I've read in some Amazon reviews that PE 4 is slower than 3... I'm on 2 right now, is it worth getting 3 instead of 4, or should I just get 4? Any tips on improving the speed of 4, or is it not really an issue?

I haven't noticed a speed issue on Mac or PC. My guess is that those having speed issues also have full hard drives or not enough RAM. If these are preview issues...it may be because there are too many images in a folder and the organization of images may not be being handled well.

The most frustrating thing about elements is that they seem to keep REMOVING functions rather than adding them. I have had to work harder with each release to bring the program up to speed with my tools ( http://hiddenelements.com/downloads.html ).

In all, the functionality in elements seems more consistent than elements 3...for me the biggest upgrade is that my book and tools are better.

I bought Photoshop Elements 4 about a month ago and have had no speed issues. In fact, the Organizer (photo browser) is much faster than the one in Photoshop Elements 3. The Editor loads faster than it does in Photoshop Elements 3 too. I have 1 gig of RAM on Windows XP SP 2 and keep my computer up to date, disk clean, defragmented, etc...

If you're considering buying Richard's book, I would definitely get version 4.0. I started with the Hidden Power stuff on Photoshop Elements 3.0. Now I've bought his new book, which btw, is why I went out and bought Photoshop Elements 4.0. I must say his new book is a fantastic improvement over the last one. It seems to be better organized and with less typos.

As Richard stated in his reply, they do keep taking things out of Elements, which, for the life of me, I cannot understand. Then they add a couple of gimmicky tools for whatever reason.

One thing that has helped me since moving to Photoshop Elements 4.0 and reading Richard's new book is the use of Gradients. I had given up on them a while back but now have a renewed interest in learning more about them. In fact, after reading some of Richard's book I think I like them much better than curves, although I never really used curves that much, I do see more use in Gradients and how they can help with tone and color.

William,

Thanks for the reply! I was hoping people would see the new book as a significant improvement, but I never know. I am glad you like the gradient solution, because I do, and it is one I am sure Adobe won't take away.

I'd be glad if you could take the time to review thebook on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/write-a-review.html/?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=078214456X&store=books) if you have the time. No one has gotten a review in yet, and as you are familiar, I'd be glad to have one from you.

much appreciated!