The more times you press the left bracket key, the further down you'll move the layer. To move a layer down the layer stack, hold down your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and press the left bracket key. The more times you press the right bracket key, the higher up you'll move the layer. To move a layer up the layer stack, hold down your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and press the right bracket key. The right bracket key scrolls upward through the layers, and the left bracket key scrolls down. To scroll through the layers in the Layers palette, hold down your Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key and use the left and right bracket keys ( ). To quickly select the bottom layer in the Layers palette (including the Background layer), press Shift+Alt+[ (Win) / Shift+Option+[ (Mac). To quickly select the top layer in the Layers palette, press Shift+Alt+] (Win) / Shift+Option+] (Mac). Here's one that's just for people using Photoshop CS and earlier, since it no longer works in Photoshop CS2 or higher. Quickly Select The Top Or Bottom Layer (Photoshop CS and earlier) To select multiple layers that are scattered throughout the Layers palette, hold down "Ctrl" (Win) / "Command" (Mac) and click on each layer individually to select it. You can also press F7 to close the Layers palette. To open the Layers palette if it isn't already open on your screen, press the F7 key at the top of your keyboard. Update: Using Photoshop CS6 or CC? You'll want to follow along with the updated version of this tutorial.ĭownload this tutorial as a print-ready PDF! Open And Close The Layers Palette We've combined the two and rounded up the essential shortcuts for working with layers! Learning these power shortcuts will not only increase your productivity, they'll also boost your confidence as you take a giant leap forward on the road to Photoshop mastery!Īdobe made several major changes to the Layers palette in Photoshop CS2, so while many of these shortcuts work with any recent version of Photoshop, I've noted the cases where the shortcut only works with a specific version of the program (i.e.
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When it comes to getting the most out of Photoshop with the least amount of effort, there's two things you absolutely need to know - how to use layers and how to get around inside Photoshop using keyboard shortcuts.