Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks disable floating and lock all panels and other preferences

Question

For the last few years I've been lazy and suffering through a poorly managed workspace in all these programs. It all started when I upgraded to the Mac versions instead of the Windows versions I had on an old laptop. On Windows, the preferences came pretty much where I wanted but on Mac I don't know how to change these things. I've scoured the Internets and haven't found anything useful concerning these issues.

1) How do you stop floating all windows and lock everything to the sides of the content pane? On Windows this is out of the box but on Mac everything is floating and I can't figure out how to change it. This occurs in all programs and it's very annoying to have the scroll bar hidden under an open panel.

2) How to change the save as preferences for Ai? Whenever I use this option, it never remembers my last location and always takes me to root. Very annoying when I have a deep directory somewhere and need to save several versions or different images there.

3) How to organize the file open/save as browser in Ai? In Ps, I can arrange the files displayed according to kind, date, etc. In Ai I can't and it's a jumbled mess every time I try to open or save anything.

4) In PS and FW, how do you get more canvas real estate? I have to work at a very close zoom sometimes and if I'm working near the bottom of the document I can't get it to the center of the screen because it won't let me go below the canvas. In Ai, I can move the canvas to the center where it is more comfortable for me to work with. I can't do this with the other programs and it's flush with the bottom of the screen. Very annoying.

Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

These answers are for Fireworks, and may be similar to PS.

1. Window > Use Application Frame To save your workspace, in the upper right there is a drop-down tab that give you the option to name and save your space.

2. n/a

3. n/a

4. Press 'F' to change the view screen, or zoom in. That's about it, as far as I know.

Answer 2

1) In PS CS5(and previous versions too), you can save your own workspace setups. Just go to Windows>Workspace and you can select the defaults. To make the columns pop out instead of float click the double arrows at the top of the column and that will make all the options occupy space instead of floating. once you have your workspace configured the way you like, you can create a new workspace and it'll save your configuration.

Answer 3

For 2 and 3, there's a dandy utility called Default Folder, which works across the entire Mac operating system and all applications.