Double Document View

The big picture for small edits...

Some precision tasks in Photoshop Elements, such as retouching, require you to work at very high zoom levels. This is the only way to see the image in enough detail to work effectively.

The problem with such magnified views is that it's very easy to 'lose the big picture', if you'll excuse the expression. If you lose track of what effect your changes have on the image as a whole, often the result is poor.

Before the feature I'm about to introduce existed, the only way around this was to continually zoom out and zoom in again, a very tedious process!

But no longer! Double Document View to the rescue!

How It Works...

In Photoshop Elements, you can actually have two separate windows, both showing the same document. Not just a copy of the document, the actual same document.

This means that when you make changes in one window (Say at a very high magnification), they will appear in the other window too, (Even if that window is showing the whole image!).

To open dual windows, select 'View - New Window for DOCUMENT' from the menu, where DOCUMENT is the name of the file you're working on.

Now make sure both windows are visible at the same time, and try zooming in on one. You'll notice that the other stays at the same magnification. When you make edits though, they will appear in both windows.

Useful Extensions

In fact, this technique is not even limited to two windows! You can have many more views of the same document, limited only really by the amount of space on your screen.

Try opening up a third view, and picking a third magnification.

Once you have more than one view open, if you're moving around a lot, then scrolling about all three windows can become tedious in itself. Photoshop Elements even has an answer for this:

Try selecting the Hand Tool, and checking the box in the options bar that reads 'Scroll All Windows'. Now as you click and drag on one window to move around, the other windows will follow. This makes keeping track of the different views a snap!

The bottom line is, you may not use the double document view often, but when performing that occasional fiddly job it can save you a lot of time.

Kind Regards

Robert Redwood Robert Redwood - Bio
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