We’re excited to announce that new contextual task bars are now available in Photoshop Public Beta. We know that finding the right tool, at the right time, can sometimes slow down a great workflow. Our new contextually aware task bars aim to help by providing common tools, actions and next steps right on the canvas where you’re working. We are currently launching five bars for importing new documents, making selections and using the Type Tool. Learn more below:
Open Image or File
- This bar will appear when you open an image or file in Photoshop (i.e. not a new, empty document)
New Document Workflow
- This bar will appear if you open a new, blank document from the Photoshop home screen
- If you choose to select “import image”, your image will be placed in the document as a Smart Object and the Free Transform bar will appear to help finalize placement
Type Tool Workflow
- This bar will appear when you select the Type tool from the tool bar and draw a text box on the canvas
Selections Workflow
- Once a selection is made, a selection edit bar will appear with options to refine the selection or create a mask
Tips and Other Menu Functionality
- Pin bar position
- You can pin and un-pin any bar from the “more menu”. Pinning will hold your bar (and all subsequent bars) where it was placed on the canvas until un-pinned from the “more menu” performed
- Reset bar position
- The context bar moves with you as you work on the canvas, keeping relevant tools at your finger tips. If you would like to reset the position, you can do so from the “more menu”
- Hide bar
- You can always hide the bar if you’d like to remove it completely, or temporarily, from the canvas. If you’d like to re-open the bar at any point, go to Window > Contextual Task Bar
We need your feedback!
Please let us know what you think and how we could improve the new Contextual Task Bar.
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Replies
About the best you can do for now is move the Contextual Task Bar to where you want it, then click on the 3 liitle dots and Pin bar position.
This only lasts until you restart Photoshop.
@Gaisen you can position the contextual task bar by dragging here, note is will revert to the original position when you re-open Photoshop
this small selection bar is very often in the way of what i try to do, it's a great idea but i wish it stayed where i put it! next time i use the marquee or any selection tool it reappears in its original location, which is in the middle of my selection area! if part of the desired selection area overlaps with the toolbar, the selection tool gets blocked and i have to stop and move the toolbar before i can continue.
love the new beta version!! generative fill will definitely be a game changer!!!
Hey guys!
I downloaded the new photoshop beta, with the intelligent fill function. Seems great, but the placement of the menu is rather annoying - i need to look at a composition usually and not only to a selected area. With each selection, Photoshop produces a menu right below the selection, and I wish Adobe to change it into a menu that i can place somewhere else or, like the selection tool already was, make a top menu where i can do these things.
Is it me? or is this a point for improvement?
thanx for your thoughts...
If you click on the three little dots you can move the Contextual Task Bar and Pin bar position, however, it will only hold that position till you restart photoshop, so hopefully Adobe will fix that in an update.
an additional control panel often appears on top of the text and forces you to constantly manually move it to another place.
It would be great if it was possible to customize and save its default position in a convenient place for the user. Thank you!
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