There’s not much you need to do prior to installing Elements on a Mac, but if you have any antivirus software or any Symantec/Norton products running, you should disable those before you start. (Remember to turn them on again when you’re through installing Elements.)
If you want to remove very old versions of Elements (Elements 4 or earlier) from your computer, just drag their folders from Applications to the Trash. For more recent versions, you have to remove them by running their uninstallers. For Elements 6, the uninstaller is the same as the installer. In the first installer screen, simply choose Remove Adobe Photoshop Elements Components, click Next, and then click Install. (If you don’t have the disc or download file to get to the installer, there’s an emergency uninstaller in Applications→Utilities, but it’s much better to use the Elements disc’s installer if you can.) For Elements 8 or 9, you’ll find the uninstaller in Applications→Adobe Photoshop Elements [8 or 9]→Uninstall Adobe Photoshop Elements [8 or 9].
if you bought the Mac App Store version of Elements, it installs automatically when you download it. And you don’t have to activate your copy of Elements (Activation), either; you can download and install it on every Mac where you use the same App Store account.
To install Elements 10:
Put the install DVD in your Mac’s DVD or combo drive, or double-click the .dmg file you downloaded to expand it.
Double-click the DVD icon or the .dmg file to see the disk’s contents.
Double click the Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 folder.
Double-click the Install folder.
Choose the language you want to read software agreement in.
Give the agreement a quick read and then click Accept.
Enter your serial number and select a language for Elements, and then click Next.
If you have a retail version of Elements, the serial number is on the label on the install disc’s case. If you got the program bundled with something else (a graphics tablet, for example), you’ll usually find the serial number on the paper sleeve the disc is in. (It’s not a bad idea to write the serial number on the disc itself so that you’ll always have it around if you need to reinstall.) If you downloaded the program, Adobe emailed you the serial number. (You can install Elements without a serial number, but it will only run as a trial for 30 days, and then stop working.)
Elements has a multilanguage installer. Choose the language you want Elements to use.
Create an Adobe ID if you don’t have one, or enter your Adobe ID if you do.
After you’re done, click Next. If you aren’t ready to do this, you can click Skip This Step instead, or just click Next without typing anything. (If you don’t do it now, you see a reminder screen when you start Elements.) Creating an Adobe ID (or logging into an existing one) registers Elements for you, so it’s a good thing to do, as explained in the next section.
Adjust your settings, if you like.
The Install Options screen lets you change where the installer puts the program on your computer, but unless you have a specific reason to do so (if you install all your programs on a separate drive, for instance), just agree to the location the installer suggests, which is the main Applications folder on your Mac. The Elements updater always expects to find the program there, so you’ll have fewer problems with updates if you don’t change anything on this options screen.
Click Install.
Enter your OS X account password when the installer asks for it. The Elements installer does its thing, which takes a few minutes (you can watch its progress in the window).
Click Done to close the installer or click the Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 button to start using Elements.
Clicking the Photoshop Elements button takes you to the Welcome Screen, explained on The Welcome Screen.
It’s a really good idea to repair your Mac’s permissions after installing Elements. (Repairing permissions is a simple housekeeping task that helps make sure everything runs smoothly.) Go to Applications→Utilities→Disk Utility; in the list that appears on the left, click your hard drive’s name and then click Repair Permissions. In OS X Leopard (10.5), this can take half an hour; it’s much faster in Lion (10.7) and Snow Leopard (10.6).
To launch Elements, go to Applications→Adobe Photoshop Elements 10, and then double-click the Elements program icon (the dark blue square with the outline of two photos on it), or if you’re using 10.7 (Lion), go to the Dock→Launchpad and single-click the Elements icon. To keep Elements in the Dock, simply click and hold the program’s Dock icon while Elements is running and choose Options→“Keep in Dock” from the pop-out menu (if you’re running OS X 10.5.8 [Leopard], it’s just “Keep in Dock”), or drag the program—not the whole Elements folder—into the Dock when Elements isn’t running. If you add Elements to your Dock and then change your mind about having it there, just drag the program’s icon out of the Dock and watch it vanish in a puff of smoke.
If you’re in the US, the first time you log into your Adobe account from Elements, you see a window that lets you set up a Photoshop.com account (Photoshop.com). If you aren’t, you see a window where you can register Elements.