Using Bridge to Camera Raw to Open Image button also drop shadow problems

Question

I remember when I was working with RAW in PSE 8. I would be in Bridge looking at a pic and double click on it. PSE 8 would open in Camera RAW and I could play with the pic a bit, make some adjustments, then click on OPEN IMAGE. When I did that it would open in PSE and it would be in jpg format. With this PSE 9 and the updated Camera RAW 6.3, when I punch OPEN IMAGE I still have a picture labeled .CR2 which I think still means RAW. When I double click in Bridge the .CR2 pic shows as 8 bit depth. I can do a little more work on it and use SAVE AS. When I do that, the sample file name that shows is still in .CR2 format and I must change that to .jpg and then below change from PHOTOSHOP to JPEG to save my file as a jpg file. Is there something that I have to change in preferences to get it to open the image in jpg format when I hit the OPEN IMAGE button? Or, is this an "improvement" with RAW 6.3? Also, I seem to be having trouble adding a drop shadow (or any other effects) on jpeg pics. At least it doesn't show up on the screen after I apply it. I just recently updated to Camera RAW 6.3 and updated my Operating system on my iMac computer to OS 10.6.6. I emailed this request to my good friend with an identical setup on his iMac and he is having the same response when performing the above operations. Any ideas what the problem might be?

Answer 1

Okay, previously you seem to have been using the bridge version of camera raw to edit your raw photos. That has many more options than the PSE version of the raw converter. (If you still have PSE 8, you can see the difference by using File>Open in the editor to open a raw photo for the PSE version of ACR, which works the same way in PSE 9.) In PSE's raw converter, you use the Open button, then save your photo in an image format in the editor. The Save button in ACR in PSE is only the DNG converter.
Layer styles should work exactly the same way as in PSE 8. However, in any version of PSE a drop shadow, like a real shadow, needs someplace to fall, so unless there is empty space on the layer, it won't appear. Try creating text or drawing and simplifying a shape and adding a drop shadow. Does it appear then?
Also remember that Jpegs won't let you save either layers or transparency when you resave the file.