Transitioning to Photoshop CS2

A few simple tasks can make the transition to Photoshop CS2 trouble-free and ensure that your custom bits and pieces make the trip safely.

1. Saving Brushes, Styles, Gradients, etc.

Start by setting up a system of folders that you can use to organize (and protect) your hard work. Do not put these folders inside the Photoshop folder -- a re-install or uninstall would wipe them out. Rather, set up a series of folder in your Applications folder (Mac) or your Program Files folder (Windows). I suggest a master folder named “3rdPartyStuff” that contains subfolders for each of your major applications/programs. Inside the Photoshop folder, I suggest subfolders for each category, such as Actions, Brushes, Styles, Plug-Ins, and anything else you create or collect.

In your earlier version of Photoshop (7 or CS), open your Actions palette. Select a set of Actions or create a new set and move/copy into that set the Actions that you want to save. (Remember that you can only save sets of Actions, not individual Actions.) From the Actions palette menu, choose Save Actions. Navigate to and select your new subfolder as a destination and save the Action set. Repeat for additional sets of Actions.

Still in the older version of Photoshop, go to Edit> Preset Manager. Click and Shift-click to select individual brushes, then use the Save Set button.

Use the same procedure to save sets of swatches, styles, gradients, etc.

2. Install Photoshop CS2

Quit your earlier version of Photoshop.

If you have an Internet connection for the machine on which you’re installing, make sure it’s hooked up and connected. (Having an available Internet connection smoothes the process of activation and registration.)

Disable any anti-virus software and any automated backup software.

Insert your Photoshop CS2 CD and follow the installation instructions.

3. Install Your 3rd-Party Plug-Ins

Install from the original CD/download into the new Plug-Ins folder created in Step 1 (3rdPartyStuff> Photoshop> Plug-Ins).

Right-click (multi-button mouse) or Control-click (single-button mouse) on your new Plug-Ins folder and create a shortcut (Windows) or alias (Mac).

Move the shortcut/alias into Photoshop CS2’s Plug-Ins folder. TIP: This is the last time you’ll ever need to install those plug-ins on this computer unless you delete the folder or erase your hard drive. After a re-install or future upgrade, simply make a new shortcut/alias and move it to the new Photoshop Plug-Ins folder.

4. Load Up in Photoshop CS2

Open Photoshop CS2.

From the Actions palette menu, select the command Load Actions, then navigate to the Actions subfolder created in Step 1 and load your .atn file(s).

Use the Preset Manager to load sets of brushes, styles, etc. into their appropriate palettes.

NOTE: For smooth and trouble-free operation, open Photoshop’s Preferences and check a couple of settings. In the Plug-Ins & Scratch disks pane, ensure that you’re using only internal hard drives as scratch disks. If you have multiple internal drives, you can create a dedicated partition on the second driver and use that exclusively as a scratch disk (for both Photoshop and Illustrator). 10-15GB should be more than enough. In Preferences> Memory & Image Cache, make sure that Photoshop’s memory allocation is set no higher than 70%. (If the memory allocation is set too high, there’s not enough memory for the operating system and system-level utilities. This is true even if you have more RAM installed than Photoshop can use.