Author: Chris

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.

Phoenix: Day 3

Kari and I grabbed a bite to eat at The Good Egg, a local family restaurant this morning.  After enjoying our breakfast we drove over to the South Mountain Park to take a few photos.

From there we met up with Jackie and headed over to the Stuffington Bear Factory.  Kari picked out a kitty and they helped her stuff it and pick out some accessories.  She had a good time and wanted to take home more than just one stuffed kitty!

Kari was getting sleepy so we stopped by a Paradise Bakery, grabbed some sandwiches and headed back to the hotel.  After lunch and a nap I went out and took some pictures as the sun was setting over the resort.

 

We then went out to dinner at Majerle’s Sports Grill which wasn’t too bad, but not great. 🙁  Jackie wanted to get some gifts while we were hear, so we trudged to the mall with a tired 3 year hold…a heavy, tired 3 year old.  After that we were back at the hotel, packing the last few things for our flight out tomorrow morning.  We should be in STL around 2pm.  See you all soon.

Phoenix: Day 2

Did a lot today.  Went to the Lego store and Apple store.  Got lost looking for a particular restaurant. iPhone GPS ≠ real GPS. Got Kari her first set of Legos.  Not MegaBlocks or Duplos.  Real Legos.  Our plans to build a life size replica of the Death Star have begun!

I’m really sleepy after eating some awesome Mexican food. We need more food like this back home. Will post more tomorrow.

Phoenix: Day One

We made it here in one piece.  We had a ordinary flight, nothing spectacular.  Kari actually fell asleep for about a third of it, so I think she’s ok flying!  The only downside was the 15 minute we sat on the tarmac after landing.  Ugh.

After getting ourselves completely turned around in downtown Phoenix (Dear Jackie, I’m sorry) we grabbed a bit to eat at a local restaurant (warning!  full-sized jpegs ahoy!) then headed over to the Arizona Science Center.  They have a nice setup with lots of things for Kari to do.  Not to mention that they had the Start Trek: The Exibition!

We (ok, really I) had a great time looking at a lot of the original props and costumes from all the Star Trek TV shows and movies.  They had some of Kirk’s original suits, the original communicators…ZOMG NERDGASAM.  But wait, it gets better.  They had the set of the “The Next Generation” bridge that you could walk around.  Kari sat in the Captian’s Chair and I was her Number 1.  Jackie was hiding behind a wall pretending not to know us.

Our room at the resort is nice.  It’s about a half an hour outside downtown Phoenix and therefore very quiet.  It’s built and owned by the Pima and Maricopa Indians.  All in all not a bad place to spend 3 days.

I’ll be updating the blog while we’re here. You can find all the above photos and more over on my Flickr set.

Edit: Nearly a decade after posting this a kind gentleman from Wild Horse Pass reached out to me and informed me that my link to the resort’s website  was out-of-date. Given the incredibly and enjoyably random polite request, I’ve updated the link. – Chris 08.30.2018

Off to Phoenix

So my last update was about my Adventures in Portland.  And now, around a month later, I’m off to Phoenix, Arizona.  You may think I travel alot, but these two most recent trips are a bit of a fluke in my normal travelogue.

This journey is pleasure for me; work related for the wife.  I’ll be traveling with  Jackie and Kari, our first big family adventure.  I hope to take in some of the sights of the southwest, eat some good food and most importantly spend some time unplugged from all of this and plugged in to my family.  Fret not ye internet friends, I do plan on updating flickr with photos and whatnot.

This will be Jack’s first flying experience post-9/11.  And for Kari, her first flying experience ever.  We’ve been talking about airplanes and watching videos on YouTube in an attempt to get her excited.  It’s about 10:30 right now and the little varmit finally fell asleep at 10.  I hope she’s ready for a 7:30am flight!

I hope my internet access is more accomodating on this trip.  I’ll be bringing the D40 with us, along with my Mac.  Not to mention the DS and iPod Touch. 🙂

Photo (postcard?) by dbostrom – Licensed under Creative Commons