Lightroom makes extensive use of panels in order to simplify workflow. Often we’re in and out of panels all the time without making the best use of them. So here’s some tips on improving your panel usage.
Command(Mac)/Control click(PC) on any panel to collapse all the individual panels. Especially useful if all the panels are open and the one you want is at the bottom.
Option (Mac)/ Alt (PC) click on a panel header to activate ‘Solo Mode’. In Solo Mode, only one panel at a time is open. Repeating the Alt/Option click will deactivate Solo Mode.
Hovering on the inner edge of a panel will turn the cursor into a double headed arrow. Click and drag to change the panel width. There is a fixed limit to how wide the panel can be.
By right clicking (or control clicking on Mac) on a panel, you can bring up a menu where you can remove or restore panels.
To hide/view the Left and Right Panels, simply press the Tab Key. (Shift Tab will toggle the Filmstrip and Module Picker also).
You can control how the panels react on mouseover by right clicking (or control clicking on Mac) on the outside of the panel scroll bar. From there you get options to Auto Hide and Show, which is the default behaviour of opening and closing as you mouse on or off the edge of the scroll area. Auto Hide means you have to click on the triangle in the middle to open the panel. Mousing away lets the panel close automatically. Finally Manual forces you to click on and off the panel every time. There is one more control, and that is Sync with Opposite Panel, which is useful when you want to apply your settings to the other panel.
