Hello,
I tried to do a search but it won't just search the forums but instead keeps giving me graphics. So I am sorry if the answer is somewhere in the forums.
Anywho- I downloaded an Alpha file but have NO IDEA how to use it in Photoshop. It opens it as one main file not individual letters. Any help much appreciated. 
So After much searching. SORRY. I have found my answer. Now I don't know how to just delete this question. SO sorry. Major newbie here
Glad you found your answer
. We were all newbies once
I'll just answer here in case anyone else is wondering. If you download an alpha as a graphic it will just download as an entire sheet. You'll need to use a selection tool to copy out the letters you want. If you download the kit that the alpha is included in, you'll get all the individual files already separated.
Alphas have always caused us a problem with our graphics system, and this is the best we've come up with so far.
Thanks.
Another fun bit of knowledge about bringing alphas into your layouts... And actually a way to open lots of files into one document. In the full version of Photoshop go FILE>SCRIPTS>LOAD FILES INTO STACK. You will get a box that lets you go and choose what you open, you can keep going back into whatever folders on your computers you want to add to this. Once ready, click on OKAY. All the files you just chose will open into one document. The size of that document will be the dimension of the largest item in the group you are opening.
So how does this help with alphas? Open the letters you want to use in a word and or sentence. They'll all come up quickly into that one document. At that point, I usually put mine in the order I will need the letters in order for my drop shadows to work as I choose (are yours 45 degrees, 120 degrees... do they fall slightly to the left or the right?) AND I make a copy of letters that will be used more than once in a word or sentence. Usually, at this point, I'll drag this all into my layout and at that point spread out my letters to create my title, etc.
As a designer and a scrapper, I have almost always found this method fastest! Hope this helps someone.
Great tip! I'll have to give it a try. Thanks Tracey!
I had a quick look in Photoshop Elements and you can’t do this exactly. However, you can “place” an item - which basically opens a file as a new layer into the current open document. Apparently all supported file types can be opened this way including pdf (although I didn’t try that to verify)
It’s at file/place... you can only add one file at a time which makes it a little less useful but still a great tip, thanks!