5. Workspaces

Now that you know how to create and open documents, you’re ready to customize the Photoshop workspace for your needs.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to use the main features of the Photoshop interface, such as the Application frame and document tabs. You’ll change the zoom level and screen mode, rotate the canvas view, configure the panels, choose a workspace, save custom workspaces, and use the Options bar.

Note: The individual panels (including the Tools panel) are described and illustrated in the next chapter.

Using the Application frame

In Windows, all the Photoshop features are housed in an Application window. It contains a menu bar and Options bar along the top; panels (including the Tools panel); and documents, which by default are docked as tabs.A

A This is the onscreen environment for Photoshop in Windows.

The Application frame in the Mac OS serves the same purpose as the Application window in Windows: It holds the Options bar (see page 98), panels, and open documents (which are docked as tabs).A Although the Application frame is an optional feature in the Mac OS, it is showing by default — and for good reason. It keeps all the Photoshop features neatly organized and readily accessible (and hides Desktop clutter!). If the frame is hidden, choose Window > Application Frame. We use and refer to it throughout this book.

A This is the Application frame in the Mac OS.

Note: For the sake of simplicity, we will also refer to the Windows application window generically as the “Application frame.”

• To resize the Application frame, drag an edge or the lower-right corner.

• To minimize the Application frame in the Mac OS, click the Minimize button in the upper-left corner. To minimize the Application frame in Windows, click the Minimize button in the upper-right corner.

Mac OS X Lion has a new Full-Screen Apps option: In any application that has full-screen capability, you can click the Full Screen button in the upper-right corner of the Application window to have the application fill the entire screen. One more reason to acclimate yourself to the Application frame in Photoshop, if you haven’t done so already.

Note: There is no Application bar in Photoshop CS6. If you miss it, let Adobe know.

We recommend docking all open document windows as tabs (the default setting for Photoshop) rather than floating them as separate windows outside the frame (the only option in early versions of Photoshop). With documents docked as tabs, you will be able to keep the documents you’re not working on readily accessible but out of view, and take advantage of tiling commands. To display a document that is docked as a tab, simply click the tab.

If documents aren’t docking as tabs automatically, we recommend resetting the preference so that they do.

To set a preference to have documents open as tabs

1. Choose Edit/Photoshop > Preferences, then click Interface on the left to display that pane.

2. Check Open Documents as Tabs, then click OK.

If you inadvertently (or out of curiosity) drag a document out of the tab area, and thereby turn a tabbed document into a floating one, follow these instructions to bring it home.

To dock floating document windows as tabs

Do either of the following:

To dock one floating document window manually, drag its title bar to the tab area (just below the Options bar) of the Application frame, and release when the blue drop zone border appears.A–B

A To dock a floating document window as a tab manually, drag its title bar to the tab area of the Application frame, and release the mouse when the blue drop zone border appears.

B The document is now docked within the Application frame.

To dock all floating documents as tabs, choose Window > Arrange > Consolidate All to Tabs; or if at least one document is docked as a tab, right-click a tab and choose Consolidate All to Here from the context menu.

• To cycle among all currently open documents, press Ctrl- ~ (tilde)/Cmd- ~. Or if you have small hands, you may be more comfortable pressing Ctrl-Tab/Control-Tab instead.

• One of the drawbacks to floating document windows when using the Application frame is that if you click in the frame, your floating documents will be hidden behind it. If you insist on floating your documents, consider at least docking them together by dragging the title bar of one window just below the title bar of another.

Tiling multiple documents

If you need to view or edit multiple documents simultaneously, you can arrange them in a choice of preset layouts, such as two documents side by side or in a vertical format, or four or six documents in a grid.

To tile multiple documents

1. From the Window > Arrange submenu, choose a tiling command, such as 2-Up Vertical or 4-Up.A The availability of commands will vary depending on how many documents are open.

A To arrange these tabbed documents in quadrants, we chose 4-Up on the Window > Arrange submenu.

• To resize any window, drag either the bar between two windows or the lower-right corner. To reduce the number of visible windows by one, drag the tab of a document to the tab of another document, and release when the blue drop zone border appears.

2. When you’re ready to view just one document at a time, do either of the following:

Choose Window > Arrange > Consolidate All to Tabs.

Right-click a tab and choose Consolidate All to Here from the context menu.

• If any open documents are floating when you choose a tiling command, they will be docked as tabs automatically.

Changing the zoom level

You can easily switch between displaying the entire live canvas area of an image in the document window and magnifying just part of the image (to concentrate on a small detail). The current zoom level percentage is listed in three locations: on the document tab, in the lower-left corner of the document window, and on the Navigator panel (if showing).

Note: For smoother and more continuous zooming, in Edit/Photoshop > Preferences > General, check Animated Zoom, and in Preferences > Performance, check Use Graphics Processor. The latter preference must also be checked to use the Scrubby Zoom feature, which is used in the task below. For more Zoom preferences, see page 434.

To change the zoom level with the Zoom tool

1. Choose the Zoom tool, or to spring-load the Zoom tool (select it temporarily) while using another tool, hold down Z.

2. Do either of the following:

Check Scrubby Zoom on the Options bar, then in the document window, immediately drag to the right to zoom in A or to the left to zoom out. (See also the Note, above right).

A With the Zoom tool and Scrubby Zoom checked on the Options bar, drag to the right to zoom in (or to the left to zoom out).

Right-click in the document window and choose a zoom option from the context menu, or click one of these buttons on the Options bar: Actual Pixels to set the zoom level to 100%; Fit Screen to display the entire image at the largest size that can fit in the window; Fill Screen to have the image fill the window (only part of the image may be visible); or Print Size to display the image at an approximation of its print size.

Note: The Animated Zoom feature (also called “bird’s-eye” zooming) kicks in if you don’t drag immediately while scrubby zooming. If you want to prevent this from occurring, uncheck Animated Zoom in Preferences > General. To change the zoom level with the Zoom tool without using scrubby zooming, click or drag to zoom in or Alt-click/Option-click to zoom out.

• You can also change the zoom level by entering a percentage in the Zoom Level field in the lower-left corner of the document window.

The Navigator panel has two functions. You can use it to change the zoom level of an image, or to reposition the image in the document window (to bring an area you want to edit or examine into view).

To change the zoom level or reposition the image in the window via the Navigator panel

1. Display the Navigator panel. A

A You can use the Navigator panel to change the zoom level of your document and, if the image is magnified, to move it in the document window.

2. To change the zoom level, do any of the following:

Ctrl-drag/Cmd-drag across part of the image thumbnail to target that area for magnification.

Double-click the existing value in the zoom field, type the desired percentage, then press Enter/Return. Or enter a value, then press Shift-Enter/Shift-Return to have the field re-highlight automatically.

Drag the Zoom slider.

Click the Zoom Out or Zoom In button.

3. If the image is magnified to the degree that areas are hidden outside the document window, you can reposition it by dragging the view box on the panel.

You can also move a magnified image in the document window by using the Hand tool.

To reposition a magnified image with the Hand tool

Do one of the following:

Choose the Hand tool (H) or hold down the Spacebar for a temporary Hand tool, then drag in the document window.

Choose the Hand tool (H) or hold down the Spacebar for a temporary Hand tool, do a quick little drag in the document, then release. The image will float across the screen (this is called “flick panning”); click again to stop the motion. Note: For this to work, Use Graphics Processor must be checked in Edit/Photoshop > Preferences > Performance upon startup and Enable Flick Panning must be checked in Preferences > General.

To access the Hand tool temporarily if you have another tool selected, hold down the H, press the mouse to display a wire-frame view box, drag the view box over the area of the image you want to show, then release the mouse.

• If a document is in a tabbed window in the Application frame and is magnified, you can overscroll it — that is, drag it far off to the side (farther than you can drag an image in a floating window).

• You can also move a magnified image in the document window by dragging either of the scroll bars.

If you have multiple documents open (say, in a 2-Up or 3-Up layout), you can save time by scrolling or zooming all of them simultaneously.

To scroll or zoom in multiple document windows

1. Open two or more documents, then on the Window > Arrange submenu, choose a Tile command or a 2-Up, 3-Up, 4-Up, 5-Up, or 6-Up command.

2. Check Scroll All Windows on the Options bar for the Hand tool, or check Zoom All Windows on the Options bar for the Zoom tool. Alternatively, you can leave these options unchecked and enable them temporarily by holding down Shift when using the Hand or Zoom tool.

Rotating the canvas view

Unlike the Image > Image Rotation commands, which rotate an image permanently, the Rotate View tool tilts the canvas temporarily so you can draw, paint, or perform other edits at a more comfortable angle.

Note: To use the Rotate View tool, Use Graphics Processor must be checked in Edit/Photoshop > Preferences > Performance (see page 439).

To rotate the canvas view

1. Change the zoom level, if necessary, so the entire image is showing in the document window.

2. Choose the Rotate View tool (R) or hold down R to spring-load the tool, then drag in the image (a compass displays temporarily).A

A With the Rotate View tool, drag to tilt the canvas to the desired angle.

• When the Rotate View tool is selected, you can change the Rotation Angle on the Option bar by using the scrubby slider, by entering a value, or by moving the dial.

To reset the canvas view to the default angle

1. Choose the Rotate View tool (R) or hold down R to spring-load the tool.

2. On the Options bar, click Reset View.

Changing the screen mode

The three screen modes control which Photoshop interface features display onscreen.

To change the screen mode

Press F to cycle through the screen modes or choose a mode from the Screen Mode menu at the bottom of the Tools panel: A

A Choose an option from the Screen Mode menu on the Tools panel.

Standard Screen Mode (the default mode) to display the full Photoshop interface, including the Application frame, Photoshop menu bar, Options bar, document tabs, and panels — with the Desktop (and other application windows) remaining visible around it.

Full Screen Mode with Menu Bar to display the current document on a full-screen background (default color of medium gray), with all of the above-mentioned interface features showing except the document window tabs and controls.B

Full Screen Mode to display only the current document on a full-screen background with the Photoshop interface features hidden and the panels visible only upon rollover (see “To make hidden panel docks reappear” on the next page).

B When performing color correction work, we choose the screen mode option of Full Screen Mode with Menu Bar.

Choosing a workspace

To change your panel setup quickly, choose one of the predefined workspaces, which are designed for different kinds of tasks, or choose a user-defined workspace (see pages 96–97).

To choose a workspace

From the Workspace menu on the right side of the Options bar C or from the Window > Workspace submenu, choose a predefined workspace, such as Essentials, New in CS6, Painting, Photography, or Typography, or a user-defined workspace.

C We’re choosing a workspace on the Workspace menu (Options bar).

Configuring the panels

If you have chosen Standard Screen Mode or Full Screen Mode with Menu Bar for Photoshop and you want to fully maximize your screen space, you can hide all your open panels and make them reappear only when needed.

To hide (or show) the panels

Do either of the following:

Press Tab to hide (or show) all the currently open panels, including the Tools panel.

Press Shift-Tab to hide (or show) all the currently open panels except the Tools panel.

• To open an individual panel when the panels are hidden, choose the panel name from the Window menu.

To make hidden panel docks reappear

1. Hide the panels as described above or choose Full Screen Mode from the Screen Mode menu on the Tools panel.

2. If the document is in Standard Screen mode, let the pointer pause on the dark gray vertical bar at the left or right edge of the Application frame; or if your document is in either one of the Full Screen modes, let it pause just inside the edge of your monitor until the dark gray vertical bar appears.A

A If the panels are hidden, let the pointer pause just inside the right edge of the monitor or Application frame...

The panel docks will redisplay temporarily (free-standing panels will remain hidden).B Move the pointer away from the panels, and they’ll disappear again.

B ... to make the panel docks appear temporarily. (Move the pointer away from the panels, and away they go.)

Note: If this mechanism doesn’t appear to be working, right-click any panel tab or icon and check Auto-Show Hidden Panels on the context menu. That should do the trick.

• If you prefer to keep your panels visible onscreen but you want to minimize how much space they occupy, shrink them to icons (see the last paragraph on the next page).

Most of the edits that you make in Photoshop will require the use of at least one of the panels — and more likely several. Fortunately, the panels are easy to hide, collapse, and expand so they don’t intrude on your document space when you’re not using them.

In the predefined workspaces, panels are arranged in docks on the right side of your screen, except for the Tools panel, which is on the left side. Each dock can hold one or more panels or panel groups, and you can change their configuration to suit the way you normally work.

To reconfigure the panel groups and docks

Show or hide a panel: Show a panel by choosing its name from the Window menu. The panel will display either in its default group and dock or in its last open location. To bring a panel to the front within its group, click its tab (panel name).

Expand a panel that’s collapsed to an icon: Click the icon or panel name. If Auto-Collapse Iconic Panels is checked in Edit/Photoshop > Preferences > Interface and you open a panel from an icon, it collapses to an icon when you click outside it. With this preference off, the panel stays expanded; to collapse it back to an icon, click the Collapse to Icons button on the panel bar (the horizontal gray bar to the right of the panel tab) or click the panel icon in the dock.

• To quickly access the Auto-Collapse Iconic Panels option via a context menu, right-click any panel tab, bar, or icon.

Maximize or minimize an expanded panel or group vertically (to toggle the full panel to just a panel tab, or vice versa): Double-click the panel tab or bar.

Use a panel menu: Click the icon to access the menu for the panel that is currently in front in its group.

Close a panel or group: To close a panel, right-click the panel tab and choose Close from the context menu. To close a whole panel group, choose Close Tab Group from the same context menu. To close a floating panel, you can click the close button in the upper-left corner.

Collapse a whole dock to icons, or to icons with names: Click the Collapse to Icons button at the top of the dock; or double-click the topmost bar; A–B or right-click a panel tab, bar, or icon and choose Collapse to Icons from the context menu. To expand icons to icons with names, or to reduce icons with names to just icons, drag the vertical edge of the dock horizontally.C

A In this workspace, panels in the left dock are collapsed to icons, whereas the panels in the right dock are expanded. The Histogram panel is minimized vertically. We are double-clicking the bar for the rightmost dock ...

B ... to shrink that dock to icons. Note that the panel groups were preserved.

C Here we’re dragging the edge of the rightmost dock to shrink the whole dock to just icons.

Widen or narrow a dock (and panels): Position the pointer over the vertical edge of the dock ( cursor), then drag horizontally.

Move a panel into a different group: Drag the panel tab over the title bar of the desired group, and release when the blue drop zone border appears.A

A A blue drop zone border appears as we drag a panel into a different group.

Move a panel to a different slot in the same group: Drag the panel tab (name) to the left or right.

Move a panel group upward or downward in a dock: Drag the tab bar, then release it when the horizontal blue drop zone bar appears in the desired location.B

B A blue horizontal drop zone bar appears as we move our Layers/Channels panel group upward within the same dock.

Create a new dock: Drag a panel tab or bar sideways to the vertical edge of the dock,C and release the mouse when the blue vertical drop zone bar appears.

C A blue vertical drop zone bar appears as we create a new dock for the History panel.

Reconfigure a dock that’s collapsed to icons: Use methods like those you would use for an expanded group. Drag the double dotted line to the edge of a dock to create a new dock, or drag it vertically between groups to restack the group (release when the horizontal drop zone line appears), or drag it into another group to move it to that group (release when the blue drop zone border appears).

Float a docked panel or group: Drag the panel tab, icon, or bar out of the dock. To stack floating panels or groups, drag the bar of one to the bottom of another (release when the horizontal blue drop zone line appears). To resize a floating panel, drag the resize box inward or outward, or drag the right edge of the panel horizontally; not all panels are resizable.

To redock floating panels into the Application frame: Drag the topmost bar of the panel group to the right edge of the Application frame, and release the mouse when the pointer is over the edge of the frame and a vertical blue drop zone line appears.

• To prevent a floating panel from docking as you move it, drag it with Ctrl/Cmd held down.

• When using a tool that uses brushes, you can show the Brush panel by clicking the Toggle Brush Panel button on the Options bar or on the Brush Presets panel. When using a type tool, you can show the Character/Paragraph panel group by clicking this button on the Options bar.

Saving custom workspaces

Now that you have learned how to personalize your workspace for Photoshop, the next step is to save some custom workspaces for different kinds of editing work you do in Photoshop. Your custom workspaces should reflect your normal work habits (and by this we don’t mean working late and sleeping late!). For example, to set up a type-related workspace, you could open the Character, Paragraph, Paragraph Styles, and Character Styles panels, hide the panels you don’t normally reach for when you work with type, and assign color labels to your favorite commands on the Type menu.

The current panel locations are included automatically when you save a custom workspace. Optionally, you can include custom keyboard shortcuts and/or menu sets (which control the color label and visibility settings for menu commands).

To save a custom workspace

1. Do any or all of the following:

Open and position all the desired panels in groups and docks.A

A This is the panel setup in one of our custom workspaces.

Collapse the panels you use occasionally to icons and close the ones you rarely use. Or if you prefer to keep all your panels collapsed to icons or icons with names, set them up that way now.

Resize any of the panels, as well as any of the pickers that open from the Options bar.

Choose a thumbnail size and other panel display options from the panel menus, and from the menus on the preset pickers that open from the Options bar.

Choose Edit > Menus (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-M/Cmd-Option-Shift-M) and use that dialog to assign color labels and/or visibility settings to menu commands (for quick identification). Save your changes in a new menu set. (To learn about customizing the Photoshop keyboard shortcuts, see Photoshop Help.)

2. From the Workspace menu on the Options bar, choose New Workspace.

3. In the New Workspace dialog, enter a Name for the workspace (include your own name, if desired).B

B In the New Workspace dialog, enter a Name for your workspace and check either or both of the Capture options.

4. Under Capture, if you customized the Keyboard Shortcuts or the Menus, check those options.

5. Click Save. Your workspace will appear at the top of the Workspace menu on the Options bar A and on the Window > Workspace submenu.

A Our new workspace (named “Elaine’s Workspace”) appears on the Workspace menu on the Options bar.

• To edit a saved workspace, choose the workspace to be edited, make the desired changes to the Photoshop interface, choose the New Workspace command, retype the same name, click Save, then click Yes in the alert dialog.

• If you have dual displays, you can distribute free-standing panel groups or stacks between them and save that arrangement as a new workspace.

• All the panels that are open when you exit/quit Photoshop will reappear in the same location upon relaunch.

To delete a saved custom workspace

1. From the Workspace menu on the Options bar, choose any workspace except the one you want to delete.

2. From the same menu, choose Delete Workspace.

3. In the Delete Workspace dialog, choose the name of the user-defined workspace to be deleted,B click Delete, then click Yes in the alert dialog.

B In the Delete Workspace dialog, choose the user-saved workspace you want to get rid of.

Resetting workspaces

Say you chose a workspace and then rearranged some panels manually. If you were to switch to another workspace and then back to your original one, your manual changes would redisplay (in other words, the manual changes are “sticky”). Perform the first task below to restore the original settings to an individual workspace, or the second task to restore the factory-default settings to all the predefined (non-user-defined) workspaces.

To reset the current workspace

From the Workspace menu on the Options bar, choose Reset [workspace name].

To reset all predefined (non-user-defined) workspaces

1. To open the Interface pane of the Preferences dialog, right-click any panel tab, bar, or icon and choose Interface Options from the context menu.

2. Under Options, click Restore Default Workspaces. If an alert dialog appears, click OK, then click OK to exit the Preferences dialog.

Using the Options bar

If the Options bar is hidden, choose Window > Options. You will use this bar primarily to choose settings for the current tool. For instance, for the Clone Stamp tool, you could choose a brush; a blending mode; flow, opacity, alignment, and sampling settings; and settings for a stylus, if you’re using one. For a type tool, you could choose a font and a font family; a point size; anti-aliasing and alignment settings; and a color. Your Options bar settings remain in effect for each individual tool until you change them.

To open a picker, which displays one or more libraries of presets (e.g., brushes or gradients), click the picker icon or arrowhead.A To close a preset picker or other pop-up panel, click outside it, or click the arrowhead on the Options bar.

In this screen capture, the Options bar is displaying settings for the Mixer Brush tool.

To cancel a value you have entered on the Options bar and exit the bar, press Esc (this also works for some pickers).

Features on the Options bar change depending on what tool is selected and the way in which it is being used in the document. For instance, if you begin to apply a transformation with the Move tool, Cancel Transform and Commit Transform buttons will appear on the Options bar. If you click either button to exit transformation mode, those buttons will disappear.

The Workspace menu (not shown below) is located on the right side of the Options bar; see page 97.

Note that some tool settings can also, or only, be chosen on a related panel. For instance, for the type tools, you will find additional options on the Character and Paragraph panels; for the Brush or Pencil tool, you must choose a Foreground color on the Color or Swatches panel.