Datasheet

19
Chapter 1: Getting to Know the Work Area
The tools are varied, and you may
find that you don’t use all the tools
in the Tools panel in your workflow.
Rather than describe the tool func-
tions here, we address the tools in
the rest of this book as they pertain
to the respective Elements tasks.
Selecting tool options
from the Options bar
When you click a tool on the Tools panel, the Options bar offers you choices
specific to the selected tool. Figure 1-10 shows the options available when
you select the Brush tool.
Figure 1-10: The Options bar provides attribute choices for a tool selected on the Tools panel.
Playing with panels
Elements provides you with a bunch of panels that contain settings and
options used to refine the tools you select on the Tools panel and tasks you
perform to edit images. Assume for a moment that you want to let your cre-
ative juices loose and create a Picasso-esque painting — something that you
can do easily in Photoshop Elements.
First, click the Brush tool and then click a color on the Color Swatches panel.
On a new canvas, begin to paint. When you want to change color, click again
on the Color Swatches panel on a different color. This kind of interactivity
between the Tools panel and another panel is something you frequently use
in Elements.
You can access panels from either the Panels Bin or the Window menu.
Many options on panels are intuitive. To become familiar with various panel
options, just poke around a little.
You can drag panels away from the Panel Bin and scatter them all over
the Elements workspace. If you remove panels and want to return to
all panels docked in the Panel Bin, click Reset Panels at the top of the
Editor window.
Figure 1-9: Click and hold the mouse button
on a tool that has a tiny arrowhead to open a
pop-up toolbar.
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