Yeah, there is one, and I can’t remember the name of it right now.
It does stuff like auto-hides palettes until you hover over them…something like that. It’s Windows-only.
Phosphor,
That sounds similar to the approach taken in PaintShop Pro, where their palettes auto-minimized for less screen clutter. The first time I saw that, I thought it seemed a good idea. But, in the long run I found I favored an always-open or always-closed approach as taken in Photoshop, fully knowing the Tab and Shift+Tab shorcuts give quick access to a decluttered workspace if needed.
Thanks,
Daryl
Daryl I don’t think there is another toolbar type plug-in for Photoshop. Don’t know why, seems like a good idea since Adobe seems to of the mind the every other program on mother Earth should have a button bar but Photoshop.
As for the one Phosphor mentioned I have seen it mentioned as well. But, don’t remember the name either.
My problem with plug-ins like this is that they are forcing a program to do things it was never meant to do. How much of this trickery involves hack type programming to get it to work (Photobars being one that I think has to do some pretty good hacking to work). It just seems that you stand a much better chance of causing major application problems with programs like this.
Another thing is that Extension has updated Photobars in a couple of versions of Photoshop and so who knows how well that old code is going to work with the new versions. Then that other program is shareware and so one has to wonder about that as well.
I think we need to keep after Adobe and get them to put in a customizable button bar system for Photoshop CSS, 2005.5 or 9.0 or whatever they plan to call the next version.
Robert
Hi Robert,
Whether or not we’ll ever see Photoshop with a native capability to create customized toolbars, I don’t know. Actually my question here was just one of curiosity as to whether Photobars was the only plug-in for Photoshop that integrates itself into, or otherwise affects, the GUI.
Regards,
Daryl
Just out of curiosity, Daryl, do you have any decently-reliable numbers on how many people are using your updated Phototools? What sort of email feedback have you received? If you care to reveal the numbers, that is…
I wonder, because I figure that if Extensis found themselves selling lots of their original Phototools, they might have continued to update it. That you have taken it upon yourself to do so reveals a true labor of love, as far as I can tell.
Hi Phosphor,
I keep a distribution list of all who have donated toward my Photobars 6 remapping efforts as well as those who paid the remapping fee for Photobars 7. Although an earlier list was lost in a hard drive crash, most of the names were recovered and from that I can tell you there are at least 89 users of Photobars 6 (well more than that probably, since it was freely provided "donation ware") and 199 users of Photobars 7. I suspect there are also quite a few more users of Photobars 7 than I’m aware of, because apparently even something that only cost $6 is still worthy of pirating, ha! Over 8800 hits on my Photobars page also suggests stronger interest than my known list of users indicates. The e-mail I’ve received has been overwhelmingly appreciative, with some folks even paying more than than I charged for Photobars 7. I’ve been encouraged to charge more for my remapping fee for Photobars CS, but I don’t expect to raise the price much, if any. It depends upon how much work is involved in updating all the toolbars and buttons, and creating additional ones for the new features in PS CS.
Actually, Extensis has continued to update Phototools such that it is compatible through to PS7. Whether or not an upgrade will be needed for PS CS, I don’t know but I’ll soon be finding out. I am of the understanding from a user of the PS release candidate that Photobars partially works with PS CS, so I’m hopeful that no further updates are needed from Extensis for the full Phototools package to work.
One thing confusing about Extensis’ last update of Phototools 3.06 (Windows) was they didn’t roll the version number as they should have, but the "new" 3.06 does correct problems that the original 3.06 had with PS7.
I’ve been hopeful that Extensis might resume providing Photobars on their own. That they still sell Phototools for $149 seems a rip-off if they aren’t going to include the most useful component and keep it updated to the latest version of PS for both the Windows and Mac communities. At least their tech support folk do refer Windows users of Phototools to my website for the Photobars supplement.
Regards,
Daryl
"Actually, Extensis has continued to update Phototools such that it is compatible through to PS7."
Oops…my mistake. I was confusing the terminated update path of Extensis Photographics with that of Phototools. I still use Photographics for Text-on-a-Path when I don’t feel like swapping files back and forth with Illustrator (or need to because of simplicity), and will continue to do so until I upgrade both my hardware (to G5 Dualie) and software (OS X 10.3 and Photoshop 8.)
I was never much for Phototools because I’m such a shortcut freak. I tried it for awhile, but found the extra clutter wasn’t speeding my efficiency at all. I’m happy, though, that you’re doing this for those folks who DO find it helpful to their particular workflow. And I also think it’s pretty cool that Extensis sends folks to you for the supplement.
Cheers to you for a job well done.
Phosphor,
Thankfully PhotoGraphics hasn’t needed any updating yet on the Windows platform, as it has been truly useful for its text-on-a-path feature. PS CS may finally make Photographics needless. It sounds as though Photographics continues to service the needs of Mac users unless you’re saying that it works for you on an older Mac OS variant but not the newer ones. A dual G5 would surely be a very nice machine to have.
I like using a combination of shortcuts and tooolbars. If this problem of the control key not working is truly a problem in the Windows version of Photoshop CS, Photobars will be a saving grace to quickly access CTRL+ commands until Adobe provides a fix.
Thanks for the kudos,
Daryl
There was just the hiding palettes one and that was it as far as I know or have seen.
Robert
