All Photoshop users would recognise the fact that Photoshop has a large number of built-in panels (35 in fact), and that this is added to if you have any third-party add-in panels.
The Photoshop workspace also offers a Panel Dock which is normally placed on the right-hand side of the screen where you can keep your most-used or favourite panels, stored as icons (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 - The Panel Dock
The default behaviour is that you click a panel icon to open that panel, then it will remain open until you click its icon again (which collapses the panel back to an icon) or click another panel icon to open a different panel. Often the opened panel will impinge upon your image and workspace (see Figure 1).
The Auto-Collapse Iconic Panels preference setting, which has been around since Photoshop CS6, offers an alternative behaviour. If this option is checked/ticked then the open panel will collapse back to its icon automatically when you click on your image or any other part of the workspace. This is now my preferred method of operation as it saves moving the mouse back to the Panel Dock to close any open panel.
You can find this setting in the Photoshop Preferences Workspace dialog (see Figure 2). You can invoke the Preferences dialog using Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows), or through the menu.
Figure 2 - Photoshop Workspace Preferences
You can also turn Auto-Collapse Iconic Panels on and off through the right-click menu on the Panel Dock. To invoke this menu right-click the mouse on the top of the Panel Dock above the upmost icon (see Figure 3).
Figure 3 - The Panel Dock right-click menu
If this option is not something that you already have turned on, I recommend you try it, it certainly saves me a few clicks.
This article was first published in the October 2023 issue of Artists Down Under magazine.