HIDDEN ADOBE CC EASTER EGGS

For years software developers have hidden easter eggs within their programs as a way of  having a bit of fun. These can be anything from a hidden message or joke through to a full blown game hidden inside the program.  It provides a bit of extra entertainment for people using the software, and to be honest when you find an easter egg it’s kind of nice knowing you are “in on the secret”.

Adobe are no different and the latest CC 2019 releases of Adobe’s products have a number of easter eggs hidden in them. I was reminded of this recently when chatting with a delegate on one of my courses, and I thought it might be nice to do an up-to-date list of easter eggs that I have come across.

I am pretty sure there are probably others out there, and there are some (like the Photoshop Butterflys) that no longer work in CC hence i haven’t listed them. If you know of any not included here though please add them in the comments below.

Learn to use Photoshop

Photoshop Training for all levels

Courses at all levels, attend Live online with Adobe Certified Instructors

PHOTOSHOP – MAKE COFFEE AND TOAST

Yep you can actually make toast and coffee with Photoshop!

1. Simply go down to the Preferences option in the Edit menu and select Interface.
2. Now hold down Shift + Alt and click on one of the small colour theme icons near the top of the dialog box and it changes to toast.
3. If you would rather have coffee, simply hold Control together with Shift and Alt and click again a couple of times to switch between coffee and toast.

Surely it’s only a matter of time until Photoshop can make a cup of coffee, and print it off on a 3d printer for us to drink …..

PHOTOSHOP – ABOUT B WINSTON

If you have been staring at Photoshop a little distraction can be good sometimes.

1. Just hold down the control key on the keyboard
2. Select About Photoshop from the Help menu.

You get a slightly different about screen to the normal one.

In case your wondering B. Winston Hendrickson was the vice president of Adobe’s digital imaging products, including Photoshop and Lightroom. Over the years he made major contributions to Adobe Creative Suite product development, and passed away in 2018.

PHOTOSHOP – THE TOOLBAR BANANA

With the more recent versions of Photoshop you can now edit the toolbar and customise exactly what tools you see. Personally I don’t bother as I find established habit just kicks in, meaning I can’t find the tool I need so it just slows me down.  Anyway, I digress. At the bottom of the toolbar click and hold down the three dots to edit the toolbar. When the edit box opens up, simply hold down shift and click done.  Voila, you have a banana in the toolbar.  If you want to get rid of it, simply go back into editing the toolbar and this time hold down the Ctrl / Cmd key while clicking Done and it’s gone again.

INDESIGN – MEET THE FRIENDLY ALIEN

We all know visiting aliens don’t like to be seen by us mere humans and this little fellow is well hidden indeed:

1. From the File menu in InDesign select Print Presets and click Define.
2. Create a new Print Preset and call it “Friendly Alien” without the quotes (the actual preset settings are irrelevant).
3. Save it.
4. Now open a blank document and go to file and print, change the print preset at the top of the dialog box to Friendly Alien
5. Just click the large P in the print preview window in the dialog box. You should now get a visit from the alien.

INDESIGN – SOME HIDDEN STROKES

The InDesign strokes panel is great for customising strokes, but did you know some interesting new stroke styles can be created just by picking the right name for them:

1. In the InDesign Window menu open the stroke panel
2. From the panel menu (top right of the panel) select stroke styles.
3. Here you can enable some hidden stroke styles, for example with type set to dash you can create stroke styles called Feet, Happy, Lights or Woof. You don’t need to change any settings just give them those names spelt correctly and click create.
4. Alternatively set the type to stripe and create Rainbow or Rasta

These can be appled to as a stroke or for example as a strikethrough or underline when you customise these.

Learn more about this Prerecorded InDesign course now

Learn InDesign - From Only £75

OVER 6 HOURS OF STRUCTURED HD CONTENT, TAUGHT BY AN ADOBE CERTIFIED INSTRUCTOR

INDESIGN – SORT MENUS

Not totally sure if this qualifies as an Easter Egg but I haven’t seen it documented anywhere else. When you are working in InDesign click on the menus while holding down Ctrl +Alt + Shift / Cmd + Option + Shift. The menus are now sorted alphabetically.

PREMIERE – ABOUT PREMIERE

Click on About Premiere in the Help menu while holding down Ctrl for a slightly different about screen.

On the Mac version you’ll find it in the Premiere pro menu and you need to hold down the Cmd key.

AFTER EFFECTS – THE SHEEP

Believe it or not there is a sheep lost inside After Effects. Don’t believe me?  Apply any effect to a layer and then in the effect control panel hold down the Shift key and click on the tab at the top of the panel. You’ll need sound turned on to hear him though.

ILLUSTRATOR

Unfortunately I can’t find any easter eggs that still work in Illustrator CC, and all the old ones I tested seem to have been disabled now. If you have found any though feel free to mention them in the comments below.