Tips

[karenstimson]

I just tried that tip about using the ALT key to make all your layers except the one you click on disappear, and it works in Photoshop, too! Thanks for the tip, that's a very neat one! I have a couple of tips that might be useful....If you hit the TAB key in PS all your palettes will disappear--this can be very helpful when you are working with a large image (especially on a smallish screen lol). To get the palettes back, just hit the TAB key again. Another tip: to create a merged copy of several layers within any document in PS, close all the layers except the ones you want in your merged image, create a blank layer at the top of your layers, then hit the Ctrl+Shift+Alt (Option on a Mac)+E key. You will still have all your individual layers but you will also have a merged copy in the blank layer (it's called "stamp visible" in the History palette). I use this all the time when I'm making my scrapbooking designs, especially when I have applied layer styles to some of the layers and then want to add a new layer style to the merged image. As far as I know, the only way you can do this is via the key combination, there is no equivalent in the file menu.

Hope someone finds these helpful!

Hugs,
Karen Stimson
Wool Sweater Street Scrapbooking Boutique

[Randje]

Just thought I'd share this link with you - it lists all kind of sites offering free brushes, and also some brush search engines and libraries.

[kimberkatt]

Originally Posted by grammy201

I know this works in PSE4 but I'm not sure of the others. Here is a neat little tip I heard recently, unfortuantely I can't remember where but thanks to whoever it was because it has saved me time...let's say you are working on a layout that has many layers and you only want to see 1 particular layer on the layout: click on ALT and the little eye on the layer you want to see and presto all the other layers disappear. When you want the other layers back just do the same thing click on ALT and the eye of the layer and they will all be visible again. I use to click on the eye of all the other layers till just the one I wanted was left but this is much faster!

How cool! This is a great tip, and one I didn't know about! Thank you!

[juno]

Wow! Thanks for all the great tips. I am a newbie and am constantly learning in PS. It's such a huge programme. This tip may be something everyone else knows but I have just discovered it and am delighted with it. It is the annotation button which is beside the eyedropper tool on the toolbar. It opens a little window that gets saved along with your file where you can record all your papers and elements etc that you are using in a project so that you know where to find them again and to give credit if publishing to a Gallery. Am loving Stone Accents!

juno
xx

[juno]

I tried this (Grammy's tip about the Place Command) and can't make it work! (I am using PS 7) It apparently only opens "parsable formats" AI PDF EPS PDP ?? Any ideas?? Would be a great move if I could get it to work!

juno
xx

[janalyn]

Sorry, Juno, I don't have any idea which version first introduced that feature. I hope someone else can help with this.

[donakat]

Thanks for all the hints, and especially the one about the brush viewer! Since I work on a Mac I had to search to find the equivalent version for me. Here's the link: ABR Viewer for Mac

Dona

[sharpli]

Originally Posted by karenstimson

I just tried that tip about using the ALT key to make all your layers except the one you click on disappear, and it works in Photoshop, too! Thanks for the tip, that's a very neat one! I have a couple of tips that might be useful....If you hit the TAB key in PS all your palettes will disappear--this can be very helpful when you are working with a large image (especially on a smallish screen lol). To get the palettes back, just hit the TAB key again. Another tip: to create a merged copy of several layers within any document in PS, close all the layers except the ones you want in your merged image, create a blank layer at the top of your layers, then hit the Ctrl+Shift+Alt (Option on a Mac)+E key. You will still have all your individual layers but you will also have a merged copy in the blank layer (it's called "stamp visible" in the History palette). I use this all the time when I'm making my scrapbooking designs, especially when I have applied layer styles to some of the layers and then want to add a new layer style to the merged image. As far as I know, the only way you can do this is via the key combination, there is no equivalent in the file menu.

Hope someone finds these helpful!

Hugs,
Karen Stimson
Wool Sweater Street Scrapbooking Boutique

In Elements, you can select the layers of your layout that you want to duplicate and drag all of them at the same time to the new layer icon. That will give you a double set of layers - but while they're still highlighted, right click and "link layers' and then "merge linked layers" to get the same result.