Datasheet

27
Chapter 1: Getting to Know the Work Area
If Elements slows down and you’re moving along at a snail’s pace, choose
Edit➪Clear➪Undo History or choose Clear Undo History from the panel’s
Options menu. Elements flushes all the recorded history and frees up some pre-
cious memory that often enables you to work faster. You can also use Edit➪Clear
Clipboard or Edit➪Clear➪All to eliminate Clipboard data from memory.
We said almost all steps are recorded because the number of steps the
History panel can record is controlled by a preference setting that tops out
at 1,000 steps. If you choose Edit➪Preferences (Windows) or Photoshop
Elements➪Preferences (Mac) and look at the Performance preferences, as we
explain in more depth in Chapter 2, the number of history states (times you
can go back in history and undo) defaults to 50. You can change the number
to the maximum 1,000, if you like. But realize that the more history states you
record, the more memory Elements requires.
When you want to undo multiple edits, open the Undo History panel and click
any item listed on the panel. Elements takes you to that last edit while scrubbing
all edits that follow the selected item. If you want to bring back the edits, just
click again on any step appearing grayed out on the panel to redo up to that level.
All your steps are listed on the Undo History panel as long as you remain in
Elements and don’t close the file. When the file is closed, all history informa-
tion is lost.
Reverting to the last save
While you work away in Elements, always plan on saving your work regularly.
Each time you save in an editing session, the Undo History panel preserves
the list of edits you made before the save and up to the maximum number of
history states defined in the General preferences.
If you save, then perform more edits, and then want to return to the last
saved version of your document, Elements provides you with a quick, effi-
cient way to do so. If you choose Edit➪Revert, Elements eliminates your new
edits and takes you back to the last time you saved your file.
When you choose Revert, Revert appears in the Undo History panel. You can
eliminate the Revert command from the Undo History panel by right-clicking
Revert on the Undo History panel and choosing Delete from the context menu
that appears. This command returns you to the edits made after the last save.
Getting a Helping Hand
You can reach for this book whenever you want some details about accom-
plishing a task while working in Elements. However, for those little annoying
moments, and just in case some coffee stains blot out a few pages in this book,
you may want to look for an alternative feature description from another source.
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