| Adobe Photoshop Basics | |
Scroll down for important information about the Photoshop Basics Course.
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For each page in the course, there is a sidebar similar to the one to the right of this text. Using the sidebar, you can easily navigate back to this page, and to the other pages in a specific lesson. The Interactive Classroom portion of the sidebar offers links which take you to the discussion forum where you can go to get help with the lessons or post your homework.
Please post your questions and homework in the thread that is linked from the specific lesson page and do not start a new thread. Homework is not graded, but posting your homework is encouraged as it allows all participants to compare their results and discuss various techniques. If you are having a problem with a lesson, please read through the entire help thread in the interactive classroom before posting your question. Many questions have already been answered.
Just below the sidebar, each page contains a link to a "printer-friendly" version for those of you who wish to print the lessons out for offline study.
Before beginning any of these lessons, it is a good idea to set your Photoshop preferences back to default settings. By using the default settings, we can avoid any confusion that may arise from differences in preferences.
How to Restore Default Preferences
If you see a dialog for Color Management the next time you launch Photoshop you can cancel it. We will not be dealing with color management in this course.
Throughout the course, both Windows and Macintosh keyboard shortcuts will be provided. Whenever you see a keyboard shortcut, they will appear in bold type. The Windows shortcuts will be colored blue. The Macintosh shortcuts will be colored purple.
| Notes for Version 6.0 |
| Whenever instructions differ for a specific version of Photoshop, you will see a special notation in a box like this one. Notes and special instructions for version 6.0 also apply to version 7.0. |
Getting Help
Help for this course will be provided in Classroom #2 of the Let's Learn Graphics Software discussion forum. You must fill out a brief registration form before posting to the forum, but it's free and it only takes a few minutes. Each lesson will contain a direct link to the help thread for that lesson. Just look for the Interactive Classroom heading in the sidebar of each lesson.
- Please read through the discussions in the thread before posting; most questions have already been asked and answered.
- If a lesson has a homework assignment associated with it, there will also be a link to a thread for posting your homework.
- Please post your questions and homework in the thread that is linked from the sidebar of the lesson. Do not create a new thread; I may not see your post if you do.
- Homework is not graded and it is not required. Unless you specifically ask for feedback, I do not comment on homework.
If you've never used a discussion forum on About.com before, please see notes about about the forum below. If you have difficulty joining the forum, logging in, posting messages, or attaching files, please fill out this problem report form.
If you're ready to begin, continue on to the Adobe Photoshop Basics Course Outline.
This course is written for full versions of Photoshop 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, and 7.0 including educational and academically-priced versions. Photoshop 7.0 users should follow the navigation labeled for 6.0. To determine your version, choose Help > About from within Photoshop. Portions of this course will not be applicable to Photoshop Elements, or the discontinued Photoshop LE (limited edition) that ships with some hardware products.
If you are already a member of About.com, you may need to enter the forum initially through this page. After you log in there, you'll be taken to the general graphics software forum. From there, use this link to jump to the Let's Learn Graphics Software forum. This is where you'll need to go to post your assignments and discuss the lessons.
Once you've logged into the forum, make note of your Member ID so that you can log in directly from your class lesson page in the future.
The forum folders consist of Class Rooms, The Lounge, and Study Hall. The Class Room is where you post your assignments, get help, and discuss topics related to the lessons. There are several Class Room folders for multiple courses going on at the same time. The Lounge is your place to talk about anything with your fellow students. Study Hall is where you can post helpful URLs and links to downloads, tutorials, or anything else related to your course that you'd like to share with your fellow students.
Anyone can start a thread in The Lounge or in Study Hall, but only a Forum Helper or myself can start threads in the Class Rooms. To post in the class room, you should post your message as a reply to the existing thread related to your lesson or homework assignment. There will usually be one thread for required assignments, another thread for help and problems with the current week's lessons, and another thread for posting bonus work. Each of these threads will be linked from your class lesson page so you can jump to it quickly. Bonus work can be anything you want to share beyond what is required for the current week's lesson.
You can post your assignments as attachments in the Class Room by replying to a thread. Be sure the thread that you post your assignment to is the correct one for your lesson. When you reply to a thread you will have a new window to compose your message. At the bottom of the window, you will see more options, including a form for uploading a file. Note that there is a 10MB limit to the amount of space that About.com members can utilize, so you should make an effort to keep your file sizes small. In order to keep your attachments small, it's important that you crop or resize your work to less than 600 pixels either direction and save your final assignments as GIF or JPEG files. Please do not post PSD files.
At any time, if you have technical difficulty logging in, accessing the forum, or posting attachments, you can get help from our customer care team by filling out the problem report form or emailing About customer service.
The contents of the Graphics Software site are copyright © Sue Chastain and About.com. These pages may be printed for personal reference, but they may not be distributed or republished for any purpose without prior written permission. Please see the About.com User Agreement for more information.
