March 28, 2011

Manic Monday Photoshop Tips: Function Keys Shortcuts

It's been awhile since I posted keyboard shortcuts so here is a list of useful Photoshop shortcuts using the Function Keys. 

Function Keys Shortcuts

Function	Windows	Macintosh
Start Help	F1	Help Key
Cut	F2	F2
Copy	F3	F3
Paste	F4	F4
Show/Hide Brush Panel	F5	F5
Show/Hide Color Panel	F6	F6
Show/Hide Layers Panel	F7	F7
Show/Hide Info Panel	F8	F8
Show/Hide Actions Panel	F9	Option +F9
Revert	F12	F12

Manic Monday Photoshop Tips: Delete All Empty Layers

March 21, 2011

Have you ever been working on a large Photoshop project with lots of layers and wanted a quick way to delete all the empty layers? Sure you can go through and delete them manually one by one but that could take a long time. Instead go to File Menu, then Scripts and choose Delete All Empty Layers. Viola! All the empty layers are gone as simple as that. 

Marcie

Manic Monday Photoshop Tips: Accessing Tools In A Group

March 14, 2011

Have you ever  been working in Photoshop using the Rectangular Marquee tool and wanted a quick way to switch to the Elliptical Marquee tool without having to go back to the tool bar. Well, I’ve got the solution! Just press and hold the SHIFT key while pressing the group’s keyboard shortcut (in this example M is the shortcut for the marquee tools) and you can access all the tools within that tool group. 

Manic Monday Photoshop Tip: Changing the Document Background Color

Monday, March 7, 2011

Manic Monday Photoshop Tips: Changing the Photoshop Document Background Color

Today’s tip is the direct result of me typing to fast and crazy and suddenly watching my Photoshop document background change from neutral gray to black. At first I thought  hmmm no big deal I’ll just click ctrl z to undo it but that had no affect except to undo my last move. Okay, I’m beginning to panic because I’m in the middle of a this project and I really hate that black background and I want to just go back to gray and get back to work so what now? A quick Google search and I find the answer and today’s tip: How to change your Photoshop document background—right click anywhere on the empty document background then choose from gray, black or custom color. Once you click the change is automatic. I’m so glad it was an easy fix. It is important to note that the reason Photoshop has the neutral gray as the default background is that it makes it easy to see the true colors in your document so take that into consideration if you decide to go with the neon green background. ;-)

Be sure to stop by the Digital Designer Shop and check out all of the new Spring products!

Manic Monday Photoshop Tip: Layer Selection Shortcut

February 28, 2011

Manic Monday Photoshop Tip: Layer Selection Shortcut

Are you a fan of using the Auto Select feature but hate having to toggle it on and off? Then you’ll love today’s tip! With the move tool (V) selected simply ctrl click (command for a Mac) on the object and it automatically selects the layer. That’s it! I might actually use this feature now that it’s so handy to activate. 

Manic Monday Photoshop Tip: Keyboard Shortcuts For Changing Brush Size

Hopefully,  following along with these Manic Monday Photoshop tips is helping you become more efficient in Photoshop and therefore giving you more time to scrapbook! Try to work the tips into your daily workflow and before you know it you will have them all memorized.  Special thanks to Kathleen for sharing  today’s tip about changing the size of the brush!

For review here are the basic brush tool commands that we previously covered:

• B (Brush Tool) — I’m constantly using this command along with the hand and zoom tools.
• [ (Decrease Brush Size) — Quickly decrease your brush size to get into those tighter spots.
• ] (Increase Brush Size) — Quickly increase your brush size for the larger areas.

With any painting or brush tool active you can use the shortcuts below to easily and precisely change the brush size by dragging the mouse or pen tool.  This is super cool because you'll see an immediate, interactive on-screen visual as you drag your mouse or pen tool. 

Notes:

The commands for Mac and PC are different so be sure to use the correct one for your machine.

Hint hold down the alt/option key and then drag to the right to increase or drag to the left to decrease.

Macintosh:

Change brush size: option-ctrl-drag
Change brush edge softness: command-option-ctrl-drag

Windows:
Change brush size: alt-right mouse button drag
Change brush edge softness: shift-alt-right mouse button drag

That’s it for this week. See you back here next Monday with another Photoshop Tip.

Marcie

December Daily Journaling

Is it December 1^st already?! Wow, time really flies when you’re having fun.  I love all the activities and excitement surrounding the month of December.  I’m taking Tiffany Tillman’s 25 Days of Templates class and I’ll use that as a starting point for my documentation. Over at the Digital Design Shop I have a Chanukah word art  freebie available as part of Cilenia’s 12 Days of December. I’m also looking forward to participating in Reverb10.

List of activities I want to try to cover for the month of December...

Watch the local high school choir Christmas concert

Have lunch with my girlfriends before Christmas break

Shop with my mom since she just retired

Go to the movies with my sons

Get an updated picture of the boys together

Get an updated family picture

Christmas movies to watch: Elf, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Man Who Knew Too Little (not Christmas but a tradition for us)

Buy at least one new Christmas CD

Compile the family newsletter

Play, enjoy my family, be creative.

Here's a picture of me at a local tea room taken yesterday with my aunts, great aunt and cousin. It was a perfect start for the Christmas season. 

See you tomorrow,

Marcie