shellyrae, you are the one who gets it right. It is a case of apples and oranges. I didn't consider cropping as resizing, because they are two different things in my mind. To me, resizing is maintaining the integrity of the entire project, losing nothing of the element, which would occur in cropping. Thanks for helping to clarify this. Poor Nicole! Are you totally confused now?

bdjeepers,
Yes, cropping and resizing are two different things. BUT you cannot just RESIZE a photo and and retain it's proportions unless you have the "ratio" box ticked. For example: You can't resize a 6x4 photo to 8x10 without distorting it. It would need to be 12x8 to retain it's proportions. You would then need to crop 2 inches from one side. The only way to make it 8x10 is to either crop it to the right ratio first and then enlarge it or drag it out so it's larger than the 8x10 canvas and then crop the excess.

You said "I use the "Resize Image" if I just want to change a 12x12 background into an 8x10, for instance, but you take a chance here"

You can only RESIZE a square into a rectangle or vice versa if it is a solid colour eg. filled via the bucket. You can't do that with a patterned graphic or photo without distortion.

You said "For photos, I often start with a blank canvas in the size I want the finished photo to be. Then I slide my picture onto that and use the drag handles to make it the size of the canvas."

Unless the canvas size you start with is in exact ratio with the picture it will be distorted if you use the resizing handles to stretch it out to fit the canvas. You would either have a distorted photo or you would have to stretch the photo beyond the canvas and crop the excess.

I don't understand when you said "The method used depends on the reason for resizing. It depends on the resolution you want for the finished product."

The resolution of the picture has nothing to do with the method you use to resize the physical size of a picture. It's the PPI that makes a difference to how large you can go without causing pixelation.

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Kim