James Diefenderfer reviews: Photoshop 7 Upgrade Essentials

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James Diefenderfer takes a look at Photoshop 7 Upgrade Essentials by Vicki Loader & Barry Huggins published by Friends of Ed. How often do you come across a computer book that actually makes you explore just for the sake of learning what's new even if you may never use that particular feature? Read why James gave this book such high marks.

Everything you need to know and nothing else.

This book is an easy and very informative read. How often do you come across a computer book that actually makes you explore just for the sake of learning what's new even if you may never use that particular feature?

Right from the start I was hooked reading just the overview chapter. For example, I came across a screen shot of the file browser that was different from the default setting, which I was still using. Sure, it was obvious once I saw it and I know that I would have discovered the toggle arrow eventually but this book made me poke around sooner and as a result I now see another benefit to this tremendous new file browser feature. Listing my files in the browser by file detail will help me identify files by the modification dates and when working with thousands of images this will be a very big help.

Another nice section first mentioned in the overview chapter was explaining the new default settings when creating new documents and how these settings can be modified to improve your individual workflow. Even though I will probably never need to change these new document settings I am sure that other readers will appreciate the time the author took to explain how to customize these options as well as how to add new ones.

4 1/2 COWs Photoshop 7 Upgrade Essentials is very easy and very informative read. While the book does explain some of the technical details of the new features I believe the authors first priority was to help the reader improve their workflow and for that I applaud them. No matter what you use Photoshop for when you upgrade to 7 include this book in upgrade!

Ask yourself this - How much do you know really now about the following new features?

• The File Browser and Workspace
• Working with Tool Presets
• Creating and Using Brushes
• Using the Pattern Maker Plug-in
• Using the Enhanced Liquify Options
• Layers Palette and Blending Mode Enhancements
• Enhancing Your Images
• Optimizing and Exporting Images
• Creating Rollovers in ImageReady
• Managing Text
• Creating Web Galleries and Picture Packages
• Scripting in Photoshop
• Using data Driven Graphics and Workgroup Management

If the answer is not much or just a little then this book is for you. These topics are all covered with enough detail to get anyone started. Each chapter provides a brief introduction to the new feature and then goes on to explain how this feature might be used to improve your workflow.

---James Diefenderfer