Easy to create button bar for Photoshop 5.5

Start a new file with a transparent background. 140 x 180 high was used here.

Click your SQUARE MARQEE tool and make a selection the size you want your buttons to be.

Double click the foreground color icon and choose the color you want.

Hold the ALT key down and hit DELETE. Your selection will be filled with the foreground color.

Choose LAYER>EFFECTS>BEVEL & EMBOSS Adjust the settings in the effects palette to whatever you think looks good and click OK

Select the MOVE tool. Hold down SHIFT and ALT key while you click on your button and drag downwards. The shift key will keep your new button lined up with the first and the alt key will make a duplicate layer. Repeat this till you have as many buttons as you need.

Save your file as buttonbar.psd before the next step.

Link all the layers by clicking the area indicated by the red arrow. The figure 8 symbol shows that a layer is linked.

Click the black triangle in the upper right of the layers palette and select MERGE LINKED

Click the NEW LAYER icon on the layers palette. Choose a background color and hit ALT DELETE to fill the background. Click on the background layer in the layers palette and drag it down below your buttons.

Click on your buttons layer to make it active and choose LAYER>EFFECTS>DROP SHADOW Change the settings till you get an effect you like and click OK

Click on the TYPE tool then click on the layer and type the text for your first button. You can use your move tool to position the type. The type will automatically go to a new layer. Repeat until you have text for all your buttons.

Save your file as buttonbarcopy.psd. You want to keep your original file in case you need to make more buttons in the future. This file has all the buttons merged to one layer.

Your file is done and you now have the choice of making an image map with your HTML program or cutting the buttons into seperate images.

If you choose to cut your buttons go to VIEW>SHOW RULERS Click on your MOVE tool then click on the ruler area and drag. Guide lines will appear on the image and you can mark the image where you want to cut it.

Save the file as a psd in case you want to go back and change your text later. Click the black triangle in the layers palette and choose FLATTEN IMAGE. Save the file under another name as you have now lost all your layers.

Use your square marqee tool to cut out the buttons one by one. Make a selection. Hit CTRL C to copy Hit CTRL N to create a new file. Hit CTRL V to paste the button you cut into the new file. Choose IMAGE>MODE>INDEXED COLOR then save the button as a gif image.