You can also use the Paintbucket tool and shift-click into the area outside your image. This will fill it with whatever foreground color you've chosen.

There's always more than one correct way to do just about anything in Photoshop! :D

Or just press the 'F' key...

Only the "f" shortcut works, not the other 2. I am on CS2 on Win XP.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” - Albert Einstein

The F key deal will toggle through 3 or 4 (depending on which version of PS you're running) window modes. There is the standard window, then a full-screen with a gray background, and a full-screen with a black background. (In CS3 and maybe CS2 there are two gray versions-- one with scroll bars and one without.)

What we are talking about is changing the color of the gray area between the outer edge of your document and the edge of the window that it's in. Personally, I prefer a darker gray than the default-- something not far from the "tarmac" background of the creativebits pages. But one could easily change this area to purple or green or anything else. Obviously, this can throw off your color perception, but if you know your image will be placed onto a dark green background in the final layout, it could be helpful to see it in that context.

When you use the F key, the chosen color will remain in place of the "gray" window modes. It sticks until you change it to something else.

elbandido-- I don't know your level of experience, so please don't think I'm trying to insult your intelligence, but control-click on the Mac is the same as clicking with the right mouse button on Windows. I don't have a Windows machine accessible to check and see if for some reason this doesn't work there.

Thanks shoaf, but I understand what Ivan was trying to say, however, it doesn't work. The only way I can change the "matte" in my document window is to grab the paint bucket with whatever color I want and hold "shift" while I drop the paint bucket in the matte area.

Maybe my PS edition has a fluke or Adobe messed up only on my copy, but it doesn't work. I am running CS2 on Win XP.

BTW shoaf, did you try Ivan's shortcut?

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” - Albert Einstein

I've been wishing there was a way to change the first full-screen background to black for ages! This makes my day!