New Bridge Content Tab is awful...

[Carson Jones]

I've been using Adobe products professionaly for over 20 years.  Please stop making your apps worse by 'making them better'.  The new Bridge Content Tab behaviour is problematic since it doesn't actually load folders as users right-click and choose Browse in Adobe Bridge 2023.  It'll open one but not subsequent folders.  I've uninstalled it (now for the second time since the initial release wouldn't work with Image Processor in Photoshop).

Again Adobe - your software is used by professionals who make their living and support their families with it.  Stop using your customers as a trouble-shooting platform to fix issues that should been caught in a beta program.

Very frustrating.

[gary_sc]

HI @Carson Jones, I'm sorry, but I'm not following what you're doing with Tabs that is unsuccessful for you.

As one who's used Adobe Bridge since it was first released in 2005, I, and many others, have been asking for Tabs from the beginning. Obviously, no one but Adobe knew how they'd be implemented, and I assure you that the loss of multiple Windows was never part of our wish. From what I've heard, the Adobe engineers are working on replacing multiple Windows but no one knows when they will arrive. 

Below is a current model for various ways of using the Tabs in Bridge. This may not satisfy all your needs, but it might provide some ideas and approaches that may work for you.

As far as Image Processor goes, that's not Bridge's fault, it's how the applications were installed: the scripts for that are provided by Photoshop. When PS is being installed, it looks for a compatible version of Bridge. If it does not find one, it cannot install the scripts. By this, I mean that if you've put in Bridge 2023 and you're installing PS 2022 next, the scripts will not be installed. If you installed PS 2023 AND THEN installed Bridge, the scripts again will not be installed — order is important.

Here are some guidlines as to how to work with Tabs in Bridge 2023

New Workflows

If you look at the Content Panel, note the hamburger menu on the right-hand side (three horizontal lines). To the left of the Hamburger menu, you'll see a plus (+) (red arrow). If you click on that, you'll get a new Content Panel. If you click on the option in the Hamburger menu for a new Content Panel (green arrow), you'll also get a new Content Panel.

The primary disadvantage of these two options currently is that either will default to a "home" position and are not likely to provide access to the folder you want. Fortunately, for any Content Panel that is active (note the blue square and blue line circling the Panel), if you go to the Recent icon in the icons on top, if you select a folder from there, it will open up in that Content Panel.

Likewise, if you select a folder from the Folders Panel. In addition, if you take an image or a folder and drag it to the Bridge icon in the Dock, THAT folder will open in the active Content Panel. Hopefully, soon they will provide both "Open" and "Recent" options in the Hamburger menu.

 

If you have a folder with other sub-folders, you can always right-click on one of the subfolders, and it can be opened in a new Content Panel

 

Once you have two or more Content Panels, you can drag from one to the other by simply mouse-down on an image (or all selected images), then move the mouse up to the title area of the other Content Panel to make it the active Panel and release. IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE before you do anything, then Comand/Control-z and you'll be good.

Note also that extra Content Panels can be placed and/or moved to any other location in the Bridge window.

I hope this explains some of the new workflows available to you.

[katsoulis]

These "new workflows" are not helpful to many, including myself. Many of us, like you, have been using Bridge since it was first released in 2005 and became fascile and fluent with the process of using two or more windows at a time, which allow easy navigation via folders.

To remove this method is to force users who are fluent in one language to suddenly learn another — and that is generous since the TAB setup is NOT the same and removes a key feature many, many users used daily. 

No one minds tabs or the functionality they may provide. What many of us mind is the critical functionality that has been removed. Functionality we literally use every day. The solution offered all over this forum, to downgrade to the previous version, is a temporary solution and one which will eventually clock out as it Bridge 2022 becomes unsupported. It is an anxiety producting situation. Adobe, and you, should know that a UI creates a mindspace and that making such a monumental change is destablizing. This is not a small matter.

You said that from what you've heard, "the Adobe engineers are working on replacing multiple Windows but no one knows when they will arrive." Where did you hear this? Communication is key and it is often sorely lacking. If Adobe is, indeed, working on bringing the functionality of multple windows back, communicting that to users would be exceedingly helpful and a relief. Not communicating that clearly leaves users in the dark and deeply frustrated.

[lauradubroc]

AMEN to this comment as well! Why do they do this!!!

[Carson Jones]

Hi Gary - I understand that some users would want a tabbed workflow in Bridge and appreciate your response to my post.  What I really don't like here is how Adobe simply threw away a workflow I've been using professionally since the release of Bridge.  I'm sure many other users are also bothered by this.

My workflow is pretty simple in terms of how I use Bridge.  In Windows Explorer (same in Mac OS) I right-click a folder and choose 'Brows in Adobe Bridge 20xx.  Bridge has always simply opened and this folder is displayed in the Content window.  Each time I do this using a different folder (i.e. project folder) it opens in the Content window.  It's an easy and quick way to view files and work with them in any of the Adobe apps.

With this latest release and the tabbed workflow I'm able to right-click in Windows Explorer once only and have a folder open in Bridge in a Content tab.  Any subsequent right-clicks of other folders in Explorer to open in Bridge don't open in any Content tab (existing or new).  Adobe has basically broken the workflow that is well established and fast for my use and it has been this way since Bridge was released.

Back to my original post... Adobe please stop making things worse by 'making things better'.  At the very least they should have a legacy Content panel option that removes the tabbed worflow outright.

[Jeremy28305559zfb2]

Hi Gary,

Thank you for the detailed explanation of the new tabbed layout of Bridge. My question for you: is there an easy way to cycle or switch between Content tabs so I can visually compare selected images in the Preview tab? The way I used to do this was to open a new window in Bridge and drag the windows in the same position and use the keyboard shortcut Command+`

With the new workflow the only way I can switch is using the mouse which slows me WAY down. I can do a lot with keyboard shortcuts alone but this one really throws a rock in the cogs, so to speak.

[gary_sc]

Currently, the only two ways I know to cycle back and forth is either by clicking on the header of the Content Tabs or, from the Window menu, you can go to the Content option and there should be a fork of any Content Tabs. 

While the former is tedious, the latter is really only good if you have more Content tabs that can be displayed and it's easier to select the desired one. But, for what you want, it would be significantly more tedious.

I encourage you to go to https://adobebridge.uservoice.com/ and request this there. The Bridge engineers do monitor that site.

 

 

[Carson Jones]

Wow - after a week or two of using the new Bridge version I really can't stand it.  It's awful.  Tabs confuse the workflow unnecessarily if you have Project folders that share a common structure (e.g. V001, V002, V003, etc.).  It turns a well established workflow into a nightmare.  Adobe... What you think is progress should not come at the cost of professional users having to throw away solid and proven workflows.  An option to deactivate tabs is critical if I'm going to continue using Bridge.  I'm really put off by how Adobe changed this with no regard for how it would affect users.

[Lumigraphics]

I would love to see a "Classic Mode" with the various new features but multiple windows without tabs, if having both at once is too much of a problem.

[AH_Photography]

Version 12.04 is "Classic Mode" or as close to it.

[meyrickgj]

Absolutley - all these tabs just clog up the machine. 

Many may want tabs - let them have them. But at least let us be able to turn them off. 

[defaultxqkn0oayz4t6]

I agree. This is 2 steps forward, 4 steps back. Adobe has taken away the ability to tab between windows and leverage keyboard shortcuts which is what all power users THRIVE on. To expect users to click between content panels is unacceptable.

[VarunVarshney]

Hi all,

We are happy to announce the release of Adobe Bridge 2024 (Version 14.0.0.102).
This release brings back support for ‘Multiple Windows’ along with a few new features.

This release introduces the support for ‘Keyboard Shortcut Customization’ along with a few new features.

The detailed guide to using the keyboard shortcut customization feature is at : https://helpx.adobe.com/bridge/using/keyboard-shortcuts-panel.html

For a complete list of features available in Bridge 2024 (v14.0), please refer to the community post :
https://community.adobe.com/t5/bridge-discussions/adobe-bridge-14-0-is-now-available/td-p/14081355

Regards,
Bridge Team

[katsoulis]

Thank you! I'm sure I speak for many of us when I say that we appreciate Adobe listening to our feedback.

[katsoulis]

I'll also add that while we do appreciate Adobe's efforts, Bridge 2024 (v14.0) is, at this time, running at about half to a quarter of the speed of Bridge 2022 (v12.0.4)

[wckdtall]

@VarunVarshney I didn't see mention of option dragging to the bridge icon to open a new window with a new path. Might have been a slightly different shortcut but is it back as well? Kudos to the team on bringing back this much needed feature! Content tabs are good in theory but not in practice.

[Carson Jones]

I absolutely hate the new version of Bridge.  The tabbed interface is clunky, introduces errors in to the pipeline, and is generally experienced as a much worse experiencee than previous versions.

For those of us in production we typically have a fixed folder structure for projects.  Many projects have folders that share the same name and have subfolders that share the same naming.  It's incredibly easy in the 'forced' tabbed setup to begin working on the wrong set of files (e.g. V002) when we've got several tabs open that have the same files but are in their version folders.  Now we must contantly waste time checking in Bridge to confirm that we're in the correct tab and not working on the wrong version of images.  This is an introduced flaw in the workflow chain and there's no excuse that warrants removing a long standing 'way of doing things' by forcing users to use an absolutely awful tabbed UI.

[Ash Mills Photography]

Making the Content tabs even worse is the limitation on the length of folder name- it truncates the folder name by trimming out the middle section of the folder name - so if the folder is named "2023_01_20_Water Meadows"   it becomes "2023_01....er Meadows"     - not very handy if you are switching between folders in the tabs...  

[JoseGIHP]

also, why does the word "Content" need to be in EVERY tab. It takes up space and forces the truncated folder names

[Guest]

+1: I hate the 2023 Bridge

[lauradubroc]

AMEN to this comment. Do they even test their "upgrades" before having billions of users use them? You couldn't convince me.

[lesnicole]

What makes me want to rip my hair out over the new tabs is that it is hair trigger sensitive. I am constantly rearranging the tabs by accident by the barest of touches in the wrong place. It happens over and over no matter how careful I try to be. I want to scream I'm so frustrated by it!! In general, I like the new tabs, but this one thing is horrid!! I just accidentally closed the Folders tab and I don't know how to get it back!

[Russell31225784cj8y]

Ive been using Bridge professionally for 10+ years now.. and here I am,  searching the internet trying to fiugure out how to use Bridge again.  Im convinced Adobe arubtrarily changes things so that updates look "updated".  This new content tab BS is so unnecessary.

[lauradubroc]

Agreed. They do this with new model of cars as well. Oh and have you all bought a new washing machine lately? They have "sensing technology" in them. Even the service repair man said to me, "They are a piece of crap." C'est la vie.

[Tanu Goel]

Hi,

The latest beta build 14.0.0.57 brings back support for multi-window feature. 
For complete list of features available in the build please refer
https://community.adobe.com/t5/bridge-discussions/adobe-bridge-beta-is-now-available-14-0-0-57/td-p/...

Regards,
Bridge Team