Want to change a keyboard shortcut for something in Photoshop? Annoyed that Brightness/Contrast doesn't have a keyboard shortcut by default? It is easy to assign a keyboard shortcut in Photoshop, just be wary that most keyboard shortcuts are already in use, so chances are you'll have to remove a shortcut from something else first. There's plenty of things you probably don't use (like shortcuts to specific Filters), so that shouldn't be a problem.

Continue reading...

The Flash Player download from Adobe's main website is not a compete installer. After running it, the installer's first step is to download the rest of itself. This generally isn't a problem, but it is useful to have the full standalone installer if you need to install Flash Player on an offline computer. It can also bypass the Adobe Flash Player Failed to Initialize error that sometimes occurs with the normal installer.

You can find the current version of the full Adobe Flash Player installer for all operating systems at the following link:

http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/fp_distribution3.html

Continue reading...

If you've downloaded the Adobe Reader installer from the main Adobe website, you've probably noticed that it is not a complete installer. After running it, the installer's first step is to download the rest of the installer. No, you're not the only one that finds this annoying.

Adobe does have full installers available, though they aren't easy to navigate to from Adobe's website. They are available on Adobe's FTP site, which you probably didn't know existed. The current version of Adobe Reader can be downloaded from the following directory:

ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/

Continue reading...

These are the Photoshop shortcuts that have improved my efficiency when designing websites the most. Some are basic; some are a little more obscure. I thought I would share them.

Note that these are focused on web designers and may not be the most important shortcuts for people that actually use Photoshop to, you know, work on photos. Oh, and these are Windows shortcuts, though other platforms should be similar.

1	Shift-Ctrl + C	Copies to the clipboard from all layers, not just the active one. Beyond useful for creating the background images that make up your layout. No more flattening your design to extract images, accidentally saving, and then losing all your hard work. ;)

2	Shift-Ctrl-Alt + N	Creates a new layer immediately with no dialog. Because who needs dialogs?

Continue reading...

Sometimes you may get an error when trying to install the Adobe Flash plugin on your browser that reads something like "Adobe Flash Player failed to initialize". If you do, one possible solution is to download the full standalone Flash installer directly from Adobe's distribution site. Here is a direct link:

http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/fp_distribution3.html

Continue reading...

With CS3, Adobe incorporated features from ImageReady into Photoshop, so you can now create animated gifs completely inside Photoshop. Here's how:

Step 1. Create a new document. I made mine 60 x 60 pixels, but you can make yours whatever size you would like for your animation.

Continue reading...

Update: Adobe has changed their plugin installer so this post no longer applies. Please ignore!

Why is it that when you want to install the Flash Player plugin for Firefox from Adobe, they want you to install their "Adobe DLM" (download manager) first? Installing this DLM then requires a Firefox restart before it can download the Flash Player plugin. And if you want to remove it after that, you have to do it manually, which requires another Firefox restart.

Continue reading...

What is so special about these programs that makes them take what seems like ages to install or uninstall? I'm sitting here uninstalling a trial version of Dreamweaver CS3 on my work PC, and it has taken over 10 minutes. Now it's asking for a restart. That's ridiculous. On my home PC, which is no slouch, it is no different. Installing or uninstalling the Adobe suite (usually Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Premiere) usually takes more than 15 minutes. It's the same on XP, Vista, and 7. I install these programs often as I install Windows fairly often. I'm always trying out new things and I help a lot of friends with their PC's (if you're wondering).

Continue reading...