Datasheet

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Chapter 1: Getting to Know the Work Area
Uncovering the context menus
Context menus are common to many programs, and Photoshop Elements is
no exception. They’re those little menus that appear when you right-click
(Windows) or Control-click (Mac), offering commands and tools related to
whatever area or tool you right-clicked. On Macintosh computers with two
mouse buttons, you can right-click to open a context menu.
The context 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 shortcut
menu opens. Before you become familiar with Photoshop Elements and strug-
gle to find a menu command, always try to first open a context menu and
look for the command you want on that menu.
Because context menus provide commands
respective to the tool you’re using or the object
or location you’re clicking, the menu commands
change according to what tool or feature you’re
using and where you click at the moment you
open a context menu. For example, in Figure 1-8,
you can see the context 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 selections.
Notice, in Figure 1-8, the Transform Selection
command. Elements 8 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
in the section “Selecting tool options in the Options bar,” later in the chapter)
for fine-tuning your tool instruments. More often than not, clicking a tool on
the Tools panel is your first step in most editing operations.
Figure 1-8: A context menu for
selections.
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