PhotoGIF™ has the most advanced preferences capabilities of any Photoshop plug-in. The default behavior of nearly every aspect of opening and saving single image GIF files and multiple image GIF animation files is controllable through preference settings. In PhotoGIF™ the preferences dialog is available from the plug-in about box. This is accessed from the Apple menu. While Photoshop is running in the foreground the first menu item under the Apple menu is ‘About Photoshop...’ and directly beneath that is a hierarchical menu item, ‘About plug-in’. When you select ‘About plug-in’ from the Apple menu, a hierarchical menu will be shown to the left of the Apple menu with a list of plug-ins in it. ‘ PhotoGIF™...’ will be one of the top items in this menu and selecting the ‘ PhotoGIF™...’ item from the hierarchical menu of plug-ins will cause the PhotoGIF™ about box to be displayed.
 
In the about box there are four buttons, ‘Credits...’, ‘Support...’, ‘Preferences...’ and ‘Done’. The ‘Credits...’ button displays the credits screen. The ‘Support...’ button displays the contact information for technical support for PhotoGIF™. The ‘Preferences...’ button displays the preferences dialog for PhotoGIF™. The ‘Done’ is equivalent to an ‘OK’ button, and makes the about box go away.
The preferences dialog for PhotoGIF™ has four separate panels for controlling various aspects of the plug-in’s behavior. Individual panels are accessed from the popup menu in the top, left of the preferences dialog. The panels accessible from the popup menu are ‘Reading’, ‘Image options’, ‘Multi-options’, and ‘Quantization’.
- The ‘Reading’ panel
The ‘Reading’ panel controls default behavior for opening multiple image GIF animation files. The settings in the ‘Reading’ panel correspond directly to the controls in the Multi-image open options dialog and allow you to choose the default editing method for multiple image GIF animation files.
 
- The ‘Image Options’ panel
The ‘Image options’ panel corresponds directly to settings in the single image options dialog and allows you to set default behavior for whether to show the multiple image options dialog after the single image options dialog; optimizing palette usage; transparency; interlacing; and whether the dialogs for adding the file being saved to an existing file, to create a multiple image GIF animation file, will be shown by default.
 
- The ‘Multi-Options’ panel
The ‘Multi-options’ panel corresponds directly to settings in the multiple image options dialog and allows you to set default values for disposal method, looping, and delay time.
 
- The ‘Quantization’ panel
The ‘Quantization’ panel applies to the color reduction options dialog. The ‘Quantization’ panel allows you to set default values for color reduction method, the resolution, and dithering.
Canceling from the preferences dialog at any point will return you to the about box for PhotoGIF™ without changing any of the PhotoGIF™ saved preference settings. Hitting the ‘OK’ button will save the new preferences settings if you have made changes and will also return you to the about box for PhotoGIF™. To exit the about box, hit the ‘Done’ button.
