Opening and Accessing Multiple Files

You can have a variety of images open at any given time in Photoshop. You can open additional files all at once or one by one. Once you have multiple images open , you can toggle between them during the editing process.

1. Click on File . The File menu will appear.

2. Click on Open . The Open dialog box will open.

   

3. Click on one of the files you would like to open. It will be highlighted.

4. Hold down the Ctrl key ( Command key for Mac OS) and click another file you would like to open.

5. Repeat step 4 until you have selected all of the files you would like to open.

6. Click on Open . All of the files you selected will now open in Photoshop.

   

Accessing Files

To toggle back and forth between your open images, you can use the Window command in Photoshop. Although you can have multiple images open at any time, you can only work on them one at a time.

1. Click on Window . The Window menu will appear.

2. Click on the file name for the file to display. The file's window moves to the top of other open files and becomes the active image so that you can work with the file.

   

Using File Formats in Photoshop

Photoshop supports more than a dozen different file formats by default, so chances are you can open an image created in another program by selecting the appropriate file type from the Files of type drop-down list in the Open dialog box. Here are some of the common file formats you might use:

• .BMP. The Windows Bitmap format created by the Windows Paint applet.

• .GIF. A compact file format often used for Web graphics.

• .PDF. The Adobe Acrobat file transfer format. Photoshop CS now supports password protection for .PDF files, so you may be prompted to enter a password when you open a .PDF file.

• .JPG or JPEG. Another file format often used for Web graphics.

• .PCX. An alternate to the Windows Bitmap format that was originally popularized via the PC Paintbrush program.

• Photo CD. A format originally developed by Kodak.

• PICT. A Macintosh graphics format.

• .TIF or TIFF. A common format for scanned images.

• .PNG. Another format for Web graphics.