Today, I Love ....

... Adobe Photoshop Elements!

Why? Well, last night I stitched together a panorama of a recent sunset, which helped me to think of it as a solution for a problem in my writing today.

See, my story borrows lots of facts from our own world, one of those is the Scottish Clan system. And there is a cool map of the Highland Clans. While this is just a snapshot of the clan system, it really helps me in my planning and plotting. I wanted to be able to look at the map while not at my desk along with a Scottish clan book (while waiting for tonight's dinner was grilling, should the truth be known). But it is a pain to print out the map from the website.

In comes Elements.

I took several screen shots, then used Elements' cool panorama function to stitch together one file of the map. The finished map, were I to print it out at full size, is something like 20" x 20". However, I just needed one letter-sized map and a zoomed in version of Nairn and Inverness. After changing the print settings, voila, I have what I wanted.

Another smile worthy moment.

That is why today I love Photoshop Elements.