Mona, I bought one full price in the beginning of the year and gave it to one of my daughters. Much too complicated for me. OOps, sorry, it was elements 6. I use two. I use the OLD Adobe Photo Deluxe for sizing. I can trim and size ( in pixels ) in a flash. I also use Kodak Photo Impressions. I likr that too!! You did get a good bargain. I know what they cost...Ellie

Do you still have the manual for the scanner? I assume this is a stand alone flat bed scanner? Might pay to remove the scanner program then re-install but check the manual to see if it is like the printers where you should not connect it to the computer until the program prompts you. Possibly a corrupt file there somewhere.

You should scan these photos individually at perhaps 200% of original and save as bitmaps (bmp) not jpg. This gives you a much better quality file for when you want to do anything with them. I like my old photos to be anywhere from 2 to 4 megabytes in size. You can always make them smaller later without degrading but you will most certainly degrade a smaller photo when trying to increase the size after the fact. Play with you scanner a bit to get comfortable before doing the serious scans. Having never used Adobe Photo Elements I do not know it's capabilities. Sufficient to say it should be capable of doing the job for you with the Adobe name on it. You should be able to lighten or darken any photos to a modest degree and manipulate the photo if needed. The entertainment comes when you start repairing scratches and bends on the photos. This takes some practise though but there is a huge sense of satisfaction in repairing an old photograph. When you have scanned these to your computer you might want to open Explore - right click on Start and click Explore. In the new window find the folder with your scans in the left side and click on it to highlight it. Now right click on each file in the right side and click Properties. In the new window click Summary at the top then click Advanced. Now you have the opportunity to enter any data you want for that photo, like the names of those on the photo, where it was taken and a date if you know these things. That data then gets embedded in the file when you exit. Sounds like a lot of work and it might well be. However it is not a race and you can do it over an extended period as you feel capable.

I find Adobe products in general are very difficult to use...not intuitive at all. I'm a nurse...16 years in ICU using all sorts of monitors and equipment, so I don't consider myself a total dummy. I have been involved in Telephone Nursing for the past 16 years and have learned many programs to manage patient care and also to manage employees and projects. Everything I have learned has been in the office setting by osmosis or taught myself. I'm not an expert by any means, but I can catch on to programs and even write technical curriculum as needed...but Adobe...YIKES...it makes me crazy. I just had to learn a new program out of the Adobe Premier Pro CS3 over the last 2 days within a couple of hours. I built myself a guide with screenshots, but need to practice some more. Maybe after I get better with this video adaption program I will be able to use more elements in Photoshop...but I am a total hack in that program. I wish I had someone at home to show me how to use all these programs...I would be sooooo happy. But I can CROP damitall!!! LOL