If you have used earlier versions of Photoshop Elements (PSE), then you should find this latest version relatively easy to manage. My previous experience has run through Photoshop Light Edition (PS LE), then PSE v.1, v.2, and v.4. After I purchased Version 4, I found that it was not native — fully functional under Intel and Leopard, but slow and causing excessive disc churning.

Photoshop Elements 6 (PE6) for Mac, built for Intel/Leopard, looks a lot different on the monitor than previous versions. The immediately noticeable changes are:

1. The program uses the entire screen and can't be reduced (it has no "traffic light" or sizing handle), but size of the image-editing window within it can be changed.
   
   
2. The entire area surrounding the image-editing window is shaded a neutral gray with white lettering, and the tools have been gussied up in pretty colors. I haven't found any way of changing either.
   
   
3. In the upper right hand corner of the PE6 screen are three boxes labeled "Edit," "Create," and "Share," which affect what is seen just below it.

   a. With "Edit" selected, a choice of three image-editing levels is offered just under the items in (3) above: "Full," "Quick," and "Guided."
   
   b. Selecting "Create" drops down two new choices: "Projects" and "Artworks."
   
   c. "Share" adds options for sending images as e-mail attachments.

With "Edit" selected, the following options are available:

• Clicking on the "Full" setting reveals the complete set of tools and machinery for image editing, the way all previous versions operated. (Be careful not to get hands or clothing caught in the works!)
  
  
• The "Quick" setting hides the standard toolset, but gives one a choice of quick fixes, which can be executed with single clicks, or by a series of well-defined sliders.
  
  
• Click in the "Guided" box — it also hides the standard toolset — and it asks you what you want to do to the image, then gives you a set of controls to work with for that operation.

Click the "Projects" submenu under "Create," and make a photo book, a photo collage, a web photo gallery, a PDF slide show, and further options for greeting cards, CD/DVD jackets, and CD/DVD labels.

The "Artworks" submenu facilitates adding a variety of backgrounds, frames, graphics, dingbat-style shapes, styled text, and what they call "themes" (which are actually more frames or card borders themed for weddings, baby, holidays, sport nights, travel, etc.).

For those who are looking for an easy-to-use editor for family and vacation snapshots, group photos and portraits, PE6 is for you, too! Tools for removing red-eye, or pasting someone who missed the shoot into a group photo (I haven't tried that one yet.), along with all the aforementioned expert and easy operators are available.

For me, a particularly interesting and effective feature is a new operation under the Enhance menu called "Convert to Black and White..." It's different from fully de-saturating a color image or using "Remove Color" in the Enhance menu, or changing to "Grayscale" in the Image > Mode operation, in that one can choose — and further adjust — several B&W modes to mimic infrared photography, to bring out better contrasts in landscape images (clouds in blue sky, flowers in green grass, etc.), or to optimize portraits and urban scenes. I found it to be very effective on this image of a field of buttercups in a pasture, under a blue sky with cottony white clouds. "A" is the original color image. "B" has been desaturated with the old Image > Mode > Grayscale command, but the to make image "C", I went back to the original color shot and used Enhance > Convert to Black and White > Vivid Landscapes command.

Some changes have also been made in several others of the dozens of possible menu choices. For instance, the sharpening commands are no longer under "Filters," but now reside under the "Enhance" menu. Pixels, formerly limited to viewing at 1600%, can now be enlarged to 3200%.

I could go on, but you can download a 30-day trial version from Adobe yourself and find even more goodies to play with. The software is available as a download, or as boxed DVD ROM package with $5.95 added for shipping. I found no info on whether the package includes a printed manual, but one is separately available for $20 + shipping. It comes with Adobe Bridge, allowing you organize, browse, locate, and view your photos.