Sarasota PC Monitor
Adobe Photoshop CS One On One
A Book Review
by Sharon Rump
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.As I have stated in previous reviews, most softwaretoday comes with very little in the way of manuals tohelp you get started and learn how to use the software program. Adobe is one of the few software developers that still include a pretty good manual that will help you in the learning process. While this is a big reason that I like and use Adobe products, after-market books still are some of my favorite reading.
O'Reilly continues to publish books that are informative and helpful in many areas. I have read other Total Training manuals and they continue to be one of the easiest to follow and best ways to work with new software. Adobe includes an introductory Total Training disc with some of its software to show how easy learning can be.
Deke McClelland has written a book that is designed to relate to the reader one-on-one. A disc with two hours of video instruction is included which allows you to work along with Deke as he guides you through the learning process. The training is divided into twelve lessons which start at the very beginning as you open an image, then help you to tweak it until it is "picture perfect" and then guides you through steps for printing or preparation for other output in the best manner possible. He walks you through installation of the CD included and then steps you through setting up PhotoshopCS so that your settings are duplicate to the ones that are being used in the tutorials. What could be better? There are lesson files included that allow you to work on the same images that Deke is using. His instructions are very simple and easy to follow. There is a big advantage to being able to use two computers with this training. I have installed the video training on my laptop and then do the work on my desktop. This way I don't have to flip back and forth between the training and the program.
Also included by Deke are "Pearls of Wisdom" which provide information about how digital imagining works. This might help the individual to understand the function without being necessary information to use the program. Just a little extra. There are also special tips and techniques included and color coded to help make PhotoshopCS work faster and more smoothly.
Included with some lessons are "Extra Credit" steps that go a bit beyond the lesson plan and allow the more advanced user to "finish" the project in a bit more professional way. Both Pearls of Wisdom and Extra Credit are highlighted by a banner and color coded to point out something special.
At the end of each lesson is a section titled "What Did You Learn?" A test will let you see how much you understood the lesson and how much you learned. The answers are printed upside-down at the bottom of the page; but no peeking!!
The book is packed full of 465 pages of entertaining projects to work on; including over 600 full color images so that you can be sure you are following the instructions that you are given and wind up with a duplicate image. There are instructions for a PC user as well as Mac.
You can find the book online at www.oreilly.com as well as in bookstores. It is listed at $39.95 but I found it at Amazon.com at a reduced price including free shipping. Also check local bookstores for availability. Don't think you can miss with this one!
Copyright 2004. This article is from the September 2004 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.