General Program Preferences
Getting Paint Shop Pro set up in the beginning is a task that should be completed. A lot of us just like to open a program and start working. We never think about our preferences. In a lot of programs, Paint Shop Pro included, setting up your preferences can make life a little easier when working whether you are experienced or a novice.
Let's take a look at a few things that are important. First, open Paint Shop Pro and go to File>Preferences>General Program Preferences. You should see a dialog similar to the one below.
The first tab, Undo/Redo is where you will tell Paint Shop Pro how you want undo/redo applied while you are working. Here you can set how much disk space you want to allow for undo/redo operations and you can set how many undo/redo operations will be available to you. What you set these to depends on how you work and how much available disk space you have. I have mine set to use 100 megabytes of disk space for undo/redo and I've limited the number of undo/redo operations to 40.
This is important. If you are working on a complicated image and you get a ways along then decide you don't like what's happening, the amount of undo/redo you have set here will determine how far backwards you can go.
You can undo and redo in several different ways. You can use CTRL-Z to undo. You can go to the Edit menu>Undo and you can get into the Command History and select the operation you want to undo. A note here about using Command History. If you choose something in the middle of the Command History list, everything that came after it will also be undone.
You can redo in several different ways. You can use CTRL-ALT-Z to redo. You can go to the Edit menu>Redo and you can use the Command History to redo by selecting what you want to redo. A note again. If you choose to redo something in the middle of the list, everything that came after that operations will also be redone.
I left everything at it's default in the viewing tab.
I dislike automatic palette roll-ups so I unchecked that. I like flat style toolbars and I hate having to always scroll through the list of file types when I want to save an image. So I checked Display flat style toolbars and Remember last type used in file save-as dialog. This last one is a really nice option to be able to set.
You can see my choices for the color palette. I believe those are the default settings.
I don't use the image browser so that is something you may want to experiment with if you plan to use it.
The Miscellaneous tab has some important items on it. The recently used list is no big deal. That just shows however many number you set here list of the last files you had open in Paint Shop Pro. It is a shortcut back to those images without having to browse your hard drive for them. It makes things a little more convenient. The background paste tolerance is the Paint Shop Pro default.
I unchecked Do not ask to empty clipboard on Exit. The reason is because when you leave a lot of stuff on the clipboard it uses memory that could be better used elsewhere after you exit Paint Shop Pro. I even clear my clipboard occasionally while working in Paint Shop Pro to improve performance. You can do that also by going to the Edit menu>Empty>Clipboard.
I dislike splash screens so I also unchecked that. I already know I'm working in Paint Shop Pro. I don't need to be reminded each time I open it.
The Rulers and Units tab is also something that you should think about. Because I do web graphics I have my default resolution set to 72 pixels per inch. The highest value a browser will display is 96. If you are going to be doing print graphics you might want to increase this to around 300. Remember though that the larger the resolution the more memory required to work on images.
I change the grid and guides when I need to. I find that not every image I need to use them on will require the same size grid. I also change the grid line color as necessary depending on the color of the image I'll be using the grid on.
I left the transparency tab items at their default.
I also left all the Warnings on the Warnings tab at their default.
Once you get your preferences set up and start working with Paint Shop Pro, you may want to come back and alter things a little more to your liking. We all work differently and that is what is nice about having all these options. We each get to have it the way we want it.
The next tutorial you should read is the one about the Paint Shop Pro Tool Palette. That will get you familiar with the basic tools available in Paint Shop Pro.
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