Photoshop CS4 (and all earlier versions) can seem intimidating when used for the first time, there are lots of things to click, menus to browse through and palettes to use...quite often you cannot see the wood for the trees, how can you get among the trees if there is no path? We'll make one!
In this article we'll just explore Photoshop a little and I'll explain the different parts of it to you. Open Photoshop CS4 and this is what you will see, all previous versions will look similar too.

1. Menu Bar

To the left of the circled No 1 in the screenshot above is the menu and application bar, the menu bar contains the words (File through to Help) that when clicked reveal a dropdown menu of items, the application bar is just to the right of the word “Help” and runs all the way to the circled No1. The application bar is new for Photoshop CS4 and contains quick access to most often used tools and layouts.

If we look at one of the menu bars dropdown box we see the following if we click on “File”. All of the commands will be on the left, but to the right you will see some writing next to those commands. For example next to “New” you will see on the right “Ctrl+N”, this is a Photoshop keyboard shortcut. So, rather than clicking with your mouse on “File/New” you can hold down the “Ctrl” key on your keyboard (bottom left corner of keyboard) and hit the “N” key for the same result as going through the menu bar. These keyboard shortcuts can greatly speed up and improve your workflow and drastically cut down the amount of time you spend processing your photos.

Here are a few common shortcuts to illustrate the point;

So knowing these commands, open a photo in Photoshop, and then do the following. Hold down the “Ctrl” key with the little finger of your left hand and keep it held down all the way through this, now with the index finger of the same hand press “A”, then press “C”, then press “N” and wait for the new file box to open, when it is open with your right hand press enter, when the new document opens go back to your left hand and press “V”, now you can release the “Ctrl” key and your done. You have just made a new duplicate document of your opened photo super speedy using shortcuts, using the menu commands instead of shortcuts would have taken much longer. Photoshop is designed this way to allow you to automate robot like, many tasks and as you become more experienced with Photoshop you’ll uncover more and more of it and your time processing photos will be cut drastically shorter.

2. Options Bar

Just left of the circled No2 is the options bar; this is where you can define certain things about the tool you are currently using. For example if you are using the text tool to write something, you will be able to change the font in the option bar, along with the colour and size etc.

3. Toolbox

The tall, slim rectangular box above the circled No3 is the toolbox; here you select the different tools you might want to use whilst working on your photos. Fig 1 below is the toolbox, fig2 shows how to access some of the hidden tools, by left clicking and holding that click on the lower right corner of each tool whose corner is shaded, a flyout will appear allowing you to choose one of the hidden tools, similar tools are grouped together this way and can be chosen by moving the mouse of that tool and releasing the left click, held previously.

Fig.1	Fig.2

4. Palettes

All of the right hand side marked No4 are the Photoshop Palettes, there are 23 in total in Photoshop CS4 but not all are open at the same time. You can open or shut these as you wish by clicking on “Window” in the menu bar, then clicking on one of the options from the dropdown menu either removing the tick or adding one. I’ll discuss palettes as the need arises in later articles.

Thats the very basic basics and enough to show you around a little and familiarise you with Photoshop for now.