Workspace overview

When you launch Photoshop CS3, you'll see a workspace with many panels and buttons. You can customize the workspace to suit your own personal preference and tasks.

You can reset the workspace back to the default Photoshop workspace any time by choosing Window > Workspace > Default Workspace

• The menu bar contains all the commands for Photoshop organized into menus. If you want to find a command, you'll be sure to find them under the menus in the menu bar.
• The document window shows the image that is opened.
• The Tools palette contains all the tools available for Photoshop. These tools can be used to do various tasks such as cropping images, painting, removing blemishes, etc. Related tools are grouped together indicated by the on the bottom right corner of the tool button.
• The options bar displays the options for the selected tool. For example, if you selected the crop tool, the crop tool options will appear in the options bar.
• The pallets display tools and information to help you work. There are many pallets you can add to your workspace that'll give you quick access to tools and information for your task. The pallets can be docked together or collapsed to icons to save space.

Customizing your workspace

Your workspace can be customized in many ways to suit your task. For example, if you want to create a workspace with only the pallets that you use for your image retouching work, you can add and remove pallets and even adjust the way that they appear.

• To add a new palette to the workspace, enable it in the Window menu.
• To remove a palette to the workspace, click on the close icon (the X at the upper-right corner of the tab) or uncheck it from the Window menu.

Expanding and collapsing docks

A dock holds a group of palettes in generally a vertical orientation. Docks can be expanded or collapsed by clicking on the button.

• Click on the button to collapse the dock. The palettes will turn into buttons and can be accessed by clicking on the buttons.
• Click on the button to expand the dock. The palettes will appear at the expanded size for quick access without clicking.

The Tools palette cannot be expanded or removed but it can display the icons in two columns instead of one when you click the button.

Docking and stacking palettes

Palettes can be docked or undocked by moving them into or out of a dock. They can also be stacked with other palettes by moving them into the stack.

• To dock a palette, drag the tab or button into the drop zone.
  
  
• To move a palette into a stack, drag the tab or button into the palette you want to stack with.
  
• To rearrange a palette in a stack, click on the tab and drag it to the position you want the palette to appear.
  

The Tools palette

The tools palette contains all the tools in Photoshop CS3.

Expanding tools

Similar tools are grouped together and can be access by clicking the (located on the lower-right corner of a button). When clicked, a menu will expand showing all the similar tools.

• Tools which are grouped together are indicated by the located on the lower-right corner of the button. Click on the or click and hold on the button to expand the group of tools.
• You can cycle through the tools in a group by holding the Shift key while pressing the hotkey associated with the button. For example, to cycle through the Marquee tool, hold shift and press M.

To find the hotkey for a tool, hover your mouse over the tool and don't move the mouse for one second.
 

Type of tools

Tools are organized into categories based on the task that they can perform.

• The selection tools are used to create selections.
• The crop and slice tools are used to trim images and create slices.
• The retouching tools are used to repairs, clones, and manipulates photos.
• The drawing and type tools are used to create shapes and text.
• The annotation, measuring, and navigation tools are used to make notes and annotations, sample colors in an image, measure distances, locations, and angles, move an image within its window, and zoom in or out of an image. {end}