CS4 - Layer Adjustment Pallete under pic!

[weshoot]

When I got CS4, the pallets on the right were changed from what we had in CS2, and earlier versions of Photoshop. In an effort to keep my sanity and workflow, I prodded and manuevered the pallets on the right to work like the earlier versions.

I therefore seemingly "buried" the layer adjustments pallet that was on the right, and made it float in the document window when I call it up from the layers menu.

I also now have a "type" pallet stuck on the bottom of the rest of the pallets! I don't know where this came from.

When I go to the layers menu and click on New Layers Adjustment, I get an adjustment tool (for example: hue and saturation) in a box on the screen. The box always goes under the image, making that useless. How do I keep the box "always on top" like when I do an adjustment on the layer I am working with (through the image menu). I can't seem to find it in the program pdf manual I downloaded from Adobe, nor do searches on the Adobe site under "support" yield any answers. I hate this new format.

Gary Silverstein
We Shoot

[mistermonday]

Gary, you can dock that new Adjustments Panel in diferrent places in or beside the palettes. And if you do not want it to appear, you can use all the old shortcuts to bring up the old dialog boxes like Ctrl + L and Ctrl+M and Alt+I+A+W, etc. There are a ton of tutorials and videos on the net if you just google "What's new in Photoshop CS4".
It would also help if you attached a screen shot of your workspace so members could see how you have it configured and be able to offer you suggestions.
Regards, Murray

[cricket1961]

Gary

The screenshot idea would help greatly, or a small video of it in action if you can,

Chris

[Markzebra]

I hate this new format.

You're not alone.

[weshoot]

Hi All -

I have been trying to figure out this strange thing that happens when the adjustment layers pallette goes under the image. First off, it is OK for now. I have been working with it, and reset my workspace, and that seems to have corrected the problem for now. I have experienced this several times since installing CS4. One of the things that happened prior to this problem showing up was opening multiple images (something like 10), and then trying to use the lasso tool on the top image. The screen seemed to go through a reshuffle and went to whited out pallettes, and stayed that way, until I pressed ESC. The top image then went under the rest of the images, and clicking in the now bottom image did nothing to get it back on top. I had to close all the other images to get back to the point of working on it, and then I noticed that the pallet would go under the image. I am running a 3.06 GHZ PC with 4 GB of ram (usable is 3 GB) running Win XP SP3. I am running an ATI Diamond Stealth 256mb AGP video card, which is not open GL capable (hope I am saying that right). Also, am using old Sony Trinitron 21" monitor, and don't have money (or inclination) to change it.

New ideas? Anybody know if changing the video card for sure will help this problem?

Thanks.

Gary Silverstein

[unimatrix001]

weshoot: have you tried upgrading to the latest version drivers for your ati card. I do believe most of ati's cards are open gl capable. I believe this would make a big difference in the way the program runs. I have found on my machine a 3.2 gig hyperthreading machine with 2 gig of memory and a 512meg ati x1300 video card it is still very slow. think i need a new machine one of these days. but it does work. I would agree that upgrading the video card drivers would be a good place to start.

[weshoot]

Hi All -

Yes, I have just upgraded to the latest and probably last video driver for my card (it is considered legacy). It came with a folding.stanford.edu extra driver to enhance how everything works. Nothing worked. On boot, a statement box comes up every time saying that the new stanford software is not supported. I eventually used add/remove programs to eliminate it. Photoshop still does not have opengl. After the new driver was installed, I opened ten tif files, and used the lasso tool on the top one. Upon clicking the magnifier tool after completing the selection, the pallets went white and the top file went under the rest of them, and would not come to the top. I closed all, and brought up the image that I had used the lasso on. I chose a curves adjustment layer, and (see attached jpeg) it appeared under the image. I then had to click on my preferred workspace, close photoshop, and then reopen it to get back to normal. This is unusable and disgusting. Anyone see this before? Can it be fixed shy of replacing the computer and the operating system?

Thanks.

Gary Silvertein

[Dave.Cox]

Hi Gary,

Try going to where you see 'Gary's Prefs' and changing this to 'Basic' This should set all of your panels (which is what the pallets are called now,) back to normal. Also you might try dragging the adjustment panel back to the right margin area, or go to the menu > window and deselect the adjustments tab. You may also try to minimize your image window, to see if you can get to the top bar of the panel. To get rid of that type panel at the bottom under your layers tab, go to Window > Character, to deselect it. This will hide it.

[weshoot]

Hi Dave -

I'm afraid that some things aren't working in my version in my computer quite up to snuff. I tried that window>character deselection process, and all my panels disappeared, I rechecked the option and they all came back. The only way that works for me is to drag the character/paragraph panels out into the document area and click the X in the corner. Then it is unchecked in the window menu. The problem I am having is not that I want the "panels" to go back to the default, I want them to be the same as I was used to in older versions up to CS2 (my last previous version). I don't want to have to click out the panel to get to the history panel or layers panels. I don't mind the adjustment layer panel being undocked, I just want it to always be on top of the image while still seeing most of the image, instead of it arbitrarily deciding to be under the image. When it goes under, another problem is having my main image go under the other open images, while I am still working on it, and the only way of getting it back to where I can work on it is to close all other images. I hate spending even $250 for a program upgrade that doesn't work as well as the program it replaced, and on top of that, having to either upgrade my operating system or my complete computer to maybe get this thing working for me the way I would like. Adobe should have put a legacy check box on the program for us that would allow us to have the old familiar controls, if we want them. It took me years to learn where all of them were. The advantages I have seen so far by going to CS4 are a better version of Bridge, the ability to change brush size with the alt key and the mouse, and the ability to work on the raw images from my latest camera (that CS2 wouldn't open), although I think Nikon Capture NX2 does a better job of that.

Sorry if I sound testy, but the aggravation abounds. It's either aggravation, or cost, and then more aggravation.

Gary Silverstein

[Chain]

Panels aren't supposed to be able to be behind pictures i think - so it seems like a bug on your system. Does this happen if you use the new default tabbed view for your images?

Have you tried reinstalling both Photoshop (and downloading all the updates) as well as uninstalling and reinstalling the latest graphics drivers? It seems really odd that it ends up behind you image, and the fact that all your panels turned white seems to indicate something going wonky with the rendering. The panels are flash-based, so you could try reinstalling the latest Flash version just in case it affects it.

"I don't want to have to click out the panel to get to the history panel or layers panels." <- you can totally customize where you want your panels to be, and if you want them collapsed or not - you don't have to click out the panel to get it if you don't want to. Personally on the right side i have the huge adjustment layer panel and the layers/channels/paths panel below it. Then another column of panels that I keep collapsed to buttons and consists mainly of history and actions (i expand it when i use it), and then a few small buttons for info, clone stamp options, etc. Animation on the bottom (if working on animated gifs), and tools on the left as a single row.

[weshoot]

Hi Chain -

I don't know if I have a bug in my system, or my machine has been obsoleted by new software that the machine can't handle (CS4). It is possible that adding a new operating system and a new video card (with up-to-date drivers) may fix the problem. I am using the latest and last driver that will ever be available for my video card. Or, getting a new box entirely with a 64-bit operating system and lots more ram may be the ticket. Truth is, CS4 isn't as stable as the earlier CS2 is on my machine. CS2 rarely failed. But there are nice features in CS4, so I suffer along.

The other thing is that I want the panels (pallets) to be the same as CS2. I don't want to "click out" anything - I want it where I can jump to it right away. I back up through the history panel with great frequency, and don't want to open and close it. I am constantly using the old panel system and want it to work the way the old software did. I may not get that, and at this writing, it works until it glitches. Then I reset my workspace and it works for a while longer. It just interrupts my workflow. I know I should just bite the bullet and replace the computer with a more modern and powerful 64-bit box with opengl, but if I do, I want to wait for Windows 7. Anyway, thanks for the advice.

Gary Silverstein
We Shoot

[Chain]

weshoot: the panels work almost just like they used to in cs3 and earlier (but are now Flash-based). You do not have to "click out" the panels each time like you describe (unless you want to). You can just click/drag/expand/snap them around the way you like them and they stay that way.

Once happy with the layout of your workspace you should definitely save your workspace so it's quick click to restore it at any time (see screenshot).

A shame with your bugs tho. Maybe replace your (crappy?) graphics card with some old cheap nvidia or ati card?

[weshoot]

Thanks All -

I have put the adjustment panel into the right panels section by breaking up the adjustment layers/mask pair and putting the adjustment panel in with the layers/channel/paths group. The mask panel has been put on the bottom of the panels as just the top part. Hopefully, photoshop and I will be happy with that until I can afford a better home for it.

Gary Silverstein
We Shoot