Week 1 (Part 2: Navigating The Work Space)
Using the options bar
The options bar appears below the menu bar at the top of the workspace. The options bar is context sensitive—it changes as you select different tools. Some settings in the options bar (such as painting modes and opacity) are common to several tools, and some are specific to one tool.
You can move the options bar in the workspace by using the gripper bar, and you can dock it at the top or bottom of the screen. Tool tips appear when you position the pointer over a tool. To show or hide the options bar, choose Window > Options.
To return tools to their default settings, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the tool icon in the options bar, and then choose Reset Tool or Reset All Tools from the context menu.
Palettes
These are the mini-rectangular boxes to the right side of the workspace that are control panels of specific objects in your images. Some of the more commonly used palettes are Layers, Paths, Channels, History, Info, Brushes.
You can expand or collapse the palettes with the double arrow found at the top of them. You can also "rip" them from their attached group of palettes by simply grabbing them by the top bar and dragging them out into the workspace. They can also be re-attached by dragging them back into the grouping.
*You can hide all of the palettes by pressing [tab] on the keyboard. Pressing it again will bring them back.
You can close any palettes you don't require by expanding them and then clicking on the "close window X" in the top right hand corner of the palette. If you need to bring that palette back, go under the [view] menu and choose the palette you need.
*You can save your complete workspace once you have it set up to your desired layout. Go to [Window/workspace/save workspace], give it a descriptive name and save it. If at any point the current workspace gets re-arragned, you can reload your saved layout to restore it.
The History Palette
The history palette was a huge addition to Photoshop back in version ?. You can use the History palette to jump to any recent state of the image created during the current working session. Each time you apply a change to an image, the new state of that image is added to the palette.
For example, if you select, paint, and rotate part of an image, each of those states is listed separately in the palette. When you select one of the states, the image reverts to how it looked when that change was first applied. You can then work from that state.
You can also use the History palette to delete image states and, in Photoshop, to create a document from a state or snapshot.
To display the History palette, choose Window > History, or click the History palette tab.
You will soon find out how much of a friend the history palette can be. Learn to use it.
Using Photoshop Help
To access the Photoshop help menu, go to the [Help] menu and go down to "Photoshop Help..." This will launch the Photoshop Help Viewer which gives you access to a whole index of Photoshop terms and operations. This can be very helpful when stuck.
*Use the Search field to pin point what your looking for.