Merge layers??

Hi,
I'm wondering what differences it'll make between "merge visible" and "flatten image" after PP.
I currently use PSE 6 and just could not see the difference between these two and am wondering if they are different in any ways.
Thanks in advance.

Merge Visible does just that - it merges the layers which you have turned on at that time.

If you have the Background layer visible, then Merge Visible is the same as Flatten Image.

Thanks a lot Damien, now that makes sense.

If you want to merge what you see, but preserve the hidden layers, then you can Merge Visible. Flatten image discards all layers and creates a single layer based on what was visible.

I never use either of those options. I either Merge Down or select multiple layers, duplicate, then Merge Layers the selected layers (which were newly created). That way, I always have those other layers to fall back on. At some point later then I would do a little clean up and discard layers I didn't need.

Good point and thanks.
I'll probably keep all the layers in PSD file and use "save as" when I flatten the layers.

BTW, will PSE ever going to be 16 bit capable for all functions?

What functions aren't available in high-bit? They're not all there in Photoshop, either (at least not in CS2)

For PSE, I can only do some Global settings in 16 bit, such as adjust lighting and crop. I had to conver to 8 bit before I can use layers and other tools.
I was not aware that CS work on 8 bit only, I was just assuming.
With higher image bit depth cameras coming out, I would assume (again) that bump up the bit depth in photo processing will benefit from it.
However, the printers have some catch up to do.

Vincent,

That's about all my PS7 can do as well. I sort of assumed that Adobe had long ago gone fully 16 bit and were now busy working on 24. Sounds as though this is not the case?

Sorry to mislead you, CS* can do almost everything in high-bit. There's just the odd filter that won't work.

I didn't realise PSE was so limited in this regard. However, it's not a big deal. Major tonal adjustments are the only things that you need high-bit for anyway.

For the PS Elements users, there is a free curves add-on that works in 16-bit:
http://free.pages.at/e​asyfilter/curves.html
or
http://www.brothersoft​.com/smartcurve-170864.html

That add-on looks cool for Elements users. It's true, Elements has far fewer functions that work with 16 bit. It'd be smart to do all you can in 16 bit, save the intermediate tiff/psd, then do the 8 bit stuff for the final output. You can't recover 16 bits from a converted 8 bit file!

stsva,
thanks for the plug-in. that's a fun one to have and i have a lot of practice to do