Workspace Mode

PhotoImpact X3 by default has a 'Full Edit' Workmode.  This can be easily customised to suit individual tastes and work types.  In this tutorial I will endeavour to show you how customise and use your own workspace for easier working with PhotoImpact X3..

The PhotoImpact X3 workspace is displayed in Express Fix, Full Edit, Web. Video and DVD modes that contain specific sets of tools depending on the project at hand within PhotoImpact.   When you initially install and open PhotoImpactX3 you will see this:  

 

For this tutorial, we shall begin with Full Edit and progress to a personalised, customised workspace.

Also, you will learn how to customise icons, dockable toolbars and the different ways you can dock them and lastly the tool panels.

Once you have created a personalised workspace it is important that you save this to your hard drive.  You'll learn more about this further on in this tutorial.

1.  Open PhotoImpact.  Above right of your workspace you will see in yellow Full Edit.  This is PhotoImpact's default setting for the use of All tools and settings. 

2. Customising your workspace.  I have my workspace customised ready for painting.  This is a simple procedure to do as many of the tool bars, Menu Bar (a)  Standard Tool Bar (b)  Panel Manager (c)  Tool Box (d)  Panel Manager (e) can be moved around to suit your individual taste.

To see these, right click with your mouse anywhere in the gray area at the top and untick each one at a time to see which bar becomes hidden.  At the end of the pop-up box list is Customise.  Opening this will enable you to customise your Profiles (add and save), Toolbars, Toolbox, Easy Palette and lastly Option.

 

3.  As you will see I already have a customised profile.  I will show you how you can make your own and save that profile and any others that you wish to make and that you can switch from one to the other quite simply.

You can have a painting profile, photography profile, graphics or simply always work in full edit.  However, it is recommended to save any changes you make so your workspace will open exactly how you want, rather than reverting back to default settings.

4.  Let's begin by clicking on Toolbars tab and here you will see your various toolbars.  The two above the line cannont be removed or changed.  The four below the line can be unticked/ticked which will either show or hide toolbars, just the way I explained above in 2. by right clicking on the gray bar at the top and unticking each one to see which toolbar is hidden.  For this exercise we will leave them all ticked.

5.  Commands tab.  This part enables you to add/remove various items to your Standard Tool Bar (the bar just below the dark blue one)  If you click on File in the left panel, you will see it opens a list of items in the left panel.  From the right panel you can drag/drop items onto your toolbar.

As an example we will choose the Save As and add it to the toolbar.  Right click and hold now drag it up onto the tool bar next to the Save icon

Drop it in the position as you see below.

You can follow through adding as many items as you wish onto the toolbar.  You can also follow a similar procedure to remove.  Click on the icon on the toolbar and drag it away. Next you need to save this Profile as your own.

I think the 'Save As' icon is one of the important icons to have on my toolbar.

 

 

5.  To save your Profile, click on the Profile tab in the customise settings box.  At the top you'll see Current (based on Full Edit).  A bar to the right with 'Save Current As....' click on this and give your personal profile a name, preferably something simple like your name with 01.  The newly saved profile will appear under the black line at the lower third of the left box.  This will automatically be saved in PhotoImpact Profiles default folder on your C:\ drive or whatever drive you have installed PhotoImpact on.

I personally like to resave my profile to a different HDD and to do this I choose Export -  then find the folder I have under my personal PhotoImpact files and choose save.  This way, should PI need to be reinstalled the profile is saved in another area..  When this is complete hit the Close bar. Now you have customised your own workspace.

Remember, you can move around many of the tools, but remember to save to your own profile.

 

6.  To choose your customised profile, click on the Full Edit bar's down arrow which is to the right and you will see your newly chosen name.  Click on that and your own workspace is opened.

Below is a snapshot of my personal profile with my brushes added to its own toolbar along with the Panel Manager rather than it being placed on the right side-bar.  All this of course is personal preference.

 

7. In File, Preferences, General, Docking -  Here you can tick/untick which  items in your Easy Palette you wish to have docked - enable/disable.  As you can see I have several disabled as I do not feel the need for those whilst working in my own profile.  Again, this is all personal preference.

 

In the workspace, the menu bar, attribute bar, tool bars etc. are moveable.

You can open and close your Easy Palette to access the Galleries and Library

Don't forget to SAVE your PROFILE and keep a backup of that file on a different hard-drive if possible.

The file saved is a .xum which can be found in:  C drive - Program Files/Corel/PhotoImpactX3/Profiles

1.  Customise

2.  Profiles

3. Save Current As  - give the file a simple but recognisable name and Save in the default folder of Core PhotoImpact X3.

4.  Click the Export button bar and locate a different hard drive to keep the  yourname profile.xum as backup.  The 'Save Type' is Customised Workspace Profile (*.xum)

Each time you make any changes by adding/removing items to your workspace, go through the procedure above, but when it it comes to 'save current as' choose your saved profile name.  In other words, you are updating the current file.

Site created and maintained by Maureen Eves-Lavis

Creative-Designs

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COPYRIGHT: Maureen İCreative-Designs 2005 - 2008 Australia

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