Creating Custom Panels for PhotoShop CS4

I can't believe the amount of creative work I have been finding myself doing these days. I find myself wanting to better my workflow constantly. I like that Adobe keeps coming up with cool and useful solutions for us to play with to help us get the work done as fast as possible.



I downloaded a very useful tool from http://labs.adobe.com the other day named Adobe Configurator 1.0. This very easy yet powerful tool which is an Adobe Air app built with Flex that will allow you to customize Photoshop. It is almost like having a scene or level builder for your favorite game. It can help you build custom panels with tools and commands that you need and use frequently. It also keeps them conveniently organized together. It helps you seriously speed up production work and helps you stay in the groove with everything just the way You need it!


The Opening Splash Screen


An Empty Panel on the Canvas.


The Tools Accordion selection exposed.


The Command Accordion selection exposed.

For the programmers that need a little more, there are plenty of options for you as well. You can embed a swf that can talk to Photoshop via the PatchPanel AS3 framework and build a custom GUI in Flash or Flex to control not only Photoshop but most of the CS4 Suite for some crazy automated desktop publishing solutions.


This is the script text editor.

I had to let my baby (BrandDoozie) go!

I had to make the biggest decision of my life recently. I know it was one of the most painful decisions I have ever made. After three long years of development on the BrandDoozie projects, It is time for me to say goodbye.

I have lived with this project the whole time I was working on it. From the time I woke up in the mourning, (if I ever got to sleep that night) to the time I lied my head down, I thought about this project. Even when I could sleep - I would still be dreaming about BrandDoozie.

Recently I have been working with a team of programmers & developers doing projects for Cisco/LinkSys. I was introduced to some very talented developers that are part of the team Everest Solutions Group have pulled together and I enjoy being a part of it.

Now I have started a RIA development & consulting agency and I am excited about the ideas & opportunities I will get to explore. When not doing client work ROKSMedia Inc. will focus R&D primarily on Adobe Enterprise solutions controlled by rich clients built with the Flex & AIR SDK's.

I am very excited about the ability to Blog more now that I will have a little more time on my hands. I cannot wait to share some of the common challenges we all face with building applications like BrandDoozie and the solutions I was able to come up with to solve those challenges.

I hope to be able to set up my Video Blog very soon.

It is truly amazing how many talented people we have in the Flex/Flash community and that Macromedia Community passion of days ol have spread all over Adobe and it is continuously growing. I have so many people to thank for getting me through some very tough times and I will try to make time to thank you properly.

To all the Bloggers who take the time to share with all of us. Thank you - I will start doing my part now. :)

I can even get to some of the shows now like MAX - Yeah! Hope to see you there.