This is driving me crazy...

Help! In Photoshop Elements 3, I somehow changed the background color of the image window to black from the original grey and now I want to change it back but I can't. How do I do that? Thanks.

MALI

Hit the d key.

I'm sorry, I misread that! The d key resets the swatches to default. It should be in Edit>Preferences. Sorry about that!

It is not there.

MALI

Check your Display settings in the control panel, then.

This is what I mean. Look at the image I attached. The picture I am working on in the middle is covered by space, which I turned into black and I do not remember how. It used to be grey. I need it grey again because when the pictures I am working on have dark colors around the edges, I cannot see where the image ends.

Does anyone know how I make that spce grey again?

Thanks.

MALI

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Hit f and see if that changes it?

Nope. I vaguely remember that I used some key combination like CTRL + something but I forgot. I have been trying all the combinations I can think of but did not succeed so far. The more I try hard to think what it was, the more blank my mind goes. Grrrh.

MALI

Anything, like View>Screen Mode?

This works in Photoshop:

1) Make gray your foreground color in the tool palette
2) Pick the Paint Bucket Tool
3) Shift-Click in the background

Should change the window background color to the foreground color. Hope this works!!

Well that fills a background layer of an image, but it doesn't change the application work area.

See picture for example . . . when I shift-click (on a Mac) on the red x'd areas with the Paint Bucket tool selected, it changes the window background color to the foreground color in the tool palette.

If that doesn't work for Elements, try the forums on the Adobe website?

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Yes, but that is in the image window, what about the application work area? It looks like MALI's is black, like if you hit 'f' twice and changed the screen mode.

That is the application work are, when the image window is pulled out bigger. That techniques works the same with the first two "F" modes, but not the full screen option . . . that is always black. Could just be a Photoshop-only function?

I think what you posted in #12 is probably it. I noticed that if you change the window background, using the Shift-Click fill, and then hit f once, that new color is there. But if you hit "f' again, it goes black - like it should. I suppose MALI could go and reset the Display properties in teh Windows Control Panel (after saving his current desktop as a theme, of course) and select a default theme and see if that returns it to normal. Otherwise I have no idea. I'm sure there is a simple explanation.