Chapter Two. Working with Bridge

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.

#7. Using the Enhanced Batch File Renaming Options

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:

1. Select the files that you want to rename.
2. Choose Tools > Batch Rename.
3. Set the options shown in Figure 7a and described here.

   Figure 7a. Inside the Batch Rename dialog box is a large selection of file renaming and relocating options.

   

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.

#8. Using Camera Raw on TIFFs and JPEGs

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).

Figure 8a. To set Photoshop to automatically open any TIFF and JPEG image in Adobe Camera Raw, configure your File Handling preferences like this.

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).

Figure 8b. Click this icon to reopen the file in Adobe Camera Raw for additional editing.

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.

#9. Taking Advantage of the New Export Presets

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).

Figure 9a. The Export panel lets you drag images from the Bridge Content window onto icons that represent Facebook, Flickr, Photoshop.com, or your hard drive. Once you’ve finished building your queue, clicking the small arrow to the far right of the service name exports the queued images. Selecting the file in the queue either lets you clear it from the queue or reveals the image thumbnail in Bridge.

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).

Figure 9b. The Manage Modules feature, which can be found in the Export panel menu. Also available is an option to view Bridge’s export progress.

Figure 9c. Choosing Manage Modules presents you with the panel seen here. From this menu you can decide to Check for Updates or Reinstall All Modules.

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).

Figure 9d. The Destination tab and various choices associated with where your queue is saved and how file naming is handled.

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.

Figure 9e. The Image Options tab is divided into two sections. On the top are settings for image size, resampling method, and image quality. In the lower half, metadata settings control things like applying a metadata template or creating an export preset.

#10. Adding Watermarks to Multiple Images

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:

1. Choose the images you want in your PDF and select Window > Workspace > Output. Click to choose the PDF button in the upper-left corner of the Output panel.
2. Choose a layout template from the Template drop-down menu.
3. Continue to customize the PDF by specifying from the Document, Layout, Overlays, Header, Footer, and Playback drawers.
4. Use Watermark drawer (Figure 10a) to add text or a graphic to each page or image. Text can be customized by font, size, and color. Graphic watermarks can be adjusted by scale, opacity, offset, and rotation.

   Figure 10a. The Watermark drawer in the PDF Output Module offers a variety of options. Watermarks can be either text or graphical of nearly any size, color, proportion, opacity, or rotation.

   

#11. Using Mini Bridge in InDesign

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).

Figure 11a. Although not an exact replica of Bridge, Mini Bridge acquits itself nicely by offering many of the most important tools found in its big brother.

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).

Figure 11b. Right-clicking an icon in Mini Bridge with this Link badge in its upper-right corner, means that the software can display all files in the document, regardless of their location on your hard drive. Select Show Linked Files to invoke this feature.

#12. Using Mini Bridge in Photoshop

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.

Figure 12a. Search and ye shall find: Photoshop’s Mini Bridge is buried a bit deeper than InDesign’s, but well worth the hunt.

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).

Figure 12b. To open TIFFs and JPEGs in Camera Raw, Control-click (right-click) on any image in Mini Bridge.