#17, Shortcut of the Week, Feb 5, 2010

**Christine** · 02-05-2010, 09:37 PM

Here's a synopsis for anyone who hasn't been here before: each week I will tell you a shortcut and your job is to USE it! Every time you are working on a layout and need that command, do the shortcut, by the end of the week using it will be second nature!!! Come back and report on how you are doing.

So to answer a few questions, I will be giving the shortcut commands for Photoshop, BUT if you use a different program and already know the equivalent command, be sure to tell us in case someone else doesn't know, and still be sure to practice, practice, practice. If you DON'T know the command, open up your help and see if you can find it. Lots of times it will be the same. Also if you have a related command, ie. save as when we are talking about save you can mention that too. Plus Mac folks are welcome to tell us how it works in a Mac.

Last week we touched on this but let's do it again to make sure it has its own thread...... if you want to get a selection (marching ants) around every thing on a given layer, you can hold down the ctrl button and click on the thumbnail. If you want to add additional layers, hold down the ctrl AND the shift key then click on the thumbnail. The new layer's selection will be added to the existing selection. If you want to subtract, hold down alt with ctrl instead of shift.

evergreen100 · 02-05-2010, 11:21 PM

Happy Birthday gundigirl

**nekobus** · 02-06-2010, 08:08 AM

PSP's got nuttin on this one.

**Christine** · 02-06-2010, 08:40 AM

Thanks Jill!

*ReneT* · 02-06-2010, 10:50 AM

Is this the same effect as ctrl A?

**webfrau** · 02-06-2010, 12:16 PM

Hey, it works! (in PSE)

**webfrau** · 02-06-2010, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReneT

Is this the same effect as ctrl A?

Ctrl A is "select all" and in PSE at least selects the edge of the whole page.

*ReneT* · 02-06-2010, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webfrau

Ctrl A is "select all" and in PSE at least selects the edge of the whole page.

Oh OK, I get it now. Thanks!

idtwinmom · 02-06-2010, 12:25 PM

Hmmmm....I knew about shift, but missed the alt. I'm sure that will come in handy! As always, on Mac they commands are the same except Alt + Opt (OK the key actually says both any more) and CTRL = CMD.

Rene - to clarify just a bit. CTRL + A will select everything including transparent pixels. The CTRL + Click will only take pixels with a color on them. So, if you have something like an element or extracted photo, it the first will take the square or rectangle where the latter will select only that item. Clear as mud now?