Missing in Photoshop - Application Frame for Windows

[Joe Creative]

Hello,

Been using Apple computer for along time and swtich to P.C. Can someone tell me why or where the Application Frame option is located on Adobe Photoshop CC v22.4.2? Or did the programers forgot to included that option for Windows Users?

Thank you for your time and help in this matter.

[Mike_Gondek]

Windows is different and does not have that option.  Maybe you just want to maximize the window using the icon in the top right to the left of the X for close app . Or maybe you want window >> arrange >> float in window

[Joe Creative]

Thank you Mike. That's very sad that Adobe hasn't done that option. It's a nice option to have and that allows the user to access files easier on the desktop or view other applications faster. Other then that all the shortcuts are the same. Just relearning the shortcuts. No more commands keys. Just Crtl or Alt that has been substituted. 

[jane-e]

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@Joe Creative wrote:

Other then that all the shortcuts are the same. Just relearning the shortcuts. No more commands keys. Just Crtl or Alt that has been substituted. 

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Also: Preferences is in the Edit menu since Windows does not have application menus. 🙂

Jane

[Lumigraphics]

You misunderstand. Windows has that option and you can't turn it off.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

It's not needed on a Windows Machine - Windows has always had this baked in to the standard view. 

Simply use the minimize/maximize buttons to create a floating window (min) or dock the application to the screen (max). 

Macs needed an option to mimic this format. 

Here's a good explanation:

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/photoshop-cc-the/9781491905593/ch01s01.html 

[defaultazwmjxyah04c]

By telling the user of your product "this feature is not needed" (when they are clearly asking for it) is doing them a disservice. Being forced to work with a blank box covering your entire monitor so that you are unable to see other views and items on your desktop is extremely tedious. Want to see live updates in a game development environment as you save changes? Nope. How about having a reference image in your web browser? Nope.

[jane-e]

@defaultazwmjxyah04c 

In your first post it sounded like you wanted to turn on the application frame. Now are you saying you want to turn it off? You can't do that in Windows.

The O'Reilly link that Kevin posted says the change was made in CS3, so let's go with that. I couldn't quite remember. If you didn't read it, please do so. It has a fantastic explanation.

MAC

When the Application frame is off; the interface is like other Mac applications. When it is on, the interface is like a Windows application.

WINDOWS

Windows cannot toggle the Application Frame. It's always on. Photoshop always works in the Windows interface and cannot be switched to the Mac interface.

I love the Application Frame on my Mac, and I remember when it was not a choice.

As users just like you we cannot make changes. If you feel strongly that you want Photoshop to have the Application frame turned off in Windows, start a new post and label it as an "Idea" instead of "Discussion".

Jane

[melissapiccone]

You don't have to have it be full screen. Use the icons in the upper right - the square on allows for full screen or allows you to resize the application window. 

[defaultazwmjxyah04c]

It's not a matter of being in full screen. Even in windowed mode (on PC) the entire application has an opaque "background" that obscures all other apps and desktop. The Mac version has the option to disable this.

[Lumigraphics]

It's not a matter of being in full screen. Even in windowed mode (on PC) the entire application has an opaque "background" that obscures all other apps and desktop. The Mac version has the option to disable this.

By @defaultazwmjxyah04c

If you want Photoshop to behave like a Mac application, you have to use a Mac. On Windows, Photoshop will behave like other native Windows applications.

[Nancy OShea]

If you're a long time Apple user, why did you switch to Win PC?

[Joe Creative]

Hi Nancy,

It has to do with 3D graphic's. Since 3D programs do not play well with Apple computers, and they do not run very fast. It takes me half the time to render out complex 3D designs. Photoshop run's really good on a Mac computer. But lately the computers aren't not what they used to be. The last good computer they ever design was the Mac G5 cheesegrater. That computer you could put good graphic's NVIDIA but now... it's just been down hill... Sad to say that.

[defaultazwmjxyah04c]

Wether you are on a PC or Mac should not be in question. I jump back an forth between both depending on what I'm working on that day. With a cross platform application, it's expected that it should have the same basic features across all platforms.

[GIL@CZ]

Personally.  Price.  For what I needed; Apple wanted 5000$.  I built a PC for 1300$ that ran my CC needs.
20+ years in an APPLE commercial graphics environment.

[Conrad_C]

There are a lot of misconceptions and wrong conclusions being jumped to by many who discuss this subject, in other threads too.

Let’s start with the history:

Photoshop, originally released on Mac only, had no application frame in the beginning because that wasn’t how Mac applications worked back then: Document windows and panels all floated independently.

At one point after the Adobe released a Windows version of Photoshop. Adobe added the Application Frame to the Mac version, bringing it into UI parity with Windows in this area. Then they made Application Frame the default. This angered some Mac purists, who complained that the addition of the Application Frame made Photoshop more of a Windows design (like the widely reviled Mac port of Microsoft Word 6). For those people, it is possible to disable Application Frame on the Mac.

In the years since, Apple has moved many of their own applications to an Application Frame-like design, so it is no longer true that the Application Frame is a Windows-only standard. If you look at iMovie, Apple Photos, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, they all use an application frame now: By default, documents are held inside a larger enclosing window that also holds the panels. Panels don’t float free, and in many cases cannot be torn off to float free. So it could be said that having Application Frame on the Mac now makes Photoshop a little more consistent with what Apple calls the “app window” in macOS applications today.

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@Joe Creative wrote:

Been using Apple computer for along time and swtich to P.C. Can someone tell me why or where the Application Frame option is located on Adobe Photoshop CC v22.4.2? Or did the programers forgot to included that option for Windows Users?

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The request you are actually making is to be able to disable the Application Frame in Windows. But that isn’t done because having an Application Frame is standard for Windows applications. Adobe didn’t forget to add the option; they respected the Windows UI standards.

@defaultazwmjxyah04c wrote:

Want to see live updates in a game development environment as you save changes? Nope. How about having a reference image in your web browser? Nope.

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It is not true that it is not possible. You would do what any Windows user would do: Reduce the size of the opaque application window to see the other windows you want to see! I am a daily Mac user, but I am aware that Windows actually has some superior window management features. You probably will want to learn how to use Windows 11 features such as Snap Layouts (not available on macOS except with extra software) to tile your Windows document windows instantly for side-by-side views of multiple applications (there are other options). Then you can see your development environment and your reference image side by side with Photoshop.

These multi-application window arrangement techniques are better adapted to today’s desktop and mobile devices, so Apple eventually copied some of those features for macOS and iPad OS (for example, Split View). In both macOS and Windows, if you want a more manual arrangement of those opaque application windows, well of course you can manually resize and rearrange them manually (coming soon to iPad OS). So the solution applies to both macOS and Windows.

As a Mac user for several decades, I understand what you are asking for. You are asking for the kind of window management that was very common on Macs from the 1980s up until the time when Apple switched to Application Frame-type windows. But the answer you will find most satisfying in the long run is to become familiar with the window management productivity techniques that are being used now, that work with how applications are designed now, across multiple operating systems.

This is not saying that you’re wrong to ask for the change you want. You have the right to ask for anything. It’s just that you’ll probably reach your productivity goal faster with the window management options already available to you, because it is not clear if or when Adobe will ever choose to go against Windows UI by breaking their standard application frame. And learning standard window management in Windows 11 will work for you in all applications, not just Photoshop.

[defaultazwmjxyah04c]

I get where you are coming from, but respectfully have to disagree. Being able to view other apps' windows simultaneously should be a user choice, not an OS enforcement. Just because Apple chose to start using this "frame" method does not simply just mean it's better across all applications. After all, the whole concept of operating system windows were born out of a necessity to be able to multitask between (and see work from) multiple apps at once. I understand that this feature evolved originally from the Mac implementation, but I have to re-iterate that cross-platform apps come with an inherent expectation that they function the same regardless of platform. Adobe has chosen to omit an extremely simple feature (i.e., don't render this large box) just because other apps don't do it. I can't help but feel like I get a more complete and functional workflow by booting up my Mac instead.

[Conrad_C]

Are the existing features really not going to do it? To me, it’s not that much different to arrange some fully opaque application windows floating around leaving space for other fully opaque application windows, than to rearrange fully opaque floating document windows.

Anyway, although the point of my longish post is that the current OSs already provide cross-platform window management features, like I said you do have the right to ask for what you want. If you still think what we say here isn’t helpful, you can go on to submit a feature request (in the Ideas section) or a bug report (in the Bugs section of this community), depending on whether you think it’s something to be added or something to be fixed. The difference is that in those sections, your post can be upvoted by others who agree with you, and Adobe staff might respond directly (this area is more user-to-user).

[TheeDodger]

I, too, would really like the Windows version to look like the Mac version, but you sort of can.

Drag all your palettes off. Disable open in tabs and resize the application frame to be just a little taller than the menu bar on it.

As you do that, you may have the epiphany I had: without an application frame, there's nowhere for the menu. Macs have the menubar built into the interface at the top of the screen. Windows has their menubars INSIDE each app. So without that frame, there's nowhere for the menubar.

BUT you can shrink the application frame to almost only that menubar. Unfortunately, it still insists on, like, a centimeter on my screen below the menubar. But it's close.