Now, on to Photoshop Album 2. I really like many of the features of this program. I did beta testing for Adobe on this, and the final release has some quirks that I'm not totally comfortable with. One of the big issues I have with Album is the batch rename. It might as well not be there. I do all my batch renaming in the browser that's in Photoshop CS. If you use Photoshop Elements 2.0, that batch rename is even better than the one in Album, although not as beefed up as the one in Photoshop CS. In both these browsers, there are more options for renaming your files than what Album offers. And from my point of view, a file manager should be exactly that....a place where you can do ALL your managing with your files. Not image correction, file management. There's a difference. If I have to leave my file manager to do renaming or some other file management function in another program, the file manager isn't doing its job.

Another annoyance is the thumbnail cache. The more you have, the slower it gets in opening them all up. Normal I guess, but annoying none the less. If you use Windows XP, you'll find that your thumbnails open quicker in Windows explorer.

The tagging idea is a good one, but I don't see the need for the collections option. It's simply another tagging function as far as I'm concerned. Other features like the EXIF data, captions, notes, etc. are handy if you're really anal about what you're doing. Again, any notes I have on files that I've edited are in Photoshop. But for someone not using Photoshop, the fact the capabilities are in Album can be a Godsend.

One thing I will give kudos to in Album is the red-eye correction in the "fix" function. This is without a doubt the single best "one-click" red-eye correction tool I've ever tried. Also, the automatic lighting correction feature is very good as well. It seems to work similar to the levels adjustment that's in Photoshop and Elements.

The greeting card thing, calendars, etc. I don't use, but I guess they're ok if you're into that. There's just not a lot of choices as far as designs go, but what is there is reasonable. The web page designs are good and the Atmosphere Gallery is a nice tool provided you have your own web site to put them on. The timeline can be handy if your sort your files by date. I don't, so it doesn't mean much to me.

Other than the above, I didn't find the program to be buggy, no crashes or anything like that. Overall, this is a decent program for the average shooter to manage their files with. It's really no better or worse than ACDSEE, Ulead Photo Explorer, or any of the others out there. The UI is clean and easy to work with. Once you learn to navigate your way around, it gets easier. At first, it can be a little disconcerting and frustrating, but you need to be patient. Sorta like you would need to be patient with Photoshop or Elements. We are dealing with Adobe here, remember?

So bottom line here is if you're considering Album as your file manager, go for it. Especially if you use Photoshop Elements since the two do work together. That would explain why Adobe saw the advantages of bundling them together in one package. Not to mention that it was a great marketing ploy. Anyway, if you take your time with it and learn the nouances, I think you'll be happy.