The Photoshop CS2 Speed Clinic: Automating Photoshop to Get Twice the Work Done in Half the Time

I can't count how many times I've double-clicked on an EPS file that I wanted to open in Photoshop and realized that it was opening in Illustrator instead. That's because, by default, EPS files are set to open in Illustrator since that's usually the application people want to use them in. What if you want to change this? Not permanently, but temporarily whenever you want a fast way to open a file that is set to open somewhere else. You'll be happy to know there's an easy way to do this.

Step One

In Bridge, find a file that you know always opens in Illustrator and click once on the thumbnail to select it.

©MATT KLOSKOWSKI

Step Two

Go under the File menu and choose Place. Here, you'll see all four Creative Suite programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, and InDesign). Choose whichever program you want to open the file in (in this case, Photoshop) and it'll open there just this time. It won't change the way the file opens permanently, but it will let you quickly open it just this time.