Remove “Show all Menu Items” From Photoshop CS4

Update: John Nack from Adobe mentions a simpler solution for this particular menu behavior.

CS4 brings back the joy of the default ‘Show all Menu Items”.  As I’ve previously written when CS3 came out, there is a way to manually modify the Edit>Menu options to enable all menu items to be displayed.  It’s kinda lame that they enable this by default and offer no simple one-click solution to show all menu items.

I’m happy to report that my custom menu file works in CS4 just as well.  Just double-click the Everything_on.mnu file and Photoshop will launch, putting the settings into place.*

<rant>

As to why Adobe has this default probably goes into issues designing the interface of a complex application.  By hiding what they believe to be the least used items, it makes things appear simpler.

However, as a professional application I find this to be a bit oxymoronish.  Why not prompt the user on first run with a simple series of questions.

What do you plan on doing with Photoshop?

  1. I’m new here, just the basics
  2. Oh, you know, family photos, work on my personal site
  3. I’m a web guy, I usually start from scratch
  4. I’m a professional pixel wrangler, show me everything

Ok, while that’s by no means an ideal set of default options I hope you get the gist of what I’m trying to say.

Ask the user, don’t make assumptions and then make it possible to easily show all menu items.

</rant>

*With my limited testing this didn’t effect palettes or keyboard shortcuts, but YMMV.

102 thoughts on “Remove “Show all Menu Items” From Photoshop CS4”

  5. How does this little file you made work? I double clicked it and it worked, but I’m just wondering exactly HOW. Thank you so much.

  6. mike,
    It’s a custom menu file created by Photoshop. You can set up all your menus and palettes and then export them. To share, like I did!

    -Chris

  7. There is an easier way to correct this.

    Go to window in the toolbar, and click workspace.

    Then go to the bottom and click keyboard shortcuts & menu.

    When the window opens make sure you’re under the menu tab and in the sets drop down near the top of the screen change it to photoshop defaults and click ok.

  10. THANK YOU !!!! this is a wonderful FIX! With your Everything_On.mnu now I can see the tools I need.

    Thank You! THANK YOU !!!! Thank You! THANK YOU !!!! Thank You! THANK YOU !!!! Thank You! THANK YOU !!!! Thank You! THANK YOU !!!! Thank You! THANK YOU !!!! Thank You! THANK YOU !!!! Thank You! THANK YOU !!!! Thank You! THANK YOU !!!! Thank You! THANK YOU !!!!

  11. Thank you so very much! I cannot agree with you more. I am an online Web design/computer arts major at Academy of Art in San Francisco and just got CS4. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

  20. Chris, and Warren,
    I knew there was an easier way to fix this problem… we use PCs at work (I know, right?) so unfortunately Chris’s fix didn’t work for me, but I was so glad I wasn’t the only person with this problem. Thank you all so much! 🙂

  21. You rock Chris!!! This was so annoying to me, one less thing to bug me at work now!!! 🙂

  23. Pingback: Show All Menu Items in CS4 « M. Hsiung | Web & Print Production

  24. Thanks but it introduced a bug: evey time I have the layers window open(or any otherone) and click on the picture with a tool, the layers window closes.

  32. Great tool! I copied the .mnu file to my desktop (Windows 7 OS) and dragged in onto the Photoshop (CS4) icon in the taskbar. It automatically “pinned” itself into the Photoshop architecture, and now, PS opens everytime with all menu items displayed in the drop-downs. Excellent! Thank you.

  34. Thank you so much!! it worked perfectly…
    I was looking 4 a solution 4 a while.. and this was very helpful.

  37. Thanks a lot mate, as this thing just got on my nerves. It wasnt the case b4. Must have been activated by mistake.

    Thx once again….

  41. Just wanted to let you know, your fix is still improving jobs and lives. Thank you!!

  45. Excellent! Adobe, Microsoft and Apple all THINK they know what people who use their software want, but unfortunately, it doesn’t appear they ever bother actually asking anyone. Thanks very much! 🙂

  46. A HUGE THANK YOU MAN YOU’RE A WIZARD. THIS HAS BEEN DRIVING ME ROUND THE BEND FOR AGES. I’D BUY YOU A LONG LONG DRINK IF I COULD.

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