Lessons

Lesson Info

Optimizing Photoshop

I'm going to just open an image by double clicking on it here in bridge, and now we're in photoshopped let's look at the interface and photoshopped very briefly and let's try to optimize it so it's not too cluttered. So first off there are two parts that I don't usually change. I always leave their position the same, and I use them all the time, and that is on the left side. We have our toolbar that's, where I switch between individual tools, then the settings for any tool that I happen to have chosen from the tool bar is in this bar that's going across the top of my screen that's noticed the options bar if you ever don't find those two bars showing up any of the little panels that can appear in photo shop would be show up under the window menu. So if you ever say, hey, my tools are missing, I don't know where to get him go to the window menu town here at the bottom there I could hide or show my tools wanna mess with a co worker, hide their tools? Just don't tell my told you to, um so ...

anyway, there's your tools above that is your options for your options bar, then you have all these panels like we have on the right side. And if you ever read a magazine article or see me use anything where I access a panel when you go on your screen, it's not there it's going to list every single one of those panels under the window menu, and so if you ever need one, this is where you come. The ones with the check marks are the ones that are currently visible, and you can choose any that aren't to get them to show up when working with these panels, there's a bunch of different things you could do, I'd like to show a few of them. Some of them are the same as what works in bridge, for instance and bridge remember when we had little tabs and if I wasn't going to use one of double clicked on it and it collapsed it? The same thing works here. If I double click on a town, it'll collapse it down to just its name. Doubleclick again, little pop it back open so when I don't need to use any one of these, but I don't want to get rid of it. Six I might need it soon I'll be double clicking to collapse him down just to make room for others if you find that you absolutely don't need one of these panels there's a side menu in the upper right corner of each one looks like this little thing remember any time there's an arrow it means there's a menu hidden and if I click there one of the choices is going to be close which means just close this particular panel if it's in a grouping where there's more than one town it's only going to close that one tab if he wanted to close all the tabs that were put together there's a choice in there that was called closed tabb group which means close all of the tabs in that one section so I'm just going to get rid of a few of those that I'm not going to use then you can rearrange these tabs if I want to change the order of them just click on the name of one of them and drag it to a different position alecko it'll move it there you could drag it so you change the groupings by dragging between them just look for feedback feedback in my case is going to be a blue border if I dragged here to see the blue border around this entire panel I mean so that's where it's going to go if I drag just above it do you see just a blue bar that means it's going to create a new panel where it's just that choice up there where is here it would put it within these souls try both there I put it within those let's, drag it up so I see a little bar see the bar above that means it's on its own, so I'm to get rid of the panels that we generally don't need to use very often, especially in a fundamentals course you don't usually need to use the past panel when you're just getting used to feather shop channels would be a similar panel that air, not something you need to use every day. If you're just breaking on the fundamentals. So close that to simplify what I have, then there's something else we can do with panels, and that is, I could drag them out on their own. If I want this to be a floating panel that could be just moved around my screen all the time, click on its name, and instead of dragging on top of another panel or above it trying to the open area of your screen, and it will be its own little floating entity. If you want to put it back with the others again, just click on the name and look for feedback cc little bar means it's going to appear below then you're also going to find at the top of any panel is usually going to be a double arrow, do you see a little double arrow right up here, there's another one right there. That's where you collapse or expand your panels here we have somewhere there collapsed down to just showing them his icons. If I click that double arrow, it will expand them to show you what they would usually look like full size if I click on the arrow again, it'll collapse it down to just some icons when they're collapsed down the little icons you don't have to click the double arrow to see him full size if you just want to use one temporarily when it looks like a little icon like that, just click it'll pop open when you're done quickly, I can again it'll go away and so I use this little bar here to hold panels that I only need to use on occasion let's say it's the text tool and it's the you can have paragraph and character styles you know where it automatically applies the styling, but it usually need to apply it quick and then I don't need a look at the styles all the time I can put him in here to put him in there just going open anyone let's say we're talking about our paragraph styles and maybe our character styles and if you want to put him there didn't just if they weren't there already mine are there already I'll try him out you could just click on the name, drag it near that bar and look for feedback right there it would create a brand new bar next to this one, so I have two of those bars, but right there now you see little blue bar means it's going to be below the others. I'm just pop him right there if you are not familiar with what the icons mean and you're always going is that paragraph styles or is a character styles? I don't remember you can have it words not just an icon, but it's an icon with some text to do that just grab the edge of where this bar is move your mouse right near the edge and just pull a little bit and there you'll see the names once you get used to what those icons mean, go back to that edge and just pull it over so all you see is the icon, so I mainly like it when they're small icons because there efficient, they don't take up much space and I might have it set this way just until I get used to the icons. So if I take the main ones that are over here and I collapsed them remember you do with the little double icon here double arrow I should say it might start off with the name sitting there, and if you don't want the names, just go to the edge and pull over so you only get the icons so I like setting up, so over here I have my layers and I have my adjustments and then right above that there are a couple other panels that I like to put in, so let's go get those and put him in. I like having my info panel up there, which is useful hort when performing adjustments, I just went to the window menu and chose info together to show up, but I don't like it showing up is this little sidebar thing? I like putting it up here, the top, the other things that I like to have there are something called a history, graham, so get it visible, drag it up there like that. So now if I wanted to be performing adjustments, this little bar chart could be very useful or if I'm not using the bar chart, these numbers could be useful if you're not familiar with those, we'll get to him later on, but I like having them up here at the top when I don't need to use them. I double click on the name, so there collapsed down and that's usually how it isthe right like that? Just like in bridge here in feather shop there's a keyboard shortcut for hiding those panels it's the same keyboard shortcut is enbridge, but I don't know if you remembered it or not. The keyboard truck could have suppressed the tab key press tab again, it comes back. So if ever just want to look at my image and not have the clutter of the interface tab is what I'm going to end up hitting. Once you have these set up the way you'd like them to remember, going up to the window menu is where you found the various panels. There's, another area under window called workspace in works base is like a preset it just remembers where all those panels were located so that you can get him back if you ever mess with him in the future. And so here's. Some people who have taught here before they put their names in here very smart that way their names get promoted every time that classes in here. I should do that little advertisement or something up here. But in here, there are some presets that adobe gives you that would just move which panels are visible, but one of the choices and here is new workspace, and I'll just call this been set up, and then, if ever somebody else works on a machine and they mess up where all my panels are, I need to do something I'm not used to, and I make a bunch of panels visible. You never want to get back to the way it was set up just now I could go to the window menu that's where I find work space and right there has been set up if I chose it would automatically pop my panel's back to the same positions again. This same menu called workspaces also found right up here in the upper right it tells you what workspace you're on right now and if you click on it I could switch to the others that some other people have saved and I can also create a new one right there so that's really convenient spot for it so sometimes you have panels set up specific for painting and a different set up for retouching in a different setup for adjustment and you switch between them from this menu and you convey really quickly reconfigure your screen that makes sense now to make photo shopped less intimidating. What I would do is hide all the panels that you don't know how to use get rid of them if you don't know how to use them they're only cluttering your screen so if you ever never use channels you never use paths get rid of him just click on the name of the little tab, go to the side menu and there's a choice called close get rid of him then organized in the way you like him and save them as a work space then to make further shop even less intimidating, the next thing that I would do is go to your menus. And if you look at the menus, I bet showed there is three quarters of photoshopped that you've never used out on the internet. How many of you have ever used print one copy? I bet you don't get a lot of responses. Most people have no clue what print one copy does, and I have yet to see someone use it, but it's there every time I come into this menu and it's distracting me from all the commands I do use so there's a way to hide menu commands and I would hide literally over half of further shops menu commands let me show you where you do it, you go to the edit menu and at the bottom of the edit menu and photo shop is a choice called menus. When you choose that you get this and I have two things I can hide, I can hide application menus, which means the menus that go across the top of my screen or I can go to panel menus, which are the little side menus on each panel that we go to. I'm gonna go for application menus, and then here it lists all the menus to go across the top of your screen, and if I click on the triangle for each one you'll see a list of what's usually in that menu and if I scroll down the bottom of the the file menu is usually print one copy I just turn off the eyeball next to it and now it won't show up anymore so there is a large number of menu commands that I would suggest you hide if you're relatively new to photo shop and by doing so, you're going to make photo shop so less intimidating because when you go to a menu you're not going to see these features the next nobody ever uses. So let me show you a lot of the ones that I would suggest you hide hopefully this will work click ok one of the other choices you have when you're in that dialogue box is not just a little eyeball to change the visibility, but you can assign a color and I've gone through and assigned a color to the ones that I would suggest you hide. So if you look under the file menu if you were to hide all the ones that are in red think about how much shorter that menu would be and therefore it's not going to be it's intimidating because you're not going oh scripts I wonder what scripts are you wonder why I'm not using them I wonder what I'm confused about scripts now you see the ones that you use every day the ones that are essential then you go into the edit menu do you see all the ones I have hidden in there? I would hide all the ones I haven't read it go to the image menu there's some things that hide in there as well later men you see all those things, the stuff you never use the stuff you don't know what it does get rid of it if you get rid of it, then it's much easier to find the stuff you do use it makes photo shop so much more brees to use that there's a lot fewer choices the window menu those air all the panels that if you're a new user to photo shop, you're probably not going to touch and so get him out of there and then when you go to the window menu the stuff that's there is the stuff that you might be used to using the stuff it's friendly and stuff therefor you feel like you're much more comfortable in photo shop because there's not all this stuff cluttering your view there's not all this stuff that you're wondering what does it do? What is all this stuff do you can concentrate on the stuff that's really important so all you need to do is go to the edit menu, go to the bottom and choose menus and then go through each one of these men use thes air the menus you find a top top of your screen turn off the eyeball for anything that you never use and if you were to do that once you're done just to make sure if somebody else gets on your computer and they turn things back on that there's an easy way to get back to what you like using once you're done with these there's little icons up here to trash a preset this right here what says sets are presets you can if you hover over these it'll tell you what they do usually on them this one said delete the current set of menus which means the precept of menus this one create a new set based on the current set of menus save all changes to the current set of menus meaning if I've already has a preset I want to update it so let's say have turned off a bunch of these I want to make sure I get back to it at any time I hit that middle icon and that's going to bring up a save dialog box here and give us a name and so therefore I can say simplified photo shop it's going to bring you to a special area when you hit the save button don't navigate away from this area save it exactly where it pointed due to because on lee if you save in that exact area that it navigated youtu well your preset once you say that show up in this menu then let's, say, you're reading a magazine article and they're using all sorts of menus you never use. You could set this to photo shop defaults on, I'm going to say, don't save my changes, but photoshopped defaults now everything will be normal is if you just installed futter shop and then you can come up here and say mineral menus or whatever you call your preset and suddenly it's going to turn off all those menus that you never use, click ok, and you're back to a simplified version, so just make sure you save that after you're done. So now look at how short my file menu is. Look at how short all these menus are compared to the defaults, which often times would scroll off the end of my screen. And so I think that that's one key if you're new to photo shop, is get the intimidation down by closing the panels that you don't know how to use. You can always get him to show up later by going to the window, many get him to show up, hide all the menu commands you don't know how to use, and therefore all the ones you used to using will be there, they'll be so much easier to find. Once you read a magazine article or take a class like this one and you learn about a menu command that you like, you can always go turn it back on by going to the edit menu and choosing menus, and you could go turn on this little eyeball again or if you're just reading a magazine article and they tell you to access a menu that you have hidden here's to other solutions, if you go to the anyone of the menus once you've hidden some of the menus, you'll find that at the bottom of every menu will be a choice of show all menu items, so I mean, say somebody's asked me to use a menu I'm not used to. They told me to go to the file menu to do it so you'd show all menu items. Now you get the full list and that's only for that time you use the menu the next time you go to the menu at short again show many times, or if the articles telling you goto a bunch of menus rapidly and you just I don't want to choose at the bottom every time. Then there is a keyboard shortcut, and that is, if you hold on the command key control and windows, then all the menus will be full all length for as long as you hold down the command key. If you probably not going to remember to hold down the command key because it's not something you need to do every day just know it's the same keyhole down for any keyboard shortcut this listed in the menu every single keyboard shortcut for these menus will always have the command key control on windows listed so if you look in the menu and you see it there you will remind you that that's the key hole down to get full menus also when you save a workspace do you remember how I could go either to the window menu to say that or in this little poppet many in the upper right and you choose safe work space or new workspace? One of the choices is hey save the way your menus or set up so that way you could have a workspace called full photo shop or default photo shop has all your menus and just by clicking on that little menu in the upper right and switching to minimal photo shop which is the one you might have saved it would save the position of all your panels that air in here. But if you turn that little check box on it would also change the menu so that air their hidden the way you like them to be and so by doing that I think you could make photo shop a lot less intimidate you don't have all this clutter stuff that confuses you that s o go about doing that simplify things and things will be a lot easier. We've got questions online were in the absolute audience looks like we got one here. Um, I currently have changes to my workspace that I've made accidentally is there a way of getting back to the default? Yeah, I just talked with default if you go to the window menu or that little pop up many in the upper right and choose workspace there's a couple things here first essentials says default next to it that means act like it hadn't messed with my panels before you could do that. Uh, or if you want to say that as a new work space, you could choose this and then you're going to save a brand new one with that name, but if you've messed things up, you want to get back to the defaults, right? There is what will allow you to do that and that's useful any time you're going to read a magazine article, they usually they assume your default settings. So sometimes I go up to that workspace say, you know, senator defaults now go through the magazine article when I'm done, I'll go back to my simplified set up first question I have is from sam cox, who is from loveland, colorado remember sam, then asking question what would put me on the spot said I don't remember is that he's a good question after so sam asked if I hide menu items, can I easily get to them without having to go back and unhygienic? Is there a super secret way of getting to hidden items quickly? Yeah, I already mentioned you go to the bottom of every matter it will shape so well I have a choice called show all menu items or hold on the command key control on windows now any menu item you click on will always be full length so yes, there is a way let's say from ideas girl and that is if I edit the menus will it be saved as a work space when I do a custom one? If use, then make a workspace after editing your menus. What you'd have to do is when you save a new work space, be sure to turn on this check box right here and on, lee, if that check boxes turned on, then those changes to your menus will be in the work space. Okay, all right, let's, ask one more question before we go to break. Okay, this is from midland, who said can you move the items you used to the top of the menu and the other items below that we can't change the order okay no, but you can add a color to each menu so if you go into menus and you see the list, not only is there an eyeball but to the right of it is a little pop up many leading sign of color and you could put many blue on every menu item used most that way when you click on a menu it's going to be more prominent because just like here have assigned read to some home makes them easier to find but I can't change the order okay one more quick one go from shade k how could we make photoshopped to stay in full serene mode with menu bar? It keeps changing back to standard uh forcing mode with menu bar uh what I'm assuming they're talking about us if you press the letter f and photo shop all by itself stands for full screen mode and if you press it it will toggle between multiple set up so you could get for full screen mode full screen mode with menu bar would be this middle one um I think they're asking how can I get it to stay on that? And I don't know of a method where you can it's always going to go back to normal mode which is what I've been right now uh so I don't know if a way to make that sticky thank you just press the letter f every time