Sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference. Take for example, Photoshop. Most of us spend quite a lot of time working our images in this powerhouse of a program, and we certainly appreciate cool new techniques, but sometimes the most significant gains to productivity can be had by simply being more efficient.
Here are a few of my time saving tips that have amassed quite a savings of time over the years I’ve been working in Photoshop®. In fact, I’ve done the math and I’ve actually added 2 years to my life by saving time with these tips! Wow, let’s get busy.
Train Your Mouse
Any Photoshop user worth their weight in pixels probably spends a serious amount of time with layer masks. I use my Actions to enhance all my images and they often create layer masks for me to paint in or out part of an effect. To paint on a layer mask you use the brush tool - and you constantly need to change the brush size while moving about the image. So, why not train your mouse wheel to change the brush size for you?
You’ll need an extra piece of inexpensive software to handle this, but I assure you it’s well worth it. In fact, I feel like a rat in a cage when I hop on someone else’s computer to work and they don’t have the mouse trained! Mac users can download a program called SteerMouse, PC users can try Mouse Wheel Control. Both programs can be had for a minute on google and less than 20 bucks.
The idea is to program your mouse wheel to type the [ or ] keys when you roll the wheel up or down. [ and ] are the keyboard shortcuts for reduce or enlarge brush in Photoshop. The software let’s you make this change only in Photoshop too, so it behaves normally in other programs. Here’s the basic setup in SteerMouse:

Now, rolling the wheel up or down changes your brush size on the fly!
Be the Boss of your Keyboard Shortcuts
First of all, everyone should be using keyboard shortcuts for any common task in Photoshop. Most every menu item and tool has a shortcut assigned to it, all you have to do is learn them. Here’s a simple way to make yourself learn the shortcut: whenever you go to a menu to do something or select a tool, look for the shortcut and make a mental note. Then, back out of the menu (without selecting the item) and use the shortcut instead. After a few times of doing this, you’ll remember that key sequence!
But wait, what if an item doesn’t have a keyboard shortcut? Here’s where you take control. Photoshop lets you assign shortcuts to just about anything available in a menu using the Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts command.

 

Once the dialog is open, all you have to do is find the menu you want to assign a shortcut to and type it in. I use the flatten image command quite a bit, but oddly it doesn’t have a built-in shortcut. So I’ll create one here. First, find the layers menu:

 

Scroll down until you see flatten image. Type in the shortcut that you want. If it’s a key combo that’s already used elsewhere, you’ll be asked if you want to over-write it. Once you’ve found one you like, click Accept to save the change.

Now, there’s no excuse for slacking on your shortcuts!

Scripting Events Manager - Scary words, Scary fun.
Wouldn’t it be great if Photoshop would do something for you every time you opened an image? Or every time it launched? Or every time you forgot to take out the trash? I can help you with the first two.
First, create an action to do the thing you want to do. For example, I use Bay Photo Lab for my printing, and I like to softproof with their color profile when I’m working on images. The only problem is that softproofing has to be turned on each time you open a new image. I can’t remember all that!

 

 

So, the solution is to create an action to select the appropriate color profile from my proofing menu, turning proofing on, and give me a little love note that reminds me it’s on so I won’t forget. The action steps look like this:

 

Now, I’ll use the Script Events Manager to tell Photoshop to play this action automatically whenever I open an image. Cool.
 

With the dialog open, check the options as shown then click Add to add it to the list of events that will happen:

 

It should look like this, then click Done.

 

Now try it out. Whenever you open an image, soft proofing is turned on and you get a little love note reminder. Just hit enter to clear the note and start working the image - confident in the knowledge that what you see on screen is what you’ll get from your lab.
If you ever want to stop the automatic proofing, just re-open the Script Events Manager window and un-check Enable Events to Run Scripts/Actions.
These are just a few of my favorite time savers. Stay tuned for the next episode where we either learn how to fly or learn hot tips for writing your own actions!