No matter what I am doing, I like having my “tools” right at my fingertips. This is especially true when I am working in Photoshop. I want to quickly find the options I use most frequently. Photoshop offers us a nifty way to do this by allowing us to customize our Menu options. It’s super simple, and here’s how you do it!
Open Photoshop, then go to Edit > Menus
Click on Menus, and the “Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus” window will open. It will look like this:
In this window you will see the “Application Menu Command” on the left. The items in that list correspond to the Menu options you have in the Menu Bar across the top of Photosop, starting with File, Edit, Image, and so on.
Beside each Menu is a right pointing triangle. When that triangle is clicked, all sub-menu options will become available. I have clicked on “File.”
The “Visibility” icon indicates that the corresponding sub-menu item is visible in the Menu Command. You may turn on and off the visibility of these sub-menus by clicking on the visibility icon. For example, if you never use Bridge, click on the Visibility icon next to “Browse in Bridge” to make it invisible.
Now, when you are in Photoshop, and click on the File Option in the top Menu Bar, “Browse in Bridge” will not be visible to you. Turning off sub-menus that you don’t use, will shorten your Menu list, making it easier and faster for you to find the options that you use frequently! You can always make any sub-menu visible again, just by clicking on the icon to turn it back on.
Photoshop always allows us to assign colors to our favorite sub-menus… and this is one of my very favorite things to do!
Go back to Edit > Menus, and click on the right-facing triangle next to File. When the File sub-commands are visible, scroll down to see all of the options in the File Menu. In the image below I have scrolled down to “Save. You will see the word “none” under the Color column, indicating that this sub-menu option does not have a color assigned to it. Click on the word “none” to access color options.
Click on the color you would like to assign to the sub-menu option, then click OK. I chose green.
Now when you use the top menu bar options, your eye will easily and quickly be drawn to the sub-menu options (tools) that you have assigned colors to.
Customizing my Photoshop Menu has made it so much easier for me to find my favorite tools quickly! I hope these tips work for you too!
[…] Customize your Photoshop Menu – 1 freebie(s)? […]
[…] If you are wondering why my “Hidden Layers” option is colored, you can read why (and how to do it yourself) in my previous blog post, Customize your Photoshop Menu. […]
Well, whadya know! I used your tut to turn off one menu item that has bugged me from the get-go. Half the time I click on the File menu, I’ll be in a hurry or I’ll twitch and accidentally click on Browse in Bridge. I have to wait for it to finish opening before I can turn around a shut it right back off again. After I saw this, I knew you had saved me from countless minutes of wasted time! I think I might go back and change some of the menu items with colors. I like that idea, too!
Thank you so much, dear one!
Su
LOL! I TOTALLY know what you mean. I’ve done the same thing myself. Glad this little tip will be helpful for you!