As you may know, images are made up of channels on which color detail is stored. By default, all the channels in a Photoshop document are selected to show the full color of the image. Sometimes, though, you need to work an individual channel in the Channels panel for editing purposes. What isn't necessary is for you to view just the color on the selected channel while editing it.
After you select the channel you want to edit, simply press the Tilde key [~]. Now, you can view the image in full color while editing only the selected channel.
Delete layer masks quickly and skip the warning with this trick
You decide you don't want a layer mask after all and click and drag it to the trash to delete it. But Photoshop prompts you with the warning, asking if you want to apply the layer mask before you delete it. In all fairness, Photoshop's just looking out for you, but you don't have to receive such oversight. If you're sure you don't want to apply the mask before deleting it, then bypass Photoshop's warning by pressing [option] ([Alt] in Windows) as you click and drag the layer mask to the trash.
Navigate through Excel 2007 in seconds
When you're adjusting to Excel 2007's drastic interface changes, you might find yourself lost more often than you'd like. Experienced Excel users accustomed to earlier versions can suddenly feel as if they're novices. Talk about frustrating!
Instead of stopping to look in the Help files or on the Internet every couple of minutes, find your way to frequently used Excel tasks in seconds with our handy reference table. Cut it out and keep it by your computer for fewer headaches.
Instead of stopping to look in the Help files or on the Internet every couple of minutes, find your way to frequently used Excel tasks in seconds with our handy reference table. Cut it out and keep it by your computer for fewer headaches.
Multilayer Opacity and Fill-and so much more
The ability to select multiple layers and adjust the Opacity or Fill was at the top of many Photoshop users lists. From text to image data, those living in layers will enjoy massive amounts of time saved. Speaking of layers, you can now choose your own default layer styles (just click the Make Default button in the Layer Style dialog).
Rounded corners in Adobe InDesign CS5
Select a frame and click on the yellow square icon located on the frame edge to enter Live Corner Edit mode. (You can also press the number four key on your keyboard.) You'll now see four yellow diamonds in each corner. Click-and-drag one of the diamonds to adjust the corner radius of all four corners at the same time. To adjust only one corner, hold down the Shift key as you drag the diamond. To cycle through the six different corner styles, Option-click (PC: Alt-click) on one of the yellow diamonds. To exit Live Corner Edit mode, either press the four key again, or deselect the object.
Navigating the motion editor in Adobe Flash Professional CS5
In Flash Professional CS5, there are some new keyboard modifiers to help you move around the Motion Editor.
To pan/scroll horizontally, use Shift-scroll wheel.
To zoom in and out, use Option-scroll wheel (PC: Alt-scroll wheel).
To select multiple keyframes at once, click-and-drag (marquee select) the keyframes.
To turn off Auto-Zoom in the graphs, use the option in the Motion Editor panel's flyout menu.
To pan/scroll horizontally, use Shift-scroll wheel.
To zoom in and out, use Option-scroll wheel (PC: Alt-scroll wheel).
To select multiple keyframes at once, click-and-drag (marquee select) the keyframes.
To turn off Auto-Zoom in the graphs, use the option in the Motion Editor panel's flyout menu.
Live distribute in Adobe InDesign CS5
Ever needed to change the amount of space between a number of aligned items on the page? To do it interactively, first select the items on the page with the Selection tool (notice that CS5 now provides a transformation bounding box around multiple selected items!) Click-and-drag one of the handles of the bounding box to resize all the items in your selection. To resize the space between each item, hold down the Spacebar while dragging.
Test renderings with selections
Sometimes you may want to quickly render for only a selected part of your 3D object to save time and check for specific lighting effects. That's now possible by simply making a selection on the area you want to render, and going to 3D>Progressive Render Selection.
Printing or Exporting Page Ranges With Dashes
Did you know that when you’re printing or exporting a range of pages that includes the first or last page of a document, you can skip that first or last page number in the dialog box? Just leave the range open ended so it starts or end with a dash.
For example, to print from the first page to page 7, you can just enter -7 in the Range field of the Print or Export dialog boxes.
Likewise, you can enter 7- in those fields to print or export from page 7 to the end of the document.
It’s a small thing, but it can add a dash of convenience now and then.
For example, to print from the first page to page 7, you can just enter -7 in the Range field of the Print or Export dialog boxes.
Likewise, you can enter 7- in those fields to print or export from page 7 to the end of the document.
It’s a small thing, but it can add a dash of convenience now and then.
Adjusting Text Spacing Without Tracking
When you need to make more text fit in a given area, do you automatically adjust the tracking? An alternative to tracking text is to adjust the Letterspacing setting in the Justification dialog box.
To do this, insert your cursor into a paragraph, press Cmd-Opt-Shift-J (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-J), then reduce both the minimum and desired letterspacing values.
Before:
After:
The key difference between this process and tracking the paragraph is that (assuming you have the Adobe Paragraph Composer chosen) the spacing will not be exactly the same between each character or word, but rather will be optimized according to the available space and potential line and hyphenation breaks within the paragraph.
While not as convenient and fast as tracking, adjusting the letterspacing yields a better type color. A potential downside is that paragraphs adjusted in this way cannot be easily identified by a color highlight, the way those that have been tracked can.
To do this, insert your cursor into a paragraph, press Cmd-Opt-Shift-J (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-J), then reduce both the minimum and desired letterspacing values.
Before:
After:
The key difference between this process and tracking the paragraph is that (assuming you have the Adobe Paragraph Composer chosen) the spacing will not be exactly the same between each character or word, but rather will be optimized according to the available space and potential line and hyphenation breaks within the paragraph.
While not as convenient and fast as tracking, adjusting the letterspacing yields a better type color. A potential downside is that paragraphs adjusted in this way cannot be easily identified by a color highlight, the way those that have been tracked can.
Natural Shadows on Clipped Images
The original bread image we have was shot on a plain background, but needs to be clipped so it can be used on any background. At the same time, we want to keep the natural shadow, since adding a drop shadow is less realistic and harder to keep consistent with the lighting of the shot.
Collecting Images Without Packaging
Sometimes, way before you get to the File > Package stage of a project, you need to quickly gather a few or all of the layout’s linked high-res images in one place and do something with them—send them to a freelancer, for example, or back them up to an external drive.
Five favorite Excel tips
Whether you’re using Microsoft Excel 2008 or 2004, you need some tricks up your sleeve for easing day-to-day tasks, such as entering data or custom sorting, as well as for special situations, such as using colors not included on the Standard palette. Here are my five favorite Excel tips for everyday use and beyond.
Down to the wire in Adobe Flash Catalyst
Flash Catalyst contains numerous wireframe drawing tools and pre-built components that you can use to create interactive wireframes. Pre-built components are fully functioning buttons, scrollbars, checkboxes, and other user interface items that let you quickly mock up the layout of your finished project. You can find these in the Wireframe Components panel.
Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 - Multiple server projects
The revised Site Setup dialog (Site>New Site) not only helps you get started faster, but it also helps to manage projects that span across multiple servers. Say, for example, your client wants to check everything out on a staging server, but you need to also use both your local machine's Web server as a local environment and a shared team server for your day-to-day work. Just create a new server for each part of your workflow, and then at any point in the project, choose which is your active testing (development) server and which is your remote (publishing) server.
Spellcheck Capitalization in InDesign
Select the Case Sensitive option when you enter a word into a spelling dictionary (Edit > Spelling > User Dictionary) if the word you’re adding is a trade name, proper name, or a word with intercaps, such as “InDesign.”
This way, if the word is used in your document with improper capitalization, it will be flagged as a spelling error.
This way, if the word is used in your document with improper capitalization, it will be flagged as a spelling error.
There's a RAM preview for every occasion - Adobe After Effects CS5
You can specify two sets of RAM preview options in the Preview panel: RAM Preview Options and Shift+RAM Preview Options. For example, you can set RAM Preview Options for full frame rate and full resolution, and set Shift+RAM Preview Options to skip one out of every two frames and preview at half resolution. To preview using Shift+RAM Preview Options, hold Shift as you initiate a RAM preview. Press Option (PC: Alt) while initiating a RAM preview to preview a specified number of frames up to and including the current frame. The default number of frames previewed with this command is five. The preference for changing this number is in the Alternate RAM Preview section of the Preview preferences.
Drag clip to make new sequence
From the Project panel, drag any clip to the New Item icon at the bottom of the panel and release. This will automatically create a sequence with the correct editing mode (RED, AVCHD, DVCPRO, XDCAM, and so on). This is my personal favorite new user interface tip.
How to Design a Clean and Modern Calendar Widget in Photoshop
Step 1: Create New File
Open Photoshop and create a new document of 600x450px. Set the “Background Contents” to “Transparent“.
Open Photoshop and create a new document of 600x450px. Set the “Background Contents” to “Transparent“.
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