Learn your quick keys

Learning your quick keys is imperative for efficient use of any program. The more keys you know the faster you can work. As you will be able to tell from this posting I’m a big PC user. Okay, all you artists can stop gasping now. Yes, I am a PC user, I'm sorry. I will admit though, I haven’t upgraded to Vista because I am afraid my puter will stop working and Macs are supposed to be more stable so the there's always that arguement hanging around, BUT I digress.

Now quick key or short cuts or whatever name your operating system/software may use, are in your puter and are also intregrated into your software. Your software have them, your browsers have them, hell even your operating systems have them. Some of the most common keys I use are:

Ctrl + N New file
Ctrl + P Print file
Ctrl + C Copy
Ctrl + X Cut
Ctrl + V Paste
Ctrl + Z Undo (my most used of all time. Sigh, if I can only undo in real life)

Okay, these for the most part are found in every piece of software. You should know them by now. If you don’t, then you better start learning them!

Other keys that are useful are:

Alt + Tab Allows you to switch apps quickly
***TIP: If you hold down on the Alt key after pressing tab once you will see all the apps in use and allows you to scroll through them as you watch using the tab key

Ctrl + tab Scroll through files used in one program.
Windows Key + E Opens Windows explorer
Windows Key + D Toggles all programs on the screen to hide or show.

Now if you are in a certain program, lets say Photoshop, you can access the menu item using the alt key. One that I seem to use a lot is Alt + I + I. This will launch the resize window and allow you to change the actual size of a file. Why “I” twice, well what happens when you hit Alt +I the first time is you launch a menu which in this case it’s the “images” menu. If you notice holding down the alt key in any app will underline letters clicking on any letter underlined will open that option. The same is true in whatever menu follows. Going back to the “images” menu, hitting “I” a second time will select the “image size” option and give you the image size menu. Now I know, that ctrl + alt + I will give you the same thing without having to access the menu at the top, but I learned it this way and it’s now stuck in my head.

Here’s a bunch of quick keys I use pretty much every time I use Photoshop:
Ctrl + Shift + N New Layer
P Pen tool
U Vector shape tool
V Move tool
B Brush tool
Shift + B Toggle through Brush types
[ Decrease brush diameter
] Increase the brush diameter
Shift + [ Decrease hrdness
Shift + ] Increase brush hardness
M Marquee – selection tool
A Path Selection tool / direct selection tool
Shift + A toggle selection tool types
T Text tool
I eyedropper
Shift + I toggle through the eyedropper settings
S stamp tool
J spot healing tool
G Pain bucket/gradient tool
Shift + G Toggle bucket/gradient tool options
Ctrl + J Duplicate layer
Alt + [ Jump to a lower layer
Alt + ] Jump to a higher layer
Ctrl + [ Move current layer down one layer
Ctrl + ] Move current layer up one layer

Again, this is not the definitive list, these are the most useful set of quick keys I have learned and are by far the most used quick keys for me, which might not be true for you. I’m sure you are now saying to yourselves, “but hey wait a minute! You forgot one!” No I didn’t. I left the best for last. Ctrl + S ladies and gentlemen is by far the most important quick key you can learn. Saving is now part of my natural movements on the keyboard. I hit it like every two minutes – I pretty much trained myself to naturally hit it after every major change. To find a more complete list of quick keys for photoshop or any other program for that matter go to the help menu in your app and type “quick keys” or “short cut”.