Datasheet

Chapter 1: Getting to Know the Work Area

✓ Help: We hope that you get all the help you need right here in this book;

but just in case we miss something (or your neighbor has borrowed it,

fine book that it is), you have some interactive help right at your mouse-

tip on the Help menu. The menu also offers links to the Adobe Web site

for more information and a little assistance, courtesy of the tutorials

accessible from this menu. (Find a little more detail about accessing

help in the section “Getting a Helping Hand,” later in this chapter.)

Uncovering the contextual menus

Contextual menus are common to many programs, and Photoshop Elements

is no exception. They’re those little menus that appear when you right-click

or Control-click on a Mac with a one-button mouse, offering commands and

tools related to whatever area or tool you right-clicked.

The contextual menus are your solution when you may be in doubt about

where to find a command on a menu. You just right-click an item, and a short-

cut menu opens. Before you become familiar with Photoshop Elements and

struggle to find a menu command, always try to first open a contextual menu

and look for the command you want on that menu.

Because contextual menus provide commands

respective to the tool you’re using or the object

or location you’re clicking, the menu com-

mands change according to the tool or feature

you’re using and where you click at the moment

you open a contextual menu. For example, in

Figure 1-7, you can see the contextual menu that

appears after we create a selection marquee and

right-click that marquee in the image window.

Notice that the commands are all related to selec-

tions.

In Figure 1-7, notice the Transform Selection

command. Photoshop Elements 9 enables you

to modify selections using this command, as we

explain in Chapter 7.

Using the Tools panel

Elements provides a good number of panels for

different purposes. The one that you’ll find you

use most is the Tools panel. In panel hierarchy

terms, you typically first click a tool on the Tools panel and then use another

panel for additional tool options or use the Options bar (which we describe

Figure 1-7: A contextual menu

for selections.

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