| If you are like me, you need a little help when you attempt to draw something from scratch. I often use the Custom Shapes tool in Photoshop to get started. For my last project, I wanted to use the Cat 1 Custom Shape in Photoshop Elements 7. But, I needed to use the tools in Photoshop CS4 for my project. So I needed a way to use the custom shape from Elements in Photoshop. Of course, I could have just drawn the shape in Elements, save the file and opened the file in Photoshop CS4. But, as I looked through the list of custom shapes in Elements, I realized that there were a few more that I could find useful in my Photoshop projects. So I needed a way to make these Elements shapes permanently available to Photoshop CS4. It was as easy as copying the custom shapes csh file from the Elements program folder to the Photoshop program folder on my hard drive. Once I did this, all of the custom shapes that came with Photoshop Elements were in the custom shapes drop-down menu in Photoshop. Here are the steps. 1. You will find the Custom Shapes files for Photoshop Elements 7 in the Presets folder. Click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. Next, click on Local Disk (usually a C:). From there, click on Program Files – Adobe – Photoshop Elements 7 – Presets – Custom Shapes. In the Photoshop Elements Custom Shapes folder, you will see many files with the csh extension. The one you will need is called "All Elements Shapes". This file contains all of the custom shapes that shipped with your version of Elements. Right-click on this file and choose Copy from the menu. 2. We need to paste this file into the Photoshop CS4 folder. Again, click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. Next, click on Local Disk (usually a C:). From there, click on Program Files – Adobe – Photoshop CS4 – Presets – Custom Shapes. 3. In the Photoshop Custom Shapes folder, click Edit – Paste. You should see the "All Elements Shapes" file at the bottom of the list. 4. Just one more step and we can use these shapes. Open Photoshop CS4 and click on the Custom Shape tool. Go to the Options Bar and open the Shapes drop-down list. Find the small arrow on the right and open the menu. Choose "All Elements Shapes" from the menu list of files. When the dialog box pops up, choose Append to add these shapes to the other shapes in the display list. Now, we can use all the shapes from Photoshop Elements 7. Join us in the Digital Art and Design forum. |
