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Nov 12, 2015 17:27:22   #
JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore
 
I got my Costco $39.99 copy of PSE14 today; it cost $42.39 because of the sales tax.

Installation wasn't as smooth as it could have been. Log in is mandatory and when I put in my account name and pass word they wouldn't accept it as "we already have that name and password on file" DUH! The other hitch was that they wanted the serial number or some transaction number from Costco that would be "in the package" or on the box. It isn't and would you believe they hid the S/N almost in plain sight by putting it not on the box where it was for my PSE 10, but on the back of the paper DVD envelopes.

The program seems to work OK but it loads much more slowly & the main page sure is different; the tools have different symbols, but I'll get used to that. I don't know why they feel they have to re-arrange the tools differently with every new issue.

I haven't been able to get the "Help" to work yet. Like most Adobe programs, it isn't intuitive, and the tools are all over the page. I haven't been able to get the "Content Aware" & the "De-haze" to work--that's why I know about the Help situation. One thing so far that I definitely don't like is that it doesn't give you the file name or number of the photo being processed. Good thing it is supposed to rain around here for the next few days; I'll have lots of time to play with it. Fortunately, it looks as if Hurricane Kate will be too far out to sea to bother us.

A :thumbup: If you are using the Organizer, it asks what files you want to import :thumbup: ; when I loaded PSE 10 it searched for every picture on the computer no matter where it was and created the damnedest file disorganization you can imagine. I spent weeks moving stuff around, and then got the dreaded "disconnected file" message on a lot of pictures.

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Nov 12, 2015 17:47:10   #
Quixdraw Loc: x
 
Got to say, though installation wasn't as smooth as 13, They were very helpful via chat. Including helping with my hand me down travel computer. Stayed online till download began. Haven't had occasion to use it yet. My Costco copy included a coupon good for 50 free 4x6 prints -- almost tossed it because it didn't look like much.

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Nov 12, 2015 17:48:50   #
RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas
 
JCam wrote:
I got my Costco $39.99 copy of PSE14 today; it cost $42.39 because of the sales tax.

Installation wasn't as smooth as it could have been. Log in is mandatory and when I put in my account name and pass word they wouldn't accept it as "we already have that name and password on file" DUH! The other hitch was that they wanted the serial number or some transaction number from Costco that would be "in the package" or on the box. It isn't and would you believe they hid the S/N almost in plain sight by putting it not on the box where it was for my PSE 10, but on the back of the paper DVD envelopes.

The program seems to work OK but it loads much more slowly & the main page sure is different; the tools have different symbols, but I'll get used to that. I don't know why they feel they have to re-arrange the tools differently with every new issue.

I haven't been able to get the "Help" to work yet. Like most Adobe programs, it isn't intuitive, and the tools are all over the page. I haven't been able to get the "Content Aware" & the "De-haze" to work--that's why I know about the Help situation. One thing so far that I definitely don't like is that it doesn't give you the file name or number of the photo being processed. Good thing it is supposed to rain around here for the next few days; I'll have lots of time to play with it. Fortunately, it looks as if Hurricane Kate will be too far out to sea to bother us.

A :thumbup: If you are using the Organizer, it asks what files you want to import :thumbup: ; when I loaded PSE 10 it searched for every picture on the computer no matter where it was and created the damnedest file disorganization you can imagine. I spent weeks moving stuff around, and then got the dreaded "disconnected file" message on a lot of pictures.
I got my Costco $39.99 copy of PSE14 today; it cos... (show quote)


Sounds as if your unhappy maybe you should uninstalled PS elements 14 and ask for your money back!!!

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Nov 12, 2015 19:09:38   #
houdel Loc: Chase, Michigan USA
 
JCam wrote:
I got my .... copy of PSE14 today ....Installation wasn't as smooth as it could have been..... If you are using the Organizer it .... created the damnedest file disorganization you can imagine. I spent weeks moving stuff around, and then got the dreaded "disconnected file" message on a lot of pictures.

Yup, sounds like Photoshop Elements. I had a very early version of Photoshop, like maybe version 5 or 6, some 15 or so years ago. Then a few years later got a new computer & bought Corel PaintShop Pro X3. About three years ago I got another new computer with Photoshop Elements 9, and just recently got Corel PaintShop Pro X7 Ultimate when it was on sale just before X8 came out. I'm thinking of adding PSE 14 if/when B&H has it on sale for $40 or so. Mostly for dehaze, but also, having used both, there are things that PSE does better and things that PSP does better, so if I can have both without spending an arm and a leg, so much the better.

As far as I am concerned, neither PSE nor PSP are very intuitive, and PSE's (dis)organizer totally sucks. I file my photos using my own logic in Windows Explorer folders and subfolders and am quite happy doing it myself and PSP has no problem with that. Help pretty much sucks in both, but I use Google Chrome and have the PSP X7 permanently opened as a pinned tab just so I don't have to wait a year and a day to open help each time I need to use it.

My photo editing skills to date have been pretty sketchy at best. I wasn't at all impressed with the Adobe PSE or the Corel PSP on line tutorials so I bought a copy of "Picture Yourself Learning Corel PaintShop Pro X6" by Diane Koers (the PSP X7 version is only available on Kindle which #1 I don't do, and #2 sucks as a way to learn how to use a computer application). I am skimming my way through the basic parts of the manual and have already picked up a lot of good stuff. I'm looking forward to getting into curves and layers.

Most photo editing tutorials in magazines, blogs or on line are based in Photoshop. One interesting thing that I found out is that I can use the Photoshop tutorials step by step in Paintshop Pro. I haven't tried them with my PSE but you may want to try it as PSE is quite similar to Photoshop.

PSE is a fine program and it should do what you need it to do for you. My suggestion for learning how to use it effectively would be to solicit suggestions for a good learning manual for PSE as some of the stuff out there sucks. That is what I did for PSP and I am quite happy with the Koers manual.

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Nov 12, 2015 21:24:16   #
JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore
 
Guys,

I didn't say I was totally unhappy with the program, but that the installation wasn't as simple as it should have been; after all this is the 14th PSE "revision" and they should at least have the installation down pat. My primary reason for writing the post was to advise other UHH'rs that there were some things to watch for during the installation.

I too gave up on the PSE 10 Organizer after a disaster that scrambled the catalogs, and from that time on have been using a tree structure I made up in the Windows Pictures folder. Since this organizer went in without any problems, I'll probably try it again, but I now have a fall-back Pictures file I can import into 14 & use separately too .

I didn't expect learning the new program was going to be simple; nothing that Adobe puts out is, but when the main page doesn't even look like the previous versions, maybe they have gone too far. Why not just add the new tools and features? Change for change's sake is ridiculous, or maybe just to sell new programs, but the differences I've seen so far, I think could have been done with an upgrade at less cost than the published price.

When I got PSE10, it was a steep learning curve; I bought Barbara Brundage's book "The Missing Manual" for PSE10 and have highly recommended it on this forum. If she has one out for PSE14, I'll may get that too, but now that I have four years experience with PSE, I may go it alone with you-tube as a first call back-up.

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Nov 13, 2015 06:51:14   #
RJM Loc: Cardiff, S Wales, UK
 
Yes, I don't find Adobe products intuitive either. They seem to want to make it 'not too easy' as there are many making a living off the back of making how to learn DVD's and doing teaching on how to use it!

If a program is good, not on should it be powerful, but it should be intuitive!!!

I have never seen a better program for downloading, cataloging and doing basic edits than Picasa and that's free!!!!

I have PSE11 and only use it for a couple of things. I mostly use On 10 software and DXO 10 for processing and more involved editing.

The one good thing I can say about Adobe is that I found them very helpful when I had installation problems along the lines you experienced!! :)

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Nov 13, 2015 09:05:46   #
RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas
 
I installed PSE14 I did not have any difficulty with it such as you described. I felt it went very well I will say I have not used it yet but will be doing some PP this weekend!

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Nov 13, 2015 11:20:05   #
efleck Loc: Vancouver, WA State
 
Hi All,

I too bought PSE 14 from Costco not long ago. Installation was lengthy but not too difficult. Adobe demanded a new password--OK. The layout of the Organizer screen is different from PSE 10, my previous edition. However, after a full week of hard use I think I have a handle on the layout. However, two observations have me concerned.

First, some background--I have close to 30,000 image files on my 1 TByte external hard drive in .dng, .NEF, .psd, .tiff, and .jpg file formats arranged into folders. When I downloaded the program and went through the VERY lengthy catalog update process (I forgot the exact name) I found that 16,000 new (?) files appeared in the root directory of my external hard drive. These include about 8,000 .json files and almost 9,000 .dng, .NEF, and .tiff files. I have no idea why I now have 8,000 .json (Java Script Object Notation) files in my external drive hard directory and why I appear to have 9,000 of my other files moved (?) or copied (?) from my various folders to my root directory. When I click on one of the .json files, TextEdit opens but gives me a blank screen. When I click on any of the other files I get an image I recognize. ??

Second, unlike PSE 10, my previous version, I cannot open version sets. In PSE 10 all I did was click on the little arrow on a collapsed version set to open all the images in the version set for review or further manipulation. On PSE 14 I cannot find the little arrow and when I use the menu (or right click) to ask to open a version set nothing happens. ???

Do anyone provide any assistance for these two problems?

Earl

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