after you download a brush, how do you get it into photoshop? (and set it as a brush)

yeah, the title pretty much says it all. i downloaded a brush, but how do i get it into PS and set it as a brush? thanks

[zapphnath]

Photoshop uses the .ABR extension to identify compatable brush sets, so make sure that's what you have. As for where to put them, you have a couple of choices. On the one hand, you can place them in their proper folder within the Program Files/Adobe/Photoshop XX/Presets folder. There, you'll find folders for brushes, styles, gradients, etc.. If you're unsure about which folder to put a new add-in into, just check the extension and place it with similar files. By putting your new file here, it will show up in the flyout menu, which you can access by clicking on the little arrow at the top-right corner of the brush menu. The only problems with putting them here are that, once you get a lot of brushes, styles, gradients, etc., Photoshop will need more time to start up and use more resources and, secondly, it can get a little difficult keeping track of what each set contains. Sometimes the name of the file is of no help so you either have to change the name, make a list, or organise them better, which is where the second option comes in.
To help keep things organised, create a new folder somewhere on your hard drive that will be used for all Photoshop add-ins. Inside of this folder, create a few more - one for each type of file (brushes, styles, gradients, etc.). Inside of the brush folder, create a new folder for each brush set and name the folder in a way that more acurately describes the set. You could even go so far as to create folders for brush types - grunge, hair, artistic, etc. - or for where you got the set from - BioRUST, deviantART, Adobe, etc..
With this second method, you click the little arrow, as before, and choose Load and navigate to this folder to find the brush set you want. Not only are they organised better (if you put the effort into keeping them organised), but they are less of a strain on your system. Also, if, for some reason, you have to re-install Photoshop, you don't have to worry about backing up or re-installing these brushes because they are kept seperately.

I hope that helps answer your question.