LEARN ADOBE PHTOSHOP-FREE

Day 01

Workspace

The Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 workspace is arranged to help you focus on creating and editing images. The workspace includes menus and a variety of tools and palettes for viewing, editing, and adding elements to your images.

Workspace overview

You create and manipulate your documents and files using various elements such as panels, bars, and windows. Any arrangement of these elements is called a workspace. When you first start an Adobe Creative Suite component, you see the default workspace, which you can customize for the tasks you perform there. For instance, you can create one workspace for editing and another for viewing, save them, and switch between them as you work.

You can restore the default workspace at any time by choosing the default option on the Window > Workspace menu.

Although default workspaces vary across Flash, Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, and Photoshop, you manipulate the elements much the same way in all of them. The Photoshop default workspace is typical:

• The menu bar across the top organizes commands under menus.
  
• The Tools panel (called the Tools palette in Photoshop) contains tools for creating and editing images, artwork, page elements, and so on. Related tools are grouped together.
  
• The Control panel (called the options bar in Photoshop) displays options for the currently selected tool. (Flash has no Control panel.)
  
• The Document window (called the Stage in Flash) displays the file you’re working on.
  
• Panels (called palettes in Photoshop) help you monitor and modify your work. Examples include the Timeline in Flash and the Layers palette in Photoshop. Certain panels are displayed by default, but you can add any panel by selecting it from the Window menu. Many panels have menus with panel-specific options. Panels can be grouped, stacked, or docked.

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Default Photoshop workspace

A.

Document window

B.

Dock of panels collapsed to icons

C.

Panel title bar

D.

Menu bar

E.

Options bar

F.

Tools palette

G.

Collapse To Icons button

H.

Three palette (panel) groups in vertical dock

Hide or show all panels

• (Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, Photoshop) To hide or show all panels, including the Tools panel and options bar or Control panel, press Tab.
• (Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, Photoshop) To hide or show all panels except the Tools panel and options bar or Control panel, press Shift+Tab.
  You can temporarily display panels hidden by these techniques by moving the pointer to the edge of the application window (Windows) or to the edge of the monitor (Mac OS) and hovering over the strip that appears.
• (Flash) To hide or show all panels, press F4.   

• Display panel menu options

  
  

    Position the pointer on the panel menu icon  in the upper-right corner of the panel, and press the mouse button.

  (Illustrator) Adjust panel brightness

  
  

    In User Interface preferences, move the Brightness slider. This control affects all panels, including the Control panel.

  Reconfigure the Tools panel

  
  

  You can display the tools in the Tools panel in a single column, or side by side in two columns.
  

  In InDesign, you also can switch from single-column to double-column display by setting an option in Interface preferences.

    Click the double arrow at the top of the Tools panel.
  
  

  Customize the workspace

   You can save custom workspaces and switch among them.

  In Photoshop, you can change the font size of the text in the options bar, palettes, and tool tips. Choose a size from the UI Font Size menu in General preferences.
  

  Dock and undock panels

  A dock is a collection of panels or panel groups displayed together, generally in a vertical orientation. You dock and undock panels by moving them into and out of a dock.
  

  Note: Docking is not the same as stacking. A stack is a collection of free-floating panels or panel groups, joined top to bottom.

  • To dock a panel, drag it by its tab into the dock, at the top, bottom, or in between other panels.
  • To dock a panel group, drag it by its title bar (the solid empty bar above the tabs) into the dock.
  • To remove a panel or panel group, drag it out of the dock by its tab or title bar. You can drag it into another dock or make it free-floating.  

  To prevent panels from filling all space in a dock, drag the bottom edge of the dock up so it no longer meets the edge of the workspace.
  
  
  

  Move panels

  As you move panels, you see blue highlighted drop zones, areas where you can move the panel. For example, you can move a panel up or down in a dock by dragging it to the narrow blue drop zone above or below another panel. If you drag to an area that is not a drop zone, the panel floats freely in the workspace.

  • To move a panel, drag it by its tab.
  • To move a panel group or a stack of free-floating panels, drag the title bar.
    Press Ctrl (Windows) or Control (Mac OS) while moving a panel to prevent it from docking.

  Add and remove docks and panels

  
  

  If you remove all panels from a dock, the dock disappears. You can create new docks by moving panels to drop zones next to existing docks or at the edges of the workspace.
  

  • To remove a panel, click its close icon (the X at the upper-right corner of the tab), or deselect it from the Window menu.
    
  • To add a panel, select it from the Window menu and dock it wherever you wish.

    Manipulate panel groups

    • To move a panel into a group, drag the panel’s tab to the highlighted drop zone at the top of the group.
    • To rearrange panels in a group, drag a panel’s tab to a new location in the group.
    • To remove a panel from a group so that it floats freely, drag the panel by its tab outside the group.
    • To make a panel appear at the front of its group, click its tab.
    • To move grouped panels together, drag their title bar (above the tabs).
    •