviews.