§ 1. Run Photoshop. You will see this work area. Look around. You can see traditional pull-down menu at the top and a few palette windows located all over the main window. Now we have to learn how to customize our workspace. With the potential of using many tools on a single project, it becomes a requirement to know how to display, hide, and arrange the workarea elements.

§ 2. Look at the palettes to your right. By default, they are parked to 2 docks. Only "Navigator", "Color" and "Layers" are expanded; all the other palettes are shown as captions and icons. To open a hidden palette, click its tab or pictogram. If you can't find a palette in your workarea, just select it in the "Window" menu. For example, pull down "Window > Clone Source" to display this palette.

§ 3. On your keyboard, press [TAB] key - all the palettes disappear. Now bring your cursor to the left or right window edge to show the hidden palettes. As soon as you withdraw the cursor the palettes vanish. Tap the [TAB] key once again to get all the hidden palettes back. Bear this trick in mind, because you will use it often while working with large images.

§ 4. To get more free space, the second palette dock is minimized to icons. If you have a spacious display, expand the dock to have all the functions at hand.

§ 5. On the contrary, if you never use some feature, feel free to close the unnecessary palette by clicking its "x" button.

§ 6. Have you noticed that the palettes are grouped to sets? Pull a palette by its tab and bundle it with some other palette set. Or drag it outside the dock to get it free-floating over your workarea.