Grants tools

[Crissyc]

I know there have been several threads about this. I was trying to follow the directions suggested but have had no success. I used the address in the threads that my husband found somewhere. I pasted it in the browser when I went to unzip them. It looked like they were there because when we were tryimg to load the second set we could see the first set in the folder but when I tried to find them in elements they werent there. You dont have to do that getting rid of cache thing do you? By the way Im using 5 which I just love.
Chris

[graficalicus]

first, navigate here (copy & paste this address into the address bar of any folder & press <Enter>):

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\5.0\Photo Creations\special effects\

this is assuming "C:" is your root drive - if you use "F:\", for example, substitute F for C - .

unzip, unpack, (I don't have Grant's tools, so I'm not sure how they're packaged) into a new folder here, so you should have
...\...\Photo Creations\special effects\Grant's Tools

inside this folder will be nothing but actions and the thumb.psd file.

no cache to dump, just restart elements.

Tutorial here:
Action thumbs and organizing them in PSE 5 (http://www.graficalicus.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=250)

scroll down to the "Organize them!" section

[Crissyc]

Thank you Ill let you know how I do.
Chris

[johnfranklin]

I know there have been several threads about this. I was trying to follow the directions suggested but have had no success. I used the address in the threads that my husband found somewhere. I pasted it in the browser when I went to unzip them. It looked like they were there because when we were tryimg to load the second set we could see the first set in the folder but when I tried to find them in elements they werent there. You dont have to do that getting rid of cache thing do you? By the way Im using 5 which I just love.
Chris It is my experience thus far that grant's tools(for PSE3) will not work with PSE5. However, A gentleman named Tony White has rewritten a set specifically for PSE5. they are available at graphicssoft.about.com ,follow topics>photoshop elements>Elements add ons & tools. The real beauty of PSE5 (besides the new interface) is you DON'T have to delete the caches, it rebuilds them automatically.

[johnfranklin]

I forgot almost to mention When I downloaded the new Grant's Tools, (for PSE5) they were in the wrong folders. The tools were in the alignment tools folder and vice versa. So, if you go download them both and sort it out when you get home so to speak.

[Wendy]

Hi John ...

You can just pick up the different version of Grant's tools from his own website ... its probably easier than negotiating the other site.

Here is the link:

http://www.cavesofice.org/~grant/Challenge/Tools/index.html

I suspect that most folks here already have them installed :)

Wendy

[Inspeqtor]

first, navigate here (copy & paste this address into the address bar of any folder & press <Enter>):

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\5.0\Photo Creations\special effects\



Graffi,

In using 'My Computer' I do not have an address bar. How do you do that?

.... a screen shot would be a huge help to me! :D :D

Thanks

[graficalicus]

just open any folder - C: drive, for instance -

then you'll have an address bar.

You can even put the address into your IE browser address bar & it'll open the folder for you. :cool:

[Inspeqtor]

Graffi,

I went to View/Toolbars and discovered Address Bar was in there but not checked. I did not have an Address Bar until I checked it. I never knew it was possible to do that! I have been working with computers over 20 years now...

Ya learn something new everyday :p

Thank you Graffi!!!

[Wags374]

Hey Graffi - do you know if I can just add them to the Graffi add-o-matic (which by the way I LOVE!) as complete files, or if I have to add each individual item - and what do I do with the "thumbs" file - does that go into the add-o-matic too?

[graficalicus]

Alas, no -

I set the Add-O-Matic up to accept only individual files. I did have it originally set to allow users to drag entire folders in, but while testing it, realized that there could be any number of things in a folder that it wouldn't accept, so decided to make it files-only. (You can add entire folders, though - just open the folder of stuff you want to add, press <Ctrl>+<A> to select everything, and drag it into the orange box! ;) )

Another decision (a tough one...) I made during programming was about the actions & thumbs - how & where to add them. i almost left actions out of the mix entirely, but figured it's a pretty simple way to test if an action works or not, and easily remove it if it doesn't. Here's how it came about -

For starters, Styles, for example, get created in their own subset within the "Added Styles" directory - that was easy, and it made it pretty easy to navigate around them in the Artwork palette.

Actions, though, are a different beast. I had them programmed to put each action into its own directory within the "Added Effects" folder, but some action sets have several actions included, and this setup put each action in its own folder with a corresponding thumbs.psd (blank) - which, basically, didn't work. If you dragged in a set of, say 5 or 10 actions, you'd wind up with 5 or 10 folders of 1 action/each. Bleh!

Also, since there's so many different places for graphic files to go (.pngs, .jpgs, .psds, etc.) I decided to leave the graphics alone entirely, and maybe make a separate adder for them, since they can potentially go to the actions folder, in graphics, textures, maybe slideshow backgrounds, . . . So I couldn't really make a generic thumbs file, since I wouldn't know what actions' names to use, how many there were, how to generate the layers from outside PSE, - -- (but I have some ideas, and I'm working on it!)

So all actions get lumped into the generic "Added Effects" directory, and the honor of separating them out & making thumbnails is up to the user. ;) Of course, if a set already has a thumbs.psd file, you can just create a new directory and drop the thumbs in with the actions manually-

To separate them out and make thumbs, I also posted this article over the weekend - hopefully it'll help - -:cool:

Creating and Organizing Thumbnails for Actions in Photoshop Elements 5.0 (http://www.graficalicus.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=250)

Hope that helps!

[Oscar D]

I have a question about when adding extras into PSE 5, I was told that when they are added into PSE that they seem to slow down the program. I download some into PSE 3 and it seems that it is true. Could anyone tell me if that will happen when I try to download them into PSE 5. If so, how can you fix this, if possible.

THANKS

OSCAR

[Oscar D]

I have a question about when adding extras into PSE 5, I was told that when they are added into PSE that they seem to slow down the program. I download some into PSE 3 and it seems that it is true. Could anyone tell me if that will happen when I try to download them into PSE 5. If so, how can you fix this, if possible.

THANKS

OSCAR

[Wendy]

Hi Oscar ...

When you add anything into Elements it slightly slows down the time the Elements takes to loads ... its just that Elements needs to load the extra items. So the more you add in and the longer start up takes ...

Not everything needs to be installed within Elements ... some items (like brushes) can be installed elsewhere just in a folder and you can access them via the flyout menu and load them. :)

Wendy

[graficalicus]

what Wendy said - if you watch the splash screen, it will tell you what it's loading. Fonts are a big one - if you've got 10,000 fonts on your machine, for example, startup will take awhile while it goes through them.

Note that this is for start up - all of these add-ons don't use any system resources while running the program (they just sit there until you call them by clicking on them), so actual performance won't be affected - just startup.

[Oscar D]

Thanks for the info guys. I just have to be patient.

OSCAR

[chas3stix]

Graffi,
I don't know why this is happening but PSE5 seems to load at start-up faster than PSE3. Maybe #5 is more streamlined than #3?
Chas

[Inspeqtor]

Chas,

Do you have the same amount of 'extras' loaded in PSE5 as you do PSE3?

Just a thought... :rolleyes:

[Wendy]

I thought that when I first loaded PSE5 ... and then I added in all the extras :eek: :D :D

Wendy

[graficalicus]

Graffi,
I don't know why this is happening but PSE5 seems to load at start-up faster than PSE3. Maybe #5 is more streamlined than #3?
Chas

yes, it is - most of the extras are loaded outside of the program files folder, so it's easier to cache. Now it just loads your system things (fonts, mainly... keep an eye on how many fonts you have ;) ) brushes & plugins. All the heavy extras (i.e., pretty much everything in the Artwork & Effects palette) are located outside, with a separate database. They don't have to reload unless it notices a change on startup in one or more of the directories. That's why it'll only show the "Building Artwork & Effects" screen if you've added something.

My guess is that this will also help with future versions of Elements - they'll all (possibly) read from the same database (?)

[chas3stix]

Charles (great name...:))
Everything that was in PSE3 is now in PSE5. It loads faster and i like it!
Chas

[johnfranklin]

Hi John ...

You can just pick up the different version of Grant's tools from his own website ... its probably easier than negotiating the other site.

Here is the link:

http://www.cavesofice.org/~grant/Challenge/Tools/index.html

I suspect that most folks here already have them installed :)

Wendy People were complaining the cavesoft link was not working. Were you to go to the http://graphicssoft.about.com web site and follow the Elements topics to the download elements add-ons you would find this site has links to dozens of add-on sites, many of which some people might not already have. Notably the "Earth Bound Lights" add-ons which work at least on a par with Grant's. 10-4? Although at the moment they don't work in PSE5 either.