Saturday, September 13th, 2014

Activate Photoshop’s Full List of Filters

Despite their existence in earlier versions of Photoshop some categories of filters are mysteriously missing from the menus in Photoshop CS6, Photoshop CC and Photoshop CC 2014. This is the default behavior so you won’t find the Artistic, Brush Strokes, Sketch, Stylize or Texture category of filters in the Filters menu. This is a problem if you use these filters so luckily you can bring the filters back when you know how.

It turns out that an option in the Preferences menu acts as gatekeeper for displaying the missing filter categories. To re-enable them, select Edit > Preferences > Plug-Ins…. Then check the box that reads Show all Filter Gallery groups and names. Click OK and restart Photoshop. This will put the filter categories back in the Filters menu.

Now you could have accessed the missing filters from the Filter Gallery but the way the filters are named in the Layers palette is different if you access them from the Filter Gallery rather than from the menu itself. So, if you use Convert for Smart Filters to create a smart object before applying the filters and if you start a filter from the menu then the filter name appears below the layer so you can tell the name of the filter you are applying. This image shows this situation:

If, on the other hand, you start your filter from the Filter Gallery the Layers palette simply shows Filter Gallery – with no indication of which filter you applied. This is what the Layers palette looks like – not very helpful at all.

In short, having the filters back on the menu and selecting them from there is the better option.

Be aware too that the Oil Paint filter was removed from Photoshop CC 2014 so it is gone for good.

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Categories:photoshop

posted by Hunter Delattre @ 10:00 amNo Comments links to this post

Friday, September 27th, 2013

Put the Apps back on my Chrome New Tab! NOW!

If the new Chrome Update (Sep 2013) messed up your browser, here’s how to get the old look back

Ok, I am rightly angry – my Chrome browser just updated and all the Apps on the New Tab (that I had laboriously configured and which I use daily because, hello Google I need them)disappeared.

Sure, I can click the new little Apps button on the Bookmark bar to view them – I get that – but why? I had Chrome all nice and organized – I didn’t need Google’s input to fix it… just like I don’t expect Google to walk into my house and rearrange my desk or my bookshelf or anything else I have organized the way I want it.

So, rant aside, here’s the solution to how to put the Chrome Apps back on the New Tab:

UPDATE:

As of Chrome 33 the option to fix the problem as detailed below (in red) has been removed. Seriously at Google people actually worked hard to remove this feature so we can no longer make Chrome behave the way we want it to? Way to go! Yet another reason I hate the Cloud and I hate apps that automatically update and companies that couldn’t care less about the needs of their user base. I just don’t understand why Google doesn’t listen to its users and help them out instead of giving us a totally useless Google search box in the middle of the new tab window. Now I understand that not everyone wants or likes the old style interface but why break the fix (that worked), for those of us who do?

Ok, today’s solution (until Google folk mess with this and break it too) is to download the New Tab Redirect app from the Chrome Web store here. Once installed, the Extension launches so you can set it to show your apps. So, you need the My New Tab page should show this URL to read:

chrome://apps

You can do this by typing the entry yourself or you can click the Apps button below Quick Save and it will be done automatically for you.

Now, in future when you click the New Tab button it will show your apps.

It works, no thanks to Google.

I hope this solution saves you from the stress of having Chrome apps disappear from your New Tab Page. It has certainly reduced my blood pressure!

1.    Go to the address bar and type this in:

chrome://flags/

2.    Press Enter and then search for this word:

Extended API

This will take you to the Extended API option which is set to Default

3.   From the drop down list choose Disabled and then close and reopen Chrome.

Voila! your browser is now restored to its former glory!

Helen Bradley

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Categories:Windows

posted by Helen Bradley @ 8:52 am4 Comments links to this post

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

Lightroom Maximize, Minimize, Restore, Size, Move and Close buttons missing?

Lightroom maximize minimize close restore size title bar missing

One of the most frustrating things that you’ll encounter with Lightroom is when your entire title bar for the application disappears. You’ll see your menu but everything else including the Close, Minimize, Maximize and other buttons will be missing.

The problem is that you’ve pressed the F key to get to full screen mode.

The solution is to press the F key repeatedly until the screen returns to normal. Too easy? Maybe but it sure is frustrating when you don’t know what happened and how to fix it.

Helen Bradley

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Categories:Uncategorized

posted by Helen Bradley @ 7:19 am5 Comments links to this post

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Restore a file association in Windows Vista

 

image

Don’t ask me how I did it – it has been one of those weeks! but I somehow associated zip files with Photoshop. So, every time I needed to extract the contents of a zip file Photoshop would open and gag on the file – not unsurprising but very annoying.

A fix was required. The solution is in the Registry but it’s not hard to find or to fix. You do need to have your wits about you and never touch anything you don’t understand. Oh! and back up your registry before you start playing with it.

Choose Start > Run > type REGEDIT and click OK and then, when the warning comes up, click Continue. You have to be an admin to use this tool.

Navigate to find this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\

and then locate the extension causing issues, in my case zip

Then find the UserChoice option under this, right click and choose Delete. This removes any custom choice and returns your association to what it was when Vista was first installed. Problem solved!

Finally, choose File> Exit to exit the registry editor.

For more tips and tricks and helpful Office columns, visit Projectwoman.com

Helen Bradley

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Categories:Uncategorized

posted by Helen Bradley @ 2:39 pmNo Comments links to this post