I have the PhotoShop manual, the Classroom in a Book for PS7 and the PhotoShop 6 WOW! Book. They all tackle the problems and tools differently. If I hit a snag and have to look something up, I first think "is this how to do something" or "is this how to use a tool" and then I know which book to reach for first. :) I don't think that it is possible for one book to be able to reach all students, since we humans have different means of learning information, however, I do think that SOME attempt at a tutorial or walk-through needs to be made. This is just like some adventure games: you can either jump right into the game and get slaughtered, or you can walk through a simple series of steps where you learn how to handle a weapon, pick up inventory and talk to others. Years ago I paid $3000 for 3dStudio Version 2, and hated the unusable piece of trash. It had major bugs including kicking me back to DOS every time I tried to use it (the dongle arguued with my printer or something). No tech support... aside from being told that they knew of that problem and that there'd be an upgrade in 6 months, which I'd have to pay for. Bullshit. I sold my copy and transferred the licence. I spent a couple hundred for RayDream Studio 4, which was still sitting in the box unopened when I got a call from a producer saying that he needed a 3d dungeon scene by Friday noon for a presentation to TSR.... could I do it? I looked at the box, thought about the advertising copy, and said "yes". After 4 hours walking through the first tutorial (building a castle in a fishbowl), I had everything I needed to learn to start building my dungeon walls and staircases and setting up the lights. I uploaded on Friday with minutes to spare. Not great art, but it got him the project, which was all that mattered. Four hours is a real short learning curve, but basically it gave me the confidence to start work on the scene... and I could always research the finer points later. Confidence is the critical point. Carolly