Customizing Your Workspace in Paint Shop Pro X
Part B. Customizing Palettes & Saving Custom Workspace

The image above shows the workspace as it appears when you open Paint Shop Pro X for the first time. 'Workspace' means the area where the current image is displayed plus all the toolbars, palettes and menus. Only a few of the toolbars and palettes are visible in this 'default' view. 'Default' means the program's pre-set choices. Toolbars contain commands, where Palettes contain settings and controls. Each palette has a specific function.

This tutorial was written specifically for PSP version X (ten) with first time users of Paint Shop Pro in mind. In Part A of Customizing Your Workspace we covered toolbars and menus. This is Part B, where we'll go over customizing the palettes in PSP X and saving your workspace.

There are many customizing options. In this multi-part tutorial we'll try to point them all out. It's very easy to do and well worth taking the time to customize. As you become more familiar with PSP, you'll probably make many changes to the default workspace. Try some customization as we go along! You can always change it back!

Here's your first customization: Are you tired of seeing the PSP splash screen every time program starts? Uncheck 'show splash screen' in File>Preferences>General Program Preferences>Miscellaneous.

(Note: The Layers Palette is referred to as a Palette-Toolbar in the 'Customize' dialog box and the History Palette is referred to as a Toolbar. I guess it's a test to see if we're paying attention...LOL)

Step 2. Overview of Toolbars, Palettes, Keyboard Shortcuts

The image above shows PSP X with ALL toolbars & palettes visible at the same time. As you can see, this leaves a very small image area...not good! To solve that problem, visibility for most toolbars and palettes can toggled on or off (hidden) as needed. Most toolbars and palettes can also be moved, resized, docked or floated. Buttons can be added or deleted.

There are 8 toolbars in PSP X: Menu, Standard, Status, Tool, Effects, Photo, Script and Web. You can selectively choose which ones to display or keep hidden. See Part A of Customizing Your Workspace for more about toolbars.

PSP X contains 11 palettes. Some new, some redesigned. To choose which palettes to display or keep hidden:

• Select View>Palettes from the main menu. Select-check the palette you wish to be visible; or
• right click any toolbar, select Palettes from menu; or
• select F10 on the keyboard to toggle visibility on-off.
• You can also add a Palette button to any toolbar with a drop down palette list.

Keyboard shortcuts

Tip: A list of keyboard shortcut keys can be printed using the Print button of the Keyboard Map for each category.

All 11 palettes can be docked or undocked (floated). Docked palettes will snap to edge of workspace when opened. To float a docked palette, grab the title bar with you mouse pointer and move it to anywhere in your workspace. Default settings will dock some palettes and some will float.

Select View>Docking Options to enable or disable docking. This will open the Preferences dialog. Look for 'Palettes' in the left column, click. Check or uncheck 'Allow Docking of' for each palette. Even with docking enabled, you can avoid docking by holding down Ctrl key as you drag (float) a palette.

Tip: The Preferences dialog box also has options for Undo, Units of Measurement, and more. This is also where you can customize the size and/or color of checkerboard pattern that indicates transparency.

In the image above, the Image Browser is shown as 'floating'. I use the Browser quite often & I like keeping it readily available, but I didn't like the default placement. I floated the Browser, UNchecked the docking option and placed palette near top of window. Because AutoHide is selected, only the title (label) shows until mouse hovers over & palette opens.

Tip: Notice that a 'Palettes' button has been added next to 'Help' button. This is a drop down list specifically for toggling palette visibility on/off. You can also toggle with keyboard shortcuts...I just happen to prefer pointing to buttons with mouse & stylus. See Part A for how to add toolbar buttons.

In the title bar of each palette is an icon that looks like a push pin. When the pin points down, the palette is open. Click the pin to change it's direction. When it points left, AutoHide is enabled and the palette 'rolls up' with only the title bar visible.¹ When you hover your mouse over the title bar, the palette will unroll and become visible.

If 'allow docking' is UNchecked, the palette will 'float'. Use your mouse to grab the title bar and drag it to wherever you want in the workspace (as I did with Image Browser shown in Step 3.)

¹If it's floating, only title bar is visible. If it's docked, a label is shown. Label looks just like title bar without icons.

If you want the palette to stay open, just click the push pin again until it points down and the palette remains fully displayed. If palette is in use, it will remain fully displayed until you click somewhere else.

Quadrant Rollup is checked by default and causes the palette to roll up in the nearest quadrant of the workspace. You can uncheck by clicking View>Customize. 'Use Quadrant Rollups' is under the 'Options' tab.

You can also animate the roll up action of your palettes. Under the 'Options' tab check the 'animate' box and adjust the slider for slower or faster. It is unchecked by default.

Tip: Do you use a pen tablet? Make sure it's pressure support features are not disabled by looking under File>Preferences>General Program Preferences>Miscellaneous.

Step 5. Saving Workspace and Tool Options

Did you know you can customize your workspace just for photo editing, then save that arrangement as a custom workspace? You can create another custom workspace just for vector drawing or one specifically arranged for digital painting with all the Art Media tools displayed.

To save current workspace: Select File>Workspace>Save (Shift+Alt+S). Type a name for your workspace & Save. You can save in a folder other than the default program folder by clicking 'File Locations' button in the 'Save Workspace' dialog.

To load a workspace: Select File>Workspace>Load (Shift+Alt+L). Select from the list of recent workspaces.

Default Palettes: When you open PSP X for the very first time, 3 palettes will be open in the workspace: Learning Center, Browser and Tool Options. The Materials palette is hidden but appears when a painting tool, such as Paintbrush or Flood Fill, is selected.* There are 7 other palettes in PSP X. They are preset as 'hidden'. More about them shortly, first we'll get acquainted with the visible palettes.

Tool Options: This palette looks very similar to a toolbar, but, unlike a toolbar which contains commands, this palette contains all the settings and controls for the active tool.** When a Tool is selected, it's corresponding Tool Options will appear above the image area in your workspace.

*Many tools will be grayed out unless an image is open.
**Tool Options may only be visible if a tool is selected from Tool bar.

Step 6. Hiding the Learning Center

Of the 3 default palettes, perhaps the Learning Center would be the first you'd want to customize because it occupies such a large chunk of image area. There's 3 choices:

1. You can close it completely, or
2. Float and move out of the way, or
3. Select AutoHide so it doesn't take up so much space.

If docking is enabled (by checking 'allow docking' in Preferences) and AutoHide is active (points left), the Learning Center will roll up and move to the bottom of the workspace. If you 'float' and drag Learning Center to the far left, the title bar* tucks in next to the Tool bar. (see above image)

If 'allow docking' is UNchecked, the Learning Center will not snap into place along edge of workspace. Grab the title bar with mouse and drag it to wherever you want in the workspace.

*When you click away from the palette or toolbar with the Auto Hide button activated, it rolls up in one of two ways: If it's floating, only title bar is visible; if it's docked, a label appears with the palette or toolbar name.

There's 3 ways to completely hide the Learning Center:

1. Click the X on palette title bar to close, or
2. Select F10 on the keyboard to toggle visibility on and off, or
3. Select View>Palettes from the main menu. UNcheck to hide visibility.

Tip. Would you like your toolbar icons to be larger? Right click toolbar, select 'Customize'. Under the 'Options' tab you will find the checkbox for 'Large Icons'.

The Image Browser is a great tool for visually browsing thru your file folders. It also has many other features. In Steps 3 and 4, we learned all about floating and docking a palette. If you don't like the Browser palette docked at bottom of image area, move it to another location. You also have the option of a framed view with either your folder tree shown in left panel or detailed image information.

You can open image files either with File>Open or by using the Image Browser to open. Using the File menu (or Open button) will open the standard Windows Open dialog box. Using the PSP Browser not only provides thumbnail previews of all your image files, it also has command buttons for viewing, sorting and printing your images. Right clicking an image gives you a popup menu to rename, move to another folder, and other actions.

To set your preferences for the Browser palette: Select File>Preferences>General Program Preferences. Select Browser Palette from the list on left. Your Browser display options are shown. There's also a few options under View>Customize.

(Note: The Browser palette is referred to as a toolbar in the 'Customize' dialog box, which may cause some confusion, however, the Browser function is the same whether it's called 'toolbar' or 'palette'.)

To choose the way you prefer thumbnails to be sorted: Right click in an open space in the Browser palette (a blank area between folders or thumbnails), select Sort from the popup menu. Choose your preferences from the Sorting dialog.

Step 8. Contact Sheets & Templates

Just below the Browser title bar is the drop down list of your folders. Next to that is a row of icons. The first is the standard Windows icon to 'Go Up One Folder'. Next is:

• Folders: This opens a left frame in the Browser to display your entire file tree. It's the Browser format familiar to users of older versions of PSP.
• Image Information: This opens a left frame in the Browser to display all sorts of information about the selected file. Format, dimensions, file size, etc. It also shows you creator information, if that data is available.
• Windows Explorer: Selecting this icon opens a new window with the Windows 'My Pictures dialog for those that prefer to use Windows tools to open, copy, print.
• Photostrip View: As far as I can tell, the only thing this selection does is dock the Browser to the bottom quadrant of your workspace and align thumbnails horizontally. You can have Photostrip View and Folders view selected at same time.
  A reader sent in this tip: Photostrip View places all thumbnails in one long strip. No vertical scrollbar needed. Thumbnail size and quantity may constrain the system to add a horizontal scroll. Photostrip View may reducee thumbnail size to enable strip viewing. Thanks Marvin!
• Print Contact Sheet: Opens the Browser Print dialog. From here you can print a contact sheet or print using a page template. A contact sheet is a printout of thumbnail sized prints of all folder contents or selected files. You can modify size of thumbnail, etc. The folder name will be printed at the top of each page with page numbers at the bottom. This dialog also has options for printing with page templates. This is a terrific tool for scrapbooks and photo printing! Ready-made templates are provided. You can also create your own custom templates.

A frequently used feature of any graphics program is the Materials palette. This is where you choose your colors, textures, and gradients. The Materials palette is hidden when you first open PSP X. It opens when you select a painting tool (Paintbrush, Flood Fill Tool, etc).

To keep it open or to toggle visibility on/off:

• Select F6 on the keyboard; or
• View>Palettes>Materials from the main menu; or
• Right click on a toolbar or palette and select Palettes>Materials from the popup menu.

Like all other palettes you can float, dock or use AutoHide with the Materials palette.

Another way of customizing the Materials palette is to choose whether you want colors displayed as a frame of colors around the selected hue, as a rainbow color picker or as swatches. You can also save custom swatches of your favorite colors and styles (styles are color plus texture or gradient).

The 3 tabs just below the title bar in the Materials palette allow you to swap between the 3 color displays. The swatches tab also has additional display options.

There's a few other ways to customize your Materials palette. Select File>Preferences>General Program Preferences. Select Palettes from the left column and choose RGB or HSL format, decimal display or hexadecimal, and other display preferences from the Materials section on the right. Also check the Display and Caching section to set preferences for Color Picker and Tooltips.

Step 10. More Palettes and Reset to Default

Seven more palettes can be hidden, floated or docked. Select View>Palettes to toggle visibility on/off for each of these. Keyboard shortcuts are listed there too. Toggle docking on/off in View>Docking Options.

Layers: PSP X now includes a thumbnail view showing contents of each layer. You can turn this feature off or change thumbnail size. To customize, select File>Preferences>General Program Preferences. Select Palettes from the list and set preferences in 'Layer Palette' column. Check 'Right Pane' box to display controls for opacity, blend mode and layer linking in right pane instead of above the layer buttons.

History: Features allow you to selectively UNDO and REDO previous steps or create a 'Quickscript'. Customize the UNDO system by selecting File>Preferences>General Program Preferences and select 'Undo' from list on left.

Brush Variance: Customize brush and stylus settings and make adjustments for pressure sensitive tablets. If you want to 'Disable pressure support for puck-type pointing devices' go to File>Preferences>General Program Preferences>Miscellaneous.

Other palettes include Overview, Script Output, Histogram and Mixer. Not much customization here.

Reset

To reset Toolbars, Keyboard, Menu and Options, right click to select Customize. There is a Reset button under each of the tabs.

To reset Preferences, select File>Preferences>Reset Preferences. Here you'll find 6 options for general preferences, file locations, workspace, etc.

Want to reset default settings for everything? Hold down Shift key when launching PSP X. All customization will be cleared and reset to default.

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