Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Category Hierarchy much too limiting
Upon trying this software I discovered that the keyword tag ability - the highlight of the program - is rather crippled by the fact that you can only have 3 levels of category, and Adobe won't let you change the top one (People, Events, Places, Other.) You can add subcategories to those (only one level) and then tags inside them. You can NOT make arbitrary category nesting many levels deep. For anyone who wants to really categorize things thoroughly, this is a severe limitation in what should have been the best feature. I'm disappointed.
Rating:  - Excellent photo organizer for home users
I am a home user/photo enthusiast, and I bought Album to manage approximately 2,100 digital images (and growing fast) generated by digital cameras and by scanning older film-based photos. I think this is a fabulous utility for non-professionals, and sets the standard for what other photo organizers must aspire to. Compared with the Canon Image Browser program that came with my G2 and S230 cameras, and there is simply no contest: Album wins hands-down. With Album, I can easily and quickly browse through my large collection of photos by person, date, location, event or theme. Want to see pictures of my wife? Press one "tag" button, and all of the pictures with her are thumbnailed in a single window for me to review/print/whatever. Want to see what we did in July 2000? Just click the mouse over the timeline on the top of the screen. The simplicity and ease of use is truly quite impressive. Critically for me, Album allows you to add photo captions and descriptive text (notwithstanding false comments by some previous users to the contrary) for all pictures, in addition to the "tags" which are used to categorize photos. Although I am basically happy with the "tag" function, I admit that I wish that the program gave me more control over exactly how to organize the tags and hence the images which are tagged. I find the folder heirarchy usable and its inflexible set of top-level categories acceptable. However, I agree with some previous user comments that one should really be permitted to freely construct a more detailed, customized structure. Album serves as a front-end for downloading images directly from digital cameras, as well as importing images directly from scanners. This means that Album is not only a "browser/slideshow"-type utility, but is arguably the only program you will ever need to manage your digital photos...unless you want a higher-end photoediting program. To that end, I also own Photoshop Elements, which integrates nicely with Album. On those occasions when I load a photo that it less than perfect, I can choose between Album's collection of minor fix-its or load the larger and more powerful set of Photoshop Elements tools. One of my favorite other features is the way Album manages the nuts and bolts of where all the photo files are stored. No longer do you need to recall where files are stored (though you can still do so, if for other reasons you find this useful). You do not even need to store your photos on your hard drive, thanks to the CD-ROM archiving feature. It is easy to perform backups (complete or incremental) of your family photos other disks or media in order to prevent disaster in the event of a hard drive failure. In my opinion, Album really illuminates the shortcomings of other programs designed to organize media files.... Once you use Album, compare it to, for instance, Windows Media Player's relatively kludgy methods for organizing MP3 and WMA files. Hopefully, other companies will use Album as an example to improve their own offerings. They few problems I have with Album are minor in nature, and I presume they will be cleared up by version 2.0. In the meanwhile, it gets 4 stars.
Rating:  - Some rough edges, but still the best organizer I've used
I've played with a handful of photo organizer apps and most fall in to two camps: those that don't offer a lot in addition to what I can do in Windows XP, and those that are complicated geek tools that are good for programmers or people who like to spend a lot of time to set up everything custom. Photoshop Album is different. There are 3 things it does that have me sold:
1) It lets me see all my photos and movies I shot with my digicam in a big grid. Now it's easy to just look at them without having to open and close aall my folders.
2) It has some nice templates for making slideshows, cards, calendars so I can make something that looks good without having to waste a whole weekend in a complicated graphics program. In 5 minutes I had a slideshow with background music put together, and I put it on a CD.
3) The fix functions like the Auto commands and lighting controls are better than what I've seen in other programs. Some of the reviews complained about program limitations, but I just use it on nights and weekends for fun so I can enjoy my photos, and haven't hit any limitations yet. But if you're a true computer newbie or a programmer-type, you might want to read more reviews before putting your money down.
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