ImageReady and Photoshop use similar layouts in their workspace. If you are familiar with the Photoshop workspace, the transition to ImageReady will be an easy switch.

ImageReady's workspace might seem complicated at first, but don't let all the options and windows fool you, it is very easy to navigate and the layout of the workspace can moved around to fit your personal preference. The workspace consists of four main components: the menu bar, the toolbar, a toolbox, and palettes. Lets review these individually.

This is the workspace's appearance by default:

The menu bar contains controls for common functions such as opening and saving files, as well as specific functions, such as copying and pasting, calling up specific windows or palettes, and controlling the ImageReady workspace.

The toolbox contains a collection of tools used for creating, selecting, splicing, image mapping, and manipulating images

The toolbar, by default, lies just below the menu bar. When an ImageReady Tool is selected in the toolbox, the toolbar displays the available options for that Tool.

Palettes contain additional controls for other features in ImageReady, such as layers, colors, and styles, as well as other features that you will learn about as you progress through this curriculum. As you learn ImageReady, you'll find that you can use these palettes to manipulate the content you create in many ways. By default, there are four palette sets, each containing a collection of multiple palettes in each set (other additional palettes such as the animation palette and the slice palette can be accessed by way of the pulldown Window menu in the menu bar).

These are two common additional palettes that you might need to open