How do you all arrange all of those pesky little windows that photoshop "needs" open and still see what you are working on? Seems like I can not strike a balance between my work area and the tools needed to navigate it. Or am I to dependant on the windows?

Once you have selected the tool you want for the moment press the tab key. This will turn off the toolbars and open up your screen. to get them back just press the tab key again. The only time this doesn't work is if you are using the type tool. In that case the escape key will get you out. BTW... using the f key will rotate you through the three possible screen options available.

Thanks Alpha, so easy once I see how.

Another way would be to buy a junkie opld 4 meg pci video card, and a junkie old generic 640x480 monitor, and plug'em in for a dual screen setup. That way, you can work with your image on your main monitor at full screen, and have all your menus on the old junkie one. You don't need more than 4 megs, and I'm pretty sure you could get by with a 2 meg card. Word of advice though, if yer working within a new OS (Win2K WinXP), or even the oldies (Win9x), make sure that the "new" card is supported, cuz they stop supporting the old ones after awhile. I have a junkie on board 4 meg graphic card along with my voodoo, and the onboard one just WOULD NOT work in WinXP. Back to Win98 i went...

You can also take advantage of the palette tabs and the 'docking bay'. By grabbing a palette aspect by the top tab (the handle) you can drag it from one palette to another. I just load my layers palette with the things I use most - alpha, navigator etc - and close down all the other palettes. That way there's only one on screen plus the floating toolbar. The dark grey rectngle at the top right of the screen is the docking bay. You can drag palettes into it so they're always handy but not floating around the screen. That's where I keep the history palette for my uh-oh moments. Saves buying a second monitor.

nah, all u need is 20 bucks for an old 640x480, and it should recognize as "generic" and do the job. But each has his own way.

After working with Photoshop on a Mac for 2 years, you learn to use the Keyboard shortcuts. Here are the Fkey shortcuts for the panels F6 - Colour, swatches and styles F7 - Layers, channels and paths F8 - Navigation and info F9 - History and actions I don,t think there is one for the Text, but when you select the text tool then the palette button is at the top. Don't forget that you can drag and drop one palette into another. IE: If you want the colour and layer palettes in one, just grab the colour tab and pull it into the layer palette. Check your help files for a list of either windows or Mac keyboard shortcuts, learning them will save a lot of time!

Did anyone mention Shift - Tab? Similar to Tab as Alpha mentioned except it leaves the Toolsbar(left) and only removes the Palettes(right). Shift - Tab again brings all the Palettes back.