Over the years I’ve had this love/hate relationship with the DONE button in Lightroom Classic. Honestly, it was more hate. That’s because I never used it, but I’d always get questions on what the difference between using the DONE button was when using a tool, instead of clicking “Close” in the tool’s panel. Well, recently Adobe quietly removed the Done button, and I’ve gotten a lot of questions about it.
In addition to explaining the Done button in this video, we’ll (more importantly) show you why you never needed it and some tips for working better when using some of those tools. Enjoy!
I love teaching and photography... In that order. I feel that enjoying photography, and photo editing can get WAY too complicated. So my personal mission (and favorite thing to do), is to create education that simplifies the process of taking great photos, and how to edit them to get the results you’ve always wanted.
Thanks Matt for all your great content.
Now you’ve touched on key board short cuts. That is something that has made me go crazy.
I’d noticed you’d said you can’t change them in this video?
I’m not using an American keyboard (I live in Denmark, Europe) therefore there are some shortcuts I cannot use or find out out how to. E.g. making a brush bigger/smaller using the left/right bracket – the brackets are not on my key board because the keys are used for some letters we have in out alphabet.
Any ideas – or do I just keep living with no short cuts for some functions 🙂 (And yes I’ve tried google)
Matt, I never realized there was a done or close button. I always clicked on the tool I wanted to use which turned it on and when I finished my edits I clicked on it again to turn it off. I guess ignorance is bliss.
Another tip is to press esc once or twice. ‘One key to rule them all.’
So far, works for me!
Thank you.
You are the best! Thank you and Happy New Year!
Hi Matt,
I use the return key which tales you out whoever tool you re using.
Thanks for all the information and help you provide us with. Enjoy what you do and how you do it.
Me too!
Me 3!
Me 4
Hi Matt,
Many thx for responding to my feedback on the Adobe site but you are missing the point. I frequently use the GUIDED transformation when correcting parallax. With the latest release of Lightroom Classic CC (12.1) you can add all of your guides but there is no way to complete the adjustment. I know that the done button is no longer present, a really pointless step in my opinion, but there is also no Close facility either. The only way to complete the transformation is to choose another tool such as crop and use the close facility following that. Scooting up and down the Tools pane is just that, a pain! If the done button is done then I think someone forgot a replacement close button for the guided transform tool. Mightily impressed that you sent this through, much appreciated.
Hi Brian. There are 3 ways to exit the tool. You can…
1. Press Enter/Return to exit
2. Click on the Guided Tool icon in the panel. The same icon you likely clicked on to get to the tool (unless you clicked the word “guided”)
3. Use the keyboard shortcut found in the Tools menu that I showed in the video.
You Rock! Thanks as always!!
Thank you for the tips! I had a hard time getting used to the done button being gone, kept bringing the cursor down to the lower corner from habit!
From my perspective the Done button makes more sense than a “Close” button. Done to me implies that I am done with what I am doing. Close on the other hand means, what, Close Without Saving, Close After Saving, Close and Exit???? Close is ambiguous. Some places on the internet say that a close button “dismisses content.” Other places on the interne say “close is the action performed to terminate a program or exit a file.” What content are we dismissing or what program are we terminating by pushing the close button in LrC? I hate using the close button because I am never sure if it is going to save what I had been doing and then close the action or is going to close it without regard to what I had been doing. Well, that is just me. I guess everyone else is so much smarter than I am.
I guess I see it this way. If you can figure out how to use LR and get your photos in, etc… Whether the button says Close or Done is irrelevant. No photography software app makes sense. You just learn how to use it. If I open a panel and I no longer need it, the word Close makes sense to me.
Thanks for the tips. I always try to use the keyboard shortcut keys in most any application I am using. So much faster. I am still using version 6 of LR and i have used the escape key to get out of many of the tools. Easy to remember and easy to find on the keyboard. Does the escape key still work in the latest versions?
Thanks Matt for the tip!! I was wondering what happened to the Done button and why.
As always Matt, great info, short and sweet and easy to understand. Thanks!
Thanks Matt, really helpful tips, love them!
Thank you Matt,
Happy new year ………… since 2019 they have been tough years for sure
Wishing you safe one for you and your family
Now, as for your vid, I never knew there was a done button………… admittedly ……. I am 77 years I guess 🙂
But I have always just hit return or enter depending on my keyboard
Like me, my iMac is a late 2012 27″ maxed out machine, been an excellent product but wont go past Catalina
Soon going to upgrade to Apple studio ultra , your cheese grater is just out of my budget
Since the Z9 I need more power …….. and more cash flow 🙂
Regards,
Gary
…………. AU
Another way to exit any of the tools is to click on the tool button again. That’s what I usually do.
Me too
Great tips
Always great information Matt!! Thank
Wishing you and your families a Blessed 2023
I don’t use the shortcut keys much as I find the mouse easier. For Done I simply click on the tool icon and it closes. Although I may start using some shortcut keys now 🙂
Now to fix the pesky placement of the Import/Export Done button – in the middle at least please or make the Export/Import CAPS and/or BOLD
Using the keyboard shortcuts makes perfect sense to me, thanks..Happy New Year Matt!
Personally, I just played with it and figured it out. It’s an update and things change in Adobe?
Thanks for the information.
Look forward to your next work.
Happy New Year
A lot of nice to know info Matt, thanks. The one place I have had problems with the “Done” button though is in the Library module when importing images. I get 15 or 20 images selected and then, especially if I’m tired after a long day or haven’t edited for a while which does happen frequently, I inadvertently hit the done button which is down there with the import and cancel button in the lower right corner. Guess what I get to do then? Select all the images again. THAT’S the “done” button that needs to go away in my book. It’s very useless there considering when you are importing you either want to actually import the images or cancel and get out of that module.
Many thanks for these helpful tips/reminders, Matt. Happy New Year!
Very helpful. I appreciate the reminder about keyboard shortcuts. Thanks!
Matt —
No need to learn the keyboard shortcuts for tools to get out them: type return enough times (usually once), and you’re out. That shortcut works for all tools AFAIK. The big, fat return key is easy to type, too!
Thank you for staying in touch with another helpful tutorial.
Thank you for clarifying the removal of the Done button. Happy 2023!
Thank you
Hey Matt-thanks for the tips. I always learn something new when I watch your videos.
Question?? What happened to the Delete and Hide option in Photoshop? It was there and now it’s gone.
I used the enter button after cropping, good or bad?
Whatever works 🙂
Seems to me that simply hitting the RETURN key also works, no?
Sure.
Really helpful tips, thank you Matt
Why doesn’t Adobe use the same keyboard shortcuts for Lightroom as Photoshop. C is the crop keyboard shortcut for Crop in Photoshop. It would be nice if it was the same in Lightroom.
Good question for Adobe 🙂
Matt,
Where the Done just adds extra work in my workflow is on the Import panel when changing the options for Metadata and the File Renaming Template. A change to each requires selecting Edit from the pull down, selecting the Preset from the pull down, making the change, selecting Update from the pull down and then guess what (clicking the Done button to close the window). Another place where it is useless. (I am still using LR 6.14, so this may have been changed, but that Done button seems to just add insult to injury.) Thank you for your suggestion of using keyboard shortcuts for WB and Crop.
None of the people that ask me about the Done button complained about it from the Import window. 100% of the complaints come from the masking or Crop tools.
I for one use keyboard shortcuts and loved the done button. Most of what I do is with the masking brush, so I would press K and get the brush, but pressing K when “done” just opens another brush mask, so I’d click the Done button so nice and large and easy to hit where I was brushing. Pressing Shift W to stop a function I started with K makes no sense.
Thanks to the Done button being done, I’ve now retrained my workflow to press Escape when done with a tool. It works the same on all tools so it’s more logical than Shift W, but it’s taken some de-training of my muscle memory to get there!