Just went to MacBook Pro from a Dell PC. Is Aperture 3 like Photoshop Elements?

Question

Just went to a MacBookPro from a Dell PC. Have used Photoshop Elements for a long time. Does Aperture 3 operate like Photoshop Elements? Which does the best job of photograp editing?

Answer 1

well, like Terence said above, Elements is a pixel-level editor.  you have brush tools, text tools, erasers, etc.  you can manipulate the image on a pixel-by-pixel basis.  you can draw shapes on top of the photo, add text, and on and on.
there are no tools for doing that sort of thing in Aperture.  Aperture is a tool that's main strength comes in organizing photos into projects and albums. you can add keywords, edit metadata like copyright fields, and rank them with 0-5 stars.  from there you can make global adjustments like contrast, brightness, and saturation to an image.  you can even easily copy a set of preferred adjustments onto an entire selection of photos, easing the work of giving an entire album a certain look.  many of the adjustments can be masked as well, so that the adjustment only applies to certain areas of the image (making the sky darker in a landscape, for instance). 
but if you wanted to add a red border to a photo you can't do that.  want to add some text with a fancy outline and a drop shadow?  no dice. 
however, if you really want to do something like that to a given photo within Aperture, you can choose edit the photo with Photoshop Elements.  Aperture makes a new version of the file and opens it in Photoshop Elements.  From there you can make your changes, add text, borders, brush strokes, composite in another photo, etc.  then save your new file and within the Aperture library, you now have two versions of that file.