I need to know how to save a pattern

I finally found an image I could use to make a wood floor pattern, and have made several different colored patterns out of it that I can apply from the layer effects-pattern overlay menu. They are working nicely in my current image, but I am afraid to close PS because I fear these new patterns I have made won't be permantly saved. (I had that happen the one time I made brushes - they only were available during that PS session - next time I opened PS, they were gone from the grouping.)

I am hoping someone can tell me how to make sure these patterns are truly saved so that I can close PS and have them to work with later. Thanks,

Ez
PS 7

When you have the pattern you want to save ready, click Edit > Define pattern. if you want to save a brush you make, Edit > define brush.

That's what I did. The two books I have on PS both say that is all you have to do - (edit-define pattern) - but like I said, when I did it with the brushes, they were only saved for that session. Maybe it was a one-time thing, but I'm afraid to close PS now and loose the patterns I made today.

Also, I would like to know how to save them to their own group. Right now they are listed in "artist textures" or something. Could you tell me how to make my own named grouping to put them in?

EZ

I think I figured it out. After doing edit -> define pattern, you have to also choose "save pattern" (it might be called "save group") from the palette menu. That saves them to whatever .pat file group you have open. I haven't figured out how to create a newly-named .pat group, or how to move patterns from one group into another another, but thru trial and error was able to rename an existing group and then delete the patterns from it that I didn't want.

Ez

yeah, but I figuired you could work that out for yourself