Brand New To Photoshop...help please

Question

Hello,
     I'm a student using the free trial software. My first objective is to turn construction docments into resume pages. Fairly staight ahead I think, but I'm running into a few snags early.
    First, when I open files things are a bit blurry. Zooming in it's terrible. Not at all like the look I'm getting on the schools computer.  I'm getting a mesage to "uncheck the use graphics processor checkbox in the performance panel of the preferences dialouge" Is that the preoblem? Where is the preferences dialouge located? I'm assuming my laptop is lacking, but the graphics capability I do have works perfectly with other programs like Revit and AutoCAd
    Also, when I try to drag an opened file to the blank canvass I'm getting a message the says "The target document depth does not match the source document" Is that the bit rate?
    I'm setting the new page Resolution at 300 Pixels/inch. Is that on target?
   And if I could, one more question. Working with 11x17 my files are dragging over to the canvass no problem On 8 x 11 they wont drag over. Weird.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

If you are getting a messgae that you should uncheck the graphics processor then you should do so. Some of the features of photoshop uses the graphics card to process instead of using the CPU. Off loading is meant to speed up the amount of time it takes to do something.
If your graphics card lacks the power or does not have the ability to process, then the CPU must do it and therefore the reason to uncheck the option.
As for where to find the preferences, that depends on whether or not you have a mac or windows computer. It is located in a difference menu structure for each system. This is why it is always important to specify which OS you have when posting a request.
On Windows you will find it at the bottom of the edit menu. On Mac, I think there is one menu option just before file. Click that then go down to preferences. {ctrl-k on windows, command-k on mac}
When the preference dialog opens there is a list of sub options on the right side find the one for performance. Click on it, then on the right side uncheck the graphics processor and finally click OK.
As for the ppi, 300 is or was the recommended value for printing. Some now recommend less. It is a personal preference of balancing between file size and quality. I still use 300ppi as that is what I was taught years ago.
As for physical size it should not matter what size it is when you drag a file, it should go to the document's canvas. It could be possible that either you are not seeing the image becasue it is too large or too small. Or you are seeing an affect from the graphics card.
When you drag the image onto the canvas. try zooming in or out if that does not help, let us know.