How to Customize Your Panels in Photoshop Elements

By Linda Sattgast

Here’s how to customize your panels in the Photoshop Elements Panel Bin. (This is for Photoshop Elements versions 11 to the current version.)

Make sure you’re in the Expert mode. If you’re not, click on Expert at the top of your desktop.
Adobe has a set of default panels that you can access by clicking on the icons in the Task Bar below the Panel Bin.
To set up your own panel arrangement, click on the triangle next to the “More” menu in the lower right corner and choose Custom Workspace.
The four default panels will now be in a tabbed panel arrangement.
To view a panel, click on its tab.
To delete a panel, click on its tab and drag it out of the Panel Bin onto your desktop. Click the close button.

You can access all the panels from the Window menu. Here are the panels I recommend, but you can add any panel you want.

Choose Window > History and it will open on your desktop, along with other panels. Click on the tab of the History panel and drag it over the tab of another panel in the Panel Bin until you see a blue outline around the entire panel compartment. Let go of the mouse to nest it with the other panels.
Click on a tab to access other panels in the same compartment.
If you want the panel tabs in a different order, click and drag a tab left or right.

To create a second panel compartment along the left side of the Panel Bin, click and drag a panel by its tab to the left side of the Panel Bin until you see a vertical blue line along the side. Let go of the mouse to dock it to the left of the original panel. Since this takes up a fair amount of space, if I’m using a laptop, I prefer to nest the main panels I use together in one compartment.
To nest a panel with another panel, click on its tab and drag it over another tab until you see a blue outline around the compartment. Then let go of the mouse.
To create a new panel compartment within the main Panel Bin, click on the tab of a panel and drag it to the bottom or the top
of the Bin, or between two other compartments, until you see a horizontal blue line. Let go of the mouse and you’ll have a new compartment.
To collapse a panel or set of panels, double click on a panel tab. Click on a tab to expand it again.
If you’re left with panels on your desktop that you don’t plan to use in your Panel Bin, click the close button to remove them. You can always access any of them from the Window menu at any time.

As you get more familiar with your personal workflow, you can create your own panel arrangement in Photoshop Elements.