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Photoshop 7 is a truly exciting upgrade from
Adobe. Whether you'll be receiving your copy soon after it ships
in mid-April or are waiting to upgrade, there are some things
you can do to smooth the transition.
The first step in making a smooth transition
from Photoshop 6 to Photoshop 7 is checking your hardware. The
requirements for Photoshop 7 are pretty substantial.
WINDOWS
ˇYou'll need Windows 98 or later. Windows NT requires Service
Pack 2. Windows XP Home and Professional run Photoshop 7.
ˇ Your computer needs a Pentium III or Pentium 4 (or equivalent)
processor. P-I and P-II CPUs won't cut the mustard.
ˇ An absolute minimum of 128 MB of physical RAM-just for
Photoshop. (This does not include the memory required to run
your operating system and any other programs that you may need
to use in conjunction with Photoshop.) 192 MB is suggested for
smooth operation of Photoshop 7 and ImageReady 7.
ˇ 280 MB of hard drive space in which to install the program.
You can slim that down by doing a Custom install and skipping
parts. Don't forget that you also need free hard drive space for
your scratch disk. You need at least as much free space as the
memory being used by Photoshop. And that's in addition to the
available hard drive space required by Windows for paging files.
ˇ A minimum of 800x600 pixel resolution on your monitor, at
16-bit color. Remember that at 800x600, you don't have access to
the Palette Well in the Options Bar. (This resolution is
supported primarily for laptops.) 16-bit color is called "Medium
(16 Bit)" or "High Color (16 Bit)" depending upon your version
of Windows.
MACINTOSH
ˇ Mac OS 9.1, 9.2, or OS X (version 10.1.3 or later). Photoshop
7 can run natively in OS X or in Classic mode, and is
fully-functional on Mac OS 9 machines.
ˇ G3 or G4 processor(s) are required. Early G3s may be a bit
pokey on some processor-intensive operations, such as filters,
on large files.
ˇ At least 128 MB of RAM fore the program alone. You'll need
additional RAM for your OS and any programs that run in
conjunction with Photoshop. 192 MB of RAM is suggested,
especially if you run Photoshop and ImageReady together.
ˇ 320 MB of hard drive space in which to install the program.
You can trim that by doing a Custom install and skipping parts.
Don't forget that you also need free hard drive space for your
scratch disk. You need at least as much free space as the memory
being used by Photoshop. And that's in addition to the available
hard drive space required by the Mac OS for Virtual Memory.
ˇ A minimum of 800x600 pixel resolution on your monitor, at
16-bit color. Remember that at 800x600, you don't have access to
the Palette Well in the Options Bar. (This resolution is
supported primarily for laptops.) The Mac OS refers to 16-bit
color as "Thousands."
If your hardware doesn't meet the minimum requirements, hold off
on upgrading to Photoshop 7. This is especially true of the
processor and memory requirements. (I'd hate to think that you'd
be unhappy with this great upgrade because it's not running
properly....)
SAVING CUSTOM ACTIONS AND STYLES
If you've created or collected sets of Actions and Styles,
you'll want to move those to a safe location away from the
Photoshop 6 folder. It's generally a good idea to keep your
custom Actions and styles outside the Photoshop folder
anyway-you don't want to accidentally lose them if you're forced
to re-install. Remember that you use the palette Load command to
bring Actions and styles into Photoshop, so they can be located
anywhere, even on Zip disks or CDs.
EASING IN....
For many, the transition to Photoshop 7 will be seamless. Others
may not be as comfortable with the latest version. Generally,
you can keep Photoshop 6 on your computer during a transition
period, working with either or both programs. Once you're
comfortable with Photoshop 7, however, there's no reason to tie
up disk space with the older version-Photoshop 6 doesn't do
anything that can't be done in Photoshop 7.
PHOTOSHOP'S PREFERENCE FILE: OS X and WINDOWS
XP
When Photoshop starts acting strangely, a quick fix is often
replacement of the Preferences file.
In Mac OS X, the preferences files are stored on a user-by-user
basis. On the hard drive, open the Users folder, find you user
name, and go to your Library folder. Inside the Library folder,
you'll find Preferences. Within is the Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Settings folder. That's the location of the Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Prefs file. You're looking for:
Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Settings/Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Prefs.
For Windows XP, You've got two challenges: Finding the file and
making it visible. Here's the Prefs location:
Documents and Settings/[user name]/Application
Data/Adobe/Photoshop/7.0/Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Settings/Adobe
Photoshop 7.0 Prefs
To enable Windows XP to show hidden files and
folders:
1. Choose Tools > Folder Options, View > Options and then click
the View tab.
2. Select "Show hidden files and folders" in the "Hidden files
and folders" section, and then click OK.
And, while you're waiting for Photoshop 7 to
arrive, keep an eye on Planet Photoshop as we show you many of
the new features. |