Paint Shop Pro - Saving your files

General:
Formats
Relative Size
Color and Format

Microsoft Tools:
Photo Editor
Image Composer - The Working Environment
Image Composer - Colors and Effects
Image Composer - Layers and Sprites

Paint Shop Pro:
Introduction
Opening/Acquiring
Editing
Layering
An insertion example
A lettering example
Saving

Images Applied:
The Web
PowerPoint (animations)

Elsewhere on this site:
General Instructional Technology
Presentation/Web
Imaging
Sound
Video
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Paint Shop Pro:

Saving your files

Unlike Word documents, which are opened, manipulated and saved all in the same flexible formatting environment, image files lose capabilities and sometimes quality when saved. Basically, you save according to where you are in your work, what you're working on, and what your product will be used for. Here's a chart to help.

*I am . . .*	*What to do?!*
. . . working on a single image, but not finished.	Save in "Paint Shop Pro Image" (.psp) proprietary format. All layers and editing decisions will be saved. You will lose only the ability to un-do.
. . . working, using several images at once, and not finished.	If you have multiple images open, and wish to save everything, including the way in which things are loaded and arranged in your work area, use the "Workspace" option, and select "Save..." This will save a workspace file which keeps track of the name and location of all files open, where they were positioned in your workspace, plus it will prompt you to save any unsaved images currently open. This is handy if you're working with several images at once, are interrupted, and want to come back to exactly where you were. Remember to save any images you have changed in PSP format (see above).
. . . finished, but I might want to use some of the details of my work later	Always save your finished project in PSP, so that it can be manipulated later. If you want a copy of your current image for use as-is, use the "Save copy as..." option. This saves a copy in your chosen format (see below), but leaves your workspace in the PSP (or whatever is current) format so that you can keep working.
. . . finished, and my work is a photograph for a document (PowerPoint, Word, Publisher)	See above...you should always save in PSP first. Afterwords, choose "Save as..." and save the image in JPG format.
. . . finished, and my work is a photograph for the Web.	Again, save in PSP. Then, determine the final size of your image, and re-size in Paint Shop Pro to match. You can use FrontPage's "Resample" option as well. In either case, remember that reducing size actually reduces pixel count, and hence image quality. If you have any desire to use the image(s) again elsewhere, make sure you save a copy before resizing.
. . . finished, and my work is a graphic (solid-color based) for the Web	Save in PSP, then reduce the color count to 256. There are several methods, and you should experiment to determine which gives the best results with your image. If you intend to use a transparency, us "Nearest color" rather than "Error diffusion," since the latter tends to introduce a mix of colors where solid colors used to be. After reducing color count, select your transparency (if you wish one), and "Save as..." in GIF.