I really don't like the new Photoshop interface. It takes up a lot more screen space, and it seems like Im constantly clicking to open and close palettes. Meanwhile, I stare longingly at the open, AND WASTED, space near the top right hand corner of the screen where the Palette Well once sat.

Most of my files have dozens if not hundreds of layers, so I like to keep my layers palette open. I experimented with having the layers palette collapse into icon mode, but it seemed like I was constantly clicking to open the palette. Furthermore, when the layers palette opens up from its icon it takes up way more screen space than it did in CS2.

See screenshots:
Layers Palette in CS3: <http://www.fornus.com/CS3-LayersPalette.jpg> Layers Palette in CS2: <http://www.fornus.com/CS2-LayersPalette.jpg>

The most frustrating aspect of the new interface is trying to find a place to put the palettes that once sat in the Palette Well. I am currently putting these palettes to the left of the layers palette, but as you can clearly see from the screenshots below this is wasting a lot of screen space.

See screenshots:
Wasteful CS3 Interface: <http://www.fornus.com/CS3.jpg> Efficient CS2 Palette Well: <http://www.fornus.com/CS2.jpg>

The new dock opens palettes into the center of the screen where they typically cover up the image I am trying to work on. The old Palette Well opened palettes down the side of the screen away from the image.

For the final insult, Adobe changed the background color of the palettes to a very light shade of gray. This makes the new palettes more prominent thereby making it even more obvious how much screen space they are wasting.

Thanks Adobe. You have over-engineered an otherwise excellent product, and created a problem where there was none. Congratulations!

fornus

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WHY DID THEY TAKE THE PALETTE WELL AWAY?