How do you keep panel menus confined to Photoshop

[ktweedlie]

Hi there,

I have started using a widescreen monitor and I make the Photoshop workspace smaller so I can record videos at a 1920x1080 size. When Photoshop is fully open to the full wide screen dimensions I have no issues but when it’s made smaller the menu options in the layers panel jump to the outside rather than inside. I was just wondering if there was anyway to quickly fix this so that everythings confined to the inside of Photoshop. Images enclosed.

Thank You

[jane-e]

@ktweedlie 

The only way I know how to deal with that issue is to move the Photoshop window down and to the right so the menus don't have room to go outside the Application frame — that forces them to stay inside. Maybe other volunteers will have other ideas.

Jane

[ktweedlie]

Thank you for the suggestion Jane it is really appreciated. That does work, however using a Mac system it leaves me with another issue as the toolbar at the top of Photoshop always displays at the very top left whereas with windows its different as the toolbar is actually in Photoshop.

I know Melissa recommended resizing the monitor but I'd rather find the Photoshop fix if possible due to accessibility issues.

Thanks again.

[jane-e]

I'm taking screen shots, not videos, so moving the window works for me. I think Melissa has a good idea if you make a lot of videos — she said she uses a dedicated monitor.

Jane

[Conrad C]

It is very unlikely that this would be changed in Photoshop, because that would violate macOS guidelines and become inconsistent with all other apps. Menus have worked this way on macOS for decades. When any macOS menu opens, from the menu bar or popping up in any location, macOS naturally wants to open the menu and all of its submenuts from left to right and from the top down, starting from the position where the menu pops up. If the menu contains an item that’s too long to fit on screen, macOS will put the right edge of the menu against the edge of the display (with a small margin), and extend the menu to the left from the display edge.

Below is an example not in Photoshop, but on the macOS Finder desktop. You can see that from where the Finder window is at first, there is room to extend both hierarchical menus. As the window is moved closer to the right edge, there is not enough room and so macOS starts displaying the menus aligned to the right edge of the screen.

This menu behavior is inherent in the operating system, so you would run into it when recording any other application, and the Mac has worked this way for almost 40 years, since the first Mac. To change this, making it easier to record any Mac app at a small size, would require a fundamental change by Apple.

I’m not trying to dismiss what you’re asking for, because I have to deal with this too when making videos, so I understand. I’m only pointing out how historical and ingrained this behavior is in macOS. (And probably Windows and Linux too, I’d guess.)

When I need menus on all sides to open inward to fit in a video screen recording, one solution is to set the display UI resolution to 1920 × 1080 in System Settings, Displays. You may have to Option-click one of the resolution icons to reveal more resolution choices, and on some displays that resolution might not be available. If I don’t need exactly 1920 × 1080 but still want a smaller application frame size that bumps up to the edges, I connect my iPad as an extended desktop display, drag the Photoshop application frame to that, and have it fill the screen.

[melissapiccone]

I also make videos and have a dedicated monitor set to the right size exactly because of this issue. Resize your monitor...