PS Guides Panel (Dev review)

[MrToM]

Not a filter, plug-in nor effect but 'panels' go in the plug-ins folder so Is this the right place for panels?

To cut a long story short I like to develop PS Panels.
If you use PS then you use Panels, essentially most items in the list under the 'Window' menu option is a panel.

Anyway, these used to be 'Flash' based, the main ones still are but 'custom' panels are now built using HTML5 rather than 'Flash', which is being phased out mid 2014. Note the third paragraph on This Adobe Blog Page.

So, thanks to this decision all the panels I've ever developed are now pretty much useless, nice one Adobe!

There is an upside though, HTML5 is far superior than 'Flash' could ever be, where panels are concerned anyway, and apart from the fact that I have to convert any old panels to HTML5 it does now mean that I can ask the PSG community to review and give feedback/suggestions. The old 'Flash' based panels were limited to adding or removing a button.....that was about all.

Soooo....
I've chosen one of my more useful panels for conversion to HTML5 and as part of its [further] development would like to offer the OLD version for people to review.

I initially developed it to make using 'Guides' easier, PS having very little in the way of 'Guide' management. This evolved into what you see below with various 'Common' commands bundled into one button...Ctrl Alt Shift + E being a classic example....now it's just one click!(No need to select the correct layer either, it does that for you too!)

I'm offering the 'OLD' version for two reasons:
1. It comes in two flavours, CS6 & CC. (HTML5 is CC only)
2. There is no point in developing a panel that [soon] no-one can use (According to Adobe).

And this is it...

Please note: GRIDS is not functional at the moment. If the interest is there I will develop it.
Also note: Some tooltips refer to the 'Help' guide.......well sorry, but I didn't get round to making one.

The [sort of] descriptions relate to BOTH panels equally, only the design and layout differ between the old and the new......for the time being anyway.

Sooooo.......
If you would like to give it a try, make a suggestion, shoot it down flames, mock it, ignore it or whatever.....please feel free.

If (ha ha....IF), it proves to be of some use and most of those users have CS6 then I'll continue development for CS6 as long as it seems viable....or in other words, for as long as it works in PS CS6. (I don't see why it should stop but you never know with Adobe).

The panels come in .zxp format so you only need to extract and double click the .zxp file to launch the extension manager and install the panel. You'll need to restart PS if it was open at the time.
The panel can then be found under:
Window > Extensions > F9 Guides 3 xx

If you don't want to use the Extension Manager you can install manually:
Create a folder in:
PS install folder(where Photoshop.exe is) > Plug-ins > Panels > [folder of your naming] ('F9 Guides 3' would be good). If you don't have a 'Panels' folder just create it.
Unzip the .zxp file, you'll see a 'content' folder. Move this entire folder to:
PS install folder(where Photoshop.exe is) > Plug-ins > Panels > [folder of your naming]

Restart PS if it was open at the time.
The panel can then be found under:
Window > Extensions > Configurator-Panel

For CS6: View attachment F9 Guides 3 CS6.zip
For CC: View attachment F9 Guides 3 CC.zip

All comments and suggestions, good or bad, gratefully received.

Regards.
MrTom.

 

[dv8_fx]

I've never used something like this before.... and no harm being the first time....

Thanks for offering your hard work to forum members. May take awhile before someone can post a review of this.

As for me, it may take this soggy brain a while to digest what this is about ... but I'll figure it out one way or another.

Keep your customer assistance hotline open....

 

[MrToM]

I've never used something like this before....

LOL...actually you have, just not these buttons in this layout.

Best thing to do is have a play, everything should have tooltip but the 'help' file doesn't exist, I didn't get round to it before Adobe announced the change.

One thing I DID forget to mention is that if you 'Save' any guide sets they are on a per document basis. I know PS saves guides anyway but only one 'set'...mine allows you any number of 'sets'.(With the option to replace or merge with the current guides too!)

One feature of the 'New' HTML5 version I'm currently working on is being able to save guide sets 'locally', so if you have a set of guides you always use you can save them and use them again on ANY document....not just the one they were created on.

Most of the other buttons are just replication of Menu items but with the added benefit of being just 'One Click', rather than View > Show > Guides this is now just one 'Toggle'.....reducing the number of 'clicks' to do something has got to be good...right? lol

Oh, and if the guides don't show when you click an icon...click the toggle button afterwards...they should then turn on.

Some of the buttons should also remove the need to be double jointed in the finger department when it comes to some of the fanciful shortcut combos that someone at Adobe thought was a good idea.(I bet that was a Friday afternoon job!)

Just have a click around, it should all make sense.

Like I said, its in development but I wanted to throw it out there to see if its of any use.....I've found it useful but then again, I wrote it.:lol:

Regards.
MrTom.

 

[Hoogle]

I couldnt try it and would have been interested in maybe a simplified version but have created actions to do the same thing. As I often use PS to do website mockups guides are useful. but I get this error

 

[MrToM]

Many thanks Hoogle, just what I'm after.

That error usually indicates that it cannot find the correct application for the extension to run on, or more accurately the right version of the application.

There are 2 flavours of the panel, one for PS CS6 and one for PS CC, which are not interchangeable....did you try the right one? (Yeah, I know ya did but just makin' sure)

I'm developing the CC 2014 version at the moment....if you are using 2014 and want to try it then I can supply a WIP for CC 2014..........its only half full but its operational! (Its more than that but I just like to get in an 'Aliens' quote)

I'd be interested to see what you would include in a 'simplified' version......could you do a mock-up?
Web design was exactly why I developed this panel, the other 'non-guide' stuff was just things 'I' found to really handy to cut down on mouse clicks....especially Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E!

Thanks again for the feedback....really appreciated.

Regards.
MrTom.