Adobe Photoshop...??

[thedelbwa]

Having bought my PC about a year ago now, my version of Adobe Photoshop on Windows XP now says that this was a trial period and if I want to continue using Photoshop (which I do), they will provide me with an unlocking code. I therefore attempt to follow the on-screen instructions, which all goes fine until the Status box says "Checking for Internet connection.." - it then either does nothing, or says "Connection failed..." or something like that (of course, now it's not doing anything but freezing - seemingly doing nothing for ages, until I cancel request, and then we're back to square one)......HELP!!! Any ideas...???? Cheers...

[vehelpfulguy]

Are you sure you want Photoshop or would Photoshop Elements suffice?

Elements is a cut down version of Photoshop but is much cheaper and is enough for most home users.

Photoshop is not cheap (a few hundred pounds I believe), whereas Elements is only about �60.

See both prices here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adobe-Photoshop-8-0-CS -Win/dp/B0000D8D1W

http://www.software.co.uk/Products/Adobe-Photo shop-Elements-5.0.html?gclid=CIKF9OG_iokCFRFJV godjykjgg

[thedelbwa]

Cheers for that...I may well go for the Elements one. So there's no other way of accessing that version of Photoshop??? Would I be able to retrieve my photos from Adobe, as I currently have a few on that version of it (Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.0)???

[Buenchico]

VHG has (as always) provided an excellent answer, based upon the information in the question, but the word 'Album' was missed out of the question. (It makes a big difference!)

'Photoshop Album' is a different product from 'Photoshop'. The latter is the feature-rich industry-standard software used by newspapers, magazines and advertising agencies, throughout the world, for manipulating their images. Photoshop Album is a much simpler product, which has now been replaced, as a commercial product, by Photoshop Elements.

However, Adobe continue to indicate that Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.0 is available as a free download from their website. Interestingly, they specifically state that the software is not time-limited. (So you might like to try uninstalling PASE3.0, then downloading the file and reinstalling it):
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopalbum/s tarter.html

Your pictures aren't 'on' any particular piece of software. All that album software does is group together pictures which are on your hard drive. The vast majority of images taken by digital cameras, or downloaded from the internet, are in jpeg format. You can locate all jpeg files on your hard drive by going to Start > Search and looking for *.jpg. Once you've found the files,you can move them to anywhere you want.

As I've indicated, you may be able to download PASE3.0 and re-install it. If you wish to consider alternative free image-manipulation software, you might like to consider PhotoPlus 6.0:
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/

Chris

[thedelbwa]

Thanks very much both of you for your help. Sorry about my glaring ommission from my question. Have now set about searching the hard drive for the photos...

Thanks again

(...will let you know how I get on...!)