Jump To Installation

ATTENTION pxl SmartScale AND Mask Pro USERS!   The Extensis pxl Smart Scale and Mask Pro 2.5-3.0 plug-ins utilize an Extensis menu that is shared with PhotoTools to access various plug-in features.  With PhotoTools 3.0.6 installed, there is a randomly occurring problem of the Extensis menu not showing up in Photoshop CS when the application is launched.  The recommended installation of PhotoTools 3.0.6 when used with the PhotoBars supplement is to install PhotoTools after all other Extensis plug-ins have been installed.  This seems to provide an installation of PhotoTools and PhotoBars that is more trouble-free.  However, the problem with the Extensis menu sometimes not appearing means that pxl Smart Scale commands cannot be launched, while available Mask Pro commands are only those in the Filters menu.  If you can tolerate the random disappearance of the Extensis menu, then you may still wish to install PhotoTools 3.0.6 and the PhotoBars CS Supplement.

PHOTOBARS CS IMPORTANT NOTE:  Installation of PhotoBars CS requires that the user first have installed the current PhotoTools 3.0.6 update.  Two version 3.0.6 updates were issued, and the first issue is inoperative.  To confirm you have the proper release, check the file properties of the PhotoTools 3.0.6 installer and verify that the file version is "3.0.6" or "4.x"; the older release was "2.x".

Two areas exist where the user may need to further customize their Photobars CS installation: The toolbars themselves and the button categories found under the Customize Toolbars dialog. The easiest way to complete the user-specific customization is to perform it upon the button categories and then use the updated buttons to replace those existing on the toolbars where the same buttons have been used. The button categories and related toolbars where user-specific customization should be considered are:

1. Import Menu CS – The button definitions for this category and toolbar vary for each user due to the different import device configurations that may exist for a particular computer. That is, if you have more than one scanner, digital camera, etc., that can be used for acquiring images, then the Import Menu will change in size and cause a shift in values which define each button. Therefore, the user must update these buttons for their own particular situation. A few extra button icons have already been provided to facilitate this.
    
2. Export Menu CS – Similar to the Import Menu, buttons for items on the Export menu may need to be updated or created if any software has been installed by the user which affects the range of Export options available.
    
3. Jump To Menu CS – This menu may be used to invoke other graphics and HTML-editing applications, but those applications vary by user. As such, if a user wants to create any application-specific button for a Jump To menu item, they must create a new button or update an existing one accordingly. Note that use of any Jump To menu item requires that a shortcut to the application has already been created by the user and placed into the appropriate Jump To directory under the <install path>\Adobe\Photoshop CS\Helpers directory. Extra button icons for several Adobe and Macromedia applications have already been provided to facilitate this.
    
4. Filter Menu CS – The range of third-party filters (plug-ins) for Photoshop is very broad, and which ones are installed on a given user’s computer is even broader. The Filter Menu CS category and toolbar provide a sample collection of button icons for various plug-ins available for Photoshop but these may not suite a user’s particular needs. The user can delete them as desired from the toolbar and/or redefine them, as well as create their own buttons for their unique assortment of plug-ins. It may even be best just to not have any buttons for third-party plug-ins if you frequently install or uninstall plug-ins or use a plug-in manager, since any such changes would affect the menu values mapped to a given button.
    
5.  Automate Menu CS and Scripts Menu CS – Both of these toolbars and button categories are again impacted by unique plug-ins installed or scripts created by the user. As such, any items added to the menus will affect the mapping of currently defined buttons and thus they will require an update if the user desired a stand-alone button for any given menu item. The suggestion here is to forego user of either toolbar although they have been provided for completeness, and just use the Automate Menu button and Scripts Menu button of the File Menu CS toolbar.
    
6. Render Menu CS – Photoshop 7 provided the 3D Transform and Texture Fill filters as items under the Filters > Render submenu. For Photoshop CS, these two filters are no longer in the default installation but they are provided on the Installation CD in the Goodies\Optional Plug-Ins\Filters folder. If those two filters are installed by the user and they wish to build up the Render Menu CS toolbar to be inclusive of the two added filters, buttons are available for that purpose in the Render Menu CS category.
    
7. Help Menu CS / Help2 Menu CS – The toolbar and category provided for the Help Menu do not reflect all items of that menu in Photoshop CS. This decision was taken based upon the simple fact that it would be of little added advantage over simply accessing the Help menu directly. However, if any help-specific buttons are desired here, it is up to the user to create them accordingly. The Help menu toolbar is provided for completeness but it should also be noted that if the Extensis menu fails to appear when Photoshop CS is started up, this will skew the button definitions such that they become incorrect; in this case, the Help2 Menu CS toolbar should be used instead. Likewise, if the Extensis menu is present and the Help2 Menu CS toolbar is enabled, it should be disabled in favor of enabling the Help Menu CS toolbar.

EDITING TOOLBAR BUTTONS

I've received a few questions about how to edit the toolbar buttons.  The following is a brief description:

With the toolbar floating and the Customize Toolbars menu open, open the Icon Button Editor by a CTRL-ALT-DOUBLECLICK on the button icon of interest. Revise the menu command type appropriate to the command's new position in the Photoshop menu structure. Menus number left to right, starting with the FILE menu as menu 0. Menu items number top to bottom, with the topmost item/submenu being numbered 0. Separator bars are also counted as an item. When creating a menu button, the item number is -1 and when creating a single item button, the submenu is -1.

• EXAMPLE:   CUT command = Menu 1, Submenu -1, Item 6

• EXAMPLE:   ROTATE CANVAS submenu = Menu 2, Submenu 10, Item -1

Currently displayed toolbars can be directly edited without going through the Customize Toolbars dialog, by CTRL-ALT-DOUBLECLICKING directly on the toolbar button.  Note that the toolbar must be floating for this to work.  Docked toolbars cannot be edited.  Also, to shift buttons around on toolbars, just hold down ALT while selecting and dragging the button icon to the desired location.  Dragging it off the toolbar will delete the button.  Dragging an icon just a few pixels away from another will create a space between them.

Note that if you edit a button from one of the Customize Toolbars categories and that button has already been used on a toolbar, the new edits are not mapped to the toolbar.  Instead, it will be necessary to drag the revised button onto the toolbar and to delete the previously used button.  Alternatively, you can directly edit the button on the toolbar in the same manner as that edited in the Customize Toolbars category.  Just Ctrl-Alt-Doubleclick on the toolbar button itself to open the Icon Button Editor.

To make a new icon graphic, create an image that is 19 pixels wide by 17 pixels high, not exceeding 16 colors in depth.  Copy that image to place it on the clipboard and then enter the Icon Button Editor.  Click on the button icon in the Icon Button Editor to paste the clipboard image as the new icon.  When using Photoshop to edit a new icon graphic, I commonly saw the graphic get corrupted in the paste, as if it were shifted to the right by about 5 pixels and with that 5 pixel area filled in white.  However, by saving the graphic as a 4-bit BMP file, opening the file in Paint, selecting and copying the graphic, and then performing a paste into the Icon Button Editor, I was successful in creating new icons.

For the existing toolbars I've created, these may certainly be further customized by the user as desired, by adding and/or deleting buttons.  However, a button on one toolbar cannot be dragged onto another.  So, the toolbars cannot be used to build additional toolbars; this requires using drag and drop of icons from the Customize Toolbars categories.  I hope that makes sense.

PHOTOBARS CS INSTALLATION

QUESTIONS?? First, please read the list of Limitations

INSTALLATION

The PhotoBars CS supplement is easily installed to supplement an existing installation of PhotoTools 3.0.6. These instructions assume a default installation path of C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop CS\Plug-ins which should be changed if the user defined another installation path for Photoshop CS.

CAUTION: While Photoshop supports use of a secondary plug-in path for third-party filters, both PhotoTools and the PhotoBars supplement should be installed directly to the primary plug-ins location so that all support files are placed as required throughout the Photoshop CS directory structure.

1. If other Extensis plug-ins are also being installed, please install them first, followed last by PhotoTools 3.0.6. PhotoTools 3.0.6 may depend upon a few older versions of common files that are shared with other Extensis plug-ins. If those files are overwritten, problems may arise in using PhotoTools. However, the reverse is also true…the installation of Phototools last may affect other Extensis plug-ins although this has not been observed using demo versions of several Extensis plug-ins to test for such problems.
    
2. If any attempt to re-use a prior installation of PhotoTools and PhotoBars has been done by copying the files from another Photoshop installation into Photoshop CS, delete or move those files out and and start fresh. Any custom toolbars created by the user may be restored later to see if they work, but only those which do not overwrite the existing files that will be installed by PhotoBars CS.
    
3. Install PhotoTools 3.0.6 to the Photoshop CS installation path.
    
4. Ensure the Photobars CS self-extractor has been renamed from ps8bars.dap to ps8bars.exe and then execute the file to extract the ps8bars folder.
    
5. Open the ps8bars folder, Copy the Extensis folder to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop CS\Plug-ins, and OK any prompt to overwrite existing files. The ps8bars\Extensis folder contains only those files needed by PhotoBars and will not affect other PhotoTools components.
    
6. Open Photoshop CS and verify that 3 toolbars appear, with one docked at the top edge of the window and one at the left edge, with a third two-button toolbar undocked in the workspace. Also confirm the Extensis menu is present; if not, refer to the problems discussed below. Depending upon the monitor display settings the docked toolbars may be too large and may be further customized or disabled by the user as desired.

Saving a backup copy of the PhotoBars CS by burning a copy of the files to a CD-R is discouraged. The preferred approach is to burn the original self-extracting zip file and password to a CD or, recompress the extracted files as a new zip file without a password, and burn that to a CD. The same approach is also recommended for making a backup of the user’s own customizations. Use of a zip file in this manner preserves the file attributes so that when the files are extracted to a hard drive, they are ready for error-free use. Otherwise, if the extracted files are burned to a CD and later restored to a hard drive, the user must ensure the read-only attribute is cleared for all files so as to prevent errors in the use of PhotoBars.

1. PhotoBars CS is designed for use with Photoshop CS only. Use with any other version of Photoshop will find many of the buttons to be incorrectly defined.
    
2. The PhotoBars CS supplement is not supported in any way by Extensis, manufacturer of the PhotoTools 3.0.6 plug-in suite. As such, Extensis cannot be held liable for any problems which use of this supplement may introduce. This supplement requires the installation of PhotoTools 3.0.6 which is available through the Extensis website at http://www.extensis.com. Please note also that Extensis updated PhotoTools 3.0.6 for use with Photoshop 7 but they did not roll the version number. That is, there is a “old” and a “new” PhotoTools 3.0.6; so long as you have downloaded the version that is available as of this writing, you should have the “new” version.
    
3. Extensis has discontinued PhotoTools and will not be providing an update for Photoshop CS. While this does not appear to be a major problem where PhotoBars CS is concerned, a randomly occurring problem has been observed wherein the Extensis menu does not appear in the primary menu bar when Photoshop CS has completed initialization. If no toolbars are enabled and displayed in the Photoshop workspace, then the PhotoBars can ONLY be accessed via the Extensis menu. For this reason, PhotoBars CS is delivered with two toolbars (“PSCS Editing Favorites” and “PSCS File Manager”) enabled and docked to the top and left edges of the Photoshop CS window, and a third two-button toolbar (the “Starter CS” toolbar) that is floating in the workspace. Each of these toolbars provides the Edit Toolbars button, which provides an alternative way to enable other PhotoBars toolbars in the event that the Extensis menu is not available.

CAUTION: The user should ALWAYS leave at least one toolbar enabled that provides, at a minimum, the Edit Toolbars button from the PhotoTools button category. Otherwise, if the Extensis menu is lost (see Problems list) and no toolbars are active, it becomes impossible to access the toolbars within Photoshop, requiring that the supplement be reinstalled.
 

4. Use of the Icon Button Editor to create toolbar buttons for keystroke commands does not work.  This problem seems inherent to PhotoTools and is present back to PhotoTools 3.0.3 for Photoshop 5.5.  There is no solution for this problem as Extensis never provided one.
    
5. The Custom Buttons category can only store up to 44 new buttons.  I can't imagine this being a problem for anyone however, as the need for so many custom buttons is unlikely.

If you encounter problems in the use of PhotoBars CS, be advised that just as this supplement required no software modifications to provide, I have no knowledge of how to modify the software for any problems other than incorrect mapping of the buttons. As such, this supplement is provided without warranty for how it might operate on your PC. However, I will do all that I can to assist a user of the PhotoBars supplement with questions or problems that arise, hopeful that we can find a solution but not promising one. If your problem is not addressed and correctable per the following, please feel free to contact me.

1. OOPS! I CLOSED ALL TOOLBARS AND I DON’T HAVE THE EXTENSIS MENU TO RE-OPEN THEM!
   To remedy this situation, the quickest solution is to shut down Photoshop CS, and then copy the file Starter_.bar from the PhotoBars\category directory up one level to the PhotoBars directory. This will be the least intrusive repair and will not affect any existing user-customized toolbars. Then, reopen Photoshop CS and the Starter CS toolbar should be found undocked in the Photoshop workspace. From that toolbar, the Edit Toolbar button can be used to activate any other toolbars desired. In lieu of this approach, the user may also reinstall the original PhotoBars CS supplement files.
    
2. FOR A MISSING EXTENSIS MENU (commonly observed on the author’s system):
   It appears that a full uninstall and reinstall of PhotoTools is required. Before doing this, please copy the PhotoBars directory to a backup location so that it can be restored when the reinstall of PhotoTools is complete. This will preserve user customizations. Note that the Extensis menu may not be required unless used by other Extensis plug-ins, most of which appear to also use the Filter menu with the exception of pxl SmartScale. If you don’t care about the missing menu and just want to enable toolbars that you’ve accidentally closed, refer to the previous problem and solution.
    
3. THE EXTENSIS MENU IS PRESENT, BUT THE TOOLBARS AREN’T SHOWING UP!
   At the time of release of PhotoBars CS, I was only aware of one user who had seen this problem. This is suspected to be some peculiar software problem, perhaps a compatibility issue between PhotoTools 3.0.6 and Photoshop CS or a software conflict with other Extensis plug-ins that may share some common files with PhotoTools. The only suggestion is to try uninstalling PhotoTools 3.0.6 and reinstall them, after first saving a backup copy of the PhotoBars directory.
    
4. “EXTENSIS ERROR #xx” REPORTED!
   The most likely cause of such errors is that the read-only attribute is set on one or more of the files in the PhotoBars directory. To resolve the problem, select all files in the directory, open the file Properties sheet, and uncheck the read-only attribute. The check box may show a color-filled state with no checkmark, but this indicates that at least one file as the read-only attribute set. Just click the check box until it shows neither a check nor a colored fill.