Adobe Premiere Elements 11

Adobe Premiere Elements won our Bronze Award last year, but it’s since been overhauled with a great-looking new interface. We found the new software to be faster and easier to use than last year’s version. It’s enough to push last year’s winner, Serif MoviePlus, into second place.

The Quick and Expert editing tools now have their own tabs. Quick is aimed at beginners, and is useful if you only want to make simple changes to a video. For more precise changes, click Expert and your video and its edits will copy over to the new tab automatically and instantaneously.

The new Action bar, which contains all the editing tools you need, sits below the timeline on both tabs. Common adjustments and effects can be found in the right-hand panel in clearly defined, resizeable menus. Other windows, including the preview pane and timeline, can also be resized, and extra panes, including an Audio Mixer and History, can be added. 

The History window lets you roll back your video to a previous point, keep track of edits and quickly undo mistakes. It’s a small but indispensable editing feature. Other touches that speed up your editing include placing the Render button above the timeline, so you can carry out this processor-intensive task and create final versions of edits when it’s convenient; and locating the Scissor icon, which splits the clip with a single click, on the timeline marker. These customisation options set Premiere Elements above the Silver and Bronze winners.

There’s a wide selection of titles and credits available, and graphics are sharper than in other programs. Edits and transitions are slick and professional looking, and our finished movie was only bettered in quality by Sony’s sharper, brighter video.

Premiere Elements was the fastest software we used; it imported our video file, music track, and photo within six seconds, and exported it in 1 minute 58 seconds.

FEATURES ★★★★★  PERFORMANCE ★★★★★  
EASE OF USE ★★★★★  VALUE FOR MONEY ★★★★★