It’s the little things

10 of the coolest little improvements that make a big difference in Photoshop Elements 4
By Scott Kelby

When a new version of Elements comes out, the media tends to focus on all the “Wow” features.” The ones you read about in the press release, and the ones everybody talks about in the reviews and overviews. The ones that basically make people want to buy the new version.

But one of the things I love about Adobe upgrades is that they always sneak in all sorts of little enhancements and improvements along the way. That’s why Elements 4 doesn’t feel bulky—it’s because Adobe keeps adding lots of “little things” that refine and improve each version, and those little tweaks really make a difference.

Well, here are ten of those “little things” Adobe tweaked, improved, or enhanced in Photoshop Elements 4 that made me smile:

(1) They turned off “Resample Image” in the Image Size dialog
Resizing, without losing image quality, is a mystery to most people, and so most people wind up damaging their images unwittingly. By turning off the Resample Image checkbox, Adobe took a big step in protecting us all, because now when you open the Image Size dialog and type in a new size, it doesn’t resample, so it doesn’t damage your image. With today’s digital cameras—this is a great thing. Back when everybody scanned images with a flatbed scanner, it wasn’t such a great thing, but I applaud Adobe for making a little change, that will have a big effect.

(2) They added new templates. Lots of them.
If you’ve read my comments on the quality of some of the templates back in Elements 3, then you’ll be relieved to learn that not only are their more pre-designed templates (for everything from calendars, to Web Photo Galleries), but the overall quality is quite a bit better, too.

(3) Higher default JPEG settings
Adobe is really starting to look out for its users, and proof of that is (as I mentioned earlier), turning off the Resample Image checkbox by default. Another way they’re looking out for us is by increasing the default JPEG quality size from a pretty ratty setting of 6, to a pretty respectable setting of 10. Studies have shown that most users use the default settings for, well, pretty much everything, and that meant that most users were saving their JPEG images with a pretty bad quality setting. Not any more.

(4) You can see your fonts before you choose them
”Was that font I wanted Garamond or Gil Sans?” The guessing game is over, as you can now see a preview of each font right within the font list, but that’s not the wonderful little feature. The wonderful feature is that you can turn this feature off if you don’t want it. So why would you want it off? The font menu appears more slowly with it on (after all, it has to draw all your fonts), so at least if you don’t want to see the font previews, you don’t have to, you can turn them off in the Type Preferences.

(5) We have two new cursors choices
We thankfully now have two new preference choices for our cursors when working with Brushes. The first (called the “Full Size cursor’) will now show the entire area being affected by the brush (even if it’s a soft-edged brush). The other cursor choice is called “Always Show Crosshair” which adds a small crosshair in the center of your brush cursor so you always find the sweet spot where you’re painting. Both of these settings are found under Preferences, under Displays and Cursors.

(6) Hiding edge fringe when collaging images
If you’ve never combined multiple images and noticed a white (or black) edge around one of your collaged objects, you’re gonna love this. It’s called Defringe Layer (a feature borrowed from Elements big brother Photoshop CS2) and what it does is hide the edge around your collaged object, giving you a smooth clean edges, and more realistic collages. It’s found under the Enhance menu, under Adjust Color. This has been a popular Photoshop features for years, and now it’s thankfully here in Photoshop Elements 4.

(7) Cropping made easier
This may sound like a little thing, until you try it, then you’ll fall in love with it. Now when you use the Crop tool, at the bottom two incredibly handy little buttons appear—a “complete the crop” button and a “cancel the crop” button. They’re right there—almost right where your cursor is, and every time I use them I think, “Man, I wish Photoshop CS2 had this feature,” but it’s only in Elements 4. Sweet.

(8) Adding columns of text
Did you ever notice that if you clicked the Type tool and started typing, that it would type in a straight line, right off your image area, for as long as your cared to type. That’s right, if you didn’t manually hit a return, you could create a straight line of text a mile long. But in Elements 4, you can finally add a column—just take the Type tool, and before you start typing click and drag out a text box where you want to your type to flow. Then when you being typing, your type will flow, and wrap complete with hyphens, right inside that box. Ahhhh, it’s the little things.

(9) They killed the File Browser. This is good.
They did this for you. Really. Having both the Photo Organizer and the File Browser created massive confusion among users. Nobody seemed to know which method of sorting images was the right one, and sadly some people used both. Now, Adobe has made everyone’s life easier by making the choice for you, and they made the right choice by choosing to keep the Photo Organizer, and killing the outdated File Browser. If you were using the File Browser, don’t mourn its loss, you’ve got to move on with your sorting and cataloging life, and the Photo Organizer will soon become like a long lost friend.

(10) Exporting (Sharing) Organizer Tags
This may not sound like a big thing, until you go out shooting with some friends. Let’s say you’re shooting a motor sport event, and there are dozens of different cars on the track. Well, once one of you creates tags for all the different cars (Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, Lamborghini, etc.) they can then export and share those tags with you. Then you can simply import their tags, and start dropping them on cars in the Photo Organizer. Plus, by sharing your tags with others, you each have a common system for organizing your files from that event. Plus, sharing is the right thing to do. Just ask your children.