Today’s Question: I created a workspace in Photoshop based on your recommendations long ago. The problem is that I sometimes move panels around for various reasons, essentially breaking my saved workspace. When I then try to choose my workspace it doesn’t go back to the saved version. How can I get back to my workspace just the way I saved it?
Tim’s Quick Answer: To reset your current workspace to the saved version, simply choose Window > Workspace > Reset [Workspace Name] from the menu. This will reset the current Photoshop workspace to the saved version of the selected workspace.
More Detail: I find that many photographers leave Photoshop configured with the default workspace. That means that panels you don’t really need are visible within the interface, and that panels you could benefit from aren’t readily available. For this reason, I highly recommend creating your own custom workspace.
Start by hiding panels you don’t want and revealing any “missing” panels that you do want. You can choose among the many available panels from the list on the Window menu. Then arrange the panels in the desired layout by dragging panels around, grouping panels together, and more.
When you’ve configured the Photoshop interface just the way you want it, go to the Window menu and choose Workspace followed by New Workspace. In the New Workspace dialog enter a meaningful name so you’ll be able to choose your workspace from a list. For example, I just use my own name as the name of my saved workspace. But you could also name different workspaces based on the tasks you use each workspace for. Click Save to save your workspace.
You can then choose your workspace from the submenu displayed by choosing Window > Workspace from the menu. And as noted above, if you make a bit of a mess of your workspace after activating it, you can reset it by going to the Window menu, choosing Workspace, and then selecting the “Reset” command that will include the name of the current workspace as part of the menu item. This will reset the current workspace to the version you saved.