Creating One Large Palette Group

Next let's join the remaining palettes into one large palette group.

1. Drag the title tab for the History palette to the lower edge of the Navigator palette.
2. When you see a narrow outline at the bottom edge of the Navigator palette, release the mouse button and the History palette will be joined to the Navigator, Info, and Histogram palettes.
3. Now drag the Actions palette next to the History palette.

Now this palette super-group has one title bar, but it is divided into two palette groups with the Navigator, Info, and Histogram palettes on top and the History and Actions palettes on the bottom. You can drag the title bar and whole group moves; click the collapse button and the whole group collapses.
Now repeat the steps above to join the Layers, Channels, and Paths palettes below the History and Actions palettes so you have something like the screen shot above.


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Panning (Hand Tool)

I mentioned already that you can use the Spacebar on your keyboard to temporarily switch to the hand tool at any time. To practice this:

1. Open an image and drag the borders of the document window so it is smaller than the image.
2. Press the Spacebar and click on the image.
3. While holding the Spacebar down, move the mouse around to move the image around within the window.

We don't need no stinkin' scroll bars! Another handy shortcut is to double-click on the hand tool in the toolbox to quickly fill the available workspace with your image. This will set the magnification level to whatever size it needs to be to make the image fill the screen. Check the title bar or the status bar to see what the actual magnification level is.
While you have the hand tool active, take a look at the options bar for the hand tool. You'll notice three buttons there for Actual Pixels, Fit Screen, and Print Size. Do you remember these from the zoom tool's context sensitive menu?

• Actual Pixels shows the image at 100% magnification.
• Fit Screen scales the image to fit inside your workspace. This may make the magnification higher or lower than 100% depending on the size of the image and your screen resolution and workspace layout.
• Print Size approximates the size that the image will be when printed, taking resolution into account. Since all monitors vary, this should only be considered an approximation. Well learn more about resolution later.

Since these options are also available in the Zoom tool, and now that you know the Spacebar trick, there is very little reason you'll ever need to use the hand tool from the toolbox!

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Zooming (Zoom Tool)

Now select the Zoom tool in the toolbox. Notice the same three "fit" buttons in the options bar, just like the hand tool. If you want the document window to resize as you zoom in and out, check the "Resize Windows to Fit" box on the options bar. You've already learned a few different ways to change the magnification of your image — the zoom control in the status bar, the context-sensitive menu, and double clicking the zoom tool. Let's look at a few more.
When the zoom tool is selected, the cursor becomes a magnifying glass with a plus sign. The plus sign indicates that you're all set to zoom in. All you need to do is click to increase magnification. If you want to zoom in on a specific are of the image click and drag a rectangle around the area you want to magnify. This will enlarge the selected area to fill the workspace. Try it now. To return to 100% magnification, use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl-Alt-0 (Win) or Cmd-Option-0 (Mac). To zoom in without switching to the zoom tool, use Ctrl-+(plus sign) on Windows or Command-+ (plus sign) on Macintosh.
To switch to zoom out mode, you can click the zoom out button on the options bar. However, it is much easier to use the keyboard shortcuts. When you hold down the Alt (Win) or Option (Mac) key, the zoom cursor will change to a minus sign in the magnifying glass, and you can click to zoom out. To zoom out without switching to the zoom tool, use Ctrl-- (minus sign) on Windows orCmd-- (minus sign) on Macintosh.
Let's review each of the zoom tool options:

• No modifier key = click to zoom in; click and drag to zoom into a specific area
• Double click zoom tool button = zoom to 100% magnification
• Ctrl-Alt-0 (Win) / Cmd-Option-0 (Mac) = zoom to 100% magnification
• Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) = click to zoom out

Here are a few more zoom shortcuts we have not yet covered:

• Ctrl-0 (Win) / Cmd-0 (Mac) = zoom to fit the screen
• Ctrl (Win) / Cmd (Mac) = temporarily toggles to the move tool

Working in Photoshop generally involves a lot of zooming and panning, so now you are well on your way. By memorizing the most common keyboard shortcuts related to zooming and panning, these functions will become second nature to you and you'll be able to work much faster.

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