Customer Reviews

The Muvipix.com Guide To Adobe Premiere Elements 7: The Tools, And How To Use Them, To Create Great Videos On Your Personal Computer

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I decided to try PE7 after my other editing program began to fail me in reliability and support. PE7 is a great and powerful program but the price you pay for this power is a program that I found less intuitive to use straight out of the box. I have been editing and authoring projects for years and quite frankly was ready to throw in the towel with PE7 as the documentation included for its use is useless. The help menu directs you to an adobe website for searching and I found some answers but I'm the kind of guy who needs a paper medium and highlighters to learn and retain.

Enter this book by Steve Grisetti taking you from project startup to completion in a clear and easily understood way. It is obvious that the knowledge and tips he provides in the book comes from practical experience with the software. I leared alot about workflow and file types that helps me not only with PE7 but with all the NLE programs that I use. Near the end of the book is a section of suggestions of how to configure your computer best for editing and suggested 3rd party utilities (most of them free) to download to assist and enhance your project.

The last and to me the best part of the book was the information that the author along with several others have a website at www.muvipix.com dedicated to people who find video editing enjoyable like me. The user forum has become a part of my morning reading routine. I have even asked for help on this forum and had Steve Grisetti himself respond. Its not a suprise though because he and others are active contributers on a daily basis.

Long story short, I would recommend the book to anyone interested in getting started with PE7. In fact I don't know if I would have stuck it out with PE7 had it not been for this book to get me going in the right direction.

I bought this because it was one of the only books on Premier Elements 7 available at the time. Although I have not gone through the whole book yet, it struck me that this admittedly (by the author) a book on how to use each of the tools. As a relative newcomer, I was hoping for some examples on how to create some typical projects. Also, it is a pretty skinny book of only about 150 pages.

I have now finished a first reading of the book. This is DEFINITELY not the book to get if you are new to video editing. It is, however, a good reference book. I found the tips on type of camcorder, resizing photos, and file formats very helpful. There are many references to the muvipix web page for 'tips', but, you cannot get access to the tips unless you sign up for a membership. That is all well and good, but, premature for a beginner.

Bottom line: Decent reference book, bad 'how to' book.

My work consists mainly of creating "music videos" (slide shows set to music) that I output at WMV 720p using Photoshop Elements.

My limited use of Premiere is chiefly for the conversion of my WMV 720p slide shows to MPEG 1080i 30 format (MPEG2) either to play from my HDD on my HD monitor and TV, or, I use the MPEG2s to burn Blu-ray DVDs.

Despite the fact that I only skimmed those parts of Grisetti's book that are not currently relevant to my workflow (the chapters on Themes, Effects, Transitons, Titles, The Propeties Panel and Keyframng), I still found PLENTY of "pearls of information" to highlight with my yellow Sharpie.

Specifically, I counted more than 250 yellow highlights on the 161 pages, which works out to less than 10 cents a "pearl" (the book sells for $24.95).

Grisetti's previous "In a Snap" books were task-oriented, while this book is tool-oriented, that is, it covers how to use each of the many tools that are available in Premiere 7.

Now that I have both his task-oriented and his tool-oriented books by my three computers, I feel more capable than ever of "wow-ing" my clients with my music videos.

If you use ANY of the versions of Adobe Premiere Elements, whether 2.0 or 7 or one of the "in-between" versions, I would suggest that you get both this and his previous books. I currently use Premiere 4.0 while I'm waiting for my copy of Premiere 7 to arrive, nevertheless, I found both his older and his newer books to be packed with information that helps me use 4.0 more effectively.

What an interesting read. I got the book a couple of weeks ago and it has detailed information on everything you ever needed to know about how to make a video or take a picture and how to do on the computer for us inexperienced people. It was very helpful and I highly recommend it. Thanks Mr.Grisetti

There are two main types of software books. Those that are task oriented and tell you how to do specific things, and those that are focused on the tools and features. This book is the latter. But, unlike most books of that type which function mainly as reference books and often just repeat the information in the product help, this book is a guide which takes you through the features of Premiere Elements in a comprehensive and easy to understand way and shows you how to use them. And, it is filled with tips and practical advice to help you deal with the real world situations you are going to run into. This is one book you are going to want to read cover to cover.

And, if you do want a task oriented book, you can't do better than the author's other book "Adobe Premiere Elements 2 In a Snap." Although some of the program interface has changed since Premiere Elements version 2, the basic functionality is still there and the detailed how-tos are, for the most part, just as valid today with the current version. Together, these two books make a great combination.

This is an excellent book with many useful ideas. The author is extremely knowledgeable in video editing in general and in Adobe Premiere 7 specifically.

-Dense and dry, but the only up to date book around that I found. Includes pitches for more info on line for a price.
-Repetition of info frequent, but that may make it possible to open the guide to the relevant chapter and use it as a spot reference as one works.
-Includes recommendations about operating system tune-ups.
-The most complex information is given short shrift, with pointers to the for-sale articles.
-Overall, I wish there were an up to date Dummies book on this program. The in-print Dummies on Premier is out of date (old version).

This is one of the best tools for learning all the features in this program. It is well written and easy to understand.. Combine this book with muvipix.com and you have the best and most complete information you could ever need...Thanks for all your hard work on this book, Steve!!Great job!!!!

If someone tells you that Adobe Premiere Elements 7, like any of the versions before it, is intuitive you can probably put them in one of two categories: Employee of Adobe, or Geek. There is a learning curve, and Steve Grisetti's book gets you quickly around the corner. I'm just starting to get up to speed with this newest version, trying my hand at an animated slide show set to music. Steve's book helped. Adobe's "Help," not so much.

I purchased Premier Elements 7 to do a quick video project on a very tight timeline. I consider myself a power user having done extensive audio production projects but I struggled through the interface of PE7 and could not make progress. Thank goodness I had the book shipped overnight. I was able to quickly learn the depths of the interface and get my project done successfully. The book is written very clearly and points out important aspects of the interface that are NOT intuitive. Great book, a life saver for me.