Rangefinder Magazine
November 2005

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Photoshop CS2 How² Michelle Perkins
Adobe CS2's Bridge Advanced File Management

The Favorites menu provides easy access to the desktop—an entry now missing from the Folders menu.

When you begin using Photoshop CS2, one of the first major differences you’ll notice is what happens when you go to File > Browse. Instead of calling up the old familiar File Browser, Photoshop now launches a stand-alone application called Bridge. While you’ll probably find that Bridge takes an extra moment or two to load, it’s well worth the wait. Not only can Bridge tackle any file-management task that you used to rely on the File Browser to accomplish, it can also do much more.

So why is Bridge an independent application? First of all, it provides increased functionality. For instance, Bridge can be used by all of the applications in the Adobe Creative Suite. Second, you can now use Bridge even when Photoshop is busy—perhaps batch processing files or running actions. Finally, Bridge can remain open on a second monitor while you work with an image on your main monitor.

In Photoshop CS2, the CS File Browser (above) is replaced by Bridge (below), a stand-alone application with added functionality.

What’s Missing?
If you’re an experienced user of Photoshop CS’s File Browser, you’ll notice right away that a few things have changed.

For one, the flag icon that used to appear at the top of the window is missing. This has been replaced with a five-star rating system accessed via the Label menu. Images you flagged in CS’s File Browser will appear with one star in Bridge. This option also replaces the Edit > Rank command found in File Browser; unfortunately, images ranked in File Browser will not retain their ranking in Bridge.

Images can easily be ranked using the five-star system in the Label pull-down menu.

The Binoculars icon has also gone missing, replaced by the Edit > Find Command. If you prefer, you can use the keyboard shortcut Command-F (Control- F on a PC) to access the same feature.

From the Tools menu, you can select from the entries that used to appear in the Automate menu—and a few other options.

Under the Folders tab in the top left panel of the File Browser, the Favorites and Search Results entries are gone, as is the Desktop choice in the list of folders. Favorites has now been given its own tab in the same pane, and to go back to a previous search result you can now use the Back button. The elimination of the Desktop from the folders menu, now replaced with a Computer choice, makes navigation a bit less convenient—you’d need to go to Computer > Macintosh HD > Users > [User Name] > Desktop to get there. Fortunately, you can click on the Favorites tab and select Desktop directly from there—a much easier solution.

Clicking on the black arrow at the top right of the Metadata pane reveals additional related options in a fly-out menu.

Where Did It Go?
While a few of File Browser’s familiar features have been eliminated, some have just been relocated.

In Bridge, the thumbnail size settings that appeared in File Browser’s View menu have been replaced by a slider at the lower right of the browser window— a much more elegant solution that lets you change your view on the fly.

The tools found under the Automate menu (batch processing, contact sheets, etc.) have found a new home in Bridge’s Tools menu. Cache choices are also now made from this menu.

The Find command in Bridge offers some options that weren’t available using File Browser’s Search command.

The Sort menu has been moved to View > Sort, and the Append Metadata and Replace Metadata choices are now made from the fly-out menu at the top right of the Metadata pane in the lower left corner of the browser window.

The View menu in Bridge offers several helpful controls for organizing and delimiting the image previews.

What’s New?

Bridge features a Find command (Edit > Find) similar to File Browser’s Search command, but enhanced with several new features. The Find All Files checkbox grays out the search fields and causes Bridge to display all the files in a given folder. The real power, however, is that you can use this in conjunction with the Include All Subfolders checkbox, allowing you to view the contents of multiple folders, which isn’t possible using the Folders pane.

The Filmstrip view presents your image in much the same way as a Web Photo Gallery.

Once you’ve completed a search, you have the option to save your criteria as a Collection. Once you’ve named this preset and saved it, you can perform the same search at any time by going to the Favorites tab in the top left pane, hitting Collections, and selecting the desired entry from the thumbnails.

When it comes to viewing image thumbnails, Bridge offers several options. Under the Preferences (Bridge > Preferences for Mac, Edit > Preferences for PC), you can adjust the shade of the background and add up to three lines of metadata below the file name. Under the View menu (or the icon at the lower-right corner of the browser window), you can also switch to the Filmstrip view. This lets you view your images in much the same way as a Web Photo Gallery, with a large preview of the selected image appearing above a horizontal strip of thumbnails.

The Details view provides a list of metadata to the right of each image preview.

PDF Preview Pane

The Details view provides a list of metadata to the right of the image—great for a final check of image resolution or color mode before sending images off to the lab or offset printer.

The Versions view allows you to see different versions of an image saved as a Version Cue project. (Version Cue is included with the Adobe Creative Suite but is not packaged with Adobe Photoshop as a standalone product.) Going to View > Slideshow causes the contents of a folder to appear as large individual previews on a gray background. You can use the left and right arrows to navigate through the images and the space bar to pause or play.

When viewing a multi-page PDF, the Preview pane (the middle pane on the left of the browser window) displays a page count and arrows so you can navigate through each page in the document.

Under the Tools menu, as mentioned above, you’ll find many of the tools File Browser housed under the Automate menu, and there are small functional enhancements added throughout. Under Batch Rename you can add camera settings by selecting the EXIF metadata field. You can also attach the old file name to an image by turning on the Preserve Current File Name in XMP Metadata checkbox; this is helpful for retaining the original file name assigned by your camera.

The Image Processor offers a quick way to scale and save multiple files	Under the Preferences (Bridge > Preferences for Mac, Edit > Preferences for PC), you can set up the default applications for various file formats.

In the Tools menu, you’ll also find new Web Photo Gallery Templates and an Image Processor option (Tools > Photoshop > Image Processor), which allows you to scale and save multiple images in a variety of file formats. You can even run actions, include an ICC profile, and apply your copyright information in the metadata.

The new five-star rating system in Bridge, accessed under the Label menu, allows you to rank your images. You can also label your images in one of five colors. These rankings can then be used when sorting and filtering the files via the filter pull-down menu at the top right of the browser window.

Some additional features have also been added to set Bridge apart from the File Browser. If you work in Illustrator or InDesign, Bridge allows you to view the fonts and colors used in each document, making it easy to coordinate them with your Photoshop image.

In Conclusion
File management is a critical component of an efficient workflow. By allowing you to catalog and access your images in a number of ways and according to an array of variables, Bridge is an excellent tool for staying organized. Its ability to accommodate a vast array of file formats and its compatibility with the entire Adobe Creative Suite will make it especially effective for photographers who need to coordinate projects created outside of Photoshop.