In CS3 the Photoshop application with palettes, etc. is on my left monitor and my working document (image) is on the right. Anytime I open an image, boom, it automatically opens on the right monitor. It remembers that the right monitor is where I last had an image document open, so the next one opens there automatically.
In CS4 I can't figure out how to do this. Every document I open shows up on the left monitorm and I have to drag it over to the right where I want it. This continues to happen even if I uncheck "Open Documents as Tabs".
Anyone know how to change this? I'm sure I must be missing something simple.
I dunno if there's a way without this workaround but if not you could always swap monitors. If CS4 will remember where the panels are but not the image window then just have the image window on the left and all the tools and panels on the right. If you hate the positioning terribly I suppose you could take this logic a step further and change the monitor cables or make Monitor 1 become Monitor 2 in the OS settings.
Thanks, but it doesn't seem to work this way. The problem is that the image being opened always wants to "land" or "dock" directly on the left side of the application window under File, Edit, etc. So physically changing the monitor setup or placing the main application on the right monitor instead of the left does not help. Not sure I explained that very well. Good idea, though.
Which monitor does your operating system identify as monitor #1?
I seem to be having the same problem--but as a mirror image, so it's not a matter of CS4 wanting to dock the image under the menu. And it's inconsistent.
In my case, I keep the main window on the left monitor (full-screen), with Navigator and other palettes on the right monitor. The image will not always appear on the right monitor in the main window (under the menu)...about 25% of the time, it appears under the palettes on the right window.
In windows, the right monitor is #1 and the left monitor is #2, but even if I switch them, the image will appear about 25% of the time under the palettes.
I talked to Adobe Thursday and the image will always snap open inside the application "frame," and at the upper left. This is the case whether tabbed or not. But after talking with them I was able to come up with a reasonable alternative that fits me well.
Here's what I was able to do. Keep in mind my calibrated monitor for my image is on the right. The monitor on the left is the one my OS recognizes as #1 and is the main desktop. It is not where I want my image when editing.
I put my CS4 application on the right monitor. All of my palettes are docked on my left monitor and they show up there immediately when opening CS4. So on monitor right, I have the application window with menus at the top, my tools palette over to the left edge, and my image(s). On monitor left I have palettes only; my histogram, layers palette, actions palette, character palette, and so on. They are "floating" over my desktop or whatever application I have open at the time, like Firefox or email.
This is taking some getting use to since it's a little different than my CS3 layout, but it works great. It is even more convenient in some ways because my commands (file, edit, etc.) are now closer being directly above my image on the right monitor, yet they do not really steal from the image real estate. It's the palettes I wanted out of the way.
I had always thought the palettes needed to stay inside the application "frame". I did not realize they can sit alone whether inside or outside the application "frame", and no matter where, they default to the location I left them upon opening CS4.
Hope this explanation makes sense.
Two "quirks":
- if you don't use tabbed mode, maximizing your image to fit the screen totally overlays the file menu, etc. at the top of the CS4 application. Weird and a bummer! I'm ok working in tabbed mode 99% of the time, though, so not a huge deal. But why they did this is not intuitive to me.
- for the setup that I described above to work, I think I finally decided you need to turn off "Enable Floating Document Window Docking" in preferences. I went through so many combinations of these settings that I can't remember for sure, but I think this is required. Everything is working great for me, and this function is turned off (not 100% sure whether it matters, though).
Whatever setup you settle on, be sure to create a custom Workspace so you can return to it should things get out of sorts or somehow return to the default.
I talked to Adobe Thursday and the image will always snap open inside the application "frame," and at the upper left. This is the case whether tabbed or not. But after talking with them I was able to come up with a reasonable alternative that fits me well.
If it actually worked that way, I wouldn't have my problem.
In my case, the image opens up under the palettes on my secondary monitor, leaving the application frame empty. I see the image has loaded because it's in the Navigator, but I have to pull the Navigator aside and drag the image over to the application window.
RDKirk wrote:
If it actually worked that way, I wouldn't have my problem.
In my case, the image opens up the palettes on my secondary monitor, leaving the application frame empty. I see the image has loaded because it's in the Navigator, but I have to pull the Navigator aside and drag the image over to the application window.
That's odd. For the life of me, no matter what I tried including changing a variety of items in Preferences, I could not get the image to open anywhere other than inside the CS4 application window. If the palettes are inside the application frame, then the imaged does in fact open underneath the palettes.
Perhaps our monitor/video cards are setup differently.
Turn off the Application Frame and then your images should open where you want them to. I have the identical setup as yours, have Tabbed windows disabled and Application frame turned off and it works perfectly, except for the insipid Adjustments Panel.
Peter Figen wrote:
Turn off the Application Frame and then your images should open where you want them to. I have the identical setup as yours, have Tabbed windows disabled and Application frame turned off and it works perfectly, except for the insipid Adjustments Panel.
Yeah, I know about tabbed Windows but was asking about Peter's reference to the Application Frame. After doing a little bit of Googling, I think this is MAC specific. I'm a PC dude.
