Taming the Wild, Wild, Workspace in Photoshop CS2
I would like to offer you a series of Adobe Photoshop articles covering best practice techniques to ensure the best workflow experience with this powerful software. In this article, we will be getting a handle on your workspace itself. What I mean by taming your wild workspace is that inevitably as you continue to work with Photoshop you will open a lot of palettes because different palettes perform different functions. Rather than closing and reopening these palettes, you keep them up on your screen for convenience sake. Pretty soon your screen will be a clutter of tools and palettes. Time after time, I've seen designers just battling various and sundry palettes and toolbox on their screen. But don't despair; there is a way to combat this menu jungle!
To accomplish this will require you to take a few minutes of your time to set up your palettes and toolbox exactly the way you want before everything becomes a frustrating mess.
First of all, when you open a Photoshop palette, you will see that they are nested in a logical order. However, this program is so flexible that you are able to reorganize the palettes in the order that is logical and comfortable for you. If you double-click the menu tab, you will notice that the palette themselves will expand and contract. My preference is to have the menus on the right hand side, minimized, and stacked on top of each other. Next to the palettes is the toolbox. Now that it's nice and neat, go to the "Windows" in the top menu bar, scroll down to "Workspace," and then in the fly-out menu click on the "Save Workspace" option. I usually called my saved workspace "kai's favorite". This is great in an office when you have to share computers. Issues such as right handed or left handed ergonomics is resolved and even keyboard shortcuts are saved!
Next time your screen becomes a pandemonium of palettes, scroll down to your pre-saved workspace and then presto! Everything snaps together neatly like magic! I sometimes do this just to clear my head and to give myself a fresh start! If you want to see a sample of how I organize my workspace, please see the illustration below. Ahhh...if only really life had a reset button just like this!
I hope you enjoyed this article on Adobe Photoshop workspace. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.
About the Author
Kai Yee, is a writer, educator and a businessman living and working in Washington, DC. He has taught and lectured at in George Washington University and George Mason University. You can find Photoshop webspace visit his website at photoshop video tutorials
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