Use Your Computer Like a Pro–in fifth grade

The program that says ‘pro’ more than any other is Adobe Photoshop. Believe it or not, there are a whole list of skills easy enough for a fifth grader (maybe even fourth, but I haven’t had time to test it on them yet). Here they are:

• auto-correct with the auto-correction tools–those quick fixes that make a photo look cleaner
• crop with the lasso and the magic wand
• clone within a picture and to another picture
• change the background (put yourself in front of the Eiffel Tower or on top of Hoover Dam)
• add artistic filters (using the ‘filters’ tool and the ‘actions’ tab)
• paint on a blank canvas, using the paint brush
• add custom shapes (crowns to photos, fences, etc)
• add text to a picture (and format it as you like)

Adding autoshapes

Cloning within a picture

Using the paint brush

Cloning within a picture

Using the ‘Actions’ tab

Changing the background

Over the next few weeks, I’ll show you how to do each of these skills. Don’t worry–they’re not nearly as hard as people say they are!

First though, we start with MS Word’s graphic editing tools.