I think you’ll find that the general consensus will be: don’t use Elements (or even full Photoshop) for this purpose.
Photoshop’s text handling is poor, Elements’ is even worse.
Use proper tool: Illustrator, InDesign, Quark, PageMaker, even Word or PowerPoint is going to be better for this purpose than Elements.
M
Emily,
Mac is right. I know of someone who is creating an action plug-in to allow PE2 to kern and track text. But that will still not be good enough for page layout with a lot of text. And there is no spell checking. You can import text files from other programs. Go to File>Import. If you want to add some of the neat Style effects Photoshop has to offer to the text, then create the text in the best text program you have and do the copy and paste technique. I believe the text will be converted to a graphic image you can stylize. However you cannot no longer edit then.
Joy
Thinking of trying to use Elements as a page layout program causes me to recall those poor souls some 20 years ago who insisted on trying to do word processing in Lotus 1-2-3.
Yes, it can be done.
But why would anyone want to?
Time to call Adobe and ask for… In Design Elements.. 😉
Ok, the product doesn’t exist, but it would surely be something super if Adobe would release such a product.
Ray
Emily,
I just devised a work-around which may do the trick for you.
1. Open a new layer (RGB)
2. Duplicate
3. Go to View>show grid
4. Create a new layer (which should be on top of stack)
5. With contrasting color draw a box on layer created in #4 with paint brush or pencil tool, using grid as template
6. Go to View>hide grid
7. Using move tool can move box, enlarge it, etc. as it is on its own layer. Ken
Emily,
In my earlier suggestion, I was thinking about what I could do with Illustrator – which does what you want. To use a Word-like program for copy/paste, InDesign even does not recognize columns from text documents unless a special plug-in is added. Since you want to define columns, there is still copy possibilities with Word – although I haven’t made the background transparent.
1. Resize page and margins in Word to the size you want for column.
2. copy and paste first column in new PE file.
3. Copy and paste second column.
4. position columns. If resizing them, click the link button in options bar so proportions remain the same.
5. Layer>Flatten
6. Get creative
Since that background layer is locked, copy it if you want to cut it up and delete the locked layer. Make new layer(s) with different fills, patterns, effects, etc and cut back their opacity so you see your text. Leave it in separate layers or Layer>Merge for one layer.
I hope this gives you some more ideas until you can get the right program.
For a lark, I just tried a Text Effect Action to the text background lay I made above and got a beautiful looking result. Instead of adding text where prompted, I clicked on my open background layer image. Search this forum for "action" or "actions" to get more info on this interesting add-on. PE is a nice little program.
Emily,
This posting of yours has been very useful for me. You brought up a problem I would like to work around. Like you I am learning, researching and adding things to my program. There are many ways around the limitations of PE. For one, many downloads for PS can be used in PE – brushes, styles, gradients, etc. Plug-ins are another class of add-ons by other people which work inside the program. Some free examples are available to download from Adobe Studio. Some are free and some have to be paid for at other sites. When I pasted in text from my document file in to PE2 I got a white background. I could control the boundary of the white by adjusting the margins. I spent time today searching for more info on PE. I found a plug-in that was able to make the white area transparent. Merging and flattening the layers was not necessary with this add-on feature. Text still cannot be edited, but you cannot have everything. The text could be colored in the document program, or something like a Layer Style could be done.
This forum isn’t about promoting outside products, so I don’t think I’m allowed to give a URL for this plug-in here. Hunting is part of the painful learning process. I’ll work around these little annoyances and add a second GB of RAM and several hard drives to be used as scratch disks to make this program work better before I upgrade to PS.
Joy
Joy,
I don’t think that there is any problem with you mentioning the URL … sounds interesting a plug in that makes white transparent.
Wendy
Here’s one way to make sure that white and only white gets selected if that’s your goal:
1. Open the image on which you want to select the white areas.
2. Create a Threshold adjustment layer (Layer> New Adjustment
Layer>Threshold>OK).
3. When the Threshold adjustment layer dialog box appears, push the slider all the way to the right or put in Threshold Level 255. Hit OK.
4. On the now black and white image, use the Magic Wand tool with
Contiguous unchecked and click on a white area; all the pure white areas will be selected.
5. Turn off the opacity of the Threshold adjustment layer; your selection will remain.
6. To turn the selections into transparency, select the layer with the image on it and change it from a background layer if necessary. (Double click on the layer in the layers palette and give it a new name like the suggested Layer 0).
7. Do an Edit>Clear and all the white areas will turn checkerboard, indicating opacity.
Sounds a bit complex, but takes a minute or two to perform.
Chuck
Chuck,
That’s a GREAT tip. A definite keeper!
Terri
Terri, I sometimes use it to remove a blown-out sky prior to replacement with a something more appealing…
🙂
Thanks for the tips folks.
I don’t have access to the file I’m working on today, but may shortly have more questions to fire your way.
Is Powerpoint really a more viable option than Elements for something like this?
E vO
Joy (et al.) –
Even when I adjust the margins in Word, and then paste into PE, I don’t get columns – my text ends up running off the page, somewhere into the distance. What am I doing wrong?
E vO
Powerpoint? That program is typically used for video and slide show style presentations
If you have MS office youd be much better off trying to get Word to do what you want.
Emily,
To get the column effect, I had to paste in each column separately from Word. I did not mind that, since I could independently move what I pasted anywhere (I have Office 2003 and run XP). On the download site for InDesign I read that the native, unadulterated program does not recognize things like Tables, Excel, and, I think, columns when pasting. I think the same thing applies to programs like PS and PE. Someone worked out a plugin solution for InDesign. I have not seen a solution for PS or PE as these programs are not designed for page layout.
For my test, tightening up the margins affected the text look and limited how much white showed up when pasting into PE. I manually create the columns. Only copy and paste the text to be seen in the first column. Repeat for each additional column. Each pasted column is its own layer. I liked keeping the layers separate so I could position them. And if the text in a column changed, only the affected column has to be replaced. The text layers can be grouped after you position them where you want them. Click on one of the columns. Go to the Layer palette. That layer is highlighted in the palette. Click the link button(s) on the other layer(s) of text you want to group with that first column layer(box to the right of the "eye" box). The group will move and act as a unit until you unlink them. If you want to permanently join the column layers do Layers>Merge. Go to trimoon.com for a free transparency filter plugin. That nasty white background from a Word pasting goes away so text layers can remain independent. You get instructions. It only works on unlocked layers. If you make anything that becomes a locked, background layer, just duplicate that background layer to get a replica you can work with. The locked layer can be deleted or click on the "eye" on the layer palette to make it disappear.
An easy way to keep notes on little things you add to your program is to store a copy of the file in a special folder of your choosing, right click the file and go to Properties>Summary. It’s a good place to add brief notes about where you got the file and other descriptive minutia. If you need more note space, add a Word, WordPad or similar document to the special folder. I hope this helps.
Joy
Encase I wasn’t clear, create only a single column document with tight margins in Word. That single column has to be "chopped" up via Copy and Paste. Copy only as many lines as you want to show in the first PE column. Paste in PE. Copy the lines designated for the second column. Paste in PE. Repeat as needed. Save Word doc for future editing. Save original PE doc with its many newly positioned text layers. Make a copy of that PE file to experiment upon with grouping, merging, Layer Style, flattening, transparency, etc.
Joy
I recently designed personal letterhead templates for Word. Depending on how I did it affected file size and quality. The first one had a logo draw in Illustrator with Illustrator text added, opened in PE to convert it to JPEG, and inserted in a template doc, Insert>Picture>from file. It was 2MB! I got it down to less that 300KB by just inserting the Illustrator logo alone as JPEG (low file size, maximum quality). Use Text Wrapping>Edit Wrap Points to move pic and boundaries. I placed text where I wanted with Insert>Text Box (can alter text box color to none by right clicking box to change border). Right click on the text to adjust and color the font.
To make sure the fonts remain unchanged from computer to computer, the text you create needs to be copied and pasted to PE and placed where you want on image PE image. Use transparency filter plugin if needed. Dpi should be at least 325. In PE go to Image>Resize>Image Size to adjust (don’t go too high or file might not reopen and program can lockup). Saving image as a JPEG creates a flattened copy of original. My logo and text were just over 300KB this method.
Another text box option is to create the text in Word and leave it there. Text Box is one way to manipulate text. Can also try drawing up a Table to layout text. (Search this site for "fonts" and get more fonts and a free font manager program). Using PE is just for the background behind the text.
Create image in PE. Good idea to make the canvas size the same as paper size in Word (in PE Image>Resize>Canvas Size). Save a copy of it as a jpeg (low file size, maximum quality). Insert the image as a Picture in the Word document. Select the picture. In the Picture tool bar, select Wrap Text. Choose desired placement of the picture – like Behind Text for one. If there are several Pictures that need to have custom placement around the text, then repeat Insert>Picture. Word does layer.
This goes faster than it seems – after being tried a few times.
