29310 A reader commenting on my recent review of Photoshop Elements 6, noted that Elements' integration with iPhoto isn't up to much. One reason for that, we can fairly safely assume, is at the developers at Adobe reasoned that since a mildly de-featured version of the powerful Bridge file browser, image viewer, and organizer from Photoshop CS was to be bundled with the Mac version of Elements (Elements for Windows users get a clunky program called Organizer instead), why should they spend a lot of effort on close integration with less - capable iPhoto.

One answer to that would be that a lot of Mac users really like iPhoto, but the long and short of it is that you can export photos from iPhoto to elements for editing - a mode that is preferable to rooting around in iPhoto with the Elements open dialog (which risks corrupting your iPhoto library file).

To specify Photoshop Elements as your image editing application in iPhoto, open the iPhoto preferences, choose General > Edit Photo > In Application, and then choose Elements from the list of applications shown. Once that's configured, whenever you want to edit a photo archive in iPhoto using Elements, just double click the image in iPhoto and it will automatically open in Elements for editing.

When you're finished with the edit, save your changes as you would normally, and the image file in iPhoto will be updated. Don't use the Save As command or change the filename.

However, even if you're an iPhoto fan, if you've invested 90 bucks in a copy of Photoshop Elements 6, it's worth your while to check out the Bridge as a possible alternative to iPhoto for viewing and organizing your image files. The Bridge offers a range of features, allowing you to browse, organize, categorize, delete, search, apply keywords, view, label, rate, edit, and add metadata information to your image documents.

And if you decide you really would still prefer to use iPhoto, that's perfectly fine with helmets. Unlike iPhoto, the Bridge doesn't take notice of what you do with your photos when they're not open in the Bridge. A possible downside to that for some users is that you need to be conscious of the fact that when you edit, move, or delete a photo in the Bridge, the action applies to the original file. The program does not make or store archived copies of the image the way iPhoto does.

Charles W. Moore

Tags: Blogs ï OSX Odyssey ï Hot Topics ï

Login † or † Register † †