Saving Files as Groups in Bridge Center

I had this tutorial in my outline for this book from the beginning because I think it's a cool little feature that goes largely unrecognized. Then, I got hold of Terry White's Secrets of Adobe Bridge book. In it, he called this feature the "End of Day button." That's because at the end of the day, you likely have a logo open in Illustrator, some retouched photos in Photoshop, and even a layout in InDesign. At the end of the day, you want to save them all into one group and this feature is how you do it. I thought it was a perfect description.

Step One

Let's say you have a logo open in Illustrator, a layout for a brochure open in InDesign, and some photos you're retouching for the brochure open in Photoshop. Basically, these are all files that relate to the same project. You've decided that saving them all into one group would be a huge timesaver, as well as just making your project easier to work on.

Open Bridge Center. You'll see an area at the top left called Saved File Groups. If you haven't saved any file groups as of yet, then the list inside this box will be empty. If you have saved any, then they'll show up here (and you'll probably stop reading this tutorial now because you already know how to do this).

©ISTOCKPHOTO AND FELIX NELSON

Turbo Boost

This kind of goes with the previous tip. If you look under the Window menu and you see palette names with a dash next to them, that means the palette is open but it's being obstructed or is behind another palette.

Step Two

To save your files into a group, just click on the Save Open Files into a File Group command. In the dialog that pops up, you'll see exactly how many files from each program will be saved. You'll also need to enter a name for this file group, so give it something descriptive. When you're done, click OK.

Turbo Boost

Photoshop's recent file list doesn't have a preview of the image that you were working on. However, Bridge Center's Recent Files list does, so you can visually and quickly see which file you may want to reopen.

Step Three

Now your files are saved in a group. When you start working on the project again, click on the group that you just saved and all of your files will reopen in their respective applications. How's that for saving time?

Turbo Boost

Press the Tab key to hide all of your palettes. Press it again to show them. You can also press Shift-Tab to hide all palettes except for the Toolbox, and press it again to show them.