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Creating and Using Workspaces

Lesson 4 from: Customize Photoshop's Panels, Shortcuts, and Menus

Dave Cross

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Lesson Info

4. Creating and Using Workspaces

Lesson Info

Creating and Using Workspaces

In a moment, I'm going to show you the other thing that you can do to try and make sure that you're easily accessing all these shortcuts and menu some things like that. So the third part of this equation is the physical layout of your panels, so this what you're seeing right here, this is my daily layout of photo shop I have, as I mentioned, the big layers panel, smaller panels here, and then these sort of many icons for things that I used a lot as well, and what I did the first time is it came out of the box looking a certain way that adobe said, here are the is the layout of your panels, and then I shifted things around. So for example, there's a fairly new panel in the latest update to photo shop, sisi called libraries at first what didn't exist anywhere because it was new. So what I did is I went to the window menu open libraries that I think I'd like to have it right here she had that little blue box appears that's me telling photo shop put that panel I missed a little bit. So now...

you can see in this one a place I have color swatches, styles, properties, libraries, those air functions I use quite often, but not as often as layers that's why they're collapsed so you take some time to say I'm going to put things in a certain place if I had decided that I wanted the library to be as part of this line right here I would take do the same thing but then pop it right in here and now that's my library right there so it's up to you where you put it but this is part of the process and this could be an ongoing thing for example like I mentioned libraries is fairly new the library panel I should say is fairly new so I had to decide where do I want it to go so you can make that decision I'm gonna put it back up your excess where I like it so when anytime you see a panel with just a tab like this that means you can click on it wants to open it up double click to collapse it so instead of having what I joking of her who is the old days the photo shop where everything was floating people who spend half their life moving panels out of the way to see what they were doing now this is kind of the new workspaces toe have your image here all the panel's off to the side then you collapse and expand them instead of opening up a dialogue box and having a look around and see where everything is which is just the way it used to be so what we're seeing here is referred to as a work space, so this is my workspace is this combination of tools on the left panels on the right, this combination of panels and again using that same theory? If I didn't do anything, it should keep looking like this. But again, historically I know that's not always the case, so I want to make sure for two reasons if that ever goes away and doesn't look the way I want to get it back. And also I also want to use the same work space on a different machine in fact, it's even theoretically possible to say theoretically it is possible to put these settings on a thumb drive here going to someone's office toe work for a day or so you could even bring with you your setting so you don't end up opening photos help going where is everything you have put your workspace in and all of a sudden it looks the way that you feel I always remember one occasion I at a trade show all teachers, someone else's at their booth and they already have a whole set up. And when I first walking until I started bringing my own workspace, I felt like, you know, if you ever had experience where you go to someone else like a kitchen of a friend of yours they still have pots and pans, but you're kind of like where's your measuring cup, you know, you just don't know where everything is and photo shops kind of saying you don't want to be looking around going can't find anything, so one of things we can do is save this workspace so you can do that in a couple different ways. This pop up menu right here in the top right hand corner shows you all the existing workspaces. The top ones are once I have created, the middle ones are defaults that adobe have given you. So just as an example, if I said let's, see what the photography works based looked like it re orients everything and says, well, they feel like the history ma'am is important and this is here, so just move some things around. If I say I don't really like that, I'd like it to be back to mine, it will reorient everything and put it back the way it wass so you can also access those from here it's exactly the same thing to you, but the either way I want to create a new work space. So when you create a work space here's where it gets interesting because remember we first adjusted our menus and our keyboard shortcuts, you have the option of including those in your workspace so in one thing called a work space, not on lee, is it remembering the position of all your panels? It also, if you want, we'll remember the customize menus and keyboard shortcuts you currently have created, so I'm going to do those you just turn these both on, and that means when I go toe save this, it will remember not only the physical position of where all my panels are, it will also remember this is how you customize your menus, so what? Some people use this foreign? I think this is a really smart idea is when I use photo shop in a couple different ways, and I'm just making up a scenario, but may be part of what I do is photo restoration when I'm doing that I use quite a different set of functions and and panels that I do when I'm just trying to make my photographs look nice so they might make to work spaces one called restoration on one called, you know, adjusting and then it we are it does everything it says takes out the menu items that you've hidden puts back for the other work space was very easy to switch back and forth, so when you once you say that it then becomes your current work space, you can see I have all these options now they're available. If at any point you realize like I just did that as a demonstration, I could go back in and remove that workspace fromthe list because I don't really need it to be there, but it will stay there from then on now some people will find that's unnecessary step because they never have that problem of when they restart photo shop, it suddenly loses its mind and looks different. I'd rather have that as a backup, just in case it might happen one out of ten times leave that one time. I'd rather have that opportunity to say put this the way that I want so that's the combination you create workspace you can start, you create that shortcuts for tools, panels, whatever you want, you create customized the menus and then save a workspace. Now one thing I didn't do what I would do want to show you is that, um, we do also have the option. As I mentioned, I want to show you of customizing the menus that in the flyover panel menus as well. So for example, one of things that I spent a lot of my time talking about is why I believe working non destructively is so important, and one of my favorite famous expressions is flattened this photo shops f word you should never use it so one of things that I sort of semi jokingly did once, but then realized it's really not a bad idea, which had going to everyone's machine and do this is actually went to the keyboard shortcuts for the panel menus and found thie layers panel, and eventually got down here and just oops, sorry, went to the wrong one, men use them and to say, sorry about that, so we'll just go into the layer, pop up menu for that and just say, no can't flatten anymore. So now, if someone was using my machines that I'll just flatten, oh, that's, weird. Now you can't flatten anymore now, that's a whole separate discussion of why you want to do that, but it's not really necessary, but it helps get you in the mindset of I should think about not flattening my image.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Dave Cross - Customizing Photoshops Panels Shortcuts Menus - Reference Guide.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

jcashin
 

Thank you so much Dave for this awesome course. I can tell already that my work in Photoshop is going to be so much more effective. I actually did stop the videos and make some tool presets and a curve preset. Thanks Creative Live for featuring such an easy to follow and understand instructor like Dave.

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