THE PLUGINS MENU
Let’s admit here that the new menu is pretty basic. Located
between the View and Window menu, you initially have
three options: Plugins Panel, Browse Plugins, and Manage
Plugins. As you add plugins, this menu will populate with
their names for fast access. Note that there’s been a little
change of nomenclature, as well: the word “Plugins” isn’t
hyphenated, as with Lightroom menu items.There’s something else we need to clear up here too.
These plugins are really panels that add functionality
to Photoshop. They could literally be buttons to run
actions, or just a collection of your favorite tools, now
that Photoshop likes to hide tools when using different
workspaces. You may also be asking yourself about older
custom panels made with the previous tools. These will
go away at some point, but will be supported for now.
Most developers that are actively working on plugins are
making the switch, but you needn’t worry just yet.
PLUGINS PANEL
The Plugins panel is where the loaded panels will live.
Initially, it’s empty with a blue Discover Plugins button
to get started. You also have the Browse Plugins button
at the footer of the panel.
Both of these link to separate parts of the Mar-
ketplace tab inside the Creative Cloud app. Discover
Plugins opens the Featured Plugins section, while
Browse Plugins opens the All Plugins section, with the
Photoshop Filter enabled.DISCOVER PLUGINS: Clicking Discover Plugins, you’ll see
something like this:At the top you can scroll through several banners that
suggest different types of tools. Below you have some
featured plugins. Finally at the bottom, you can connect
Photoshop to your everyday apps, such Google, Teams,
Slack, or Dropbox.
Clicking Learn More on the first banner, you’re brought
to the Editor’s Choice page, where Adobe curates plugins
it feels suits a range of users.As we’ve looked at Lightroom plug-ins by Picture
Instruments in the past, clicking into their free Toolbox
plugin in the Editor’s Choice listing seems like a good
way to see how each plugin is presented. (We’ll install
and try this later.) MAXIMUM WORKFLOWKELBYONE.COM