- Introduction
- Optimizing Photoshop
- Setting General Preferences
- Modifying File Handling Preferences
- Working with Display & Cursors Preferences
- Controlling Transparency & Gamut Preferences
- Working with Units & Rulers
- Working with Guides, Grid & Slices
- Selecting Plug-Ins & Scratch Disks
- Allocating Memory & Image Cache
- Working with Type
- Managing Libraries with the Preset Manager
- Customizing the Workspace
- Defining Shortcut Keys
- Creating a Customized User Interface
- Using Drawing Tablets
Defining Shortcut Keys
A wise man once wrote "time is money," and Photoshop is a program that can consume a lot of time. That's why the Photoshop application uses shortcut keys. Shortcut keys, as their name implies, let you perform tasks in a shorter period of time. For example, if you want to open a new document in Photoshop, you click the File menu, and then click New, or you can abandon the mouse and press Ctrl+N (Win) or (Mac) to use shortcut keys. Using shortcut keys reduces the use of the mouse and speeds up operations. In fact, a recent study in the American Medical Journal, suggested that the use of shortcut keys significantly cuts down on repetitive stress, and reduces instances of carpal tunnel syndrome. Photoshop raises the bar by not only giving you hundreds of possible shortcut keys, but also actually allowing you to define you own shortcuts.
Create a Keyboard Shortcut
- Click the Edit menu, and then click Keyboard Shortcuts.
- Click an arrow (left column) to expand the menu that contains the command you want to create a shortcut.
- Select an item from the commands list.
- Use the keyboard to create the new shortcut. For example, press Ctrl+N (Win) or (Mac).
- Click Accept.
- Click OK.