Authored by Tracy Clark

One especially helpful feature included in Elements is a "helper application" called Hints. These provide the user with a step-by-step descriptions of, and uses for, each item in the Elements toolbox.

Let's walk through a sample project.

Stylizing a photographic image

1. Open Photoshop Elements. The following window will appear:

2. Locate the Hints window, along the right-hand side of the Photoshop Elements main work area. As the image below suggests, Hints are a quick, easy way to learn about what each toolbox image stands for, and what we can do with these tools:

We will now work with an image for which we need to choose a color to match a background, add text, and move that text.

3. Open the image by going to File --> Open. You may also use the graphical menu found in the center of the Elements workspace; if you do, click on the word "Open."

NOTE: If you would like to know what each option "means," move your cursor over the word in question. The word and accompanying icon will acquire a blue "shadow," and an explanation of that option will appear to the right of the word. An example appears below:

4. Locate your file. Our sample file is a JPEG called owls2, and is located on a ZIP disk (labeled D drive on the Dell in the IMP lab) and in a folder called 421, as shown below:

5. Double-click to open the file. Our image will now appear:

Before applying stylized elements to our image, we will first use Elements' color picker in order to choose a color for our text. If you're not sure which portion of the toolbar contains the color picker, move your mouse over each icon, until you find it. A yellow, rectangular box appears next to each icon to identify it.

NOTE: The color picker is the only portion of the toolbar not supported by the Hints window. You will still know which icon is the color picker, based on the label that pops up when you move your cursor over it.

6. To choose text color, locate the color swatches within the toolbar. You will see two overlapping squares -- one is for foreground color, the other for background. The example below has blue for the foreground and white for the background.

7. Because we will use color for text, make sure the foreground -- top-left -- square is in the front. To bring that square to the front, click on the arrow in the upper right-hand corner of the color swatch area. Skip this step if the square is already in the front, as the example above shows.

We will now change the blue to black.

8. Click on the foreground square, currently colored blue. A Color Picker window will appear -- with a large square used for color selection, and a smaller square reflecting the current color, as shown below:

NOTE: The current color, indicated by a white circle, always occupies the upper right hand corner of the Color Picker square. At top left is true white. At bottom right is true black.

9. To change the color to black, click on the lower right hand corner. The Color Picker window will reappear, but with a "split square" to the right of the Color Picker square:

NOTE: Because it's extremely difficult to "catch the corner" without moving your cursor off the square, you likely get a numerical representation that is not #000000 (black). If you absolutely must have #000000, you may change the non-zero number to zero in the RGB settings. For our example, we will leave the settings alone since we don't "true" black.

10. Click OK. The result of this change is shown below:

Now it's time to make further use of the Hints window! First, we will locate the Text tool.

11. Move your cursor around within the toolbar, looking at the Hints window on the right-hand side of the screen as you do so. When the cursor touches the text tool, you will see the description illustrated below:

NOTE: This icon does NOT depict current settings; the designers just happened to use the color and the word blue in their graphical example!

12. Now that you have located the text tool (AKA the "Horizontal Type" tool), click on it to select it, then click on the image to be modified. A blinking cursor will appear on the spot you clicked. Here, it's on the belly of the owl to the right:

13. Type in the desired text, as shown below:

Notice that the text, though catchy, is difficult to read, and not effectively placed. We will first change the font, point size, and color. Then, with the help of the Hints window, we will locate the Move tool so that we can place this caption in a more advantageous spot within the image.

14. Highlight the text, as shown below:

15. Go to the font window -- default setting: Courier -- and change it to the font of your choice. Then go to the point size window, and change the settings there. The example below reflects 18-point Bell Gothic font:

As we can see from looking at the highlighted text, white will show up better than black on this image -- so let's change the text color to white.

16. With the text still highlighted, double-click on the color swatch located in the text toolbar. The Color Picker window will appear:

17. Click on the edge of the upper left-hand corner, in order to choose white.

NOTE: If you would like to select a color not depicted in the large color square, click on any spot in the tall, rectangular spectrum next to it, and a color square corresponding to that color will appear.

18. Click on the image to get rid of the highlight and to see your changes as they actually appear on the image. Here's our sample:

By this time, you may have noticed that with highlighted text, the cursor style has changed to something resembling a plus-sign with four prongs. This represents the Move tool, which we are about to use to move our caption off the owl. To read a description of the Move tool, locate it on the main toolbar and click on it.

NOTE: If your text is not highlighted, you will need to enable the Move tool by clicking on it. A symbol resembling a "less-than" sign will appear.

18. With the Move tool enabled, click on the caption and drag it to your desired location. Let's place it in the bottom right-hand corner, so it's easily readable and doesn't interfere with the rest of the image.

19. Make any additional desired changes by using the Text or Move tools. The example shown below reflects the use of black -- or bold on top of bold -- for added emphasis.

NOTE: If using the Text tool after the Move tool, or vice versa, click on its icon to enable it!

Congratulations! You've successfully completed this tutorial -- more importantly, you've successfully used the Hints window in Photoshop Elements. The same procedures can be applied to other projects and tasks, thus giving you a chance to work with additional Elements tools and to learn what those tools are for.