scrapping with photoshop

[zanthia]

I am a long time PSE user ( i use PSE 10) trying to scrap with full photoshop but having a horrible time with it . What am i doing wrong ?

I create new 12 x12 document - open up 12 x 12 paper - drag in and not centered so have to manually repostion it. also name is gone just layer one. In elements it is centered and name is there.

is there any workaround for a photo bin - with tabs I only can have 4-6 open before scrolling off the screen. I am used to having a dozen or more open at same time so i can decide at a glance what to use. Opening an element , dragging in than clicking to close is so many extra clicks

 

[Vicki Robinson]

Let's see if I can help! We don't want you frustrated!

One main difference between PSE and the full version is you don't need to open each element or paper separately, which PSE MUST do.

Once you have your new document open, you can simply drag your papers and elements directly into your open document window from your Windows Explorer or Mac Finder. Hold down the shift key as you drag and it will center. The elements/papers WILLL NOT open in their own document/tab if you add them this way, and each layer will contain the file name. This is why you don't need a Photo Bin — your Explorer/Finder is how you choose your elements. It's actually way faster and easier.

If you drag each element/paper onto the Photoshop icon on your desktop, it will open in it's own document window/tab and will then have to drag it into your document, which will cause it to be named Layer 1 because the system cannot read the actual file name.

Does that help?

 

[zanthia]

Let's see if I can help! We don't want you frustrated!

One main difference between PSE and the full version is, you don't need to open each element or paper separately, which PSE MUST do.

Once you have your new document open, you can simply drag your papers and elements directly into your open document window from your Windows Explorer or Mac Finder. Hold down the shift key as you drag and it will center. The elements/papers WILLL NOT open in their own document/tab if you add them this way, and each layer will contain the file name. This is why you don't need a Photo Bin — your Explorer/Finder is how you choose your elements. It's actually way faster and easier.

If you draft each element/paper onto the Photoshop icon on your desktop, it will open in it's own document window/tab and will then have to drag it into your document, which will cause it to be named Layer 1 because the system cannot read the actual file name.

Does that help?

thanks vicki for the quick reply - will give it a try tomorrow

 

[Cherylndesigns]

I've tried several times to use PS but always go back to PSE. I KNOW there's more that I could do in PS, but it's way outside my comfort zone. Good luck!

 

[zanthia]

Let's see if I can help! We don't want you frustrated!

One main difference between PSE and the full version is you don't need to open each element or paper separately, which PSE MUST do.

Once you have your new document open, you can simply drag your papers and elements directly into your open document window from your Windows Explorer or Mac Finder. Hold down the shift key as you drag and it will center. The elements/papers WILLL NOT open in their own document/tab if you add them this way, and each layer will contain the file name. This is why you don't need a Photo Bin — your Explorer/Finder is how you choose your elements. It's actually way faster and easier.

If you drag each element/paper onto the Photoshop icon on your desktop, it will open in it's own document window/tab and will then have to drag it into your document, which will cause it to be named Layer 1 because the system cannot read the actual file name.

Does that help?

yes it does vicki , thank you so much

What you said worked but i did not need to hold shift - tried it on both paper and elements as both were centered with the file names. Now I see all items are coming in as smart objects - how do i get rid of that. Tried right clicking layer in layer panel. I dont see how to simplify the layers as I know in PSE saving psd with smart objects increases file size quite a bit.

another question - in PSE i can right click on item in page and move layer around with bring/send to back or front There is no option here as right clicking just gives me name of layer. Also tried the layer panel and its not there too. So how would i do that.

While I can flip the entire image horizontally or vertically, i can not do that with a layer.

appreciate the help!

 

[zanthia]

I've tried several times to use PS but always go back to PSE. I KNOW there's more that I could do in PS, but it's way outside my comfort zone. Good luck!

I would rather stick with PSE but my version is not compatible with win 11 so I am looking at options . last year I bought a win11 laptop ( did return it) but could not get pse2025 free trial to launch

 

[Vicki Robinson]

1. To turn off Smart Objects, go Settings>General and de-select "Always Create Smart Object When Placing".

PSE calls it "Simply" but in Photoshop it's Rasterize. So choose that if there's a Smart Object you want to "simplify". If you've applied a Layer Style to a Smart Object, in addition to Rasterize, you'll see an option to Rasterize Layer Style, which, in most cases, you don't want to do because that will permanently attach the layer style to the element when it's rasterized.

In case you ever WANT to make something a Smart Object, you'll see "Convert to Smart Object" when you right click. This is handy to do when you want to transform an element bigger and try to keep as much detail as possible. Rasterize it when you're done.

2. Flip Layer Horiztonal/Vertical is in a different menu in PS. Go to Edit>Transform. At the bottom are the Flip Options.

3. Send to Back, etc. You'll need to use keyboard shortcuts for that. Go to Layer>Arrange and you'll see all of the options and their keyboard shortcuts.

 

[zanthia]

1. To turn off Smart Objects, go Settings>General and de-select "Always Create Smart Object When Placing".

PSE calls it "Simply" but in Photoshop it's Rasterize. So choose that if there's a Smart Object you want to "simplify". If you've applied a Layer Style to a Smart Object, in addition to Rasterize, you'll see an option to Rasterize Layer Style, which, in most cases, you don't want to do because that will permanently attach the layer style to the element when it's rasterized.

In case you ever WANT to make something a Smart Object, you'll see "Convert to Smart Object" when you right click. This is handy to do when you want to transform an element bigger and try to keep as much detail as possible. Rasterize it when you're done.

2. Flip Layer Horiztonal/Vertical is in a different menu in PS. Go to Edit>Transform. At the bottom are the Flip Options.

3. Send to Back, etc. You'll need to use keyboard shortcuts for that. Go to Layer>Arrange and you'll see all of the options and their keyboard shortcuts.

thanks again vicki.

wish there was an easy shortcut for the send to back/forward 3 keys is not good for me and just to get to layer arrange you have to scroll down the screen. so that is not very convenient.

think i will make my first page with ps - it will be a simple one , figure best to start small.

 

[Vicki Robinson]

When you're more familiar with PS you may want to try assigning your own keyboard shortcuts — which is something you can't do in PSE. You just need to be careful not to use a shortcut combination already assigned to other keys, but PS always warns you if you try to do that.

There are always tradeoffs when you try new software. If you're really unhappy, you might want to double-check the PSE system requirements against your computer and if it seems that your's is sufficient, try installing the demo version of PSE 2025 again.

Tech specs | Adobe Photoshop Elements 2025

System requirements for Adobe Photoshop Elements.

www.adobe.com

 

[zanthia]

When you're more familiar with PS you may want to try assigning your own keyboard shortcuts — which is something you can't do in PSE. You just need to be careful not to use a shortcut combination already assigned to other keys, but PS always warns you if you try to do that.

There are always tradeoffs when you try new software. If you're really unhappy, you might want to double-check the PSE system requirements against your computer and if it seems that your's is sufficient, try installing the demo version of PSE 2025 again.

Tech specs | Adobe Photoshop Elements 2025

System requirements for Adobe Photoshop Elements.

www.adobe.com

can you switch keyboard shortcuts around ?

couple more questions if you dont mind

when trying to clip a photo to a mask , i typically do it 2 ways. one way is in the layer panel holding alt and hovering between the 2 layers and that way still works in PS but the other way is CTRL-G and that does not work.

not sure if it is related to using photoshop , but i noticed that i am losing hard drive space like crazy on the C drive since i started doing this the past few days. Is it possbile that photoshop is doing this and if so what can i do to prevent it ?

I thought you can only download a demo once. I think i know the reason why pse 2025 did not work. I had to greatly increase the font size on a win 11 laptop as it was a 1920 x1200 on a 16 inch screen. that is so tiny. i can barely tolerate that size on a 27 inch monitor so i only increase fonts slightly. I am very happy with my ancient pse but it does not work on win 11 so i need options otherwise my scrapping days are over once i am forced to use win 11.

 

[Vicki Robinson]

Yes, you can change keyboard shortcuts. But as I said, you need to be careful not to use a shortcut combination already assigned to other keys, but PS always warns you if you try to do that. You can still override the warnings — unless they are somehow related to how PS works internally, in which case you can't change that.

If the clipping mask shortcut, it's ALT+CTL+G. It's pretty easy to find what keyboard shortcut is for anything that can be done from a menu because the keyboard shortcut is displayed in the menu next to the menu item, just like in PSE.

I don't know what you mean by "losing hard drive space like crazy". I'm sure PS is a larger application than PSE, so that would account for some space. I don't see much difference at all between PSD file sizes in PSE vs PS, unless I am using some complicated features of PS. I always save my files as TIF's because PSDs are almost always larger and there's no reason no to. While you are actually using either app, it uses hard drive space as temporary memory. Once you close the app, that space is restored. If you have an external hard drive, it is always preferable to have that hard drive space used . You can see what PS is doing in the Settings>Scratch Disk area. If you have an external, you should see that listed, along with your hard drive. De-select your hard drive and select your external if it's not already. Since you are not using PSE, there is no way to compare and it could well be the Windows operating system uses for resources than you were used to.

One of your comments to Cheryl above said that you weren't using PSE 25 because you couldn't get it launch, which is why I suggested you try that again. I don't understand why font size would be any different in PSE than in PS, but PSE lets you increase the Font Preview size if you're looking to do that. I do know that in almost all computers, including laptops, there is a setting for its Display that lets you change it's resolution. I haven't used a Windows computer in at least 3 decades, so I can't tell you where to look but perhaps google it.

 

[zanthia]

I switched around the group and the clipping mask shortcut so now it is the same as PSE at least for the clipping masks. I did get the warning so hopefully it wont cause any problems . I dont have groups in my version of pse.

I found the scratch disk setting but it doesnt say how much is being used just which drive. Perhaps photoshop uses a lot more that PSE. I do have an external drive but it is much slower than my c drive so I thought a scratch disk on a slower drive would not be good. I do keep photoshop and PSE on the c drive but my layouts are all on another drive.

When i tried to launch the PSE 2025 demo, i could not get past the splash/home screen .Apparently the bottom part of it was cut off so i could not get into the program nor could it be closed out - the only way was via the task manager. I even tried using the pse.exe file to try to bypass it but that just went to the splash screen. I will just wait until pse 2026 comes out and try that as that is only about 2 months away

 

[Vicki Robinson]

The warning was telling you that you were overwriting the systems default setting to create a group from several layers. That shortcut is Ctrl/Cmd G. Changing that shortcut to use for something else is fine and would not affect any layer groups you may already have. You just won’t be able to create a group of layers using that that shortcut - you’ll need to use the menu option instead.

You said that you were “losing drive space like crazy” using PS. I was trying to understand exactly what you meant by that. What are you comparing to? What is happening that makes you think this?

If you think that that PS is hogging drive space WHILE you are using it, that’s a scratch drive issue, especially if your computer doesn’t have at least the minimum RAM that the PS tech specs say you need. If that’s the case, it would be worth trying to set your scratch disk to the external, even if you think it’s slower than your hard drive. You can always switch it back.

If you think, that PS is taking up more hard drive space just by installing it, that is probably true. It’s a much bigger more robust application than PSE.