- Using the Application frame
- Using tabbed document windows
- Arranging document windows
- Changing the zoom level
- Rotating the view
- Changing the screen mode
- Changing the color behind the image
- Configuring the panels
- Customizing the menus
- Saving workspaces
- Restoring the default workspace
- Using the Application bar
- Using the Options bar
Customizing the menus
If you find the huge number of commands in Photoshop to be intimidating, you’ll be happy to know there’s a way to streamline the menu listings to make them more user friendly. By using the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog, you can assign color labels to menu bar and panel menu commands to make them easier to locate, and you can also hide the commands you don’t use.
To see what the labels look like, from either the Workspace menu on the Application bar or the Window > Workspace submenu,A choose What’s New in CS4. Click Yes/OK if an alert dialog appears, then take a few minutes to browse through the menu bar and a few panel menus. Note: If you don’t see any color labels, go to Preferences > Interface and check Show Menu Colors.
To assign color labels to, or hide or show, menu commands:
- To open the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog (A, next page) do either of the following:
Choose Edit > Menus (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-M/Cmd-Option-Shift-M).
Choose Window > Workspace > Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus, then click the Menus tab.
- If you’ve already created a custom menu set that you want to edit, choose it from the Set menu; if you haven’t, choose Photoshop Defaults.
- From the Menu For menu, choose Application Menus or Panel Menus.
- Expand the listing for any menu header or panel name by clicking the arrowhead, then:
To hide a command from its menu, click the visibility (eye) icon; click again to redisplay it.
To assign a color label to a command, click in the Color column and choose a color from the menu; or to remove a color label, choose None.
- To create a new menu set based on all the current settings, click the Create New Set button. In the Save dialog, enter a new name or change the name (keep the default location, which is the Menu Customization
folder, and keep the .mnu extension), then click Save. User-created sets are listed on the Set menu.
To save your edits to the current (modified) set, click the Save Changes to Current Set button. Don’t save changes to the Photoshop Defaults, Basic, or What’s New in CS4 set; create a new set instead.
- Click OK.
- To delete a user menu set, choose it from the Set menu in the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog, then click the Delete Current Set button.
- If you’re using a workspace in which some menu items are hidden, and you want to show all the listings for a particular menu temporarily, either choose Show All Menu Items from the menu or Ctrl-click/Cmd-click the menu name.★