Customising menus and the toolbox in Paint
Hide menu items, colour the ones you use, take tools out of the toolbox and move tools between slots in Paint by Zaweba, saved with named workspaces.
A full featured editor shows everything to everyone, which means most people are looking past dozens of commands they never use. Paint by Zaweba lets you trim that down. Edit > Menus and Toolbar hides menu items and submenus, colours the ones you want to stand out, and takes tools out of the toolbox, and you can rearrange the toolbox by hand as well.
Hiding menu items and submenus
In Edit > Menus and Toolbar you can hide individual menu items or whole submenus. A photographer who never touches animation can hide those commands. Someone who only makes social graphics may hide most of the RAW and print options. The menus get shorter and the things you use are easier to spot.
Hiding is not removing. Commands you hide still exist, and Edit > Search can still find them by name, so nothing is ever truly out of reach.
You can also give menu items a colour. This is a quiet but effective idea. Colour the five or six commands you use most, and your eye finds them without reading. Some people colour by job instead: one colour for the steps in their photo workflow, another for print preparation. Keep it restrained, since a menu where everything is coloured is no easier than one where nothing is.
Trimming the toolbox
The same dialog takes tools out of the toolbox. If there are tools you never pick, their slots can go, and the toolbox becomes shorter and quicker to scan.
Moving tools between slots
Tools in the toolbox are grouped in slots, and each slot can hold several related tools. Press and hold a slot to see its flyout of the other tools it holds. To reorganise, right-click a toolbox slot and move its tool to another slot. That lets you group tools the way you think about them, or bring a tool out from a crowded flyout so it is always one click away.
Saved with your workspaces
These settings are saved with named workspaces. That is the key to using them well. You do not have to choose one trimmed set for everything. A painting workspace can hide photo commands and keep every brush tool to hand, while a photography workspace hides painting tools and colours your favourite adjustments. Switch workspace and the menus and toolbox change with it.
A sensible way to start
Do not try to design the perfect interface on day one. Work normally for a while and notice the commands you never open and the tools you never pick. Then hide those, and colour the handful you reach for constantly. Save the result to a workspace named after the job.
If you share a computer, or teach someone else, a trimmed workspace is a kind way to introduce the app. Beginners face far fewer choices, and you can switch back to the full set yourself in a moment.
Pitfalls
The usual problem is hiding something and later forgetting it was hidden. If you cannot find a command you know exists, use Search, or open Edit > Menus and Toolbar and look for it there. The other is trimming a workspace that someone else relies on. Make your own workspace rather than changing a shared one.
A tailored interface is one of the nicer things about Paint by Zaweba. The full power stays there when you need it, while day to day you see only your own set of tools.
