Adobe Photoshop CS3 Overview
 

 About Workspace

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.

 

 About Tool Palette
 

When you start Photoshop, the Tools palette appears at the left of the screen. Some tools in the Tools palette have options that appear in the context-sensitive options bar. These include the tools that let you use type, select, paint, draw, sample, edit, move, annotate, and view images. Other tools allow you to change foreground/background colors, go to Adobe Online, and work in different modes. You can expand some tools to show hidden tools beneath them. A small triangle at the lower right of the tool icon signals the presence of hidden tools. You can view information about any tool by positioning the pointer over it. The name of the tool appears in a tool tip below the pointer. Some tool tips contain links leading to additional information about the tool.

 

 

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