This shows the title bar at the top, which is just the standard Windows title bar. Double click on the little image in the upper left (just above the, F, in File) - and that ends PSP (closes the program). Same if you click the "x" button at the far right. You can remove this title bar, even accidentally, by pressing - SHIFT-A. If it disappears on you, try SHIFT-A, and see if doesn't reappear.

The menu bar, just below the title bar, is the standard Windows menu bar; showing the commands for this particular program, Paint Shop Pro 7. The icon bar just below that is the PSP tool bar; or called in PSP, the tool palette. It has 22 buttons. And these little buttons correspond to particular features/commands for painting, selecting, and so on; the 'tools' in PSP. You can't get these tools from the menu bar, but you can from the Tool Options window - see below. You can hide these bars. There's the option of right clicking on the tool bar (or selecting from the menu bar - View, Toolbars) which will bring up a menu where you can add or delete from view any number of the various icon bars. And there's also a specific shortcut - the P key - which switches the tool bar display on and off. Still, this tool bar is one you want to keep visible. There's also some of these bars that you can customize, add or delete various buttons - but not for any of those called, palettes, which are those mentioned here.

There are various of these icon bars that you can show, most not mentioned here. The tool bar, or any like it, can be slid around the screen and locked into place, as shown here, at the top of the screen; or left, right, or bottom. You just click on some portion without a button, and hold the mouse down, and move it around. If the bar doesn't reach the edge of the screen, it just stays as a 'floating' window (which might get in the way) .

This at the left is also a menu that you can make invisible (or switch it on and off with the O (oh, not zero) key). But you want it visible. This is the options window (or palette) for the assorted tools. Different options are shown, in this window, depending on which button on the tool bar you press. Shown here are the tubes options (and for one of the tubes at this site). And clicking on that magnifying glass, in the upper right drops down a menu of all 22 tools (in case you don't want to use the toolbar). In addition, and to aid in uncluttering the screen, these windows like the Options window, can roll-up into just a title bar when the mouse/cursor is moved away, or not, depending on whether the box is checked in File, Preferences, Dialogs and Palettes, Enable Roll-up. And to switch quickly for all such windows, you can just press the Tab key, and the windows will appear and disappear from the screen as you prefer; again just to help better view the image(s) you are working on, by itself.

On the left is shown the color bar (or palette) in PSP 7 (visibility switched on/off with the C key, and unaffected by the Tab key). Like the icon bars you can slide it around. But it will only lock to the right or left of the screen. As with the Options, it's also one you want to keep visible. The top boxes just repeat the color used in what's called the, Styles, below. You can click on either of these top boxes to change the color at any time; or click the arrow between to swap the colors. Below it's called, Styles, more than just color, because three types of styles can be used - a color, a gradient, or an image/pattern. The top left Styles box is for the foreground color, or pattern. It is also the outline or border (called the, stroke) for text, for paint brushes or for all objects drawn. The bottom right is for the background. It is also the fill color for text, brush and objects. You can't paint text, for example, with the foreground color because that only paints its outline (unless you just want outlined text for effect, and sometimes you do: by the way simpler, previous, PSP versions allowed text in fore or background color). You normally paint text and other things with the fill Style, with an optional stroke or border around it.

Again, the Styles boxes can show either nothing - which you might want on occasion (say you don't want to use a stroke) - or a color, of course, but also a pattern/image (.jpg, .gif, whatever) or a gradient (which you can set to various things). You have to click on one of these boxes and hold down the mouse button for just a bit, until a little 4 icon bar appears just below (shown off to the right, here), from which you can select among the four options. You can also try that little black triangle, there - but it's awfully small to get precisely over it. Better just to click the box, and hold for a second or two. And . . . once it's set, you click on the Styles box again, for a big menu to come up, and you can make any specific changes.

The Textures are just the bump, or relief map, for the associated Style. These are black and white shadow images that are combined with the color, gradient or image of the Style to give it some . . 'texture'. Same as above for the on/off menu - hold down the button over one of those boxes until the pop-up . . pops up. A texture can also be used as a screen, including some screens that ship with PSP 7.

The Color Picker, above, shows the available colors, a palette (or called a, panel, in PSP (since the whole bar is called the palette?)), for the color depth or resolution of the image which is selected. Here, it's a full color image. If changed to a lower resolution, or to a black and white image, this little spectrum/panel/palette would change, as well. When the cursor is placed over this area, it changes to a little 'eye dropper', and the color at the tip of the 'dropper' is shown at the bottom, as color picked, along the RGB value, as well. Also, when you use the Eye Dropper tool, the color currently at the tip of the 'dropper' is shown as color picked.

Lastly, the little Lock box is an option to use the Styles without change, for any tool being used, which uses color/textures/etc. If the box isn't checked, then PSP matches the selections, here, with each tool separately. As you change tools, all the settings here change to match what you had selected for the tool, the last time you used it (might get confusing - maybe not - but thus, the lock box).

So, in the example here, the color for the top left Style is a pale green, but the Style used is an orange gradient. If switched back to color, it would show pale green in the Styles box. The little Style bar is shown to the right for the fill Style, with Color selected, so that the solid white matches the smaller white box at the top. No bump is used for the stroke, but one is used for the fill Style, and so is combined when painting the fill on any text, brush or object. The cursor is over some shade of blue in the palette, or color picker, where it has changed to a representation of an eye dropper, and the color at the tip is shown at the bottom and by RGB value.

[One might also be interested in this slightly more elaborate look at the color palette, as well.]

You'll also want the status bar, on the very bottom of the screen. It shows image size, at a glance, and cursor position (which is handy when making precise selections). The layers palette will also prove quite useful. So, from View, Toolbars - make sure that the Tool Palette, Color Palette, Status Bar, Layers and Tool Options Palette are checked. Maybe also check Enable automatic roll-ups (it helps to get the Tool Options menu out of the way, when not in use - but some people might find the roll-up annoying).