Here are a few Photoshop shortcut keys you may not know.
Cycle Between Open Documents
When you have lots of open documents, especially when there are enough to make some of the tabs not visible, this keystroke can be very useful.
To cycle through all open documents, hold the [Cmd]/[Ctrl] key and press the Tilde key (~). Also hold [Shift] to reverse the direction.
Activate the Layer or the Layer Mask
You always want to make sure that you have the right thing active, and one common mistake is to have the layer (eg image) active and not the layer mask.
To make the layer itself active hold the [Cmd]/[Ctrl] key and press the 2 key.
To make the layer mask active hold the [Cmd]/[Ctrl] key and press the slash key (\).
Adding Layers/Channels as Selections
We all likely know that we can hold the [Cmd]/[Ctrl] key and click on a layer or a channel to make the layer or channel the active selection.
However did you know that if you hold the [Cmd+Shift]/[Ctrl+Shift] and click you will add the layer or channel to the existing selection.
Also, if you hold the [Cmd+Option]/[Ctrl+Alt] and click you will subtract the layer or channel from the existing selection.
Finally, if you hold the [Cmd+Shift+Option]/[Ctrl+Shift+Alt] and click you will load the selection that is the intersection of the layer or channel and the existing selection.
Moving Layers Up and Down the Layer Stack
Hold the [Cmd/Ctrl] key and press the left and right square bracket keys [ and ], to move the currently active layer or layers down and up the layer stack respectively.
Changing the Selected Layer using the Keyboard
Hold the [Opt/Alt] key and press the left and right square bracket keys [ and ], to change the currently active layer to the layer below or above the currently active layer respectively.
This article was first published in the March 2020 issue of Artists Down Under magazine.