Shortcuts in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements can make digital scrapbooking or any project more seamless, efficient, and a whole lot more fun! Most of us know the basics such as: Ctrl + C (Mac: Cmd + C) for Copy, and Ctrl + V (Mac: Cmd + V) for Paste, Ctrl + J (Mac: Cmd + J) for New Layer and so on. But there are some shortcuts you may or may not be aware of; shortcuts that make quick work of the things use or do quite often when creating digital scrapbook pages or any creative project.
FAB Shortcut #1- Ctrl + Click (Mac: Cmd + Click) on layer thumbnail in the Layers panel to quickly create a selection of a that layers contents.
FAB Shortcut #2 – Ctrl + Backspace (Mac: Cmd + Delete) to fill selection with background color. Alt + Backspace (Mac: Opt + Delete) to fill selection with foreground color.
FAB Shortcut #3 – Ctrl + Shift + J (Mac: Cmd + Shift + J) this shortcut ‘cuts’ out the selection and places it on it’s own layer.
1- Make a selection
2- Use shortcut
3- Viola! Selection is cut out of image and now on it’s own layer
FAB Shortcut #4 – Ctrl + Alt + E (Mac: Cmd + Opt + E) this shortcut creates a merged copy of the selected layers and places it on it’s own layer while still keeping the original layers.
Select Layers and use shortcut
Selected layers are copied and merged into a new layer
To merge all layers onto a new separate layer while keeping the original layers intact use the shortcut: Shift + Ctrl + Alt + E (Mac: Shift + Cmd + Opt + E).
FAB Shortcut #5 – Alt + [ or ] (Mac: Option + [ or ]) this shortcut selects the next layer down or up in your Layers panel.
OK. So I’m cheating a bit, I just can’t quit at 5. LOL! But these are related to #5 so they don’t count as extras!
Ctrl + [ or ] (Mac: Cmd + [ or ]) This moves the layer you have selected down or up in the Layers panel.
Shift + Ctrl + [ or ] (Mac: Shift + Cmd + [ or ]) Moves the layer to the bottom or top of the Layers panel.
I hope you have found at least one of these awesome shortcuts useful! Let me know your favorite shortcuts in the comments below.
To our Free Newsletter
