The basics of Photoshop are relatively easy to pick up, but can seem a bit of a mystery when you first come to the program, thanks to its somewhat unintuitive interface and lack of simple tutorials.
Photoshop is basically made up of four areas: the menu bar, at the top, the toolbar just below it, the toolbox on the left and the palettes on the right. As you navigate through the program, you will find that the menu bar and toolbox always stay the same. This is because they contain the different modes and options that you can choose. The toolbar however, changes according to context.
The palettes are designed to display an up-to-date status of your image. Palettes include a history of all of the actions you have performed and a thumbnail view of your project's current status.
As an example of how the interface changes as you use it, select the type tool from the toolbox (looks like a capital T). Note how the toolbar changes completely to permit changes to the font name, size etc.
As you make these changes, they are noted in the history palette. The use of the type tool will be added to your history, and the layers palette will list the addition of a new layer for your text.
Whatever you're trying to do in Photoshop, then, the chances are that your starting point will be either the toolbox or the menus. While the toolbox contains everyday tools such as selecting, filling and making shapes, the menus have more complicated functions like blurring, sharpening, and all the other effects Photoshop can achieve (mostly to be found under the Filter menu).
Once you have chosen a tool from the toolbox, you can adjust its settings through the toolbar. In this, options from the menu will typically open a dialog box. Should you want to go back and make a change to something you have done to your image, use your palette history for the quickest fix. Experiment with the palettes as they have other uses also such as changing colors, naturally under the colors palette.
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