PhotoMerge group photos problems with elements 6.0

I have taken an elements class(although they taught the class in version 2.0) I
thought I could handle the photomerging but I am so frustrated. I have 5
children so group shots can be challenging. When I open my pictures with the
"guided edit" It puts my picture some what off center and I can see
the "checkered background" I have no idea how I can get it to fit to
screen. This only happens when I have more then three people in the photo. When
I have 3 or less people in the photo the picture fills up the little box
perfectly and I have no problems. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

It is frustrating because they way it loads up the picture is they way it prints
out,I will be missing the bottom 1/2 inch of my pic and 1 inch of the left
side.

I hope someone understands what I am talking about and can help me out!

Thanks so much!

I'm not sure I understand - perhaps you could put one of your images on a
server - www.flickr.com is an example - and we could see the image.

What I'm guessing is that you are getting empty checkered areas around your
photomerge.  If that's the problem, then follow up your merge by cropping

Thank you! That is exactly what is happening. I finally figured it out yesterday
watching Adobe people demonstrating the product on YouTube. When I knew why my
photos were being skewed. I knew I could just crop to fix.