Viewing Options
There are two ways of viewing files in Photoshop Elements—floating windows or tabs. We’ll take a close look at the difference between the two methods and then you can decide which one you prefer. (I’ll show you how to set your Preferences to reflect your choice.)
Video: 01-11 Viewing Options (4:42)
Once you’ve opened photos or files, Photoshop Elements gives you a choice for how to view them. I opened these photos from the Practice Files for Lesson 12 called Viewing Options.
How your photos display on the desktop depends largely on your settings in Preferences. We already took a look at Preferences in a previous lesson, but let’s take another quick look at it now. As a review, remember that Windows and Macs have a different menu path for accessing Preferences—one of the few differences between the two operating systems, so instead of using the menu path, I’ll use the shortcut: Ctrl K (Mac: Cmd K). If you recall, I had you check Allow Floating Documents in Expert Mode. If this is not checked, you don’t even have the option to use floating windows. I’ll go ahead and close Preferences.
So this is the Floating Windows view, where each photo is visible in a separate window. To move a floating window, click and drag on the photo bar at the top. Click on another photo on the desktop to bring it forward and make it the active photo. Clicking on a thumbnail in the Photo Bin does the same thing. It makes that photo the active photo and brings it to the front of your open photos.
Your photos will also be listed at the bottom of the Window menu, so these are all my open photos. The selected photo will have a check mark next to its name, but you can click on a different name to select that photo. If you have very many photos open, the Floating Windows view can get rather messy. To temporarily hide a photo, click on the yellow button on a Mac, or click on the Minimize icon in Windows.
To bring a photo back onto your desktop, click on its thumbnail in the Photo Bin. In the Floating Windows view, the files can cover the Photo Bin, which is sometimes fine, but it does make it more difficult to access other photos and your Tool Options. If I click on Tool Options in the Task Bar, you can see that a most of the options are covered up by the photos. So if you want to feel more organized, you may prefer to use the Tabbed view. The simplest way to change to the tabbed view is to use the Layout menu in the Task Bar.
Here’s All Floating, which is the view we’re in now. There are some choices for rows and columns or a grid view, but I never use them because they aren’t very practical or useful. I only use All Floating or Default which is the same as the Tabbed view, so I’ll click on Default.
In the tabbed view, the photo doesn’t cover the Tool Options or the Photo Bin. This view shows you one photo at a time on your desktop. You can click on other tabs to view other photos. Or you can click on a thumbnail in the Photo Bin to activate that photo. To remove a photo from the tabbed view, click on its tab and drag it out of the group. This turns it into a floating window that you can move around by clicking and dragging the bar across the top.
To place a floating photo back into the tabbed view, click and drag a photo close to the top of your desktop. When you see a blue outline around your desktop, let go of the mouse, and the photo will nest with the other tabbed photos. Here’s another useful shortcut. If you want to quickly toggle through your photos, press Ctrl Tab. This command works exactly the same in both Windows and Mac: Ctrl Tab, Ctrl Tab, Ctrl Tab. I actually use this shortcut quite a bit.
If you find that your photos always open in the Floating Window view and you’re using the Tabbed view most of the time, you may want to deselect the Floating Window option in Preferences. Press Ctrl K (Mac: Cmd K) to get Preferences and deselect the option to Allow Floating Documents in Expert Mode. Then click OK. Now none of the Floating Window options will be available, but remember, Preferences can be changed very quickly if you happen to need a floating window. And in future lessons we’ll learn when it’s a good idea to have a floating window. In these beginning lessons I’ll work mostly in the tabbed view.