Hi Shelley
paint.net is a great little package, does everything i've ever wanted and is great for converting and saving files in different formats.
Imagine Photoshop, with all the tools your never likely going to use, taken off, your wallet with loads of cash in, and thats what paint.net is, has the same type of tools as photoshop, you can add layers, animate, loads of options, but its totally FREE and a great package, Try it and see
I've installed Inkscape

Thanks so much for that. I think with one or two of the free programs you could basically do everything that you can in photoshop, and at no costs at all.
Like you i like to learn hands on, I can pick things up very quickly and once i've done it once its in my mind for ever. But like everyone else i make mistakes, like spending 3 hours coding up some CSS yesterday and then clicked on the wrong button and lost it all,


Oh well thats life