Alt-key
Center-aligned Marques:
Marquees (selections) doesn’t always have to be drawn from a corner. Sometimes you want them to be drawn from the centre. Especially if you are making a round or oval selection.
This can be done by pressing the Alt-key and then start drawing the selection. If you hold down the shift key as well, it will keep the aspect to 1:1
This only works when there isn’t already a selection. This is because the Alt-key will then work as the deselection tool.
Shift + Ctrl + C
Copy visible
Copies everything that is visible in your selection to the clipboard… not just the layer you are on now, but all visible layers within the selection.
Shift + Ctrl + Alt + E
The Divine Key Combination:
This is the best, and probably one of the least know shortcuts I know. What it does is, it merges everything visible into the current layer… without deleting the other layers. So you don’t have to duplicate your document with merged layers, then copying the layer from the new document and pasting it in the old document.
Shift + Ctrl dragging
Copying layers from one document to another while preserving position:
If you have two documents of the same size (let’s say 1024 x 768) and you want to copy a layer from document A to the exact same position in document B, you select the layer(s). Then hold down Shift + Ctrl and drag the contents of the layer(s) to document B.
If you can’t drag while holding down the Ctrl-key, it is probably because you have some tool selected. Make sure that you have either Marquee (m) or Brush (b) selected and try again.
Ctrl + Shift + N
New Layer with Options:
Pops up the New Layer option box so you can name the layer etc.
Shift + Ctrl + Alt + N
Instant New Layer:
It makes a new layer fast and easy… pretty nifty.
Alt + Backspace
Fills with foreground color:
Does what it says.
Ctrl + Backspace
Fills with background color:
Does what it says.
Shift + F5
Fills with foreground color behind what’s on the layer.
No need to make a new layer behind the current layer, fill it with a color and merge the two layers.
(Shift + ) Ctrl + [ or ]
Move Layers Forward, Backward, to Front and to Back.
This is pure gold if you’re an ‘Action-man’ like me. Ctrl + [ moves the layer backward and Ctrl + ] moves it forward. If you add the Shift-key, it moves the layer all the way to the front or all the way to the back.
(For those of us who has non-US keyboards I can recommend the next shortcut).
Shift + Ctrl + Alt + K
Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus
Here you can define your own shortcuts. If the [-sign is only available through AtlGr+8 because you have a danish keyboard, this will be a good place to fix the problem... I have replaced the [-sign with the danish letter 'Æ' and the ]-sign with the danish letter ‘Ø’ so now I can easily use the Move Layers shortcuts.
