The Photoshop Home Screen – Instructions

Overview of the Photoshop Home Screen:

            The Photoshop Home screen appears when you first launch Photoshop. The Photoshop Home screen contains options for creating new files, opening existing files, and viewing help and tutorials. It contains a menu at the left side of the screen from which you can select choices that then appear to the right. It also shows the standard Photoshop Menu Bar at the top of the screen, followed by a toolbar that shows cloud storage, search, and other options based on your Creative Cloud subscription.

            The menu at the left side of the Photoshop Home screen shows buttons for “New file,” “Open,” “Home,” and “Learn.” To create a new Photoshop document, click the “New file” button to open the “New Document” window, which is discussed in a separate lesson. To open an existing file in Photoshop, click the “Open” button to launch either the “Open” dialog box or the “Open from Creative Cloud” window, which lets you open either local or Creative Cloud files. If you want to show the default Home screen content to the right, click the “Home” button. To instead show a list of online tutorials you can view to the right, click the “Learn” button.

            In the “Files” section below those buttons in the Home screen, you can click the “Your files,” “Shared with you,” “Lightroom photos,” and “Deleted” buttons to show associated Creative Cloud document content to the right. To show the Home screen again in Photoshop after opening a Photoshop file, click the “Home” button at the left end of the Options bar. To then return to the opened Photoshop file, click the left-pointing arrow that appears next to the Photoshop logo button in the bar above the Home screen.

A picture of the Photoshop Home Screen.

            To view your cloud storage and sync status in the Photoshop Home screen, hover your mouse pointer over the cloud icon in the bar above the Home screen. To search in the Photoshop Home screen, click the magnifying glass icon in the bar above the Home screen. Then type your search term into the field at the top of the screen and press the “Enter” key on your keyboard to show matching results in a list below it. You can then click a result to open it. Alternatively, to exit the search, click the “Exit Search” button in the upper-left corner of the search screen.

Instructions on How to Use the Photoshop Home Screen:

1. To show the Home screen in Photoshop, open Photoshop.
2. To create a new Photoshop document, click the “New file” button to open the “New Document” window.
3. Alternatively, to open an existing file in Photoshop, click the “Open” button to launch either the “Open” dialog box or the “Open from Creative Cloud” window, which lets you open either local or Creative Cloud files.
4. To show the default Home screen content to the right, click the “Home” button.
5. To show a list of online tutorials you can view to the right, click the “Learn” button.
6. In the “Files” section below those buttons in the Home screen, you can click the “Your files,” “Shared with you,” “Lightroom photos,” and “Deleted” buttons to show associated Creative Cloud document content to the right.
7. To show the Home screen again in Photoshop after opening a Photoshop file, click the “Home” button at the left end of the Options bar.
8. To then return to the opened Photoshop file, click the left-pointing arrow that appears next to the Photoshop logo button in the bar above the Home screen.
9. If you want to view your cloud storage and sync status in the Photoshop Home screen, hover your mouse pointer over the cloud icon in the bar above the Home screen.
10. To search in the Photoshop Home screen, click the magnifying glass icon in the bar above the Home screen.
11. Then type your search term into the field at the top of the screen and press the “Enter” key on your keyboard to show matching results in a list below it.
12. You can click a result to open it.
13. Alternatively, to exit the search, click the “Exit Search” button in the upper-left corner of the search screen.

Video Lesson on How to Use the Home Screen in Photoshop:

            The following video lesson, titled “Learn about the Adobe Photoshop Home Screen: A Training Tutorial,” shows how to use the Photoshop Home screen. This video lesson is from our complete Photoshop tutorial, titled “Mastering Photoshop Made Easy.”