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Posts: 43
Join Date: Apr 2006
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There are probably a lot of people out there like me who would like to stick with Photoshop and Photoshop alone due to a lot of reasons. When they want to do some flyers, posters, ads, etc., they rely on the single program for that. The problem is - object control isn't as easy as people think. Sticking to Photoshop for these tasks isn't really practical.
Usually, Photoshop PSDs involve plenty of layers. The problem with them is that they're not easy to move around, resize, crop, and reorder. It's simply because they're so hard to select.
It would be a lot easier to do if you had time to label them appropriately, or color-code them on the labels, or even use the thumbnails. This also procudes problems. Labeling and color-coding them appropriately takes just too much time. Even using thumbnails either slows down the program heavily, or they don't really help at all - since the thumbnails display the whole canvas with the object and not the object alone.
No room for us designers with tight deadlines, huh?
Well, here are a few tips to speed up those Photoshop Fingers.
You don't want to go through labeling all the layers. If even possible, you want layers to be selected when you click on them (a-la CorelDraw). There's a quick solution to that - the Move tool. (Shortcut: V Key) Using the Auto Select Layer option, you can do just that.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work as well as you think. Other layers get selected when you're not referring to them. So here's the workaround: instead of using the Auto Select Layer option, leave them unchecked. How do you select layers then? While still using the Move tool, hold down the Control Key and *click* on the layer you want. It's just like Auto Select Layer, but you have manual control. Now, we run into the problem again of 'misselecting layers'. Here's the workaround: instead of Control-clicking, you can right-click. A box with all the layers in a certain radius of the cursor will be selectable. Just choose the right layer and click. Your layer choices will be unlabeled of course, but quickly re-right-clicking it for the choices is quicker than going through the layer list. 
And once again I will refer to the general rule... Learn the shortcut keys. This will speed up all of your work, whichever program you use.
Happy clicking!
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