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Rating: 
Summary: Complete Idiot's Guide to PSP 7 is a stroke of genius:-)
Review: As a long-time fan and user of Paint Shop Pro, I was delighted to see all the new bells, whistles and innovations in Version 7, but overwhelmed by the prospect of learning everything quickly enough while maintaining my enthusiasm. I did a lot of research before deciding on this book--especially since I usually turn to The Dummies Guides for help. However, in reading reviews of the many books on PSP 7 (both here on Amazon, and elsewhere,) Nat Gertler's Idiot's Guide was consistently praised and overall, more highly regarded than the others...so I decided to trust the opinions of the real folks like me who use this book. I was *not* disappointed. As soon as I unwrapped the book, I was in front of the computer exploring and (finally) understanding things that I hadn't been able to figure out on my own.The text is easy to read, has good illustrations and tutorials, a sense of humor, and best of all, it's written in a lean, no nonsense style that lets me get right down to the business of creating. IMHO, you only need one book to learn the basics *and* the exciting new features of this great program--The Complete Idiot's Guide to Paint Shop Pro 7 is a smart, economical tool for getting the most out of one of the world's best graphics programs:)
Rating: 
Summary: Down to Earth
Review: As stated on the cover, this book gives down-to-earth advice. Paint Shop Pro is not the most "user friendly" software -- and this book "talked" in simple terms, and covered the most important topics. I also found it easy to refer back to the chapters for information. Gertler's sense of humor made for interesting reading of a potentially over-whelming subject.
Rating:
Summary: Down to Earth
Review: As stated on the cover, this book gives down-to-earth advice. Paint Shop Pro is not the most "user friendly" software -- and this book "talked" in simple terms, and covered the most important topics. I also found it easy to refer back to the chapters for information. Gertler's sense of humor made for interesting reading of a potentially over-whelming subject.
Rating:
Summary: Just what you wanted to know
Review: Gertler's book takes you into what to do to get professional results using this feature-heavy software. Unlike tutorials found on the web and Jasc's own "Getting Started Guide," the book can be read away from your computer, allowing you to absorb principles that will make you a more savvy user. The reader comes away with a much better understanding than with approaches that just tell you to enter values like 70 for density, 10 for blur, 30 percent opacity. There are some annoying errors that an editor should have caught: misuse of "whom," confusion between "affect" and "effect," and mistakenly calling a bighorn sheep a mountain goat, but the author is right on with all the important stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, even for those who know PSP!
Review: I had to buy this book, even though Im experienced with Paint Shop Pro, versions 5, 6 and 7. I thought Id just get a few laughs, but boy was I in for a surprise! I actually learned alot of new things from this book and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to create really wonderful graphics! I make my own graphics for my site using PSP 6 and 7, and have other websites I do graphic design for. Get this book, and you'll be a pro at PSP 7, its the best version yet!
Rating:
Summary: Great book, simple concise and funny
Review: I really liked this book, I didn't read it all, but the first 12 chapters taught me enough about the product to do what I needed to do. It took me 2 to 3 hours to read and what's really great is that it was funny to read. Great book!
Rating: 
Summary: Poor book or wrong reader?
Review: I used to be quite suspicious of "Complete Idiot's Guide" series (and "For Dummies" as well) and would never buy a book without prior browsing it. But in this case I was fully convinced by the excellent recommendations of the reviewers and the relatively high (i.e. actually low) sales rank. So, when the book arrived, I eagerly started to look it through for selective topics and ... at once got disappointed because of the lack or even absence of the important material. For instance, just several short lines are dedicated to the Sharpen Menu, and the Unsharp Mask parameters are not explained at all. As for Histogram Functions, considered to be one of the most important tools, they are not even mentioned. Incredible! What's up? Am I a wrong reader? Not a "complete idiot"? May be. I don't know. I'm just returning the book and discouraging everybody from buying it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad
Review: Pretty good book. Masks needed more in more depth coverage. Also there could have been more on editing photos.
Rating:
Summary: Not Much Help
Review: PSP is one of the least intuitive software programs I've used.
Since using PSP is such a challenge, I thought getting a book on it would help and bought this one based on the online recommendations. I haven't found this book much help.
Simple things that are easy to do in other drawing programs, can take hours to figure out in PSP and often I give up in frustration. This is compounded by the way I use PSP, occasionally and infrequently. In between times, I forget anything I laboriously managed to learn. This book hasn't been much help for the way I use PSP. MAYBE if I read it all the way through, I could get more out of it. However, the way I want to use the book is to look up something in my own vocabulary like "apply a transparent color" and find all the steps needed to accomplish the task. That doesn't work. The book assumes I already know the PSP vocabulary or know/remember some tool/procedure explained in other chapters. The humor is not a plus because after the double dose of frustration (frustration with using PSP and frustration at getting help from the book), I am not especially receptive to the humor.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book but only covers the basics
Review: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Paint Shop Pro 7 by Nat Gertler is
a really good book to buy if you are buying Paint Shop Pro 7 for the very first time and have never used any of the previous versions of Paint Shop Pro.
This book is well written and it easily explains all of the applications it outlines.
However, I have been using Paint Shop Pro version 5 for about three years now and there was nothing in this book that I didn't already know.
The best way to find new tips and tricks that Paint Shop Pro 7 has is to read online tutorials and find sites set up for such instructions.
As my review title says, it's a "Good Book but only covers the basics"!
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