CS4 Bridge
www.actionfx.com
The Adobe CS4 Suite is, quite frankly, the best software bundle produced by Adobe to date, and I’m not exaggerating by any stretch of the imagination. This incarnation of the Suite goes farther than any previous, not only in updating the individual programs, but in tying them together to work seamlessly between programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash so on and so forth.
There is absolutely no way I can cover a fraction of the features in detail in the space I have available, so this is simply a quick overview of Bridge. We start with the basic interface when Bridge is opened.
As with previous versions you have multiple views/layouts to choose from, but the default looks like the image above, with a general 3 column format: Navigation in the upper left, Filter and Collections information on the lower left, Folder Contents view in the center, and preview/image information on the right hand side.
You have a few additional Navigation/File Processing icons in the upper left area of the window. The first allows you to navigate to a recent file or folder:
You may also use these icons to download images directly from your camera, Refine the selected contents (Batch Rename, tweak the file information) open image4s in Camera Raw or process the folder contents for output to Web of PDF.
In the upper right you have additional Bridge options,one of which (the Star icon) allows you filter the images in Bridge that you would liketo see; you may do this by rating, view rejected files, labeled and unlabeled items. This simply helps you view images that youhave assigned a specific criteria such as a star rating (1-5), which can be incredibly helpful when working in afolder of a few hundred images.
One of the features I look for in any program is its ability to be customized to my workflow. I get very annoyed when the software company defines my workflow forme. In Bridge this isn’t a problem, as you can literally control nearly everything in theprogram. I could spend50 pages simply onthe preferences available to you in Bridge, and since wesimply don’t have the space for that here I ask you to look at thefollowingscreen captures. They shouldgive you a fairly decent idea ofthe level of adaptability Bridge has for your particular workflow requirements.
As with previous versions you can alter the viewing window to suite your tastes.
For those of you who work with Panoramas and/or HDR images, the Stacks menu allows you to work with these directly from Bridge.
One of the main things I appreciate about Bridge is the ability to work with Adobe’s other programs, which is of particular use to me as a web designer in that I can access my HTML and Flash files from within Bridge, allowing me to effortlessly work between Photoshop and Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Flash, or whichever programs in the Suite that I utilize side by side on a regular basis.
I can even access Flash videos I’ve created and not only see the file inside Bridge, but play them in Bridge as well.
You can still use the Batch processing feature in Photoshop from within Bridge (which allows you to play an action on a folder of images or selected files), as well as Merge to HDR, Photomerge, convert images selected in Bridge to a layered PSD file in Photoshop, and a host of wonderful little tricks.
Ok, I’ll be the first to admit this little article simply does not do justice to the software. I will tell you that you will be pleasantly surprised when you open up Bridge and see for yourself the features and control the software gives you over you files and how it can help streamline your workflow. I simply love it.
That’s it for now… I hope you enjoy it. Stay tuned at http://www.actionfx.com as the first of the Photoshop CS4 presets are on the way. I’ve over 113,000 custom presets there at this writing, with more in the works. Until next time, take care!
Al Ward has authored many books. He runs the world’s top Photoshop add-on site, with actions, presets, brushes, textures and more. www.actionFx.com.
