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Martini Hour 061, In Which Cap’n Deke Helps Us Navigate the High Photoshop Seas

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The number of ways to move around an image in Photoshop is mind-boggling, and who better to help us navigate the high Photoshop seas than that scurvy pirate Cap’n Deke “One-on-One” McClelland. OK, that’s as far as I’m going to take this seafaring metaphor. But seriously, knowing your way around an image is one of the critical basic skills you need to get the most out of Photoshop. This week, we chat about all the ways you can zoom, pan, scroll, toss, flick, and generally move about your images.

Compass image © V. Yacobchuk - Fotolia.com

If you’ve been stuck using the scrollbar, but sensing there is a better way, this is the show for you. For your navigation consideration…

There’s the Navigation panel, which I personally have almost never used, actually has some good “You Are Here” features that can be especially handy if you have a second monitor on which to house it so it doesn’t interfere with your actual image.

We ponder the amazing nature of what Deke considers best tool in Photoshop is the Hand tool, which of course you can get by holding down the biggest key on the keyboard, the spacebar. And with the advent of CS4 the hand tool reacts to the physics of your movements. Deke loves to toss images. And for some reason he thinks “tossing” is more serious than “flicking.” I’ll have to ponder the meaning of that.

Deke also shares a bunch of ways for getting incremental zooms that employ scroll wheels, spring-loaded keyboard keys, and trackpad gestures. And there’s so much more. Who knew navigation could be so interesting. (Well, the answer is Deke, who gave this set of tools the ranking of #4 on his Photoshop Top 40 countdown.)

Chill out and get your bearings with this week’s show. What do you need more than relaxation and direction? Here’s the regular-quality (128kbps) audio file. For best results, right-click and choose Download or Save. For you audiophiles out there, here’s the high-quality (320kbps) file. Definitely download this one (as opposed to streaming it).

Don’t want to miss a single episode of this singular treat for the ears and mind? Subscribe via iTunes. And don’t forget, this is a separate subscription from your regular dekePod podcast.

Here’s to your feeling properly oriented and well rested until next week. Cheers!

Next entry:Photoshop CS5 Top 5: Common-Sense Enhancements

Previous entry:Photoshop Top 40, Feature #1: Open and Save

  • I’m digging the back to the

    I’m digging the back to the roots podcasts with detailed explanations on one specific aspect of a program. I love the interviews too but its nice to get back to some nice detailed explanations on various aspects too. I also love the episodes about what it takes to put your books and videos together. great stuff.

    many episodes ago you had a guest (can’t remember who) who was talking about designing websites from within photoshop (I think) without writing code, quickly turning graphics into buttons etc. What episode was that?


    thanks!

  • This is an excellent post

    I really appreciate it!

  • HQ download

    I have tried downloading the High Quality version twice.  It goes for just over 10 minutes and cuts off in the middle of sentence.

    Just thought you might want to know.  It was sounding good up to that point.

  • Thanks for the heads up fitznkath

    I’ll get it fixed today.

  • Glad you like those, punkjumper

    I feel the same way you do. I love the guests, but I also like getting having the guru to myself (and the rest of dekeWorld) to get clarity on things I never quite mastered.

  • High Quality Martini Hour 061 is up

    Sorry for the delay in repairs!

  • Websites through Photoshop

    To Punkjumper: I don’t know who the guest was, but the program was (probably) MediaLab, and the program is known as Site Grinder. I purchased this program about a year ago, but then had a total crash, and will have to redownload and recreate my website again. It works very well with Photoshop—you can create your site and SiteGrinder does the technical aspect. They also have very helpful techs available—real people to talk to.

    I’ve been out of commission for the last eight months, but assume (hope) they’re still around.

    Shirley A Taylor


    Lone Eagle Graphics

  • Thanks Shirley! I did see

    Thanks Shirley! I did see that name in my search attempts but didn’t really look into it. I’ll check it out.

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