INTRODUCTION
A panorama is made up of a series of overlapping pictures that are aligned and glued together.  Photoshop Elements calls this procedure Photomerge.  We will create a folder on the Desktop to hold 4 sequential photos previously used in Neat Tricks 278 - (Right click a blank spot on the Desktop > select New + Folder > type Pan > press Enter.)

DOWNLOAD PICTURES
Open your browser and go to http://leisurevillage.us/nt/classnotes.html.  Open lesson 278 > click HERE to view the first picture > restore (click double squares in upper right corner of browser) > drag the browser window to reveal part of the picture and the Pan folder > drag picture on top of  the Pan folder.  Click HERE to repeat for a second picture, HERE for the third and HERE for the fourth.  Minimize the browser.

PREPARE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS FOR PHOTOMERGE
Open Photoshop Elements > close the Welcome screen > close all open palettes > maximize Photoshop Elements > click File + Photomerge > click Browse > navigate to Desktop > double-click the Pan folder > select the 4 pictures (hold the Ctrl key and click each picture) > click Open (the pictures are not in numerical order but that’s OK) > click OK.

COMPLETE THE PHOTOMERGE
Photoshop Elements may not be able to merge all photos.  If not, click OK to the warning message (the unmerged photo/s will be displayed above the pictures that are merged) > move the bottom slider to display the end photo that will be matched with the photo above > drag the top photo down and into place (you may use the arrow keys to make fine adjustments) > when all photos are properly merged, click OK.

CROP THE MERGED PHOTO
Select the Crop tool (if dimensions are given on the Options toolbar, click the Crop icon located on the extreme left of the Options toolbar and select Reset Tool) > draw a rectangle that excludes the top and bottom incomplete areas > press the Enter key (completes the crop).

CONCLUSION
The advantages of using Photoshop Elements to create panoramas is that it doesn’t seem to matter in what order pictures are added and it is not necessary to crop the ends of the pictures before the panorama is created.  Disadvantages are that you may have to manually add and align some pictures and it will be necessary to crop the merged result.

GOOD WEB SITES
LEISURE VILLAGE: http://leisurevillage.us and http://leisurevillage.org
BILL’S HOME PAGE: http://bzus.com
LV COMPUTER CLUB: go to leisurevillage.us and select Our Computer Club