Solution: The application bar

The application bar (refer to Figure 2.1) provides quick links to the following options:

Bridge: This starts the Adobe Bridge application or navigates to it if it is already open. Bridge is the application that you should use to organize your image files.
Mini Bridge: This opens a miniature version of Bridge inside Photoshop. You can use the Mini Bridge panel to easily select files to edit.

Cross-Ref
Bridge is a great tool for organizing your files for use in Photoshop as well as other Adobe applications. Mini
Bridge is new to CS5 and gives you a panel-sized version of Bridge to work directly from in the Photoshop
workspace.

Guides/Grids/Rulers: Next to the application icons is the View Extras icon, which allows you to quickly control the visibility of guides, grids, and rulers to the document window using a simple drop-down menu. The guides, grids, and rulers are shown in Figure 2.4, and the following list describes the purpose of each:

FIGURE 2.4
The guides, grids, and rulers features of Photoshop allow you to better organize and align objects in your images.

Guides: Guides are vertical or horizontal lines that you can add to a document using the View ➪ New Guide menu option. Guides can help you with object placement and organization. You also can force items to be snapped to guides by selecting View ➪ Snap To ➪ Guides from the main menu. The position of guides can be adjusted in the image using the Move tool.

Tip
When you click and hold down the mouse button on the ruler, the cursor changes to a guide adjustment cursor. You can quickly add guides to an image by clicking the ruler and dragging them into the document.

Grids: Grids are a mesh of vertical and horizontal lines that you can use to more easily see the alignment and organization of objects in your images. Photoshop also divides the grids into subdivisions of lines that are not as visible but are visible enough to be useful. A great feature of Photoshop is that you can force items to be snapped to grids by selecting View ➪ Snap To ➪ Grid from the main menu. This option is useful when placing images, text, and shapes in a document. The number of grid lines, colors, and style can be configured in the Preferences dialog box discussed later in this tutorial.
Rulers: When rulers are enabled, a vertical ruler is displayed on the left and a horizontal ruler is displayed on the top of the document window. You can change the rulers’ unit of measure by right-clicking the ruler and selecting the unit from the dropdown menu. While you are moving the cursor over the documents, the exact placement of the cursor is noted in the ruler by a line that moves with the mouse. The Ruler tool is very important if you are preparing items for print.

Zoom: The Zoom Value found in the document window is duplicated on the application bar. An added benefit is the easy-to-use drop-down menu that allows you to quickly choose from 25%, 50%, 100%, or 200%. You also can enter a custom value by highlighting and changing the percentage.
Arrange Documents: The Arrange Documents icon gives you more convenience and versatility than the View menu for arranging more than one open document in the document window. Use the drop-down menu shown in Figure 2.5 to choose from several tiling options, float all windows, or open a new window. Use the Match Zoom and Match Location options to show all your open files at the same percentage and in the same location. You also can fit your selected document to the screen or view actual pixels.
Screen mode: The Screen mode is the last icon on the application bar. The Screen mode icon lets you choose between standard screen mode, full screen mode with menu bar, and full screen mode.

Standard Screen Mode: Standard screen mode is the default, and it allows you access to other applications that are running.
Full Screen Mode with Menu Bar: This mode looks similar to standard screen mode, but you can’t access other programs, through the Windows taskbar for instance.

Full Screen Mode: This mode hides everything but the selected document so you can work without distractions. The Photoshop tools are still available to you; just hover over the tool you want to use and it appears, or press the Tab key to view all your tools. Press Esc to return to standard screen mode.

FIGURE 2.5
The Arrange Documents drop-down menu lets you choose how to tile multiple documents and makes it easy to quickly access several other options.

In this tutorial:

Solution

Friday, August 20, 2010

The application bar

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