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Create a custom workspace with just the panels that you need.

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In the last lesson, we left off in Adobe Bridge with the Essentials workspace active

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and reset. We used that workspace to explore the panels and the

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workspace setup. But now we're ready to start customizing Adobe Bridge to work perfectly

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for our specific needs. We could just alter the workspaces that Adobe

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gives us. But instead, we'll create a custom workspace or two that's easy

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to identify, depending on the task at hand. To create a custom workspace,

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in the menu bar, choose Window > workspace > save as

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new workspace. So what should you name your new workspace?

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Something to consider is that you can have different workspaces instantly available to you, depending

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on a specific project that you're working on. We'll talk more about this later, but it's

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possible that you would want one configuration of panels if you're just scrapbooking, and maybe

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a different configuration of panels if you're working on organizing your photos, kits,

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and extras. We're going to dive deeply into those topics in another module, but

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for now, I recommend starting here. Name your workspace, scrapbooking,

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and then click OK. Now your workspace doesn't look any different, because

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what we've done is simply copy the configuration of Essentials into

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the configuration for Scrapbooking. Also notice that your new workspace

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is not showing in the application bar. And that's because new workspaces are

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added to the bottom of the list. Click on the more arrows to the right of the preset

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workspaces and choose Edit Workspace. Let me tell you more about

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this dialog box. You'll see that you have three groups of workspaces. There is

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the bar group. There's the overflow menu group. And then if you scroll down,

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there's a do not show group, which has nothing in it. The workspaces under

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the bar group are the ones listed in your application bar. Like I mentioned earlier,

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by default, the number of workspaces showing in the application bar can depend on how wide

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your application window is. Right now, my application window is only

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wide enough to show six workspaces. But if you look in this dialog box,

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there are seven workspaces, including the new one that we just created. The

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Workspaces in this dialog box can be rearranged by clicking and dragging them into different positions.

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So click and drag your scrapbooking workspace above the essentials workspace

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until you see that thin, blue line, then let go of your mouse, and the new workspace

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will drop right into place. This change is not going to be reflected in the application

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bar until we click OK. Now, this is really all you need to do in this dialog box,

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but note that you can do additional things, besides reordering workspaces. You can also

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move workspaces into the overflow menu. Moving a workspace into

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an overflow menu will hide it from the application bar and make it

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only visible if you click on the more arrows. Again, you'll see that reflected after

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we click OK. You can also move workspaces into the do

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not show group. Moving workspaces into this group will essentially

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hide them from view. The reason this group is here is because you cannot delete preset workspaces.

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You can delete custom workspaces by clicking on the work space and then

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clicking delete. Another thing you can't do with preset workspaces is to rename them.

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But you can rename custom workspaces in this dialog box by double clicking on

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their name, entering a new name, and then pressing enter or return.

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Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and leave the workspace dialog box just like this for now.

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And then click OK. And you'll see those changes up here in the application

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bar. Now that you have a custom workspace created, it's time to give it a custom configuration.

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Before you do that, however, let's take a quick look at all the panels available to you.

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I'll talk in depth about the most essential panels in the remaining videos of this module.

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To look at the panels, let's do so in alphabetical order. In the menu bar, choose

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Window Collections and the Collections panel will activate.

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The Collections panel lets you create, locate, and open Collections and smart collections.

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I do not consider this panel to be essential to scrapbooking, so I'll not keep it in my scrapbooking

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workspace. But even though this panel is not essential, it is helpful to the mid-level

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organizer. Therefore, it will be covered in depth in the beyond module of this class.

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Because this is not an essential panel, I'll go ahead and close it by clicking on the menu of the Collection

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panel and choosing Close Panel. To look at the next panel,

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go into the menu bar and choose Window > Content. The Content panel

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will activate in the workspace. This panel will show you files on your computer

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based on clicks you make in the navigational menu buttons, the Path Bar, the Favorites

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oanel, the Folders panel, or the Collections panel. The Content panel is

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absolutely necessary to any custom workspace, and it deserves a special place of honor.

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So we'll keep it right here in the center, nice and big. We're going to dive

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into more about this panel later in this module. Working down the list,

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let's go to the next panel. In the menu bar, choose Window > Export.

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The export panel will activate in your workspace. This panel lets you convert your

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files from one format to another, such as taking a PSD file into

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a JPEG file. I find Bridge's exporting capabilities to be extremely

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helpful, but it's not really necessary to have an entire panel devoted to it, especially

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when the panel cludders up at my custom workspace. So I'm going to go ahead and close

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it. We'll take a closer look at exporting in

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the beyond module of this class. Continuing on, go to the menu bar and choose Window

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Favorites. The Favorites panel should activate in your workspace.

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If it closes instead of activates, then simply just go back into the menu bar and

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choose Window Favorites again. The Favorites panel gives you one-click access

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to any file or folder that you add to it. It's kind of like a shortcuts

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panel. I consider this panel to be absolutely essential. It's convenient for switching

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back and forth between your most used folders, like photos and scrapbooking kits.

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Later in this class, we're going to take an in-depth look at this panel. And I'll leave it right here

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in my custom workspace. Next in the list of panels is the filter

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panel. When clicking on this panel, if it closes instead of activates, go ahead and

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just repeat the process. The filters panel lets you sort and filter files that

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appear in the content panel. Even though I do not consider the filters panel to

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be essential, it is helpful to the mid-level organizer. Therefore, it will be

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covered in depth in the beyond module of this class. Now because it's not essential,

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I'm going to just go ahead and close it. The next panel that we will look

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at is the folders panel. The folders panel shows the hierarchy

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of your computer. It's an exact representation of what you'd see in your Explorer window

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if you have a PC or a Finder window if you have a Mac. You use it to navigate

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folders. It's absolutely essential. We'll be taking a deeper look into this

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panel later in this module. For my custom workspace, I prefer to see

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both the favorites panel and the folders panel at the same time, so

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I'm going to click and drag the tab of the folders panel down. You'll start to

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see those drop sounds, drag to the bottom of the favorites panel group until

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you see the bottom docking zone and then let go of the mouse.

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Now the folders panel will be below the favorites panel. There's not a whole lot of things

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in the favorites panel right now. So I'm going to give my folders panel a little bit more room

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by hovering my cursor between those two panels until I see that double-headed

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arrow. And then I'm going to click and drag up to make that folders panel a little bit

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taller. Next on the list, if we're going alphabetically, is the keywords panel.

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The keywords panel helps you to organize your files by attaching keywords to them. The keywords

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then make filtering and searching more robust. I personally do not use keywords or think

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that they're essential. So I'll not be keeping this panel in my workspace.

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This is part of my goal to keep things simple. Both for you and for me in the

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organizing process. Now for the mid-level organizer, I will be going

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into depth into keywords in the beyond module of this class. I'll also

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show you how to use them effectively in the photos module, the supplies module and the extra

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module. Moving on, the next panel to take a look at in the list is the

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libraries panel. Now if you didn't have this panel open before, Adobe

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is just going to put it where it thinks that it would be most helpful for you. Or it'll put it in the

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last place that you had it. Either way, the libraries panel lets you access

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creative cloud libraries in Bridge. Again, this is a panel that I do not consider

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essential to my custom workspace, but depending on your workflow, I suppose it could be potentially

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helpful for you. So we'll be talking more about this panel in the beyond module of this

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class. For now, I'm going to close the library's panel.

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Next up on the list of panels is the metadata panel.

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Again, if this panel closes instead of activates, when you click on it, go ahead and repeat the process.

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So the metadata panel contains metadata information for whatever

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file or group of files that you have selected in the contents panel.

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It will show you helpful information like the photo's date and size.

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I do often have a need to access the metadata of images. But it's not essential to my

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scrapbooking workspace. We'll set up another workspace in the photos module.

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And at that time, it will become essential. But until then, I'll just tell you more about

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this panel in the beyond module. For now, I'm going to go ahead and

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just close it. The next panel that we'll take a look at is the preview

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panel. Again, if this panel closes when you click to activate it, just go ahead and

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repeat the process. The preview panel displays a preview of the file

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or files that you have selected in the contents panel. So you may be wondering

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how is this image in the preview panel different from what you see in

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the content panel. In short, the images you see in the preview

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panel are of better quality and are more helpful with additional features that you can

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use like zooming in on a particular part of the image. Now even though this panel

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can be very helpful, I do not consider it essential. We'll take a closer look at this

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panel in the beyond module of this class and you can decide for yourself if it's worth the inclusion into

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your custom workspace. For now, I'll go ahead and just close the panel.

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Next up in the list of panels is the publish panel. The publish

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panel lets you upload content to Adobe Stock and Adobe Portfolio from within

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bridge. Now, if your eyes just glazed over, no worries. This panel

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is not only non-essential, but it's not typically helpful for the typical scrapbooker.

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For that reason, this panel will not be covered again in any module of this class

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and I'm going to go ahead and close it from my workspace. Next we'll

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take a look at the output settings panel and the output

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preview panel. The output panels contain options for creating

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PDF contact sheets. Again, these two panels are not typically needed by

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folks like you and me. So we'll be skipping their use in this class.

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I'll go ahead and close both of these panels. 

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The next panel is Quick Actions.

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This panel was first introduced in version 2026

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and it conveniently includes some options

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from Adobe's Adobe Express app.

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While I do not consider this panel essential, 

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I will go over it with you in the Beyond module of this class.

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So for now, I'll just go ahead and close it.

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I'll go ahead and close both of these panels and then we'll

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And then we'll take a look at the next option in the window menu bar. The next option is

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tools. Now if you uncheck tools, the application bar

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is going to disappear, giving you more room in your workspace. Now why would

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you want to do that? Well, like I said, it gives you more room in your workspace if that's

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important to you. But also, most things in the application bar can

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be accessed either by shortcuts, menu options, or both. But I'm

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going to go ahead and keep tools active so that I can see the application

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bar in my workspace. And finally, we have the workflow panels.

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This is the workflow task diagram, the workflow panel itself,

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and the workflow details panel. They will help you to combine various

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tasks and stitch them together to create your workflows for repeat use.

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Now, even though that sounds pretty darn cool, it's definitely not essential.

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Therefore, I'm not going to keep any of these panels in my scrapbooking workspace.

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But if all of that piqued your interest, I'll walk you through each of these panels

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in the beyond module of this class. Okay, that's all the panel options.

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And as you can see, this is what we're left with in the scrapbooking workspace.

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This is what I consider to be essential in order to keep it simple and to be able

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to see what you have so that you can use it. Now, if you feel like you're

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getting a little bit jipped in this workspace, no worries. When you go through the beyond

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module of this class, we'll talk about more panels that you might want to consider adding to your workspace after

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you see what they can do for you. Until then, know that workspaces are automatically

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saved in bridge. So, if you want to close bridge down and reopen it,

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it will start off right where you left it. However, you can create save points

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for your custom workspaces. To create a save point, in the application

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bar, click on the menu of the scrapbooking workspace and

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choose save changes to this workspace. With a save point entered, if

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you go about making changes and then change your mind, you can reset the workspace to the

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last save point by going back into the application bar, clicking on the

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menu of the scrapbooking workspace, and choose reset to saved layout.

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Coming up, we're going to start going into depth about the panels and your scrapbooking custom workspace.

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I'll see you there. This has been Jen White.