I got CS4 installed. Now what?

heatherdumas

heatherdumas

New member
I opened it up to scrap last night, and I just stared at it for a while. I pushed a few buttons. I opened the bridge. Then I shut down my laptop so as to resist the urge to open PSE4. I may be a bit overwhelmed. :confused:
 
Open up a template.
Open up some papers and elements.
Open up some pictures.

Start scrapping. When you come to something you don't know how to do, ask here or use the help feature.

(Control-alt-g to clip something to the layer below.
Control-J to copy a layer/selection to a new layer above.)

Don't open PSE!
 
I agree. When I first started using PS instead of PSP -- it was soooooo hard not to go back. But I just used templates until I was more comfortable and really, it only takes a couple of pages before you'll get the hang of what you'll use most! :)
 
Or you can double click the layer in the pallet to get the layer styles box to open. :)

I *love* CS4. LOVE IT. Did yours come with a free 30 day subscription to Lynda.com? If so, USE IT. They've got some awesome video tuts on getting started in CS4.

Congrats!!!
 
OR flick on the circle with the f in it at the bottom of the layers palette :p
Lots of ways to get to stuff.

Have fun and don't give up!!
 
Libby Weifenbach said:
Or you can double click the layer in the pallet to get the layer styles box to open. :)

I *love* CS4. LOVE IT. Did yours come with a free 30 day subscription to Lynda.com? If so, USE IT. They've got some awesome video tuts on getting started in CS4.

Congrats!!!
Click to expand...

It is an oprion as my free gift! I wasn't sure if it was what I wanted, but now I know. You gals are the best!
And Meeeeeeegan, join me. I am scurred to be alone. Did you get your activation nuber from Adobe yet? They kept asking for my student ID. I kept sending it. Took hours for them to look at the document and see the id was on there.
 
And once you get a shadow the way you like it with changing the color/distance etc. Make sure you save it!! I have one for papers, one for vellum, one for buttons, one for ribbbons, one for big 3-d elements etc.

Then go in and right click on the little f, and select create layer. Then your shadow is on its own layer and you can play around even more. Usually I add a slight wave to papers' shadows so they aren't perfectly flat, and I tend to warp a little the ribbons/flowers' shadows.

LOTS to play with with shadows!!

Here's the tutorial that I learned by (lots more out there I'm sure, but I love the pics she gives)http://mistycatodesigns.blogspot.com/2007/06/realistic-drop-shadows.html
 
heatherdumas said:
I opened it up to scrap last night, and I just stared at it for a while. I pushed a few buttons. I opened the bridge. Then I shut down my laptop so as to resist the urge to open PSE4. I may be a bit overwhelmed. :confused:
Click to expand...

For some reason, my computer would not let me install CS4, so we had to take every bit of Adobe off my computer, and I had lost my disc to reinstall PSE4, so it's gone :(

I have my disc for PSE6, but I don't like it, so I have no choice but to learn to use CS4. I've figured a few things out, but others are just so frustrating! Actions certainly are easier to install though, but I know I shouldn't leave them loaded in there, and I can't figure out how to delete it!!

I got the upgrade price from my PSE. It is just the basic CS4...not the master collection.
 
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4noisyboys said:
For some reason, my computer would not let me install CS4, so we had to take every bit of Adobe off my computer, and I had lost my disc to reinstall PSE4, so it's gone :(

I have my disc for PSE6, but I don't like it, so I have no choice but to learn to use CS4. I've figured a few things out, but others are just so frustrating! Actions certainly are easier to install though, but I know I shouldn't leave them loaded in there, and I can't figure out how to delete it!!

I got the upgrade price from my PSE. It is just the basic CS4...not the master collection.
Click to expand...

Come learn with me! It is friendlier with 2!
 
4noisyboys said:
Actions certainly are easier to install though, but I know I shouldn't leave them loaded in there, and I can't figure out how to delete it!!
Click to expand...

Oh actions are super easy in CS4. In your actions pallet, just click once to highlight the action that you want to delete, then click the little trash can at the bottom of the pallet. Then when you're ready to use it again, just drag and drop it back into your CS4 workspace. I have a few that I keep loaded all the time, but most of them I delete and reinstall as I need them.

And you guys know you can customize your work space, right? You can make your screen look any way you want it. Get rid of tabs/pallets that you don't use, add on more than you DO use, etc. Then you can save it (I call mine something uber creative like "Libby's workspace"), so every time you start up CS4, your work space is customized to your liking. There's an awesome tut at Lynda.com, but I can show you screenshots if you guys need more help with it.
 
Oh yeah def true! I use CS2 (still toying around with upgrading, but since I just spent $ on a lens it will have to wait!)
 
Yea, I'm playing with it now.
What I would really love, if is the filter tab could be pulled out into a menu palette. That would rock my socks.
 
heatherdumas said:
Come learn with me! It is friendlier with 2!
Click to expand...

I'm right here with ya Heather!!

Ok...a few questions for you CS4 wizards!

I want everything to be in their own floating window. I set it to do that in preferences, but I still have to go in and change it to it while I'm loading more things in. It keeps going back to tabbed (and I turned that off).???

Also, when I click on something on my layout, I want it to show that item highlighted in my layers. How do I do that?

And Libby...thanks for telling me how to delete the actions!! There is going to be so much to learn in CS4...I'm looking forward to it though!
 
4noisyboys said:
I'm right here with ya Heather!!

Ok...a few questions for you CS4 wizards!

I want everything to be in their own floating window. I set it to do that in preferences, but I still have to go in and change it to it while I'm loading more things in. It keeps going back to tabbed (and I turned that off).???

Also, when I click on something on my layout, I want it to show that item highlighted in my layers. How do I do that?
Click to expand...

If someone figures out the first one, I'd love to know.

As for the second, it should be doing that automatically. I've not done anything to settings and my layers are highlighted in the palette when I click on it in the layout.
 
Leila said:
If someone figures out the first one, I'd love to know.

As for the second, it should be doing that automatically. I've not done anything to settings and my layers are highlighted in the palette when I click on it in the layout.
Click to expand...

I figured out the second one. I needed the Auto-Select button for layers clicked. Yay!! That part will make it easier now!
 
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I had to run errands so I shut down for a bit. But there is a lot of helpful stuff here. So I would like to keep this thread going for a bit.
 
I'm loving this thread too. I just ordered CS4 with Adobe's Elements upgrade special. I upgraded from PSE5 to PSE6 just a month ago when I got the software with my Wacom tablet and now I'm making the jump to CS4. Woohoo! Now I can't wait to get it in my hands and try out all of these tricks! :thumbup:
 
As some of you may've guessed from my mac help questions, I have now got CS3 extended. It's just as foreign to me, going from pse 6 to this, as it is for Heather and her transition,lol. Only difference is I've got that on the Mac,lol.
Big thing is I don't have any templates there on the Mac,lol. Guess I'd best dl that cookie onto it :P
 
heatherdumas said:
I opened it up to scrap last night, and I just stared at it for a while. I pushed a few buttons. I opened the bridge. Then I shut down my laptop so as to resist the urge to open PSE4. I may be a bit overwhelmed. :confused:
Click to expand...

I'm with you too... only I didn't resist the urge. I'm still using PSE6 - although I'm slowly migrating to CS4 to do shadows, text paths, etc...

So much to take in...
 
Love this thread! I just installed CS4 on Wednesday night (upgrading from PSE5). Haven't had much time to play yet, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions. Trying not to miss being able to drag and drop papers/elements/etc. into my new document...

Oh, I do have a question. Can someone tell me about the 8-bit, 16-bit, etc. choices when opening a new document?
 
You can only save a jpeg as an 8 bit file so there really is no point (as far as I can tell) in going 16 bit. Especially if your photos etc are 8 bit to begin with KWIM?!

When I switched to RAW I had this come up and finally realized when I wanted to save them as jpegs to use that I needed to be in 8 bit.
 
Okay, here is my first CS4 layout.
showphoto.php
I played a little with shadows, but nothing too fancy. What do you think?
 
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