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It is, however, not intuitive and many of its features are buried or otherwise obscured.The first thing that's truck me about this book was the padding, the superfluous material. This is the opening paragraph to the chapter on "Making Movies with the Timeline". When Adobe made the decision to no longer include any form of manual with its products, it strengthened the already existing industry of publishing "how to" books for Adobe products. I did not and feel it could have been better handled as appendices.The author's writing style is lackadaisical and often wanders from the subject. It is a slow and tedious process, though, and I found myself growing impatient as I read. There's about a hundred pages on "moviemaking", what equipment you need, installing and configuring the program before you get to the first page describing how to actually use the program. All these tools are necessary, but ultimately the painter's entire work centers around the canvas, where the tools are put to use to create a work of art".
Ultimately the information on how to use the program's features are there, but it takes a long time to get there.The book, I felt, didn't have enough illustrations. Adobe has a long reputation of producing powerful applications with weak support.Adobe Premiere Elements 8 is a very capable video editing application (with many other features as well). This is followed by two more even longer paragraphs of fluff and then twelve paragraphs on a somewhat related subject before you finally get to the timeline.There are far too many instances of this kind of padding throughout the book. Some people, particularly absolute beginners, may find some or even potentially all of this material useful. For example, "Consider all the tools of the trade for a painter: brushes, scrapers, a palette, containers of paint, and cleaning supplies. Adobe Premiere Elements 8 is all about being able to navigate its Graphical User Interface (GUI) and this book focuses more on textual descriptions of the GUI and navigating the menus than showing you the GUI itself.Overall, if you are very patient, you will find the instructions you need for using Adobe Premiere Elements 8, so in that sense the book is not a failure. This book is going back and I will try the "Missing Manuals" text on the same subject next.Jerry
I ordered a use copy of this book and was ship the earlier version. Watch in checking out make sure you are getting Elements 8 not Premiere Element which cover Element 6 and lower.
I've been using this book along with editing some 45 year old movies that I digitized. Having both options is a plus for PE 8. When I rendered, based on PE 8 for Dummies recommendation, PE 8 would not save the rendered file and when it finished, the program froze and I had to reboot. Premiere Elements 8 for Dummies didn't mention this procedure but it was an inexpensive way to digitize old film. I contacted Adobe and they're sending me a new program disc. PE 8 for Dummies helped me start editing within a very short period of time. The way I digitized was to use a digital camcorder and record the projected image using a 50 year old 8mm projector. I have not completely used PE 8 because I believe I have a bad program.
It was clear on how to cut and decrease the size of clips, move and reposition clips, and incorporate transitions. The author liked using the Timeline for editing but I preferred using the Sceneline. I tried to make a DVD (again with the help of PE 8 for Dummies), but when it went to write to the DVD, my computer completely froze and I got the BSOD. I don't think I would have diagnosed the problem so quickly if I didn't have PE 8 for Dummies as a helpful reference.
I consider myself a pretty good navigator through software and I picked up on how to do the editing for my Flip UltraHD camera on the free software that came with it right away.but I'll be the first to admit, I played with Premiere Elements 8 for days and still couldn't complete a decent video using even just a few of the great editing gadgets that I know it contains. I think it might be fairly impossible for me to list all that it teaches you to do here but suffice it to say you'll be able to use all the tools, menus, panels, buttons and options, edit clips and join them together, add special effects, cool extras, background music, and upload to whatever you wish: youtube, discs, mobile phones, etc. I gotta admit I was shocked that no manual came with Premiere Elements 8 and that they even wanted to charge for some of the few tutorials that they offered. If, however, you are like me and looking specifically for something to uncover the mysteries in Premiere Elements 8.this is the right manual. I noticed some confusion in the reviews of those who had hoped this was for other versions of Premiere Elements. I expect the way this is written was better for me in the end than trying to grasp the contents of a thick manual that the creator of Premiere Elements 8 may have put together (well, they did eventually put one together but it was more expensive and I dont understand why Adobe is charging for basic tutorials and a users manual so I'd rather have this one anyway).this is made for the total novice, yet I think even those more advanced will learn TONS of new things from it due to its vast content. As far as learning Premiere Elements 8, the instructions were super clear, it shows photos of the screen on the pages so you fully understand visually what's being said with zero confusion, it even keeps learning lighthearted with some jokes thrown in. And they were great tips.
BOTTOM LINE:It's ashame this is not included in the software. And it did. However, as the title dictates, the copy I received is copyrighted for 2010 so you won't find the old info within. Bottom line: It takes you in simple steps from "dummy" to "creative camera whiz". I compared various books that might help me solve this video editing program and settled upon this one because I knew it was written specifically for the version I had, these books in general are written for the total novice so anyone can easily read, follow along, and master the skill, and I knew they always offer tips to help you master your skills in other ways. Not only did it help me create a truly high-tech movie with my camcorder, but it also gave me tips on shooting.such as lighting, sound secrets, and other tips not on just navigating the software but in making better movies in genearal. I'll be honest, so much of this I had no IDEA I could do with Premiere Elements 8.
This book was published in 2004.there's been a change or two since then.the user interface doesn't even look the same anymore.I would not recommend it.
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