3.1. How Bridge Differs from the Browser If you're already familiar with the File Browser in Photoshop CS, you'll be happy to know that Adobe Bridge is one of the great reasons why you might want to move up to CS2. One of the most important enhancements is that, although Bridge can act as though it's built into Photoshop, it isn't. It's a standalone program and it works equally well with all the Creative Suite apps. Once you're editing, you can really speed up Photoshop by closing Bridge and, therefore, turning considerable horsepower over to Photoshop. If you want to restart it, it's so easy you'd almost think it had been there all along. The following features are significantly new and different in Bridge for CS2: A new ranking system This feature is an important distinction between Bridge and Browser. To put it simply, Bridge's system is better because it's more simply and direct. You rank with Stars and classify by Labels. What each means is up to you, so there's less to think about. Bridge is scriptable If you're the programmer type (I'm definitely not), there may be ways you can enhance Bridge's workflow capabilities. After a while, you may also be able to find such scripts on the Internet (in fact, maybe even by the time you read this). Customizable background shades I find this especially useful when using the Slideshow or Filmstrip for showing a client approval slideshow on an LCD projector. It's just more likely to impress the client if you can give your presentation its own "look." You can't actually change the color, because only gray is neutral and, therefore, doesn't compete with the colors in the image. Drag and Drop is implemented exactly as it is in Windows Explorer or Mac Finder You can move a folder into or out of another folder by dragging it from the Lightbox window to one of the folders in the Folders panel or to a subfolder or parent folder in your OS. Multiple browser windows can be open at the same time If you view Bridge in Compact Mode, you can see several windows at once, making it easy to use the drag and drop feature to consolidate files from several different folders into a single new folder. If you want to copy the file you're dragging to a new folder, press Cmd/Ctrl while dragging. Variable thumbnail sizing is as easy as dragging the sizing slider Of course, you can still size the Preview window just by dragging its bounding bars. NOTE It's a good idea to put the Bridge cache file for a given folder inside that folder. Then Bridge doesn't have to recalculate large, detailed thumbnails and previews or the sort order of files if the folder is moved. From the Bridge menu, choose Bridge Preferences on a Mac or Edit Preferences Bridge in Windows, or press Cmd/Ctrl-K. In the Preferences dialog, select Use Distributed Cache Files When Possible. 3.2. Customizing Workspaces One of the very best characteristics of Bridge, and one that you will certainly want to make use of, is the ability to create and use panel layouts that allow you to see and sort your images in virtually any way imaginable. This section shows you all the choices for automatic layouts (see Figures 3-2 through 3-6). You can instantly switch to any of these by either making a menu choice or by clicking an icon. The captions for each of these layouts will tell you how to access them. Compact Mode It is a little known secret that you can have as many Bridge windows open at a time as you like. If you put them all into Compact Mode (Figure 3-2), you can browse and open files from several different folders. You can toggle Compact Mode instantly from any Bridge layout by clicking its icon, by choosing it from the View menu, or by pressing Cmd/Ctrl-Enter. Figure 3-2. Bridge in Compact Mode. Slide Show Some prefer this view (Figure 3-3) for ranking images. I find it ideal as a means to show clients a slideshow, rather than making a PDF slideshow. It's faster and I can easily switch to another view if the discussion leads to wanting to add keywords, a label, or some "sticky" notes to the image itself by opening it in Photoshop. Figure 3-3. Bridge in Slide Show mode. Filmstrip view This view (Figure 3-4) allows you to see a selected image with a very large preview window, while the rest of the images in the folder are in a "strip" either across the bottom or down the righthand side. Ordinarily, you'd see the panels on the left, but I like to remove them by dragging the divider bar all the way to the left. This is an ideal view for ranking and labeling images. You might want to save this view without the panels as a custom view. If so, choose Window Save Workspace and enter the name you like into the Save Workspace dialog. Clicking the left and right arrows change the images one at a time. Clicking the dotted circle icon moves the filmstrip to different positions on the screen. Figure 3-4. Bridge in Filmstrip view. Details view This can be a great switch to make if you quickly want to find some information about how the picture was taken. You can see elements such as whether the image has been adjusted in Camera Raw, when the file was created and last modified, the image's title, and more. (See Figure 3-5.) Figure 3-5. Bridge in Details view. Versions and Alternates Using Versions and Alternates requires using the entire suite, so we're not covering it in this book. However, if you do own the entire suite, you should know that Versions and Alternates allows you to reference the various versions of a file so that you can keep track of them and the order in which they were done. Customize your own view Figure 3-6 shows my own customized and preferred view. Simply drag the bar that divides the Lightbox from the Panels until it divides the screen roughly in half. This will give you the largest possible preview window, displaying either vertical or horizontal images. Drag all the panel tabs into one window. Figure 3-6. Bridge customized view. This is the view that I customized for myself and the one that I highly recommend. NOTE But wait, there's more: Bridge allows you to automate certain types of processing, such as creating web galleries, contact sheets, slide shows, making multiple prints on a single sheet of paper, and image conversion. You can also merge multiple images into either an HDR or a panorama, but I'll cover those operations in later chapters. . Filmstrip view. Details view This can be a great switch to make if you quickly want to find some information about how the picture was taken. You can see elements such as whether the image has. Versions and Alternates requires using the entire suite, so we're not covering it in this book. However, if you do own the entire suite, you should know that Versions and Alternates allows