Adobe Premiere Elements 2

Elements 2 has a number of useful smaller additions as well. The Effects palette now includes handy picons to help you find the right filter or transition. Category buttons for Video, Audio, Transitions and Favorites are also found along the top for easier navigation. The Project Archiver is an entirely new tool. This allows you to save everything you've used in a project to another folder, such as on an external hard disk. You can either archive just the media you ended up using in the finished project, or everything that was imported.

Since its release, Adobe claims Premiere Elements has grabbed 30 per cent of the UK market, despite being aimed at a higher level than Pinnacle Studio or Ulead VideoStudio. Although it's priced a little higher too, it isn't astronomical. You can also purchase it bundled with Photoshop Elements 4 for £100, which makes for particularly good value. No low-cost upgrade to Premiere Pro is currently available, although Adobe told us it was being considered.

Although Premiere Elements 2 doesn't add any huge new features, the subtle usability changes are welcome. Its more powerful integrated DVD authoring and wider editing format support bring it much more in line with consumer editing requirements. And it remains a lot more powerful than any other editing app below £100. So unless you're aiming to become semi-professional, the chances are Premiere Elements will be the only video-editing software you need.

Author: James Morris