Edit ⇒ Color Settings to open the Color Settings dialog box. When you hover the mouse pointer over a particular drop-down list or button, a description of that control appears at the bottom of this extremely useful dialog box.
FIGURE 4-8: Change all color settings at one time using Adobe Bridge.
Chapter 5
Exploring Common Panels
IN THIS CHAPTER
When you first open a Creative Cloud app, you can find tools and options in three general places. As a default, the menu appears at the top, tools down the left, and then panels on the right. The panel is an integral part of working with most of the programs in the Creative Cloud because they contain many of the important options for features that you need in order to edit your documents.
The basic functionality of panels is quite similar across the programs in Adobe Creative Cloud, and the purpose of all panels is generally the same. Panels offer a great deal of flexibility in how you organize the workspace and the parts of it you use. The task you use each program for and the level of expertise you have may affect which panels you have open at a given moment. This chapter gives you an overview of how to work with the panels that are common in most of Creative Cloud applications.
Understanding the Common Workspace
One thing you immediately notice when opening applications in the Creative Cloud is the common workspace. Most of the applications look similar and have the same set of features to help you organize your workspace.
The tools in InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop appear on a space-saving, single-column toolbar, and panels (described in detail in the next section) are arranged in convenient, self-adjusting docks that you can widen to full size or narrow so that the panels are collapsed to icons.
Here are some pointers to help you navigate the workspace in the Creative Cloud applications:
To expand tools to two columns, click the right-facing double arrows on the gray bar at the top of the Tools panel, as you see in Figure 5-1.
To collapse tools to a single column, click the left-facing double arrows on the gray bar at the top of the Tools panel, as shown in Figure 5-2.
To expand a docked panel, simply click the icon in the docking area. The panel you selected expands but goes away when you select a different panel.If you have difficulty identifying the panel, you can choose the panel you want from the Window menu.
To expand all docked panels, click the left-facing double-arrow icon at the top of the docking area; put away the panels by clicking the right-facing double-arrow icon in the gray bar above them.
To undock a panel, simply click the tab (where the panel name is located) and drag it out of the docking area. You can re-dock the panel by dragging the panel back into the docking area.
FIGURE 5-1: Click the arrows at the top of the Tools panel to show tools in two columns or one column.
FIGURE 5-2: Click an icon to collapse or expand the panel.
Using Panels in the Workspace
Panels are small windows in a program that contain controls, such as sliders, menus, buttons, and text fields, that you can use to change the settings or attributes of a selection or an entire document. Panels may also include information about a section or about the document itself. You can use this information or change the settings in a panel to modify the selected object or the document you’re working on.
Whether you’re working on a Windows machine or on a Mac, panels are similar in the way they look and work. Here are the basic instructions for working with panels:
Open a panel: Open a panel in a Creative Cloud program by using the Window menu: Choose Window and then select the name of a panel. For example, to open the Swatches panel (which is similar in many programs in the Creative Cloud), choose Window ⇒ Swatches.
Close a panel: If you need to open or close a panel’s tab or panel altogether, just choose Window ⇒ Panel’s Tab Name. Sometimes a panel contains a close button (an X button in Windows or the red button on a Mac), which you can click to close the panel.
Organize the workspace: Most Creative Cloud applications offer options for workspace organization. You can return to the default workspace, which restores panels to their original locations, by choosing Window ⇒ Workspace ⇒ Essentials (Default). You can also open frequently used panels, position them where you want, and save a customized workspace by choosing Window ⇒ Workspace ⇒ Save (or New) Workspace. Name the workspace and click OK; the saved workspace is now a menu item that you can open by choosing Window ⇒ Workspace ⇒ Your Saved Workspace’s Name. You can also choose from a wide range of included presets designed for a variety of specialized tasks.
Access the panel menu: Panels have a panel menu, which opens when you click the menu icon in the upper-right corner of the panel, as shown in Figure 5-3. The panel menu contains a bunch of options you can select that relate to the active panel when you click the panel menu. When you select an option from the panel menu, it may execute an action or open a dialog box. Sometimes a panel menu has just a few options, but particular panels may have a bunch of related functionality and therefore have many options on the panel menu.
Minimize/maximize: All you need to do to minimize a selected panel is click the Collapse to Icons double-arrow button on the
