ChapterOne.Where to Start

Chapter One. Where to Start

It's all your fault! Whenever something doesn't work or whenever you get unexpected results, it's all you . Don't try to shift the blameyou blew it.

Did I get your attention? Ha, I thought I would. Of course, you know that I'm kidding, right? I think we can all agree that any and all problems we run into can be blamed exclusively on Photoshop itself! I mean, surely it should know what I have in mind when I click on a tool. Shouldn't Photoshop realize that I really meant to add a new layer, make a selection, and change to RGB mode?

That would be cool, wouldn't it? You click on a tool and Photoshop gently reminds you that you could encounter a problem because you're on the wrong layer, or it runs a self-analysis and suggests that it's time to reset the preferences. Yup, it would be cool, but that ain't gonna happen! You need to have a plan in mind when problems arisewhere to look and what could be causing the problem.

That's what this short chapter is all about: where to look when things go wrong and how to start being your own help desk.

Okay, so you've encountered a problem using Photoshop CS2. You're probably eager to fix the problem so you can continue working, but before we go too far in narrowing down a possible solution, we first need to categorize the problem. There are two main categories:

1. Tools or functions not working

2. Weird, unusual performance issues