Overview of the Toolbar

Overview of the Toolbar

Learn where to find the toolbar, change its placement, and how to customize it based on your needs.

When to use

The toolbar is one of the most important collections of tools inside Photoshop that will help you bring your ideas to life.

Instructions

• To begin, click on the dark gray bar at the top of the toolbar and drag it towards the center of your screen to undock it.
• In addition to having the toolbar float, you can also dock it on the left or the right side by dragging it towards either side and releasing the cursor once the edge of the screen turns blue.
• Click on the two small white arrows in the upper right corner of the toolbar to change it into a two column view.
• Clicking on this again will restore the toolbar into a single column.
• If we click and hold on the three small white dots at the bottom of the toolbar we will see an option called 'Edit Toolbar'.
• Click on the 'Edit Toolbar' option and you will then be prompted with the Customize Toolbar Panel.
• Inside this panel, you can easily change the shortcut keys for any of the tools by highlighting the letter and replacing it by typing something else.
• In addition to changing the keyboard shortcut, you can drag some of the lesser used tools over to the right side where it says 'Extra Tools'.
• Doing this will move all of the tools out of the main toolbar and all the way to the bottom of your toolbar.
• Click 'Done' to exit out of the Customize Toolbar Panel.
• After that, we have the foreground and background colors.
• We can toggle between the two using the keyboard shortcut 'X'.
• If you want to fill your layer with your foreground color, use the keyboard shortcut Alt/Option + Delete.
• To fill your layer with your background color, use the keyboard shortcut Command/Ctrl + Delete.
• Beneath your colors is a button called Quick Mask Mode, which we will talk about later in the course.
• After Quick Mask Mode is the Screen Mode.
• Clicking and holding on the Screen Mode tool will reveal three different options - Standard Screen Mode, Full Screen Mode With Menu Bar, and Full Screen Mode.
• The shortcut key for changing your Screen Mode is the letter 'F' on the keyboard.
• After the Screen Mode is one last icon and this is the Generate Image Tool, which we will cover later in the course.
• Two other important tools to touch on are the Hand Tool (Spacebar) and the Move Tool (V).
• Clicking and holding the Spacebar and then dragging around your document allows you to easily navigate around the canvas.
• The Move Tool is the very first tool in the Toolbar, and this is the primary tool that can be used to move, drag, and select different objects on your canvas.

Hints & tips

• If at any point you're curious what a tool does, you can hover your cursor over the tool to see the name of the tool, the keyboard shortcut, a description, and a short animation that will give you a better idea of what that tool is used for.
• The shortcut key for the Move Tool is the letter 'V' on the keyboard.
• The shortcut key for the Hand Tool is the Spacebar key.
• To change your Screen Mode press the letter 'F' on the keyboard.
• To fill a layer with your foreground color, press Alt/Option + Delete on the keyboard.
• To fill a layer with your background color, press Command/Ctrl + Delete on the keyboard.
• To toggle between your foreground and background colors, press the letter 'X' on the keyboard.