Part 2. Optimizing Photoshop Projects

Task

1. How to Build a Contact Sheet

2. How to Use the File Browser

3. How to Use Multiple Views

4. How to Annotate Files with Text and Audio

5. How to Undo with the History Palette

6. How to Create Custom Tool Presets

7. How to Use the Preset Actions

8. How to Create Custom Actions

9. How to Set Up Batch Processing Options

Although Photoshop often is thought of as a high-powered creative tool, it's also a nuts-and-bolts production tool. Even though most designers would rather spend their time building montages and creative designs, too often they're saddled with less glamorous tasks such as cropping images and cataloging files.

The tasks in this part look at how to optimize your workflow, with tips and ideas on how to work faster and more efficiently. These tasks are valuable to master because you can apply them to other tasks, making everything you do a bit easier. In some situations, such as the tasks involving actions, these tips let you automate the entire process. Other tasks allow you to categorize groups of images into contact sheets, to share files, and to optimize the features in the History palette.