When medals are handed out for Adobe’s least sexy application, Bridge stands apart from the crowd. Based on the old File Browser in Photoshop 7.0, Bridge wins the Wally Cox award for dullest software at the cotillion.
But not every program can be Photoshop. Or Flash. Every suite of stars has to have its occasional worker bee, a role that Bridge plays with ease.
Aside from a general speed up overall, Bridge CS5 comes with a short list of improvements over its CS4 version. For a brief look at this list, we encourage you to read on.
One of Bridge’s stronger features is its ability to batch rename multiple files. New options in CS5 offer improved flexibility over such renaming operations, allowing you to replace all or part of a string of characters in a filename. Adding to its power is its support for regular expressions to match patterns in filenames; preview the new names for all the files in the batch; and save frequently used naming schemes as presets.
You can rename files in a group, or batch. When you batch rename files, you can choose the same settings for all the selected files. For other batch-processing tasks, you can use scripts to run automated tasks.
Here’s how to rename files in a batch:
Destination Folder: Place the renamed files in the same folder, move them to another folder, or place copies in another folder. If you choose to put the renamed files in a different folder, click Browse to select the folder.
New Filenames: Choose elements from the menus and enter text as appropriate to create new filenames. Click the Plus button (+) or Minus button (–) to add or delete elements.
Options: Select Preserve Current Filename In XMP Metadata to retain the original filename in the metadata. For Compatibility, select the operating systems with which you want renamed files to be compatible. The current operating system is selected by default.
Preview: One current and one new filename appear in the Preview area at the bottom of the Batch Rename dialog box. To see how all selected files will be renamed, click the Preview button.
Even if you’re not working with images in your camera’s raw format, you don’t have to miss out on the power and versatility of Adobe Camera Raw. This powerhouse plug-in supports both TIFFs and JPEGs. The secret is in knowing how to invoke Camera Raw when opening your file.
To process JPEG or TIFF images in Camera Raw, select one or more files in Bridge, and then choose File > Open In Camera Raw or press Command-R (Ctrl-R). When you finish making adjustments in the Camera Raw dialog box, click Done to accept changes and close the dialog box. In the JPEG and TIFF Handling section of the Camera Raw preferences, you can specify whether JPEG or TIFF images with Camera Raw settings are automatically opened in Camera Raw (Figure 8a).
To open raw images in Camera Raw, select one or more raw files in Bridge, and then choose File > Open In Camera Raw or press Command-R (Ctrl-R). When you finish making adjustments in the Camera Raw dialog box, click Done to accept the changes and close the dialog box. You can also click Open Image to open a copy of the adjusted image in Photoshop. Hold Shift and the Open Image button changes to read Open Object. Click Open Object and your file opens in Photoshop as a Smart Object. To return to Adobe Camera Raw, double-click the tiny icon in the lower-right corner of the Layers thumbnail (Figure 8b).
To open raw images in Photoshop, select one or more raw files in Bridge, and then choose File > Open. This will open your image in Camera Raw. When you finish making adjustments in the Camera Raw dialog box, click Open Image to accept changes and open the adjusted image in Photoshop. Press Option (Alt) while clicking Open Image to open a copy of the adjusted image and not save the adjustments to the original image’s metadata. Press Shift while clicking Open Image to open the image as a Smart Object in Photoshop.
At any time, you can double-click the Smart Object layer that contains the raw file to adjust the Camera Raw settings.
A useful addition to Bridge CS5 is the inclusion of new export commands (File > Export to). Borrowing a page from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, Bridge uses modules to export files to either a chosen location on your hard drive or a page on Facebook, Flickr, or Photoshop.com.
To begin using export services go to Window > Export Panel. The Export panel holds selected images in queues until you’re ready to export your files (Figure 9a).
To select which services to include, go to the Export panel menu and choose Manage Modules (Figure 9b). Here you can enable the services of your choice as well as check for updates or reinstall your modules (Figure 9c).
If exporting your files locally is of more interest, you can use the Export panel for this purpose too. First, build a queue by dragging and dropping from Bridge’s Content window. Once the queue is built, click the diagonal arrow to invoke the Export dialog box.
The Export dialog is split into two tabs. The Destination tab is where you specify where your queue will be exported and how file naming will be handled (Figure 9d).
Click the Image Options tab (Figure 9e) to set image size and quality. In the bottom part of the window is the Metadata area where you can include original metadata, apply a metadata template, or add additional keywords. The very bottom of the window lets you name and save an Export preset.
With the Adobe Bridge Output Module (Window > Workspace > Output) text or graphic watermarks can be easily added to PDF contact sheets for one or more images. Here’s how:
Ever since the introduction of Bridge in CS2, users have battled with the essential usefulness of this file navigation and browsing add-on. For example, users had to leave their current application in order to take advantage of Bridge’s many features.
In CS5, Adobe has largely eliminated this issue with introduction of Mini Bridge, an almost mirror image of Bridge that hides discreetly away in InDesign and Photoshop (Figure 11a).
Files can be dragged and dropped from the Mini Bridge panel into an InDesign layout. Files dragged from Mini Bridge are re-rendered into a multi-image Place cursor as if dragging directly from Bridge. New to CS5 is the ability to select any InDesign CS5 layout document (.indd) and, via right-click, have it display all linked files (Figure 11b).
Along with InDesign, Photoshop is the other lucky recipient of the new Mini Bridge in CS5. Not a complete replacement for the full Bridge application, Mini Bridge acts as a useful extension of many of the standard operations you might otherwise turn to in Bridge.
Located by choosing Window > Extensions > Mini Bridge (Figure 12a), this new addition speeds Photoshop production by way of its quick access to standard Bridge features like file filtering, renaming, batch processing, merge to HDR, various preview modes, Photomerge, loading files into Photoshop layers, and more.
As noted in Tip #8, Mini Bridge also gives users a quick way to open TIFFs and JPEGs in Camera Raw via its context menu (Figure 12b).