11-27-07
Upgrading to Photoshop Elements 6
As you by now, Adobe
Also, if you have chose=
n to
upgrade, you will find some hints and tips that will make your conversion to
PSE 6 smoother. There are several external and internal differences in PSE =
6,
not the least of which is its brand new color scheme and layout. This page =
will
be updated as I move through my conversion journey. Due to the size of my
catalog (~18K photos) and my extensive use of CD/DVDs for storing the bulk =
of
my photos off-line, I am faced with a more complicated conversion than most=
of
you. That being said, the upgrade path for most people is straight forward =
and
problem free.
Photoshop Elements 6.0
Adobe Links
The Adobe links below w=
ill
give you a good feel of the new features in PSE 6 and how it can be used to
enhance your enjoyment of digital photography.
Features ̵=
1; Click
here for a good description of PSE 6’s features and its color sch=
eme
and layout. Click on the “Show all Features” box in each of the
areas, Organize, Edit, Create and Share to see all of the features.
Creative Ideas
– Click
here to get some ideas how others have used the program for their photo
projects. If you are interested in making sophisticated slide shows for vie=
wing
on your high definition television, you may want to purchase Adobe Premiere Element=
s 4.0
which can be bought bundled with PSE 6 or separately. Follow the links ther=
e to
learn more about PRE 4.0, Adobe’s consumer video editing program.
System Requirements
– PSE 6 and PRE 4 are powerful programs that need PCs with reasonable
power to perform satisfactorily. The best PC upgrade you make to improve the
performance of either PSE 6.0 or PRE 4.0 is to add as much internal memory
(RAM) as your PC can use. Click here<=
/a> to
see the minimum requirements for your PC.
Additional Links to General
PSE 6.0 Information
www.Easyelements.com=
– This has several relatively simple
tutorials on using various features of PSE. <=
span
style=3D'color:#1F497D;mso-themecolor:text2'>Click here for a vi=
deo
tour of PSE 6.0.
Upgrading to PSE 6 From Earlier
Versions
This section presents s=
ome
tips for upgrading to PSE 6 from earlier versions, such as PSE 3, PSE 4 or =
PSE 5.
These hints focus on the Organizer, since that is where most of the internal
changes have occurred. In addition to just looking different, it works
different internally. Most notably, from my perspective is how it handles
pictures that have been moved off-line to CDs or DVDs. Also, if you have or=
buy
PRE 4 in the future, they share the same catalog, that you manage from with=
in
PSE 6.
I plan to update this
section as I learn things from converting my catalog from PSE 5. Don’=
t be
scared off from what you may view as a complicated task. For the vast major=
ity
of you, simply running the Convert command on your first use of PSE 6 will =
be
all you have to do to begin working with PSE 6 with your Catalog as it exis=
ted
in PSE 5 or earlier versions. Let’s get started
Converting Your Catalog
As I said above one just
runs the Convert command the first time you run PSE 6. In fact, the first t=
ime
PSE 6 runs, it recognizes that you have a catalo=
g from
a previous version and asks if you want to convert it. Generally this works
flawlessly, however, some people have reported that they experienced proble=
ms.
The best way to minimize the chance you will have problems is to fix any
problems in your current catalog prior to running PSE 6. To do this, do the
following:
Reconnect all missing files by clicking=
on File > Reconnect > All Missing =
Files
If you cannot find the missing pictures,
delete them from the catalog.
Let PSE do some internal housekeeping by
clicking on File > Catalog >
Recover
Although this not necessary, it may a g=
ood
idea to do a complete backup of your existing catalog before running PSE 6 =
or
converting your existing catalog to its catalog format.
To see more details abo=
ut
the new PSE 6 catalog structure and how the program works with it click here.
Converting My Catalog (11-27-07)
For most people converting your catalog from=
an
earlier version of PSE to PSE 6 should be straight forward if you follow the
advice above. That was not the case for me. First, my catalog has over 1=
8K
pictures. Most of these are stored off-line on CDs and DVDs that were made
using the Move Off-Line command various versions of PSE.
Earlier versions of PSE allowed you to make =
slide
shows, view full screen etc using the proxy for off-line images. You cannot=
do
this in PSE 6. You must bring the image back on-line to do these things. Th=
is
was a design decision by Adobe that I think was a mistake.
My initial plan was to convert my PSE 5 Cata=
log
to PSE 6, move my images stored on CD/DVDs back on-line, and then Move them=
back
to off-line status, but onto an external hard drive. By keeping this drive
connected, the images are available for any use. If the external drive is n=
ot
connected, the images have the same use/viewing limitations as those stored=
on
CD/DVDs. After converting My PSE 5 Catalog to PSE 6, I began this process. =
I then discovered that PSE 6 did not recogni=
ze
the label or volume ID of many of the CD/DVDs I had stored my images on, ev=
en though
they were made and labeled using PSE. This is a bug in the program, which I
have reported. To get around this problem, I am moving all of my images back
on-line in PSE 5 (This is a big task given the number of images/CDRs
involved.). Once they are all back on-line, I will convert my Catalog to PS=
E 6,
and then move the images to off-line status on an external hard drive. I am
making good progress doing this and should be ready to convert to PSE 6 soo=
n. I’ll
update this section as I go along.
In
the meantime, I suggest that when you feel it is time to begin moving your
images off your hard drive, you should move them to an external hard drive =
not
to CDs or DVDs. I suspect that Adobe will fix t=
he
CD/DVD label mismatch problem at some point, but ….
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