The Accelerated series was developed to fill a void in the market. Many books are either too broad in scope and try to cover too much ground, or they are so narrow in scope they focus only on a particular area of the software’s functionality. Neither is a good solution for the beginner market. The objective of the Accelerated series is to reduce the time it takes for a beginner to learn, internalize, and apply book knowledge to practical projects.

Every chapter is divided into three sections: concepts, foundation exercises, and professional tutorials. Concepts covers basic, need-to-know principles and theories. Step-by-step foundation exercises reinforce the concepts. More advanced tutorials then expand the learning.

In the exercise and tutorial sections, there are sidebars containing notes and tips. Notes explain concepts in more detail than in the first section while tips dish out useful shortcuts and time-saving tricks. In addition, before and after screenshots are consistently provided right at the beginning of every hands-on exercise to give readers a clear idea of what can be achieved.

Great Learning Tool
The thing that sets this book apart from most, and make it most effective, is that there are more photos and graphics than words. Most of us are visual learners and my knowledge of using Photoshop has dramatically improved in just a matter of an hour or so. I’m only to chapter 2. I recommend highly to anyone that wants to know how to use Adobe Photoshop CS 2 or CS 3 more effectively.