Having created your masterpieces of imaging you'll want to save your pictures for further use or to simply store them as an archive.

The images need to be saved 'away from the application' as it is known. That is to say, do not save the image in Photoshop or Adobe folders! Why not? - Because if you ever need to uninstall Photoshop - this can happen, believe me, then you'll loose all the images you've stored!

So what to do?

You make a Folder for your images. This is how to do it.

Go to Windows Explorer. If you don't have a 'shortcut' on your 'Windows Desktop'
If you don't have this then there are three quick ways of opening 'Explorer.

1) Via Start > Programs > Windows Explorer. Open Windows Explorer.

2) Press the Windows key (between 'Ctrl' and 'Alt') and whilst holding down, press 'E'.

3) Go to the 'Start' button (bottom left-hand corner of the screen) and right click it - a short menu appears, choose 'Explore'. This will reveal the directory structure - lots of folders and all the drives you have. Think of it like a tree with a trunk, branches and twigs. If a folder has a + sign then it contains other folders (branches with twigs).

Double click the C drive (unless you have your set of folders under another drive letter) so that in the right-hand portion of the Windows Explorer window, the folders/structure of 'C' is revealed.

Next go to the top L.H. of the window and click on File > New > Folder.
Click 'Folder' and a 'New Folder' will appear at the bottom of the File structure. Whilst the inside of this folder's name box remains blue with white lettering, you can type in a folder name of your choice - like 'My Pictures' or whatever. You can change the name at anytime by finding the folder (under 'C' drive) and right-clicking on it, choose 'Rename' and type in a new name.

In Photoshop, when you wish to save your picture/image click on File > Save (quick key, Ctrl + S). In the 'File Name' box, give your image a title (if its not a .psd file type - that is to say if when you first look in this box the file extension isn't .psd, then see the 'Tip' note below). Next go through the file structure by clicking on the folder with the bent upward arrow symbol to the right of the 'Save in' box. When you arrive at the view with your 'My Pictures' (or whatever) folder, open it and click on the save button. Saving may take a few or several seconds, depending upon the size of your file/image. That's it - saved!

It's usually preferable to save the image as a .PSD file rather than say, a TIFF or JPEG.

If you're using a file from a Photo cd then it's almost certain that you'll need to change it to .psd. The reason for this is that it's generally reckoned that images are best saved in Photoshop's own native .psd format.

Also if your saving an image which you've just got from the Photo CD, you'll need to save by selecting File > Save As, rather than File > Save. Don't try to save the image in the CD - it won't do it!

Once you've got the idea about making a New Folder, you can create other new folders and drag them into the first one to make subdivisions for more elegant filing.

It's good practice to back-up on a regular basis too. This means saving your images away from the computer system by using a Recordable CD, or DVD, or similar. This is for security reasons and as a safeguard against hard disk failure - this can happen.
It also prevents your hard drive becoming clogged up with images.