Photoshop Elements 7: Newbie Needs Drop Shadow Help, Please

Question

Hello.
I'm brand new to Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and need help with the Drop Shadow feature, please.
I've read the documentation, but it's not crystal clear to me, so maybe someone can guide me through it.
I want to create text on a blank white canvas, and add a little bit of drop shadow to it. That's all I want to do--plain and simple.
I can create the text, but I can't for the life of me find any drop shadow options.
The documentation I'm using is the on-line, web-based help. I type in Drop Shadow in Search, and select Add Text to a Slide.
The third step says, "In the Properties palette, set any of the following options" and then offers some options, including Drop Shadow and Drop Shadow Color.
I'll be darned if I can locate the Properties palette. Obviously, I'm not well-versed with Photoshop, so if anyone can just steer me towards this feature, I'll take things from there.
I know this is probably rock-bottom basic, but I'm stumped. Thank you!
J. Danniel

Answer 1

I need a lot more help with this than I thought.
The problem I'm having is this: After creating the drop shadow effect, when I try to save the image as a transparent GIF, it quite simply.... looks horrible.
Here is what I'm doing in detail:
1. New/Blank File.
2. Blank File is set to transparent. (Is this the right way to make a transparent GIF?)
3. Creating text.
4. Cropping text.
5. Selecting drop shadow effect.
Now, here's where I get confused. Do I just select File/Save As, or File/Save For Web?
When I just use File/Save As, and select the GIF format, the drop shadow effect in the final file looks horrible when I embed the image into a web page. The text looks good, and the file is transparent, but the effect is ugly.
When I try to use Save for Web, there is a Before/After screen. The Before side looks decent; the After screen looks horrible, too.
So, now I don't know what to do. Can you or anyone guide me through this a bit further, please? Thank you! Jd