1. PSE 6 has a great set of tools, and compares very well against its professional stable mate CS3.
The tool set is extensive, and while some of the tools may not be not qute as refined and controlled compared to CS3, I can only think that professional photographers looking for absolute control, for example at the edges of re-touched are would reuire more.
2. The quality of the product as an editing tool cannot be denied. It does not appear to be resource hungry on the PC - though I must admit I wouldn't notice it on the PC I have it loaded on, as it's my development PC and has plenty of power under the hood. I would think though that it does need memory ( RAM, not "virtual disk memory") and processing power to run well.
3. It is an Adobe product and Adobe do provide a raft of help and "how to " assistance.

1. PSE6 has an appalling, truly horrible dark user interface. It is very, difficult to see buttons and slider bars ( in fact the sliders bars are pure guess work as to what you are clicking on). I was very surprised to see this, and even more suprised to find no way of changing this interface in the software. I then discovered on Adobe's own forums, a quantity of complaints about the UI, and even people saying they had reverted to PSE5. To those that haven't used PSE5, it works extremley well, has a good UI, and tools are much like PSE6 ( there may be a gadget or two with changes, but not much).
Finally to add to the misery, the quality of the displayed photograh is much darker than the PSE5 one, so clearly all is not well with PSE6.
2. I am not sure the organiser and other bits work well, or are well explained. I have prodded them in turn, and decided that they are not worth effort to control ( other than also being dark).
3. So how did I get on with customer support? Well, I decide to get written confirmation of the problem and logged a support call CASE 0180320770. You need to be reigistered with Adobe to create a support case, so its all pretty formal, and one would think, managed.
All I wanted to know is if there was a way to alter the interface. No complaint, just a question.
And at this point, Adobe lost all my respect. There was no response. I checked my Adobe account a couple of days later. The call had been closed. But, there was no sign of any response. So I re-ropened the call. No repsonse. Call closed again after a few days.
Now being of a curious disposition, I have re-opened the call 4 times, and each time, no response, just a closed call.
Also, just to see what happens next, I wrote to Customer support email's address, giving the above support number and my question. Guess what - no response.

So where to next - well I will continue writing to Adobe, I may even find a vice-president of something to send a real letter to. I know Adobe cannot possibly be that badly managed - can it?

Meanwhile, I have reverted to PSE5, because the photographs are displayed much better, and I can see the tools and even use the slider bars without clicking wildly in the hope of finding the slider.

Now you might be tempted to thinking I am just being a grumpy old man and complaining. You would be wrong. I just wouldn't mind an answer saying No or Yes or even "get lost" to the question of the UI display. Maybe there is nothing Adobe can do - If so, I would be really annoyed at having lost my mone , but so be it. But maybe there is some hope somewhere in Adobe. At the very least, I am entitled to a polite reply, even if it's go away.

So, I have to say, two months of PSE6 is an unhappy experience, and there are better ways to lose one's money. On the plus side, PSE5 works very well.
I just wish I could stop galring at the Adobe logo(its a good logo - very memorable) and thinking about the time wasted on their support. Is there anyone out that there who would like a copy of PSE6 ( it's the French version, so its highly collectable, and works well as a door stop).

This review is not so much about the functionality in Phoshop ELements 6.0. It is really about the user interface, and the difference between this and for example Photoshop Elements 5.0., and the quality of Adobe support you can expect when working through the Customer Support interface. (Telephone support is another subject)

Customer Service

My commentary on customer service is in the weakness section of the product PSE6.
So please see above.

Similar Products Used:

I have used a variety of other editing proudcts, most recently and PICASA 2, ADOBE CS3. But these were more in the nature of a test, though PICASA2 is a good quick editor,( just watch out that you keep your originals away from it - it has a nasty ability to alter the original without warning).

Great Product and easy to use. I changed from Elements 4 and there is a world of differance. Very happy with it.

Similar Products Used:

Elements 4