The most common question (complaint, really) that we hear from new Photoshop Elements users is, “Why isn’t there a manual? And, why isn’t it in the box?”

We’re not Adobe, so we can’t answer the why, but we do tell people that Adobe does provide a solid help system for Elements. Plus, if you want something a bit more traditional, you can download a PDF of the full manual online. I thought it would be good to post the locations of the online help areas–which include links for downloading the PDFs for the most recent versions.

Photoshop Elements 11

• Photoshop Elements general Help page
• Photoshop Elements Reference (PDF)
• Elements Organizer Reference (PDF)

Photoshop Elements 10

• General Photoshop Elements Help (including the Editor)
• Organizer Help
• Premiere Elements Help

For Elements 7, 8 and 9, Adobe has an archive page with links to the manuals for those versions. The Elements 6 User Guide page is also still available on the Adobe site, and, if you’re a Premiere Elements user, there’s an archive page, for older versions of that program.)

General Elements help can be found online here.

[This is an updated version of an older post]