Why & How with softwares?

[NurseER]

I've been with MP for almost a year now, and only made 3 books using just MP. The books were beautiful. I'm in the process of making a few more using just MP. I've been reading the past few weeks on all the threads of people using Photoshop, elements, CS4, Powerpoint and everything else out there to make photobooks. I was just wondering "why" do you use the other softwares and how do you even begin to learn how to use them? I've been on adobe.com, and software is so expensive!
Since I'm beginning, what software would you recommend and how do you learn to use it? Are their tutorials? I've looked at Elements and that seems to be at amateur level, but I still can not figure out what do all of these different software programs do that I would want to spend hundreds of dollars on to create a picture page? I'm really open for suggestions, advice etc! What am I missing out on?
This is a great website and a great forum. It's just that I feel like an idiot when reading some of these posts and trying to figure out what people are saying with these external software programs. I'm a nurse and use medical terminology, but I'm beginning to think that Photoshop terminology is just as bad as medical terms!

Thank you
Elizabeth

[rndavis]

Photoshop is a great tool, but it does have a steep learning curve. I am using the CS3 version. I have accumulated a number of books and taken many online tutorials. I'm still learning.

For the purpose of making a photo album, Photoshop offers several nice fairly basic features: sizing images, color management, sharpening, and a few others. In addition, it enables one to create pages to save as an image and insert into the album. For example, I am writing text over a photo image, and will insert that as an image in my album.

I suggest that you buy Photoshop book aimed at teaching the basics. Unfortunately, if you ask 10 people to recommend a book, you will get 20 answers. My recommendation is a book titled Adobe Photoshop CS2, One-on-On, by Deke McClelland. He is a well known Photoshop Trainer. (Yes, I have CS3, not CS2, but the basics are the same.)

Good luck

[kmk_01kmk]

Why use 3rd party software? I've found the text options to be very limiting (and in my experiences, very buggy) in MyPublisher's BookMaker software. I got frustrated with it to the point I looked elsewhere.
I like the flexibility of changing the background paper, putting text where I want it, overlaying text or pictures over pictures - there's just a lot more creativity & control. I think it's great that BookMaker allows "full bleed" pages so we CAN be more creative in 3rd party software and load it into BookMaker.
I'm not into spending big $$$ on the 3rd party software. I tried PowerPoint but I wasn't completely satisfied with the results.
I got "Scrapbooks Plus" free with a camera purchase. It produced a nice quality jpg (singular, as in ONE jpg) before my file became corrupted on the 2nd day of use - I wouldn't recommend it.
I've since purchased "Scrapbook Factory" which can produce high quality jpgs (better than PP). Although related to "Scrapbooks Plus", it hasn't corrupted any files yet, but it's quirky and a little annoying at times.
Scrapbook Flair is a free software download, but I haven't tried it. Others here have said they used it, but not enough to be convincing. :)
A guy at work got PhotoShop Elements 4 free with something and said I could have it, so that will be my next attempt (when/if I get it). He REALLY didn't like PSE4, but he's used to full PhotoShop.
I've worked with photo-editing software recreationally for several years and I've never had much problem going from one software to another. The scrapbook software is pretty self-explanatory. Hopefully, I can pick up PSE4 as easily!
I'd say if you're happy with the BookMaker software, then you're not missing out on much. The books turn out beautiful either way. I simply found myself getting very upset with BookMaker's caption toolbar not working half the time and my fonts getting resized if I made certain changes to a page, so I was just generally NOT happy with BookMaker.

[seth]

Photoshop Elements is merely a chopped down version of Photoshop. It is NOT easier, just less control.