If I click & drag an existing jpeg photo in my iphoto5 library to the elements3 icon in the dock is it lossless?

Your book deals with how to save once you are in elements but not how to get there.

I have been told that any transfer such as to a cd or to elements3 does not result in loss. Is this true when the original is in jpeg?

After I have worked with the image do I have to save it in jpeg to be able to order books from within iphoto?

My camera (hpM407)does not support RAW but i can make image quality adjustments.

This is my first day with elements. I bought your book before buying the software because I was unhappy with jpeg and wanted to understand what I was doing.

if you are copying a JPEG file from one place to another (not saving, but moving) there is no loss. The lossy part happens when you re-save the file (open, and then save). You can open the file and not save, and there will be no loss. If you open and want to resave after making changes, save to a lossless format (TIFF, PSD, PDF, etc.).

I don't know much about iPhoto, honestly. however, if it helps you move files without opening them, you should be OK. HOWEVER, if you are only moving them, why not just use Elements/Browser in the first place?

let me know.

Just a little tip that may help to speed things up: You can set up iphoto so that when you double click on a photo it will open to be edited in Elements, PS, GIMP, whichever editing software you like. Just go to Preferences->general and press the radio button for "Opens phot in:" and select browse. Navigate to your favourite editing software and select it. Now when you double click on a pic in iphoto it will open the app with the photo in a window. I find this handy for browsing my photos in iphoto and then doing major editing in PSCS2 however for basic editing (straightening, levels, saturation) the editor in iphoto is sufficient for those little tweaks.

Have fun.