Showing both channels and layers in CS3

Sorry, this is somewhat off topic, but I'm stumped.

A friend has just been given (courtesy of a grant) Photoshop CS3. I'm helping her, via Yuuguu, learn how to use it for a variety of common tricks, both SL and not.

The long, thin tool bar threw me for a bit, I found some help that worked on that. What has currently got me stumped though, is that there's no joint palette for channels, layers and paths as per attached picture. I've never had to play with this in any of my earlier versions of Photoshop, in CS3 it appears I have to travel to the windows menu and choose channels, and then F7 to get back to layers. Ugh.

Searching the web has shown lots of people in CS3 videos apparently happily with a set up similar to mine, but no mention of how to do it. Could someone take mercy on me please?

The three tabs thing should still be there, and if you have layers open then pick channels, it should be added as a tab instead of replaced. But that's with the default workspace, they let you change that pretty freely.

Try Window->Workspace->Default Workspace, then Window->Workspace->Reset Palette Locations, to see if that fixes things. Also that it's really an up-to-date version with the updates applied.

Here's what I do in Photoshop CS2 when I lose a tab. I go to the top menu for:

Window -> Workspace -> Default Workspace

Also, from the Window menu, you can select individual windows to highlight, such as Layers or Channels or Paths.

Edit: Beaten to it.

By default, the Layers/Channels/Paths palette panel is set up exactly the same way as in PS CS3 as it has in all other versions of Photoshop. If you're seeing the three tabs as separate windows, you must have inadvertently dragged them out of the panel.

Photoshop allows you to do this so you customize the workspace arrangement any way you want. The overall layout, the contents of individual windows, and even the menu setup, can all be rearranged. And you can save multiple layouts, via Window -> Workspace -> Save Workspace. This is a really handy feature, as you can have a different setup for each type of image, if you choose. For example, you might want one particular layout for when you're doing Web imagery, another for when you're doing print work, a third for when you're texturing, etc. If there are tools you use all the time for a given type of work that are not open by default, or the reverse, tools you never use that waste screen space by being open, rather than turn stuff on and off manually every time, you can just save a new workspace that fits your needs, and everything will be open/closed appropriately, right from the start.

To put things back to default, simply do as Amity said, Window -> Workspace -> Default Workspace. If you want the setup to be more like CS2 and earlier, it's Window -> Workspace -> Legacy. If you've moved stuff around, and you want to put the layout back to the current saved satus, it's Window -> Workspace -> Reset Palette Locations. (Or you can save a click by using the Workspace pull-down menu, to the right of the tool settings bar, instead of using the Window menu.)

I'm don't remember what version of Photoshop introduced the customization options, but it was long before CS3.


As for the "long thin toolbar", I assume you mean the Toolbox? I know you said you already got help on that, but just in case anyone else needs to know, you can toggle between the old double-column layout and the new single-column format at any time, simply by clicking on the little double arrow at the top of the Toolbox window.

At first, I didn't like the single column, since I was so used to the double. But after a couple of days I found I much prefer the single. It's less intrusive. It allows for some extra room for width in your images without getting in the way. It just takes a little getting used to is all, since the buttons are in different locations.

It also took me a few days to get used to the new flyout panel, which by default houses History, Actions, Tool Presets, Brushes, Clone Source (Extended version only, I think), Character, Paragraph, and Layer Comps. But again, once I got used to it, I really started to like it. It allows for a lot more height it the Layers palette, which if you use as many layers as I typically do, is big improvement, without crowding the rest of the workspace.

Thanks for the advice. I've tried reverting to default and reverting the menus and no joy. If I can I'll add the image of what I can see after that, but the forums are being funny.

Any other ideas please?

(second image attached to first post in thread)

There is some kind of skinning-theming program running on that machine (if it's a Mac, if would be Shapeshifter or something like it). Photoshop uses custom UI bits and doesn't always get along with hacks like that, try turning it off.

It's not my machine, but I will try, thanks.

It's not a Mac (I'd feel happy poking around in a mac) how do windows machines using Vista do such things?

It's done about the same way on Windows, one popular skinning program is called WindowBlinds.

CS3 in its native default skin has a silvery interface, one example at http://www.creativepro.com/files/story_images/20061214_fg2a.jpg - that's on both Windows and Mac.

Tip: Instead of attaching images, upload them to a free hosting site like imageshack.us or picoodle.com. Then simply post the link here. That will work, whatever mood the forum happens to be in. Even better, put the link between IMG tags to display the image directly in your post.



In any case, if reverting to default in PS doesn't solve the problem, then I can think of two possible causes:

1. Something's wrong with your installation, in which case a reinstall would fix it.


2. As Viktoria supposed, a desktop managemen/skinning program could be interfering. I'd recommend against using those at all times. Even if they don't cause interference, they do eat up memory.

If it's not either of those, then I'm stumped.