Bridge Lesson 1: Organizing and Managing Your Files with Adobe Bridge
Using Adobe Bridge, you can manage and organize your files, use and modify XMP metadata for faster searches, and quickly preview files before opening them.
What you’ll learn in this lesson:
- • Navigating Adobe Bridge
- • Using folders in Bridge
- • Making a favorite
- • Creating metadata
- • Using automated tools
Starting up
Before starting, make sure that your tools and panels are consistent by resetting your preferences. See “Resetting Adobe Photoshop CC preferences” in the Starting Up section of this book.
Also confirm that you have Adobe Bridge CC installed in your system. You can launch the Adobe Application Manager to check the status of all your Creative Cloud applications. If the column to the right of Adobe Bridge states Up to date, you are all set. Otherwise, you can click Install to have Adobe Bridge CC installed on your system.
If you do not see Adobe Bridge, make sure to check the Updates in the Adobe Application Manager to see if it requires an update.
You will work with several files from the br01lessons folder in this lesson. Make sure that you have loaded the CClessons folder onto your hard drive from www.digitalclassroombooks.com/CC/DesignTools. See “Loading lesson files” in the Starting Up section of this book.
What is Adobe Bridge?
Adobe Bridge is an application that helps you locate, organize, and browse the documents you need to create print, web, video, and audio content.
This lesson covers the functionality of the complete Bridge
application, not the Mini Bridge that is available as a panel in your Photoshop
workspace.
You can use Bridge to access documents such as images, text files, and even non-Adobe documents, such as Microsoft Word or Excel files. Using Adobe Bridge, you can also organize and manage images, videos, and audio files, as well as preview, search, and sort your files without opening them in their native applications.
Once you discover the capabilities of Adobe Bridge, you’ll want to make it the control center for your Photoshop projects. With Bridge, you can easily locate files using the Filters panel and import images from your digital camera right into a viewing area that allows you to quickly rename and preview your files. This is why the recommended workflow throughout this book includes opening and saving files in Adobe Bridge. Reading through this lesson will help you to feel more comfortable with Adobe Bridge, and will also make you aware of some of the more advanced features that are available to you for your own projects.
Navigating through Bridge
To use Adobe Bridge effectively, you’ll want to know the available tools and how to access them.
1 From Photoshop CC, choose File > Browse in Bridge to launch the Adobe Bridge CC application. If you are taken directly to the Adobe Application Manager, select Adobe Bridge CC and install it.
2 Once Adobe Bridge is launched, click the Favorites panel to make sure it is forward. Click Desktop (listed in the Folders panel). You see the br01lessons folder that you downloaded to your hard drive. Double-click the br01lessons folder; notice that the contents of that folder are displayed in the Content panel, in the center of the Adobe Bridge window. You can also navigate by clicking folders listed in the Path bar that is located in the upper-left corner of the content window.
You can view folder contents by double-clicking a folder, or by selecting the folder in the Path bar.
In this folder, you see a variety of file types, including Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, and video files. These files came from istockphoto.com and many still have their default names.
You can navigate through your navigation history by clicking
the Go back and Go forward arrows in the upper-left corner of the window. Use the
Reveal All Recent files icon (
) to find folders
and files that you recently opened. Note that there are also helpful navigational
tools that allow you to quickly return to Photoshop, load photos from a camera, and
flip your images.
3 Click the Go back
arrow (
) to return to the desktop view.
A. Go back. B. Go forward. C. Go to parent or Favorites. D. Reveal recent file or go to recent folder. E. Return to Adobe Photoshop. F. Get Photos From Camera. G. Refine. H. Open in Camera Raw. I. Rotate 90° counterclockwise. J. Rotate 90° clockwise. K. Path bar.
This example might show a file path to the br01lessons folder that
is different from your example because this desktop is referencing a folder on a
particular user’s desktop.
4 Click the Go forward
arrow (
) to
return to the last view, which is the br01lessons folder.
Using folders in Adobe Bridge
Adobe Bridge is used for more than just navigating your file system. Bridge is also used to manage and organize folders and files.
1 Click the tab of the Favorites panel in the upper-left corner of the Bridge window to make sure it is still forward. Then click the arrow to the left of Desktop so that it turns downward and reveals its contents. If you are on the Mac OS, you can simply click Desktop to reveal the contents.
2 Click Computer to reveal its contents in the center pane of the Bridge window. Continue to double-click items, or click the arrows to the left of the folder names in the Folder panel, to reveal their contents.
You can use Adobe Bridge to navigate your entire system, much as you would by using your computer’s directory system.
3 Click Desktop in the Folders panel to reveal its contents again.
4 Click br01lessons to view its contents. You’ll now add a new folder into that lessons folder.
5 Click the Create a
New Folder icon (
) in the
upper-right corner of the Bridge window to create a new untitled folder inside the
br01lessons folder. Type the name Graphics.
Creating a new folder in Bridge.
You can use Adobe Bridge to organize images. Since you are able to see a preview of each file, you can more easily rename them, as well as relocate them to more appropriate locations in your directory system. In the next step, you will move files from one folder to the new Graphics folder you have just created.
6 Click once on the image named boy_skateboard.ai, and then Shift+click the image named flipit.ai. Both images are selected.
You can easily reduce and enlarge the size of your thumbnails by
pressing Ctrl+plus sign or Ctrl+minus sign in Windows or Command+plus sign or
Command+minus sign in Mac OS.
7 Click and drag the selected images to the Graphics folder. When the folder becomes highlighted, release the mouse. The files have now been moved into that folder.
You can select multiple images and organize folders directly in Adobe Bridge.
8 Double-click the Graphics folder to view its contents. You see the boy_skateboard and the flipit Adobe Illustrator (.ai) files that you moved.
9 Click br01lessons in the file path bar at the top to return to the br01lessons folder content.
Making a Favorite
As you work in Photoshop, you will find that you frequently access the same folders. One of the many great features in Bridge is that you can designate a frequently used folder as a Favorite, allowing you to quickly and easily access it from the Favorites panel. This is extremely helpful, especially if the folders that you are frequently accessing are stored deep in your file hierarchy.
1 Select the Favorites panel in the upper-left corner of the Bridge window to bring it to the front. In the list of Favorites, click Desktop. Double-click the br01lessons folder to see the skateboarding images. Since the Graphics folder is going to be used again in this lesson, you’ll make it a Favorite.
2 Place your cursor
over the Graphics folder in the center pane (Content), and click and drag the
Graphics folder until you see a horizontal line appear in the Favorites panel. Be
careful not to drag this folder into a folder (highlighted with a blue box) in the
Favorites panel. When a cursor with a plus sign (
)
appears, release the mouse. On the Mac OS you will see a circle with a plus sign.
The folder is now listed as a Favorite.
Drag a folder to the bottom of the Favorites panel to make it easier to locate.
3 Click the Graphics folder shown in the Favorites panel to view its contents. Note that creating a Favorite simply creates a shortcut for quick access to a folder; it does not copy the folder and its contents.
4 When you are finished looking inside the Graphics folder, click the Go back arrow to return to the br01lessons folder.
If your Favorite is created from a folder on an external hard
drive or server, you will need to have the hard drive or server mounted in order to
access it.
Creating and locating metadata
Metadata is information that can be stored with images. This information travels with the file, and makes it easy to search for and identify the file. In this section, you are going to find out how to locate and create metadata.
1 Make sure that you are viewing the contents of the br01lessons folder in the center pane of Adobe Bridge. If not, navigate to that folder now.
2 Choose Window > Workspace > Reset Standard Workspaces. This ensures that you are in the Essentials view and that all the default panels for Adobe Bridge are visible. Alternatively, you can click Essentials in the Application bar at the top-right of the Bridge workspace. You might need to maximize your Bridge window after you reset the workspace.
Note that if you click the arrow to the right of the workspace presets, you can choose other workspaces, and even save your own custom workspace.
Resetting the workspace using the Workspace drop-down menu.
3 Click once on iStock_1771975.jpg, and look for the Metadata and Keywords panels in the lower-right area of the Adobe Bridge workspace.
4 If the Metadata panel is not visible, click the Metadata panel tab. In this panel, you see the image data that is stored with the file. Take a few moments to scroll through the data and view the information that was imported from the digital camera that was used to take the photo.
Click and drag the bar to the left of the Metadata panel farther
to the left if you need to open up the window.
5 If necessary, click the arrow to the left of IPTC Core to reveal its contents. IPTC Core is the schema for XMP that provides a smooth and explicit transfer of metadata. Adobe’s Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) is a labeling technology that allows you to embed data about a file, known as metadata, into the file itself. With XMP, desktop applications and back-end publishing systems gain a common method for capturing and sharing valuable metadata.
6 On the right side of this list, notice a series of pencil icons. The pencil icons indicate that you can enter information in these fields. Some of the information about the creator has already been included, such as the creator’s name and his location. You will add additional information.
7 Scroll down until you can see Description Writer, and click the pencil next to it. All editable fields are highlighted, and a cursor appears in the Description Writer field.
8 Type your name, or type Student.
9 Scroll up to locate the Description text field. Click the Pencil icon to the right and type Skateboarder catching air, to add a description for the image.
Reveal the IPTC contents and enter metadata information.
10 Click the Apply
button (
), located in the bottom-right corner of
the Metadata panel, to apply your changes. You have now edited metadata that is
attached to the image; this information will appear whenever someone opens your
image in Bridge or views the image information in Adobe Photoshop using File >
File Info.
Using keywords
Keywords can reduce the amount of time it takes to find an image on a computer by using logical words to help you locate images more quickly.
1 Click the Keywords tab, which appears behind the Metadata panel. A list of commonly used keywords appears.
2 Click the New
Keyword button (
) at the bottom of
the Keywords panel. Type Skateboarder into the
active text field, and then press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS).
3 Select the empty check box to the left of the Skateboarder keyword. This adds the Skateboarder keyword to the selected image.
4 With the
Skateboarder keyword still selected, click the New Sub Keyword
button (
). Type Male into
the active text field, then press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS).
5 Select the empty check box to the left of the Male keyword. You have now assigned a keyword and a sub keyword to the iStock_1771975.jpg image.
6 Select the
Skateboarder keyword, and then click the New Keyword button (
) at the bottom of the Keywords panel; a blank text field
appears. Type Sunset and press Enter (Windows) or
Return (Mac OS). Then select the check box next to Sunset to assign the keyword to
this image.
7 Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl+click (Mac OS) on the Sunset keyword, and choose the option Rename. When the text field becomes highlighted, type Orange, press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS). Make sure the Orange check box remains selected.
A. New Sub Keyword. B. New Keyword. C. Delete Keyword.
You can also enter information directly into the image by opening
the image in Adobe Photoshop, and then choosing File > File Info. The categories
that appear on the top include Description, Camera Data, IPTC, and IPTC Extension,
among others. Once it is entered in the File Info dialog box, the information is
visible in Adobe Bridge.
Creating a Metadata Template
Once you have added metadata to an image, you can easily apply it to more images by creating a metadata template. In this exercise, you will apply the metadata template from the iStock_1771975.jpg image to other images in the same folder.
1 Make sure that iStock_1771975.jpg is selected in Adobe Bridge.
2 Choose Tools > Create Metadata Template. The Create Metadata Template window appears.
3 In the Template File name text field (at the top), type Sunset Skateboarders.
In the Create Metadata Template window, you can choose the information that you want to build into a template. In this exercise, we will choose information that already exists in the selected file, but if you wanted to, you could add or edit information at this point.
4 Select the check boxes to the left of the following categories: Creator, Creator: City, Creator: State/Province, Description, Keywords, and Description Writer, then click Save.
Select a file and check the information you want to save into a metadata template.
You have just saved a template. Next, you will apply it to the other two sunset images in this folder.
5 Select the iStock_1771975.jpg image, press and hold the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) key, and select the iStock_10135568.jpg image. Both images are selected.
6 Choose Tools > Append Metadata and select Sunset Skateboarders. Note that you can also choose Replace Metadata if you want to eliminate existing metadata. The same metadata has now been applied to all the images at once.
Choose the metadata template you want to use to add metadata to an image or images.
Opening a file from Adobe Bridge
Opening files from Adobe Bridge is a great way to begin the work process in Adobe Photoshop. Not only is it very visual, but important data stored with the files also makes it easier to locate the correct file.
1 In the br01lessons folder, double-click iStock_10138490.jpg to open the file in Adobe Photoshop.
Sometimes you will find that double-clicking a file opens it in a
different application than expected. This can happen if you are working in generic
file formats such as JPEG and GIF. To avoid this problem, you can right-click
(Windows) or Ctrl+click (Mac OS) the image, and choose Open With to select the
appropriate application.
2 Choose File > Close and then select File > Browse in Bridge to return to Adobe Bridge.
3 You can also click once to select an image and then choose File > Open, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+O (Windows) or Command+O (Mac OS).
Searching for files using Adobe Bridge
Find the files that you want quickly and easily by using the Search tools built directly into Adobe Bridge and taking advantage of the Filter panel.
In this example, you have a limited number of files to search within, but you will have the opportunity to see how helpful these search features can be.
Searching by name or keyword
The benefit of adding metadata to your images is that you can use it to find your files later. Using the Find dialog box in Adobe Bridge, you can narrow your criteria down to make it easy to find your files when needed.
1 Make sure that you are still viewing the content in the br01lessons folder.
2 Choose Edit > Find, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F (Windows) or Command+F (Mac OS). The Find dialog box appears.
3 Select Keywords from the Criteria drop-down menu, and type Skateboarder into the third text field (replacing Enter Text.) Then press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS). Because you are looking within the active folder only, you get a result immediately. The image files iStock_1771975.jpg, iStock_10138490.jpg, iStock_10138506.jpg, and iStock_10135568.jpg appear.
Search your folders using the tools built right into Adobe Bridge.
4 Clear the search by
clicking the X icon (
) to the
right of the New Search icon at the top of the results pane.
Using the Filter panel
You can use the Filter panel to locate files that you can’t remember where you saved them. With the Filter panel, you can look at attributes such as file type, keywords, and date created or modified to narrow down the files that appear in the content window of Adobe Bridge.
1 Make sure that you are still viewing the content of the br01lessons folder. Notice that the Filter panel collects the information from the active folder, indicating the keywords that are being used, as well as modification dates and more.
2 Click to turn down the arrow next to Keywords in the Filter panel, and select Skateboarder from the list; notice that only images with the Skateboarder keyword applied are visible. Click Skateboarder again to deselect it and view all the images.
Find files quickly by selecting different criteria in the Filters panel.
3 Click the Clear
filter button (
) in the
lower-right of the Filter panel to turn off any filters.
4 Experiment with investigating file types as well. Only file types that exist in the selected folder appear in the list. If you are looking for an Adobe Illustrator file, you might see that there are none located in this folder, but you will see a QuickTime video file that you can select and preview right in Adobe Bridge.
You can select File Types from the Filter panel to locate them easily.
5 Again, click the
Clear filter button (
) in the
lower-right area of the Filter panel to turn off any filters.
Saving a Collection
If you like using Favorites, you’ll love using Collections. A Collection allows you to take images from multiple locations and access them in one central location. Understand that Adobe Bridge essentially creates a shortcut (or alias) to your files and does not physically relocate them or copy them to a different location.
1 If your Collections tab is not visible, Choose Window > Collections Panel or click the tab next to Filter. The Collections panel comes forward.
2 Click the gray area in the content pane to make sure that nothing is selected, and then click the New Collection button in the lower-right area of the Collections panel. Type Redmond Skateboarding into the new collection text field. Press Return or Enter to confirm your new collection.
Create a new Redmond Skateboarding collection.
3 Navigate back to the br01lessons folder, and then take two random skateboarding images and drag them to the Redmond Skateboarding collection. In this example, the two images of the girl skateboarding were selected.
4 Click the Redmond Skateboarding collection folder; notice that even though you can easily access the files you added to the collection, the files remain intact in their original location.
A collection helps you to organize files without moving them to new locations.
Automation tools in Adobe Bridge
Adobe Bridge provides many tools to help you automate tasks. In this section, you will learn how to access and take advantage of some of these features.
Batch renaming your files
You might have noticed that in the br01lessons file, there are many files that contain iStock in the filename. These images were downloaded from iStockphoto.com, and instead of changing the names immediately, we have opted to change them simultaneously using the batch rename feature in Adobe Bridge.
1 Click the Go back
arrow (
) in the upper-left area of the Adobe
Bridge window to go back to the br01lessons folder.
2 Choose Edit > Select All, or press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac OS.) All the images are selected. Don’t worry if the Graphics folder is selected; the files inside will not be affected.
3 Choose Tools > Batch Rename. The Batch Rename dialog box appears.
In this instance, we want a simple, uncomplicated name. If you look in the Preview section at the bottom of the Batch Rename dialog box, you can see that the Current filename and New filename are long strings of text and numbers. You will simplify this by eliminating some of text from the filenames.
4 In the New File names section, type Skateboard in the Text field.
5 In the Sequence Number row, verify that it is set to Two Digits.
6 Confirm that the sequence number is starting at 1. You can start it anywhere if you are adding additional images to a folder later.
7 If there is any
other criteria, click the Minus sign button (
)
(Remove this text from the file names) to remove them. The New file name in the
Preview section becomes significantly shorter.
You can change multiple files names simultaneously in Adobe Bridge.
If you look in the Preview section at the bottom of the dialog box, you can see that the new filename is a very simple Skateboard01.jpg now. Click the Rename button. All the selected files automatically have their name changed.
The content panel after the images were renamed.
Additional Photoshop Tools
Adobe Bridge comes with a variety of Photoshop tools that you can use in Bridge as well. In this example, you will select three images that you want to incorporate into one composited image. Instead of opening all three images and cutting and pasting or dragging them into one file, you will use the Load Files into Photoshop layers feature.
Make sure that you are still in the br01lessons folder; select the Skateboard03.jpg, and then Shift+click the Skateboard05.jpg image. All three images are selected.
Select Tools > Photoshop. Note that there are many tools that you can use in this menu item; for this example, select the Load Files into Photoshop Layers option. A script immediately launches Photoshop (if it is not already open) and a new layered file is created from the selected images.
You should ensure that your selected images are approximately the
same pixel dimensions before running this script; otherwise, you might have to make
some transformation adjustments in Photoshop. In this example, the images are
approximately the same size.
Select multiple files in Adobe Bridge and open them in one layered file.
The result is three layers in one Photoshop file.
Changing the view
You can work in a way that’s more effective for you by adjusting the look and feel of Adobe Bridge. Changing the view can help you focus on what is important to see in the Content section of the Bridge workspace. Whether you need to focus on content or thumbnails, there is a view that can help you.
1 Before experimenting with the views, make sure that you are in the Essentials workspace by selecting the Essentials button located in the upper-right area of the Bridge workspace.
2 Click the Click to
Lock to Thumbnail Grid button (
) in the lower-right corner of the Bridge
workspace. The images are organized into a grid.
3 Now click the View
content as details button (
) to see a thumbnail and details about creation
date, last modified date, and file size.
Changing the view of Adobe Bridge.
4 Choose the View
Content as List button (
) to see the contents consolidated into a neat
list, which you can easily scroll through.
5 Click the View
Content as Thumbnails button (
) to return to the default thumbnail view.
6 Experiment with changing the size of the thumbnails in the Content panel by using the slider to the left of the preview buttons. Don’t forget that you can also change the thumbnail size by pressing Ctrl++ (plus sign) or Ctrl+- (minus sign) (Windows) or Command++ (plus sign) or Command+- (minus sign) (Mac OS).
Self study
As you work with Bridge, create some new Favorites of folders that you frequently use. You might also want to practice removing Favorites: highlight one of the Favorites and choose File > Remove from Favorites. Also, explore creating and opening up multiple files as layers in Photoshop.
Review
Questions
1 How do you access Photoshop automation features from within Adobe Bridge?
2 Where do you find the metadata for an image, and how do you know if the metadata is editable?
3 Which panel in Adobe Bridge enables you to organize your files on your computer?
Answers
1 You can access automated tools for Adobe Photoshop by choosing Tools > Photoshop.
2 You find metadata information in the Metadata and Keywords panels in the lower-right corner of the Bridge workspace. Metadata is editable if it has the pencil icon next to it.
3 You can use the Folders panel to organize your files.