Unofficial Tex Murphy

I know this is off topic but just want to vent my frustration at Adobe. I bought Photoshop Elements 3.0 and tried to backup my photos recently. It said it backed up ok and offered to verify it too. It said yep, all backed up ok.

I checked in Windows Explorer and found I still had a blank CD in the drive. I went to Adobe's help pages and was told that this was a "known issue" and that there is no patch to fix this but to upgrade to version 4. Their customer services couldn't offer me anything other than to go out and buy the latest version.

Surely that is a pretty fatal flaw in a program? Presumably the first time most people will realise there is a problem is when they delete/lose all their data and try to recover their precious photos from backup to find that they have a whole collection of blank discs.

And Adobe's only offer to me is to shell out another £80 ($120) to buy their Elements 4.0.

I feel ripped off.

So you just want to put the photos on CD?
Solution: Use some free burning software like Nero (seems to come as standard on alot of computers these days). Use the Wizard, drag and drop, very simple.

Photoshop is an image editing application so its priorities lie there. I wouldn't rely on it for other things and I didn't even know it could do burning to discs.... Dedicated burning software would be a safer bet.
Yeah its silly they put the feature in and didn't bug-test it enough to find if it was compatible across various systems etc. But oh well... As an image editing application it is the best, which is its main purpose. So don't feel too ripped off

Very well-reasoned reply there Sai.

I hope Demonlawyer didn't delete his originals.

Good point. I guess I'm ranting over nothing. Just shocked that when you buy something like this from someone like Adobe you kind of expect it to work. I was going to buy Ulead as well and wish I had now, but this is what I love about this site.

You guys set me straight. There really is so much else out there I shouldn't get worked up.

I agree with the general consensus.

Also I might add, did you buy the program just for the ability to put your photo collections onto CD?

Why I ask is: a lot of the time I am in the software shops and I run into folks who ask the same kind of questions; "I have a lot of photos and I want a way of putting them on CD and sharing them with my friends". And the salesman usually tries to flog them something like 'Photoshop Elements' or some other fairly expensive program. I shudder every time I see it happen because, as Sai said, people just don’t need that kind of software to perform such simple tasks.

1. Microsoft has many Photo-CD content creation software downloads for free on their website. Not only this, I see the same thing happen in stores when it comes to Video Editing, where sales people ‘conveniently neglect’ to tell customers that Microsoft has ‘Windows Movie Maker’ available for free, and it does the simple tasks required perfectly.

2. As Sai said, it's just a matter of using some 3rd party burning software like Nero and dragging and dropping your photos onto a CD and burning it. I think Nero has a special Photo-CD/DVD option that also makes them compatible as a slide show format for DVD players so you can watch them on your TV.

So, in other words, if you were sold Adobe Elements under the advice of a salesperson, then be sure to give him a good kick... but do that after getting your money back. Elements focuses on content creation and design, and whist I personally think it should have performed that task you wanted, there are much better ways of going about putting your photos onto CD instead of forking out $$$ on programs.

-Cub. =o)

Well, your annoyance was well come by. Sai's definitely correct - but your right and duty as the consumer is to rant and rave to the company about the problem, and if they do nothing, rant and rave to the company about their lack of customer service. If they still don't give you satisfaction, then it's not untoward to tell others about the company's shortcomings so that they'll be warned.

Remember: the consumer is the employer. We pay their bills and their salaries, so there's nothing wrong with expecting more from them.

Before you do, read "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Okay, so that might not be practical. However, it is a known fact that you catch more flies with honey than using vinegar.

Perhaps you should contact them stating how much enjoy using their terrific product. "After all, everybody uses Acrobat Adobe. I just can't imagine using anything else!" Then tactfully explain your dilemma, why you think you MAY have been mislead into paying for something that you cannot use, and then ask them what are your options and if there is anything they can do to KINDLY assist you.

I'm not ignoring or repudiating previous posts on this thread; I'm merely saying their are alternatives. My 2 cents worth.

Too true, Jim. That's probably the most effective way to "rant and rave"

You're welcome, glad to help.

And yeah I agree with others, certainly got a right to be annoyed if you were lead to believe one thing and it doesn't deliver. However thankfully this is an easy fix as there's plenty of free software out there like Cubase said. There could be worse things to be lead on about!

Hm if you did buy it solely for the burning to CD (which I doubt since its not really a highly advertised point... but since others are speculating I felt I'd throw in advice too) I would forget about it and just enjoy it for what it is. A powerful photo editing tool. Especially for digital cameras, its a fantastic companion. As a lot of images can benefit from a slight touchup (a bit of sharpening and colour contrast boost etc.) to really bring out its finer qualities. And with digital camera images its a smooth transfer from one to the other. Althpugh if you think you won't care about having alot of control over the image, free applications can do basic stuff like sharpening and so on.
Returning might work if its not too long after purchase but here in the UK, once you've broken the shrinkwrap and so on. Unless its faulty you can't return it - no way. But I guess you could dispute its faulty since it has a bug that can't be fixed and is therefore incompatible for the purpose... But like I said, you probably bought an image editing application for image editing with the CD burning as a bonus so I'd just enjoy it for that. But if not then yeah, definitely try and do what you can to shove it back

I must agree with the part about it being misleading to pay for elements while u can get a nero OEM version for about 15 euro and it. works extremly well.

i only use nero for photo dvd/cd and stuff.

in any case hope u can ehh trade your not so wel working version for a better one at the shops

You guys always manage to put a smile on my face (in a good way!) I bought the program as an upgrade to a 7 year old bit of software and wanted something that did everything in one easy place, and be able to keep photos organised.

Adobe is good, but it is painfully slow in starting up compared to my old program. God knows what it does, but that's modern technology for you!

For anyone that hasn't got this software, after a while you get nag screens telling you to back up your photos, backing up your photos gets rid of this nag screen, but presumably there are people out there that then think it's ok to delete their photos.

Just a shame they can't take responsibility and give a free bug fix to what seems a pretty serious flaw. A feature or two not working properly is one thing, but telling you your photos are backed up when they're not is another.

But yeah, backing up is easy enough, I just hate clogging my machine with lots of software, most of which only have one feature.

I know what u mean my desktop is almost completly hidden from view.

not to start about the start menu.

bad thing is only for my screen magnifying sorftware and text to speacth i got loke 8 programs.

Zoomtext got like 5 ways to read the text to me and u know the drill they all have there own excutebel paremeters.

not to mention office LOL every program installs by default in a sub folther in the starmenu but thats too boog for MS they want to spead all over your menu bars whoopie.

I know im ranting a bit about the uselessness of diferent programs but to be honest i would not have it any other way.

U dont use a fridge to store your mail in.

Some programs just are better for one thing then another.

I use the winamp player jsut for my mp3books i dont install anything else just the good old winamp.exe.

Sure u got the all new and inproved Nero Burning Rom 7.0 with media libray video players and all that jive but i only use the program for makind dvd and CD of my audio books. and to be honest there are alot better avi players out there.

Oh well i use trilian too but thats becouse it can log me into icq msn yahoo and more with one applications but thats about it for a all in one program for me.


Oh hell im ranting now arent i.

Its just my opinion to use the best tools for the best work

sure norton anty virus has great spyware protection but i have to buy it and u can get a way better one for free at spybot website.

1 spybot is 10 times faster then norton becouse it doesnt have all the useless code norton has for fancy screens and u dont need a pention 4 to install it.

Anyways just my silly opinions laters and have funn

Hmm, I use Adobe Photoshop for work not Elements (I don't know anything about Elements, had thought it wasn't much different to Photoshop but I guess not). I don't get a nagging screen, maybe its something that can be avoided by tweaking some kind of setting? Perhaps asking on a forum dedicated to image editing or Adobe products can give some answers. Adobe Photoshop does take a little while to start up compared to say basic Paint but thats because it has a ton more filters, tools and other goodies to load. But its not like it leaves me sitting for ages or anything.
I'm sure you'll find a variety of uses for Elements though to warrant it being used solely as an editor. If you find some good tutorials to take full advantage of its various options that is

Michel, you can rant as much as you like (but it doesn't come across that you are), it's good to hear people's view on things.

Sai, Elements has two parts, one to view and organise photos, and an editing version. They both load separately, so if you want to go from one to the other it takes a while, like you say, propably loading filters and so on. The browsing software seems to take the same amount of time. It probably does something like try and remember what pictures are in what albums or something. It also knows when I move pictures on my computer, so it probably scans my whole hard drive each time I start it.

But I can live with it.

Thanks Demonlawyer

Ahh the good old days when all u had was a 30 Megabite hard drive and windows install ment using floppy disks all 7.

when bootagents sorftware only used 1 1.44 flopy disk And peaple used norton comander and norton tools NDD and NC for those few who can still remember dos.

Ahh the times files had names no bigger then 8 digits not like 265.4 like "I have no idee how to work with msdos but i got google and i found info.html" Oh sorry was having a flashback

I must admit Demonlawyer i tend to keep using the old programs instead of the new ones u just cant get a hang of those new things it seems.

Man i must have made like a ziljon boot flopies with QUEMM (does anyone even remember what that was used for if so im not that old yet).

Now i need a doctorate just to make a cd bootable.

haha anyways thanks mate hope u get it sorted and yes i must admit if the manual says it backs up u chould get pissed if it doesnt.

My mom bought one of those new LG 7900 DVD hard disk recorders it does anything except backing up a DVD from disk even thought the manual says it does.

Ohh this is funny the reply from the helpdesk of LG was this: Dit u read the Manual on page 53 and 54. ehh yeah i did to be honest and what it says ther dont work LOL anyways have funn all im bored and it is 2 am in the morning here.