The Photoshop Workspace, Preferences, and Tools

Learning Photoshop is not the quickest or easiest task in the world, but
there is something that can make it a lot easier: Start off with a good
foundation of knowledge about the workspace and its general functions,
including becoming a stickler about knowing the name of each part of
the workspace.
I know that may not exactly sound like the fun part of learning Photoshop.
But if you are trying to figure out how to accomplish something that is fun
and you are being directed to the tool options bar, you’ll be left behind if
you wind up in the Toolbox. If you need to make adjustments to the color
space and you wander off to the menu for the workspace, you’ll be headed in
the wrong direction. You might never find your way to making your friend
with a full head of hair look like he’s got a toupee flying off in the wind for
his 40th birthday card, and in frustration, you might curse Photoshop and
sell it on eBay.
So, in the interest of making a smoother ride for yourself on the way to creating
utterly useless yet amusing imagery (or an image you actually need to
create for your job), you may want to become an expert about the tools of
the trade.
Overview of the Photoshop
Workspace
With every new version of Photoshop, its work area evolves and improves,
sometimes with just a few tweaks here and there.

Is perfection possible? I guess not. But the current workspace provides a powerful set of tools and
more conveniences than ever before, as well as a few recently added features that make Photoshop
a little more — dare I say — intuitive.
Figure 2.1 shows the Photoshop workspace. Across the very top is the Menu Bar. Under the Menu
Bar is the Application Bar, and under that is the Options Bar. The Toolbox is on the far left, Panels
are on the far right, and image windows display in the middle.

The Photoshop workspace with several images open