Adobe Bridge is a particularly useful application for inspecting and organising your computer folders and files. It's like Apple's Finder or Microsoft Window's File Explorer — on steroids. Below I show just some of the things you can do from Bridge.
Bridge does not require a paid Adobe subscription — it’s a free application!
As an experiment, open a directory (a folder) in Bridge, preferably one containing many images.
To open a specific directory in Bridge
▷ either navigate via the file structure near the top left of the Bridge window as shown here…
▷ …or, more simply, drag the directory to the Bridge icon in the dock area (showing an Apple Mac example below).
Try the various layouts from the layout options top-centre. Here I show “Essentials”. I most often use the “Preview” layout.
Note that you can drag the partitions to rearrange the workspaces. Try it. There are many other panels available, go to in the menu bar.
Select an image file, and note that ⌘0 through ⌘5 give ratings 0 to 5. Note that ⌘6 through ⌘9 marks files with colour codes. This is useful for ranking and organising.
To see a particular image file full-size, select the image and press the space-bar. (This works also in Apple Finder.)
Right-click a JPG file and note the possibilities.
To see a slide show of the directory, go ⌘L. Use the right arrow key to advance. Press Escape to exit.
In the “Preview” layout, try selecting more than one image file (press ⌘ while selecting), and see the result.
Note that by clicking on a file name you can change the name (by retyping).
⌘T removes or reinstates the file name display — try it.
In the Content window, drag files to re-sequence them.
Go , and see the options — but do not execute this if you do not want your files renamed.
Select several images then Go to make a page summary of lots of images.
Roll over the icons top left to see what they can do. Do the same for the icons top right. Experiment with icons at the bottom of the Contents panel, including the slider.
New in Bridge 2023 and useful: you can have multiple Content windows. Click on the plus sign at the top of the Content window and you have a new tab. Drag a tab outside its dock and you can have more than one tab side-by-side.
Note that you can drag an image directly into other Adobe applications, like InDesign (such dragging works also from Apple Finder and Microsoft Explorer).