The Photoshop Tip of the Week for the Clients and Friends of Ben Willmore (www.digitalmastery.com):

Photoshop 6.0 is one of the biggest upgrades in Photoshop's decade-long history. Adobe has added no less than 10 new tools and dozens of other features. This week, in an effort to keep up with all the changes, we'll find out where Adobe moved many of the most commonly used tools and features. We won't be looking at all the cool new features, nor will we be learning how to use the pre-existing ones, instead we'll concentrate on where they moved the stuff you might already be used to. For a more complete overview of all the new features, check out my "Ultimate Guide to Photoshop 6.0" at www.digitalmastery.com/ultimateguide Let's start by taking a look at where Adobe moved some of our tools.

If you've been looking for the Line tool, it's now hidden under the new Shape tool, which is directly below the Type tool (just click and hold your mouse over that tool to find the Line tool). And if you'd like to use the arrowhead feature, you'll have to click on the down pointing arrow that appears just to the left of the Weight setting.

The Pencil tool is now hidden under the Paintbrush tool.

The Paintbucket tool is now hidden under the Gradient tool.

The Measurement tool is now hidden under the Eyedropper tool.

It might appear as if the Magnetic Pen tool has vanished, but it's been transformed into a checkbox in the Freeform Pen tool's Options Bar.

When Adobe moved these tools around, they also changed the keyboard shortcuts for many of the tools. In Photoshop 5.5, you could access the Paintbucket tool by typing "K", but now that it's grouped in with the Gradient tool, you'll have to type "G" to access the Gradient tool and then type Shift-G to switch over to the Paintbucket. Now that we've covered the changes to the tool palette, let's tour the rest of Photoshop and see where they've moved or renamed some of our old favorites.

You might notice that the Brushes palette is gone in Photoshop 6.0. To find it, just choose a painting or retouching tool and then look at the new Options Bar at the top of your screen. Click on the arrow right next to the brush shown in the Options Bar and the Brushes Palette should drop down. To change the Options for your brush, click directly on the preview of the brush in the Options Bar. To access the Brushes palette while painting, hold Shift and Control and click on your image (Shift-right click in Windows).

If you're used to using the bracket keys (][) to change which brush is active, they no longer work that way. Instead they change the size of the currently active brush. That's actually a good thing because now you don't have to worry about suddenly switching from a soft-edged brush to a hard-edged one. Instead, it simply changes the size of the brush that is active. You can also add the Shift key to change the Hardness setting of the current brush. You'll have to try it out for yourself to really see what I mean.

You no longer double-click a layer to change its name. Instead, hold the Option key (Alt in Windows) and double-click. It will be annoying for the first week, but if you use Photoshop on a daily basis, if will feel natural sometime in the middle of the second week. You don't have to hold Option when changing the name of the Background Layer.

You can no longer move the Background layer to convert it into a normal layer, instead you must double-click on its name to convert it into a normal layer, and then you'll be able to move it.

If you've been searching for Photoshop's Layer Effects, they are still there, but they've been renamed Layer Styles.

Your Preferences and Color Settings have been moved from the File menu to the Edit menu to be more consistent with other Adobe applications.

In Photoshop 4, the Filter>Fade command only worked immediately after applying a filter, but ever since Photoshop 5 was released, it has worked with much more than filters. So, in Photoshop 6.0, Adobe decided to move the Fade command from the Filter menu over to the Edit menu.

If you're used to specifying how many undos Photoshop will use (also known as History States), they've moved that choice from the side menu of the History palette and put it in the Preferences dialog box.

View>CMYK Preview as been relabeled View>Proof Colors because not everyone is using a CMYK output device.

The GIF89a export option is no longer available, but you can still find it on the CD-ROM that comes with Photoshop. If you really need to use it (most people use Save For Web instead), you are welcome to copy it off the CD and put it in your plug-ins folder.

If you're used to accessing custom brushes, color swatches and more from the Goodies folder in Photoshop 5.5, you'll want to look in the Presets folder in 6.0.

It used to be that when you loaded Pantone colors into the Swatches palette, that the name of the color under your cursor would appear at the top of the palette (the word Swatches would change to become the name of the color). In Photoshop 6.0, you can choose Small List from the side menu of the Swatches palette, then each color swatch will be displayed along with its name.

If you're used to a special feature in the Levels dialog box, where you'd turn off the Preview checkbox and then hold Option (Alt in Windows) while you drag the upper right and left sliders, then get ready to make a change. In 6.0, leave the Preview checkbox turned on and just hold Option as you drag those sliders. You'll also find that this special feature (known as Threshold Mode) now works on all machines, whereas it used to require a special feature on your video card.

If you're used to pressing the Enter key to convert a path into a selection, you'll now have to add the Command key (Ctrl in Windows).

If you're looking for Photoshop 5.5's traditional CMYK setup dialog box, you'll have to choose Edit>Color Settings and choose Custom CMYK from the CMYK pop-up menu.

I hope this list makes your transition to Photoshop 6.0 a much easier one. Why not help out everyone else you know who has either upgraded to 6.0, or is thinking about upgrading, by forwarding this message to them?

-Ben Willmore
Founder, Digital Mastery