It's a lot cheaper than the full version of PS. It can do a ton of things, but it can seem really confusing at first.

The plus side of it - there are SO many users out there. There is a wealth of information and tutorials to learn from.

Not sure if you are a scrapbooker, but PSe is used widely by a lot of digital scrapbookers. You can find a lot of tutorials on photo editing on their websites.

Thanks. I'm a scrapbooker in theory. I have tons of pics from the past few years floating around on my computer and out there in the "cloud" and I want to finally do something with them.

I'm coming late to this thread, but I hope you bought PSE. It's a great program.

I love Photoshop Elements. Also, if you can afford it, Photoshop Lightroom 4 ($150)is a very good tool for organizing and tweaking photos and so is the free Google Picasa. New version of Lightroom also handles video very well. I couldn't speak to the video editing program. I use Sony Vegas Pro 11 for my video editing needs but it's a bit on the pricey side but does give professional results.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sony Vegas Pro

I'm not a pro but once I had been using adobe Photoshop cs6 and had to temporarily use elements I found photo tampering no longer fun. IâÂÂm not saying Elements is a bad program; Elements is a great program. But CS6 is an awe inspiring program with endless capabilities! Yup the catch is itâÂÂs also $800+ Most of us incl. myself can't afford. The good news is they have what is called the student / teacher edition thatâÂÂs identical in every way but the price tag. So if you (or family member) are currently enrolled or employed (not just teachers) at any university just follow my link or give them a call they are very nice. Also its through adobe not a university-program so if you go to Adobe's main site they have the info there too.

Here is a link that might be useful: adobe info

mjmomma, by all means get Elements and also a manual and learn to use all its many features. You will love it and you will have lots of fun. When you have mastered PS Elements, look at Topaz Lab's add ons. They fit perfectly with Elements and can give you some startling awesome photos.

I had the full versions of PS and seldom used it.

Why would you pay for a photo editing software, when so many are available for Free a simple download, a great one is photoscape.

One of the nice things adobe offers is a 1month free trail of the full version of photoshop and i beleive all of thier software. Plus there are oodles of high quality step by step video tutorials and how to's for every aspect of photoshop: all for free. go to their web site and watch a demo or two. Depending on what you want to do with your photo's something s are worth every penny.