Creating Your Own Bridge Workspace

When I first saw Bridge I thought, "This is just a facelift of the File Browser." Once I really started using it my thoughts quickly changed to "This rocks!" One thing I found myself doing a lot was moving and resizing all of the panels to suit my needs at the moment. When I first downloaded photos onto my computer, I wanted Bridge to have one view while I reviewed them, and then when I was going through trying to pick my favorites, I wanted another view. That's where workspaces come in. They're easy to create and they help speed things up when you're working in Bridge.

Step One

First, let's all start from the same place. Launch Bridge from Photoshop by choosing File>Browse, pressing Command-Option-O (PC: Control-Alt-O), or clicking the Go to Bridge button on the Options Bar. You can also launch Bridge without even having Photoshop open. Once you're in Bridge, if the Favorites palette is open (at the top of the Panel area to the left), choose View>Favorites Panel to remove the checkmark and close it.

©MATT KLOSKOWSKI

Step Two

Do the same and close all other palettes with a checkmark next to them, except for the Preview palette. This will now only leave your thumbnail preview in the main Bridge window and in the Preview palette on the left.

Turbo Boost

There are some keyboard shortcuts that are just plain too hard to memorize. However, the workspace shortcuts are definitely worth it. Plus, they're pretty easy. Just remember that they all involve the Command key (PC: Control key) and an F1 through F5 key, depending on which workspace you want.

Step Three

Now, expand your Preview palette so it takes up nearly the entire screen. Also, decrease the size of the thumbnails to make them smaller by sliding the Thumbnail Size slider (near the bottom right of the Bridge window) to the left. We're only trying to concentrate on getting the largest preview possible right now.

Step Four

Once you're happy with the way this view looks, choose Window>Workspace>Save Workspace. Enter "Large Preview" in the Name field. Make sure the Save Window Location as Part of Workspace checkbox is turned on to save the exact location of this Bridge window on your screen. Note that you can assign a keyboard shortcut, too.

Turbo Boost

You can use Bridge for more than just looking at images. If you click on a PDF file, you'll see that you can page through the PDF in the Preview palette.

Step Five

When you're done, click Save and this workspace will be saved. Now you can always change over to this saved workspace by choosing it from Window>Workspace. (Note: Your saved workspaces will appear at the bottom of the menu.)

©MATT KLOSKOWSKI

Don't try to rearrange your palettes each time you want to get back to Bridge defaults. To get back to the default workspace as it was when you first installed Bridge, just choose Window>Workspace>Reset to Default Workspace or press Command-F1 (PC: Control-F1) and you're back to normal.

Turbo Boost

You can actually play movie files (WMV, AVI, QuickTime, etc.) inside Bridge. Just click on the file and you'll see the play controls appear in the Preview pane. Click Play, and the movie, sound and everything, will start playing.