Bernskiold Media

In this tutorial we take a look at the Adobe Configurator and make a basic panel that contains a couple of my most used selection tools and then export it into Photoshop CS4 for use.

Let’s take a look at the finished panel before we begin!

Create New Panel

When you launch up the Adobe Configurator 1.0, you can see the basic steps required to create a new panel. Click the button below the instructions to create your first new panel.

Panel Settings

When you start your first panel, You can choose a panel name in the right side column, which will be the name of the panel when it comes into Photoshop. You don’t have to set a size here from the start. You can work with your panel, visually drag the corners to change the size until you are happy, not worrying about the size settings at all.

Get Inside the Selector

In your left side sidebar, you have an accordion where you can get access to all the different tools and menu commands from within Photoshop that you can drag out into your document (and also some more items that we will not cover in this tutorial, actions and widgets). You can also use the search bar to have Configurator find the tool/command you want.

Drag Out the Command

In this step, I’ve chosen a command to drag out on my Panel canvas. Just click-hold-and-drag out and drop in the canvas.

Align…align…align

Using the aligment tools just above your Panel canvas, you can arrange the tools to all different positions of the canvas. If you’ve used the alignment tools in Photoshop, you should feel right at home. If not, click around (and hover over for the tooltip) to see what they do!

The Panel in Configurator

Once you’ve aligned everything and dragged everything out the way you want, this is how it could look.

Exporting the Panel to Photoshop

To export the panel, go to File > Export Panel. By default it should have the Finder (Mac) or Explorer (Windows) window that pops up automatically set to the right folder (your Photoshop folder > Plug-ins > Panels.)

You will get a confirmation once the Configurator has finished exporting.

Opening The Panel in Photoshop

If you had Photoshop open before, just restart it. Then go to Window > Extensions > *Your Panel Name*, where *Your Panel Name* would be the name that you set right in the start in Configurator.

The Finished Panel

And as a final, you have your finished panel open in Photoshop, behaving like any other panel!